Reflections - I would be grumpy too if I lost my arm

Today I thought that I would try out some in home studio photography today on my day off. So I visited the local hardware store (Invariably a Bunnings) to look for some black acrylic or similar plastic material that would be black in colour AND reflective. 40 dollars later I came out with some corrugated plastic, a sheet of black acrylic and some see through vinyl - cause that's how decisive I was.

So anyway I set up 2 flashes - one to be the main light and the other would be used to separate the background. After I had the black acrylic sheet laid out and lights setup - I started to search the house for some subjects...

After about 10 minutes I came up with 2 model cars (Mitsubishi Evos of course), wooden dolls, a nailman, African mask, my egg again and last but not least my one armed grumpy bear - cause you would be grumpy too if you only had one arm.

So I knocked out all the ambient light at around f8 or 9 @ 200th ISO 200 then added light gradually until I was happy with the look. I didn't want the main light to be too harsh so I diffused it with a  Bunnings receipt that I conveniently received from the checkout chick earlier.

Also I alternated between using one or both flashes cause I really liked some of the results from earlier test shots. I changed the position of the main light to mix it all up a bit.

But first the bear:

Then the egg:

Nailman

 Now the wooden dolls:

Surprise surprise an evo:

 Also I found some genuine clogs that my parents gave me. I altered the colour temperature because I really wanted to make the  background closer to the blue in the clogs, which improved the colour i think

 Here it is warmed up - just not the same feel....

And lastly the African mask. I wanted to really make it come to life so I used a snoot to constrict the light so that the book holding it up couldn't be seen.

And here was the setup:

Now I'm definitely going to put the mask away now - looks too creepy :S

Az.

Waaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiddddddddduhh in Brisbane

Hi ho neighbourinos,

Thought I'd test out my brand new (and by brand new I mean second hand mint condition) 14-24mm f2.8 lens that I bought from a man in his black mercedes by the side of the road of the Melbourne museum in Carlton, Melbourne - cause thats how I buy..... legit of course ; )

BTW: I f you think I'm joking.... Im not - thats seriously how I bought it. I visited Camera Lane (Top quality Second hand heaven if you go there in person) and was referred to this merchant banker dude who happened to be selling it and yeah I got it for a pretty awesome price, while all at the same time looking real dodgy like some kind of drug deal. It was an experience that I won't forget in a hurry.

Anyway I thought it wouldn't be proper if I let it collect dust so I decided to try it out on someone's balls:

At the treasury! So my mate Dan and myself went into the CBD to take some shots. I first started playing around with the zoom a bit - turns out that once you have a super wide lens you tend to just start zooming all the way out at 14mm, cause is just Waaay too irresistable to do so. I thought I'd try getting in close to the balls and see what would come of it - and I really liked the way they turned out:

It sorta looked like something from transformers or Tron (or other machinery type movie for the sheltered uninitiated people out there) So what I did is under exposed by a stop/stop and a half and just snap away. All of these were at f2.8 @ ISO 1000.

Then I got the idea that would make it look like an egg from Alien or something...

And here it is more exposed

I then thought of using the opening lines to make it look like the spine of a monster - seriously these balls are sort of a stainless steel colour and look pretty during the day. 

 Afterwards we headed to King George Square to take a shot at City Hall

The thing is I took quite a few shots here, but I just thought the deep blue looked the best against the orange/red light of the hall. Had to wait about 2 mins for the colours to fully cycle around. Then after awhile I thought of using a technique that I hadn't used in ages (since I last owned a point and shoot) and that was shutter drag..

I really liked how this last one turned out.  It reminds me sorta of those long exposures at night that you see with the circular light trails in the sky from the earth's rotation.

This has also reminded me on some of the crazy techniques that I tried out in my fledgling photographer with a point-and-shoot days. You know every photographer has that similar experience when they first start liking photography and they start taking close up photos of flowers and think "Wow I'm awesome!"  when "really its not" - Stages of a photographer 

Anyways thats it from me - Gotta look at fixing the car now :S I think its gone to greet its maker*sniff*

Az