The best of the best — my favorite shots!
I’m back at playing with the Canon MP-E 65/2.8 tonight. Tonight’s subject matter is a stack of quarters showing off their reeded edges. Once again, I lit from above and to the right with a desk lamp. I believe the lens was set to around 2x life size. Lightroom, to Photoshop CS4E, with a little Nik Color Efex Pro thrown in… nothing but net. 🙂
Tonight’s shot comes from my light table and chess sets again. I put one of my grandmother’s chess pieces on the light table, while leaving the blue chess pieces set up on the light table, refracting through the head of the pawn. I love the way the blue set appears through the pawn’s head, pointing out the contrast between the smooth lines of the blue set and the handmade uniqueness of the pawn.
Once again, this was photographed with my Canon MP-E 65/2.8, finished in Photoshop CS4E, with the assistance of Nik Color Efex Pro.
This morning, I awoke to the remnants of the very small snowfall we had late in the week. My favorite glass table on the deck had ice atop it, which prompted me to pull out my Canon MP-E 65/2.8 lens. The more I shoot with this lens, the more I love it… kinda. I mean, it is definitely a lens that takes a lot of practice to use well.
The biggest challenge I’m having with it is in getting the focal plane broad enough by ensuring that what I’m photographic is parallel to the film plane. Any slight angle yoinks the focal plane down to nothing. I’ve got some ideas about how to fix that… stay tuned!
I’ve pulled out some old game sets to play with my Canon MP-E 65/2.8 macro lens. For some reason, I picked Q from the Scrabble tiles. Dunno exactly why — it’s rare, hard to use, and can be a killer if played right. I kinda like that.
I shot with a big desk lamp above and to the right, about four feet away. I cropped it, and applied a black and white filter in Lightroom to give it the look you see.
I think I’ll be playing with game pieces more in the future — stay tuned!
Jay was talking the other day about another camera bag photo he’d seen from one of my photography cohorts. I thought it would be nice to run the same kind of shot.
I’d just bought a new camera bag, a Domke 700-02A F-2, which sports a brown waxwear finish — great classic look! In the photo I’ve taken today, I’ve loaded it up with the gear I take on my travels:
It’s heavy at times, but the Dokme bag is a trooper, will carry everything, and is a dream to work from. I’ve had a black F-2 for years, and it’s served me well. But now, it’s a blast from the past that I’ll carry forward in my photographic future.
Becky took Bailey to the puppy match again today. Today though, she came back with First Place and Best of Breed!
I found our little champion sleeping, and decided she needed to sleep with her spoils of victory.
Becky took Bailey to Illinois today to compete in a “fun match” for puppies — essentially a conformation warm-up. Now, Bailey isn’t going to be a conformation dog, but Beck thought it’d be cool to take her out there and see what she could do.
And Smudge took second, which is nice, considering neither her nor Beck had actually done this before. And now Bailey has her first ribbon for her scrapbook!
Tonight, I pulled my old slide light table out, put a glass chessboard atop it, and began to play with some glass chesspieces I had lying about.
I’ve been wanting to play with this light table for a while, and finding these chesspieces gave me just the excuse. I suspect I’ll use it with some other images of bottom-lit glass and liquids. Should be some fun experimenting.
I’m a bacon junkie. If bacon’s in it, or on it, or near it, I’m likely to be not far away. Casey told me about a little treat he received, and I was fortunate enough for him to pass it on.
Bacon. And Chocolate. No joking.
Vosges Haut-Chocolat has a great many unusual chocolate treats. One of them is this bar, comprised of 45% cacao, applewood smoked bacon and alderwood smoked salt. You’d think I’d love this — I’ve been dunking my bacon in pancake syrup for years and years. And I want to like it, I really do.
But I don’t.
I don’t know if it’s the unusual combination, or if I’m just too closed-minded for something like this. But I just didn’t enjoy it. Before today, I would’ve told you that there’s nothing bacon can’t do. Now, I realize bacon can’t do chocolate.
I started setting up some of my father’s chess sets this weekend. He collected ’em from all over the world and I brought some of them home with me after his death. They’re all great, but this one is special.
My grandmother was an industrial glass blower in Oak Ridge in the 1960s and made a whole bunch of fun glass pieces for my family when I was a kid. She made this set for my father, and I’m thrilled to share it with whomever is reading this blog.
One of these days, I’ll work on some individual photos of some of the pieces. They’re really quite remarkable.