Forgot my tripod

Luckily, the camera is little.

Tree & House

Tree

House

Park Bench

Park Bench, a photo by bwlab on Flickr.

Through the Viewfinder again

A friend from Sheboygan Visual Artists clued me in on another device to hold the two cameras at the right distance... a cardboard tube.  I tried it out the other day, outdoors in better light than some of my recent attempts, and was pleased with the results.  Here are a few.

Sign of Spring

Dipped In Blue

More TTV

I thought I'd show my ttv tools. Ttv stands for through the viewfinder.   I was able to purchase a Kodak Duaflex for just $5.00 from Lloyd's in Manitowoc.  I've used it for all of the ttv shots I've made except the figure model in one of my previous posts.  My taking camera is my Sony Alpha 200.  I built a crude contraption to hold it at the right distance from the Duaflex.  This gives me the ability to hold the camera still in low light situations and get a good exposure without the blur of a handheld shot. It also blocks light from hitting the viewfinder causing glare.  It's been fun to play with.

The viewfinder image is flipped horizontally, so there is some editing to do on the computer.  This photo show the lunch I had on March 26th 2012.  I did some blurring of the background and cleaned up the foreground.  As mentioned in the other ttv post, you get the dust and dirt from the old camera.  When I blurred the background to separate the plant on the window sill from my sandwich, I softened the dust too.  It didn't look right with the dirty foreground so I cleaned it up.  The editing program used was Photoshop.

Combinations

I just thought that I might try a pinhole Polaroid emulsion transfer of a TTV shot.

TTV photography

TTV stands for Through The Viewfinder.  A picture is taken through the optics of another camera.  I used my Sony digital to shoot the viewfinder of an old twin lens camera.  Usually the attempt is to get the old photo look by leaving the dirt on the glass and mirror.  I took my old camera apart and cleaned it.  It will get dirty again soon enough.  I just bought it yesterday so I have yet to make a contraption to hold my taking camera at the right distance. This will help make the shooting easier by aiding focusing and exposure.

Kite Photography Success

Today, with the help of my daughter Mary and my sister-in-law Erika, I got my camera up.  I didn't take very many photos and these are the two best.  Not wanting to take too many risks my first time out, I kept the camera over the field at Grant Elementary School.
The kite is a Powersled 24, the camera a Canon G3 shooting with the intervalometer.

That's Erika getting into position to catch the camera as I bring it back down.

An old chair and three music stands.
I can't decide if I'm done with this image.

"Reflections of an Infrared Apple and Orange"

Not much to say about this one.  I took the color out of the fruit but left it in the plate and counter top.  The orange was orange and the apple was red and green.  The counter top is white the light was daylight coming in a window.  It's called "Reflections of an Infrared Apple and Orange" because the adjustment to change the fruit was done using Corel's infrared photo effect.

Cheap phone camera pics

I bought a new phone for 1 cent last week. It has a camera.  I Corel'ed this pic.

POSTCARDS

Ilford makes photo paper that is a postcard.  I'm giving away one free postcard with my original black and white  photography gracing the picture side to the next ten people who join up and "follow" my blog.  There is a spot to do that just to the right of this text.  After you join, send me an email with the address you would like me to mail your postcard to. My email is bwlab@yahoo.com.  I promise to not mail you any other junk via USPS or email.  I will chose the photo from my archives.

What fun!

My girls

Thinking about my lovely daughters.  Lisa brought these old photos home from work and I scanned them.  These were taken at Camp Y-Koda when we were the caretakers there.  We guess this 1994.

More digital

I've used Photoshop and other programs to alter scans of my film based photography and my digital images. If you and I take the same image and merely click the "watercolor" option in Photoshop we will get the same image.  So, in my opinion, working an image beyond that is necessary if one is to call it "art."   " Is it "cheating" to take an image and enhance it by one or two clicks of the mouse?  Does a plein air painter cheat by finishing his or her work from a reference photo after the light has faded?

Here is another before and after comparison.  The original image is a Polaroid.  The film was outdated and that gave it the off colored look. (There is a whole group on Flickr dedicated to off color shots.  http://www.flickr.com/groups/polaroid_blue/ ) I have posted this photo there.  

BLUE HEARTS

The after is a combination of three layers done with Corel's software.  I'm loving the "hot wax" effect.

BLEEDING HEARTS

Been away too long.

I was going to do my taxes today but I did this instead.  Before.

And after.  Hot wax and rough edge as well as density control via Corel's PaintshopPhotoPro 3X.

Now I'll cook dinner and then do taxes.

More pinhole.....

I helped a few youngsters make pinhole cameras yesterday.  Next week we'll see if they work.  I'll be making paper negatives for them to use.

While turning to things we want more of, don't forget the cowbell.

KAP = Fail : Back Cam = Success

KAP stands for Kite Aerial Photography, something I've been investigating  recently.  There is a site that explains in great detail the principles involved.  http://www.kaper.us/   Three things are needed. Wind, a kite, and a rig to hold and operate a camera.  Today, I made my second try at KAP.  My first attempt failed due to low wind but I was able to attach a camera to a kite line and make a picture or two....  from about eye level.  Today's failure convinced me that my kite is not sufficient for the task of lifting my 1 pound Canon G3.  The wind was fairly strong out of the north north east.  I have also made a crude Picavet rig to hold the camera.  Google it. I don't have a picture of mine, it's easier to understand if you see a picture.  The G3 has an intervalometer which was set to take a picture at one minute intervals.  Once again I was able to get my camera off the ground but only to about  shoulder height.  Here is a poor KAP example.

After I packed away my kite, I reset the intervalometer and slung the camera on my back and rode my bike home.  Here are two of the "back cam" shots that I consider successes. They are roughly the same angle and height as the KAP shot, and both KAP ( at the level I'm at) and "back cam" are chancey in that you only have so much control over the composition.  I like these because they have some interesting subject matter/composition and are what I would expect from "back cam".  I will have to get a bigger kite, improve my Picavet, and perhaps enlist a helper to get my KAP working right.

Having Fun With Corel Paintshop Photo Pro

My wife Lisa "rescued" this shelf from someone's garbage pile, and put it to good use in our yard.  Here's a before and after set.

 These are a few of the steps that I did in Corel Paintshop Photo Pro X3 to get to the finished product.
1. hot wax effect
2. perspective adjustment to straighten it up
3. crop
4. depth of field adjustment
5.  photo effect- time machine-60's (cross process)
6.  resized for printing.

Here is the final picture.  I often save versions of a picture as I work on them in case I change my mind on what I'm doing.  This keeps me from having to start all over from the beginning.  The photo/time machine effect gives the option of adding edges.

Sheboygan Visual Artists Small Works

I'm going off the usual topic - photography, to post 3 paintings I've done for SVA's Small Works Project.

"The Water Is Wide"  inspired by the view from my friends' home on Lake Alexander.


"Beach At Dusk/Changing Light"

And finally, I reworked this canvas several times and came up with "The Hill Where My Kite First Flew".  All are painted with acrylic paint, with tissue paper over the last one.

Tripod - A photographer's best friend

Here is the slide I made to illustrate what a tripod can do for you.
This was part of the presentation I did for Sheboygan Visual Artists "Art In The Gardens" workshop.