Liquid Motion

Something different with the camera today.

I set up the tripod next to the window as the light was quite bright and got the macro lens onto the camera. The subject (an 80’s, coloured-liquid toy) was placed on the window sill with a sheet of white paper behind it to diffuse the harsh backlight.


Getting the shots was a bit of a challenge. I had to turn the object upside-down to start the liquid motion and to capture the droplets/bubbles in action I had to have a fast shutter speed. This meant I had to have a small depth of field and trying to get the image focused every time that I turned the object was so difficult. The toy is also pretty small so the time-frame for this was only seconds.

Another problem I encountered was, even with the continuous frame setting on, the shutter release cord wouldn’t always take a photograph. Sooo frustrating. You would think it was a matter of life or death the way I was carrying on, hehe. “Shoot, SHOOT Dammit!!!!”

I missed a number of amazing shot opportunities, like a droplet forming with loads of tiny bubbles inside then bursting slowly!!!! I am so gutted I missed that one – damn camera!!!

However, lots of swear words and several shots later, I managed to produce the following images.

Creative Image Making

I tried a few techniques in the darkroom today with the only negatives that I had with me. I was quite disappointed in my results because it was really hard. At least, the solarising was hard. It was a lot of fun, though.

Here are my [rubbish] attempts (there has been no fixing in Photoshop so that all flaws are visible).

Film Developer Trials

Yesterday I shot a roll of Ilford B&W HP5 (ISO 400) - pushing it to ISO1600 - using my old 35mm Centon camera (50mm lens).

Today I split the film into three different development tanks and processed each film section with the following developers.

Sink taps - Microphen (fine grain)
Wine bottle - Perceptol (speed-enhanced; not recommended)
Kettle - Ilfotec (general purpose)

These images have been scanned from negative as I didn't have time to complete the prints in the darkroom. I think the differences in the results will be clearer on the prints but, looking at the negatives through the eyeglass on the lightbox, i think I like Perceptol best. Although it's not recommended, I am quite partial to the grainy result that it produces. I will confirm my findings after I produce some prints.

Star Trails

Tonight I tried something a bit different. Star trails.
I left my camera on for about 10 minutes (bulb setting) at aperture 3.5mm just outside in the backgarden. I knew I'd have a problem with light pollution but I was just testing to see what I would get....and here is the result (with a slight bit of fixing in Photoshop for the sky and ignoring the house detail - the house is only there for a reference point).



Now that I know how it should be done I will be venturing out to less light polluted areas for my next attempt.

Wet Nose

I'm going out to photograph using film today so the images won't be available for a while.

In the meantime, I'll show you a pic that I should've included in my last post to show you the detail brought out by the macro lens. It's a bit grotty, to be honest, but it's nature. My little Cat Features nose :)



I'm not sure cats are supposed to have wet noses, though, are they?

Chloe

I was trying to take some photographs out the back today as it was so sunny but Cat Features (Chloe) wouldn't give me any peace. Tail in the face. Head under the lens, bopping up just as I'd be pressing the shutter release button.

Sigh.

Well, I got my own back on her. When she decided she wanted to lie out and enjoy the sun-rays, comfortable in the knowledge that Spot (her nemisis) would never dare enter the garden to annoy her when I was around, I got up close to take some photographs of her happy, little face. I managed about 3 images before she got annoyed and left the scene.

Garden spider

It took quite a bit of patience and steady hand to take this image. There was a little bit of wind that caused focusing issues and I didn't have the tripod out with me. I've learned that, when using the macro, it doesn't matter how high the shutter speed you will still need a tripod. I can't believe that even less than a millimetre of movement can throw the subject out of focus. It's absolutely amazing.

This little garden spider (not fully sure what the actual species is) was only about 1cm in length. His web was in a prime spot because he seemed to be catching all the greenfly. Unlike his friend, whose web was empty. He was running about like crazy trying to fix his little web, which was obviously in a poor position compared with Mr."wind-blows-them-here-first". I wonder which spider built his web first!!

Macro =)

I am now the proud owner of a macro lens!! I haven't had the chance to give it a good try-out yet but I did take a couple of shots of Cat Features last night (that's what I call her, hehe) to see how it copes in darker conditions.

So far I'm loving it just as much as I expected and I can't wait to try out some more images on the plants and beasties outside.

I've included a few of the images that I took of Chloe (Cat Features). I love the darkness and grainy quality to them. It's becoming a regular theme in my photography.