Beachcomber

This picture doesn't do this woman justice, unfortunately, but none of the pictures I got from the front turned out. I wanted to get her digging. She was walking up and down the beach, not missing a square foot, waving her wand around and every so often she'd stop, do a little digging with her combination shovel, basket and sifter, alternate with a little wand waving to hone in on the right spot, and maybe find something to pluck out and put in her hip pouch. Then she'd wave around the hole she made a little more to be sure there was nothing else hidden in the spot and, once satisfied, push and pull the sand back into the hole until the beach was covered in strange lumpy disturbances on an otherwise silk smooth surface. It was really her dead on focus that fascinated and impressed me. There was no one and nothing else on the beach for her. I admit I was envious of her disregard of anything but her treasure hunt. That is a degree of focus I'm not able to achieve.

I don't know what to title this,

but it was completely intentional, I swear.

Banana

On the kitchen table. In some lovely early autumn morning light.

Hawthorne Aglow

I was playing with long exposures and flashlights one night and came up with this image. Though coincidental, the image's dark romanticism seems appropriate for Hawthorne. There's a literary term I'm trying to attribute to it, but I can't drag it out of my memory. Any suggestions?

Lovely Morning

A couple of weeks ago, Jay and I went to our friends' wedding in Stone Harbor on the New Jersey Shore (Congratulations, Jeremy and Jessica!). We stayed two nights in the wonderful Lark Motel which was simple, but more than adequate. I'll be going through the few photos I took from the weekend and posting what's good. Here is a lovely Saturday Morning shot.

The cloudy seaside morning light adds a nice glow.

Self-teaching

Somehow in my photographic education I missed everything about studio photography and most lessons about lighting. So, currently I am trying to remedy this deficit in my knowledge. Unfortunately, it becomes much harder to learn about studio work without a studio and lighting without proper lighting equipment. But I have a MFA in Jury-rigging from the School of Make-do, so I'm learning with what I've got. Below are some studio style shots of some of our household knick-knacks. Photographers use translucent cloth boxes called shooting tents or domes to diffuse light and soften highlights and shadows when photographing (usually small) objects. These cost anywhere from $40-$160, depending on size and quality, but mine cost me the price of a half gallon of milk because that's what it was, a half-gallon milk jug. Which is why all the objects were so small. I'm fairly pleased with how it worked and I actually kind of like the effect of the jug's curve and seam in the black cat picture.


The pink is just a red cloth draped over the jug.

My supercool fellow photog friend Steve has promised me a lesson in lighting with his badass lighting kit. Hopefully I'll have some shots to share from that sometime soon!