A Couple of Moths
Here is some more macro work. I got these moths that were attracted by my porch lamp.
Claymation
Animated Ent Garden
I put together a short claymation video for a class project. Never having done any claymation work before, I thought it would be an interesting experiment. Check it out!
Butterflies
Butterflies
I have shot lots of butterflies since I first started taking pictures. I thought I would post a few.
Photographing the Small
Photographing the Small
Here are some more shots of tiny objects including a 1/4 inch spider on the ceiling of my house. I’ll say one thing — using a tripod on top of a step ladder is very tricky!
Aphids on a Houseplant
Aphids on a Houseplant
Here is a macro of aphids eating my wife’s plant. I just managed to take this before she strayed the heck out of them.
A Common Housefly
Portrait of a Fly
Here is another insect picture I took as part of a project for my macro class. The picture was taken using a canon mpe-65 lens on a canon 5D. The aperture was f/16 with a shutter speed of 1/200 sec.
Studio Lighting Using Four Lights
A Four Light Setup
This project was design to give a rough idea of what each light in a four light setup does . Here is a breakdown of what each light gives you and the end result. The pictures are all lights, fill light, left kicker, right kicker, and main light.
Metal Assignment
Metal Assignment
This was a portfolio assignment in object lighting class. I had to photograph a metal object. The hard part of this assignment was making sure my reflection did not show up all over the place. I used two canon speedlights, and three white canvas reflectors.
Death By Chocolate
I have been working on shots containing chocolate. Here is the latest – it is supposed to make one really want to go out and buy
chocolate. Does it make you want to get some?
Dark Field Glass
I have been doing some experimenting with glass lighting lately. One technique for lighting glass is dark field. With this technique the background is dark and the the glass edges are lit such that they appear white. To use this technique, first set up a white background. This background is then uniformly lit. In front of the lit white background place a black or dark background (dark background is not lit). The subject should be placed in front of the dark background, on a dark surface. Place a large (relative to subject) white card or reflector on either side of the clear glass subject. Now the light bouncing off the white background should bend around the dark background lighting the edges of the glass white. The amount of white edge is controlled by moving the white reflector on each side of the subject closer or farther from the subject. Here is an example.
Cellphone Project
As a school assignment I had to take a picture of a cell phone. I decided to try working with reflections. Here is what I got. I lit the background from below and behind the table, placed the pool of water on a white canvas sheet and used a painted background.
Bright Field Glass Project
I have been working on trying to improve my lighting skills with glassware. To this end I took several pictures of glassware, and using the bright field lighting technique, tried to get some interesting and creative compositions. I tried glassware with and without water in them, water reflections and falling droplets. Here are some of the images I produced. They were taken on a white canvas sheet, with painted backgrounds. I utilized one canon speedlight behind and below the table.
Strawberry Delights!
As part of a school project, I had to take a couple of food pictures this week. The pictures had to have chocolate in them somewhere, and express an emotion of desire and excitement. The following pictures were produced using a large Farrell light to backlight the image, a side light on the right hand side and a small white reflector on the left side to reduce the remaining shadows.
1/125 sec @f/11
ISO 100
100 mm
Canon 5D
1/125 sec @f/11
ISO 100
100 mm
Canon 5D
New York Skyline
Panoramic Photo
While I was in New York a few weeks ago I took a panoramic of the skyline from Ellis Island. Getting all the parts to go together seamlessly was truly a pain. I used Photoshop to merge all the pictures, which in hindsight may not have been the best solution. Photoshop is a great piece of software, but it runs painfully slow when working on panoramics. Here is a small version of the over 80 pics I hooked together.
Interesting Insects
Interesting Insects at the NC Botanical Gardens
Recently, I went to the NC Botanical Gardens, in Chapel Hill, NC to take some pictures. The garden contains only species of flowers and plants that are native to NC. Unfortunately, the garden itself is not particularly spectacular, and generally looks kind of weedy. However, I found a teeming insect life, that offered the opportunity to continue my insect collection. Below are a couple of interesting ones I found.
PhotoNemesis 