Runaway Candlelight

The initial idea, inspired by the sound of the soft summer rain and crickets outside, was to create a relaxing atmosphere and read a book so I wouldn’t have to renew it again at the library. As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, the burning wick drew me in...

Playing with slower shutter speed
ISO 100  f6.4  Exposure 4s

This is one of the initial shots. The flash went on and I manually turned it off after taking this.

ISO 400   f4.9  Exposure1/56

Here's one without a flash. 

ISO 800  f4.9  Exposure1/56

Tambourines are cool

I think tambourines are good to have around when needing an 'easy' and portable percussion. Couple one of those noisy buggers with a stringed and a wind instrument and you’ve got the making of a one man band.

I started this blog with the intent of documenting and sharing my photo-taking learning experiences. So, here’s a little snippet into a little corner of mine, using some of my favourite things, like the guitar again. 

This is the workstation together with a diagram of the light set-up which excluded the use of a back and a fill light:

Workstation

light setup

The folders and box files came in handy and served not only as good black backdrop but absorbed the light instead of dispersing it. Mind you, these pics were taking just a little after 2pm on a very sunny day. Most of the reading I’ve been doing has been placing great emphasis on the importance of natural light, after all the sun is a great tool and produces the best light. However, I couldn’t achieve the effect I wanted until I closed the curtain and made use of artificial light.

So, here they are:

I decided to do very little imaging editing, in fact the only thing I did with these pics was to crop them. What do you think?

Snippets of the moving feet

Where are they headed?

What keeps them moving?

What trenches do they create as they go?

Do they ever go back?

I started this footsteps series and did 3 out of the 4 pieces more than a year ago, then realising a minor glitch that was not part of the story nor contributed to the message I wanted to convey, I shelved the whole thing.

Fast forward to 13+ months later...

With a little persuasion from a friend and the need to complete something, I did the final piece. Did it come out the way I envisioned it? Far from it. Was the process fun, therapeutic and worth it? Definitely.

Slices of Agate Geode

While walking through the geology section of the Museum Africa in Newtown, Johannesburg, I discovered these beauties. Agates are made up of layers of chalcedony, a type of quartz and are formed in rounded spaces in lava rocks called geodes. Playing around with the white balance and the ISO settings and not using a flash indoors was really exciting and a worthwhile experiment.

I'm definitely going back to discover more hidden treasures soon.

I see you

Focus. Focus. Focus.
It keeps things simple by capturing what the eye sees while discarding distracting backgrounds.

I decide to get up close and person with some items and here's what came out of that exercise.

Yup, thats about it, for now.

Ciao