Flames

Photo of the week #15: A triptych of images that I shot while experimenting with our Lampe Berger. I had originally only intended to post the image on the right. But, I really liked the one on the left too, so I decided to post that one as well. The center image was added for balance.

Smoke Curl

Photo of the week #14: This shot of candle smoke from an extinguished tea light was taken using a snooted flash (not to be confused with a snooty flash!). Here, my snoot was just a sheet of black paper that was rolled up and taped onto my flash. The snoot causes the flash to give very directional lighting, which in turn helps the flash to be bright enough to illuminate the smoke without losing the details in the whites of the candle:

Also, for interest sake, here is the candle before Geoff blew it out:

When life gives you lemons...

... grab your macro lens! Photo of the week #13: A shot from the inside of this lemon:

Despite the fact that focusing on the bubbles was a bit time consuming, these shots were not particularly difficult to take. Post-processing on the other hand was a real test of my patience. I think the calibration may be off on my monitor again, which lead to crazy colors when the photos were viewed on another monitor. Eventually I just ended up processing the photos on Geoff's computer, but I'll definitely need to look into my monitor issue again as soon as possible. Here are a few extra shots that I liked:

Nostalgia

Photo of the week #12: This week's photo is one that I've been trying to find the time to take for the last few months. It was taken using my Grandmother's Kodak Junior 620, which is an antique (c. 1935-1937) folding type camera that cost approximately $13.50 USD when new. Unfortunately, it's no longer possible to purchase the 620 film that was originally used by this camera. Luckily though, the currently available 120 film works great after a slight modification. Both 620 and 120 films come rolled on reels with the only difference between the two being the diameter of the reel. In order to prepare the 120 film to be used with this camera, all we had to do was unroll the film from the larger diameter 120 reel and roll the film back onto a 620 reel (thanks for the help Geoff!). I developed the film myself at home (with more help from Geoff) and then scanned the negatives. This was the first shot that I took with the camera while we were taking a walk around Bowring park on Saturday:

The camera was a very interesting one to use. Back when this camera was the norm, it was definitely necessary for even the most amateur photographer to know quite a bit more about photography that what most current point and shoot users know today. The camera is fully manual. This means that in order to get a proper exposure you need to be able to set the correct aperture and shutter speed (I cheated a bit by taking test shots with my DSLR). You then need to focus the camera by choosing a setting based on the estimated distance to your subject. The camera also has very limited low-light capabilities, which is why I decided to test it at the park on a sunny day. In order to frame a shot, you have to look down on a small view-finding lens on the side of the camera. Even though this viewfinder is actually quite clever, it was fairly challenging to keep the shots level and properly arranged. These are a few shots that I took of the camera itself while at home, using my homemade lightbox:

Finally, here are the other shots that I took with the camera. By today's standards, these pictures aren't particularly well exposed and the focus isn't even close to what I expect from my DSLR. But, when you consider the fact that this camera is very likely 75 years old I think it's quite amazing how well this camera has held up:

Water Drops

Photo of the week #11: A shot from an experiment with water drops falling from the faucet into the kitchen sink. The red color was a a happy accident. I used black construction paper to reduce reflections from the bottom of the sink, which ended up leaking dark red dye into the water. These photos were very challenging for me - I ended up taking about 300 photos just to get a few that I liked enough to post. The focus was especially difficult to get correct. But, practice was definitely starting to help towards the end of the evening - I think I may try again in a few weeks:

And another that I liked:

Annie

Photo of the week #10: A quick shot of Annie:

Christmas Lights

Photo of the week #9: Late again! This is an abstract of our Christmas tree, which I meant to take last week. I promise to try to be a bit more punctual from now on:

And another, from the base of the tree: