old lens

I had my sigma dc 17-70 2.8-4.5 idling ever since I switched from cropped frame canon 20d to full-frame 5d. I theoretically knew that nothing terrible will happen if I put it on fullframe camera, but something always stopped me.

drip drop splash

spent some happy time photographing water drops today. while stock photographer in me keeps saying "you never get those past inspectors", art photographer in me says - "but how beautiful".

I followed the tutorial from here (first video), with some differences. First one - I used a studio flash to light (doesn't really matter though). Second - couldn't find a suitable frame to hold bag of water in the air, so used upright floor lamp that has a squiggly flexible bit.

The resulting pics don't really stand scrutiny at 100%. Don't know it that's because it's a first try or what. One theory I have is that the lamp I used to hold the water bag is too tall, and drops were hitting the water at too high speed as a result, making 1/200 exposure (flash duration) too slow. Lens could be better too, but I am pretty sure it's capable of better performance if I can get the physical setup right. I'll have another go for sure. Watch this space

lonely

this time paint-through-water session produced not many useful images, but some that look sort of interesting. very organic.



ink and water images at shutterstock

forest elf

Not sure if the results are to everyone's liking, but I had fun with this picture. Hair proved to be a bit of a challenge, with only Photoshop Elements at my disposal (if I understand correctly, it's a lot easier to make custom intelligent brush in fully fledged Photoshop, but I don't have that)
Actually, I know that results are not to everyone's liking - the model made a face when he saw it. He graciously agreed that it's ok since nobody should be able to recognize him (or so he thinks, anyway)

you can see the entry into POTY competition here. Feel free to vote and/or leave a comment

this image at shutterstock

fake waterspout

I have a few pet fears. those include flying (not very original, I know), and natural disasters of various kind. I never experienced one yet, and hopefully never will, but I do feel somewhat panicky when, for instance, wind is getting too strong for my liking

picture above is not a real tornado, of course. people who saw one will probably point out a lot of things that are wrong .

but there is some justification behind it - when on Lanzarote in December last year, we saw this cloud that I think was trying to become a funnel, but kind of abandoned the idea half-way. I took a picture (surprise, surprise). and worked on it a bit :)


that's how the original cloud looked, only the contrast bumped up.


Island in the background is Fuerteventura

fire and water

above is a manipulated image of a drop of black ink going through water, isolated, inverted and toned with gradient map of red to yellow

when you drop the ink into water, it also forms a rather nice spiral on the top


just playing around basically

yes, it's smoke on the water

while collecting our stuff for Lanzarote, I forgot to take the tripod (I also forgot to take my driving licence, and a few other bits and bobs) So to make long-exposure shots, almost an essential seaside activity (well, yes, I might be a bit obsessive about it), I had to make do with some friendly stones, my backpack and my jumper for support

While waiting for one of the fames to expose, I heard a small noise behind me. I don't know whether it was a general feeling of being safe there, or my overall mindset, but I didn't think "mugger", I thought "another photographer". I was right, of course.

fake autumn in Scotland

This year I haven't been to scotland in autumn, which is a shame.

I stumbled across tutorial that show how to make an autumn pic out of summer one, and given the right type of picture, it looked easy, so I gave it a go using a picture taken in late spring pic on loch lubnaig. Basically, it's just selectively adjusting the hue for different colors (mostly touching yellows and greens), plus a few more tweaks



(Interesting, it looks to me that photobucket hosting site eats into the color somewhat)

here is the original version (click on a magnifying glass on the top left of the preview to see full size)

Not every type of pic seems suitable, though. This pic from Glenfinnan immediately starts falling into a mosaic on obviously spring (water, distant mountains and sky) and fake autumn

in-camera blur

looking up through the leaves, zooming in while exposing

forest

in-camera motion blur. it was late and a normal picture won't have worked anyways

braids and beads

it's difficult to say why this wig was originally bought, but now Kirill is using it when playing with Arco Iris samba group. It looks good, the only problem is, when it's hot, it's very hot to wear. meybe the next wig needs to be crocheted out of cotton thread, that should be nice and cool.

true colors : photovandalism

almost monochrome image of narrow street in Fuengirola. Was too boring in original shape, so played with it in photoshop and quite like the results :)