Hosta Blossoms Still Life

If anyone was watching, they must have thought that I was really losing it, as I was out in the back yard in the dark, snipping blossoms for this little still life endeavour. At any rate, when have I ever done anything normally? After the snipping phase, I went into my lair again, and proceeded to set up for this little image. It was shot with my full frame SONY a900 DSLR, with my Minolta 85mm f1.4 lens attached. The lighting was from my LED lighting kit, and I was tethered to my computer via Capture One Express for SONY software. Sounds rather complicated I guess, but it really isn't once you take the time to wrap your head around all of the digital nonsense that goes with photography these days. Anyway, it was a fun little exercise, and for a little while, I got the feeling I used to get when I went into the glow of the wet darkroom safe light, with the radio playing in the background. Soooo, this is what I did tonight to keep the old mind active, and avoiding the troubles of the world, while playing with the lighting for this. Hope you enjoy....Cheers!
 

Portrait of a Talented Lady.....

This image was originally done about 30 years ago, and again, I recovered it from an old box stored in my garage. It was shot on Fuji Reala 120 film with my Mamiya RB67, and enlarged to 11 x 14 inches. A few days ago, when I happened upon it, I took a very quick hand held existing light shot of it, and downloaded it into the computer. My Corel software pretty much did the rest. It was converted to Black & White, which I liked equally as much as the coloured version. She has many talents, and is an industrial seamstress. If you fly Air Canada First Class, you are likely sitting on seating that she has sewn and assembled. She also is an artist, having studied art history etc. at university, and is responsible for the abstract art that I posted below. It is wonderful to be surrounded by her art pieces when I enter my "cave", and escape the world. I love my girl....she endured through being asked to pose for the old man for years! I'm a lucky old dude! Cheers! 

Fleeting Innocence Captured.....

This image is one that I found in an old box stored in the garage for many years. It is from about 40 years ago, when the world was much less complicated, and the bad guys hadn't taken over yet. Childhood innocence is such a fleeting thing, and before long, they are grown, and their world changes without their realizing what has happened. The expression of wonderment on this little lady's face, as she gazes into the bubble that I blew to her, just as I clicked the shutter button, is a frozen moment in time that will never be replicated....and I am so happy that it gave me so much happiness at the time, as well as all these years later....it still makes me smile. The original image was in colour, and this is a photograph of an 11 x 14 inch photo that I used for display.....in my other life. Cheers!

Abstract Art.....

 Tonight I got to experimenting a bit with using some high ISO settings on the camera. In the old days, we called it ASA, and I find myself still saying that....but I digress. Anyway, I had been doing a bit of research on some of the "expert" reviews online about my recently purchased used Minolta 500 mm f8 AF lens. If I were to believe the various opinions of these guys, it was a piece of junk, and not worth much. But being the stubborn headstrong type, I bought it anyway. So, I put the thing on my SONY a900 camera, jacked the ISO/ASA out to 6400, and proceeded to take a few ambiant light shots hand held, in my cave. The lighting was provided by some LED garage lights.....nothing too fancy for this little test. Anyway, the resulting image is very sharp, and had very little done to it in Photoshop, except resizing for this blog. The sharpness of this lens was more than I had expected, and I had certainly expected to see a lot more noise at ISO 6400. I usually shoot almost everything at ISO 100,,,, The image is just a very small portion, about 1/6 of the entire painting, which was done by our daughter many years ago. I rescued it from the attic to help improve the ambiance of my cave... hope you enjoy this image a litle. Cheers! 

Rain Drops on a Rose.....

While I was waiting for the burgers on the grill to cook, I grabbed my camera, and took a few shots of some Roses, and Roses of Sharon in the back yard. It had rained all day, on and off, and the sun decided to make its appearance at about the time I was tending the grill. Anyway, this little image is the one I chose to post on here this evening. I have not posted much lately, as I have been spending quite a bit of time fixing up my "Man Cave", and now that I am almost finished, I don't know why I did not do this years ago.....but such is life. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend....Cheers!