Google Eyes.....

When my wife first pointed to this little anomaly lurking in her plant, I thought it would go away in a day or so. Apparently not. It looks like some sort of unknown alien bug with lemon coloured and shaped eyes. So, I couldn't help myself, and set up the camera to get a shot. I used my 18~135mm lens with a #3, and a #2 close up filters attached. I was able to get in fairly close, and this is the resulting image. The thought that Google is watching us constantly every minute of the day, crossed my mind, no doubt as a result of the googly eyes.....sorry, I think this Covid19 thingy is getting to me.....Cheers!

Basket of Peaches.....

The "munchies" drew me to the kitchen this evening, and sitting on the counter top was this basket of peaches that had been gifted to us by a family friend. They seemed to be hollering at me to take a picture of them. So without much delay, I proceeded to set up a little table top setting , and do just that. After a few shots of just the peaches, I added a few Boysenberries beside the basket. For the most part, I have been trying my best to keep things as simple as possible, but it still needed some other element, as there was a large empty space at the top with nothing happening there. So, I decided to raid a lovely bouquet of flowers that my wife had received for Mother's Day from the kids, and added them to the mix. The arrangement was lit with 2 LED lights and a white reflector card to fill in the foreground shadows a bit. Hope some of you enjoy it a little....Cheers, and stay well.....

White Lily....

Hi there.....yup, I'm still here. It has been a while, and a lot has happened in the world since I last posted on here. Are we still sane yet? When my phone rang tonight and the Windsor Camera Club President called to say I was volunteered to be one of the three judges for this month's competition, I was somewhat thankful for something else to put my mind to. One day a week, I get out to pick up meds at the local Pharmacy, and then the groceries, and then it is back home for another week. Lately I have been musing about why I still do this blogging thingy, and I think I know why. The simple fact that I get to put my images out there for someone else to enjoy...or not, and there is no numerical critique affixed to them is preferable to me. For the most part, I have always felt uncomfortable with having numerical scores given to a print as a part of the monthly competition. It borders on being vulgar. But for some reason, there are some who are totally wrapped up in that game. If the print they entered doesn't score as high as they think it should, well, it is temper tantrum time....no kidding. Anyway, as a courtesy to the WCC, I accepted the task requested of me, but also feel somewhat hypocritical about it. If it were something of major consequence then I would have politely declined, but this Covid19 thingy makes one make a lot of compromises, and this one is fairly benign in the overall scheme of things....Stay safe folks. Cheers!

Horse Hair & Fiddle Heads.....

As I mentioned below, the old white violin is in shambles. However, a part of me somehow refuses to part company with it just yet. This image is the result of playing with the now detached bow strings, or what is left of them, and seeing if there might possibly be an interesting arrangement to be had. On the way to learning how to do still life, or table top photography, there will be occasions that I will certainly shoot something that is much less appealing, and likely this is one of them.....but by making "mistakes" we are able to learn and grow in any craft or endeavor. Then again, there might be some who would see some merit in this image. For me personally, it is not one of my more satisfying efforts, but it was a learning experience that I am not at all reluctant to share with anyone else....it is what it is...just another note in the overall melody. Cheers!

Violin Duet Illustration.....

A couple of evenings ago, I had the itch to shoot something, anything. So out came the old violin case with my long time white violin, now in shambles. It has almost totally fallen apart, and I felt there must be at least another shot or two left in it before we part company. So it was combined with the other very playable violin, and with my camera in the Illustration Mode, this image was the result. Then when I did the editing in PS5, I added the sheet music to fill in the top right corner, where nothing was happening. This old violin had been with me for about 50 years, and I had acquired it in a swap for an old lawn mower back in the '60's. A decade or so later, when I started to dabble in photography, and had given up trying to learn to play the thing, I decided to see what I could do with it as a sort of "muse" over the years. My neighbor thought I had totally lost it when he saw me dancing around it hanging from a clothes line, and spraying it with a can of white spray paint. It has provided me with many hours of fun, conjuring up all of the different ways I could use it in a photograph. Thanks for letting me pass on this little bit of trivial contrivance to you...Cheers!

Strawberries & Licorice Still Life.....

This image is one that I conjured up for a demonstration of table top or still life photography at the Windsor Camera Club, which I am a member of. This type of photography is something that I have played around with for the last year or so, and I will be the first to admit that I still have a lot to learn. It differs from other types of photography in that the image does not exist....you have to imagine it first, and then set about to make it happen. Since there are no actual "rules" that I am aware of, then you are free to just let your imagination fly, and do all sorts of crazy things. In this one, I used licorice candy sticks with wire down the hollow centers and impaling the strawberries to make "flowers" that are on the left rising out of a little round vase that I found at a local thrift store. The red on black gives it a bit of punch, and I was just trying to convey, that in still life, anything goes. Then when I got home and downloaded the files, I applied my "Grunge" filter to the black background, and added a Poster Edges filter from Photoshop 5.  You can make up the image as you go along, and let it "happen", or you can get that all done in your head before you start with the setup. This one was a little bit of both. Hope some of you enjoy it a little. Cheers!

Baby's Breath Still Life.....

One of the things I have been trying to do lately is to simplify things in my life, and that includes my photographic images. When I stop by the flower counter at the grocery store, I usually pick up several types of flowers, and put them together to form a self made bouquet for the living room or elsewhere about the house. This time, I thought, why not just pick one simple floral item, and go with that instead. This is the result, a fairly simple arrangement. It had been placed in a tall square porcelain vase, but when I decided to use it for a still life, the wire framed watering can was chosen, with the glass center still in its wrapper. I like the texture it gives the image. Somehow the spout seemed to stick out at an odd angle, and bothered me, so I just dropped a piece of silky material in behind it, and it seemed to make it a bit more pleasing to my eye.  Next, I added one of my self constructed background layers, and this is the result. It was shot in colour, but when I converted it to Black & White, it just seemed to make a lot more sense. Hope someone else enjoys it a bit also. Cheers.....

Camera: SONY a900
Lens: Minolta 28 ~ 105 zoom (f11for 1/4 sec.)
Lighting: Aperture Storm King LED's

P.S. This image was just awarded 1st Place Ribbon for Monochrome Prints in Windsor Camera Clubs 2020 Salon event.