January 2013 - picture per day project.
January's offerings folks.
Day 32. "...and all of it bad." In case you were wondering, the quote starts of with "I have lots of taste...".
Many years ago when I had to wear a tie at work, I came into the office wearing a rather smart one. My boss took me to one side and told me that it was too bright and I had to change it.I checked the dress code for the office which said that gentlemen must wear a tie but no specification as to what colour that tie should be. I embarked on a hunt for the most gaudy ties I could find and collected about one hundred screaming horrors over the years. Now I am retired and I don't need to wear them any more but I am loth to give them away. Every time I see them, I smile and thank Rob-the-knob for telling me off that day. Best viewed large... with sunglasses on |
Day 31. Visiting with an old friend. When is a cheat not a cheat? Well, this picture is... and it isn't. The original photograph was taken a couple of years ago and involved me creating a lurid background in Photoshop and displaying it on my monitor. Two glasses of water were photographed against that background. This has been one of my favourite PC desktops of all time. Today I visited my old friend and put a jug full of water with a glass standing inside it in front of the monitor with the original photograph showing! Yes this is today's photograph, but it is of an old photograph; cheat or no cheat? Thanks to Babs @onewing for jogging my memory. Best viewed large (the picture, not Babs)
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Day 30. We live in a rainbow of chaos. So said Paul Cezanne. I feel sort of "glassy" this week (that's "glassy" not "classy") and I was at a loss for something to shoot. I tried some silhouettes, I tried some really "clever stuff" (which turned out dumber than a box full of navel fluff) and I tried some dumb stuff (which turned out as clever as a box full of navel fluff). So here is today's offering. I have definitely cheated here. The original shot was of a clear, faceted bottle full of clear glass beads and water and lit with a 500W tungsten bulb at 3200K. The resulting picture was taken into Photoshop, a nice bright gradient placed on a new layer and the layer blending mode changed to "Color" to blend into the glass. The background is black purely because of the illumination, there's no black cloth (for once!). Best viewed large.
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Day 29. Keeping the middle watch. I had a problem sleeping last night. I had visualized a photograph that I wanted to take but it was a case of making it work. I wanted to have two layers of fluid in a glass. I had a flash of inspiration and with bags under my eyes, I woke this morning with the solution - the photograph is above.There is absolutely no software trickery involved (I did my usual Raw processing to reduce noise and sharpening but no artificial colouring or different effects - heck, I didn't even straighten or crop it!). What you see is just water and food additives (it would be safe to drink), no oils, no alcohol, no special lighting (the light is there so you can see the effect better). I'm sure that the engineers, chemists and physicists amongst you can come up with the answer and I am dead sure that everyone else will too. Best viewed large.
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Day 28. Looking up. It was a magnificent day out there with sunshine and blue skies so my child bride and I decided to go for a walk. In the midst of a pine forest we came across an abandoned World War Two blockhouse of the sort that were constructed in numbers and in haste when it looked as if Great Britain would be invaded by Germany. Whilst the blockhouse made for some interesting historical photography, I preferred this shot looking straight up through the trees. Very hackneyed I know but it just appealed to me. Best viewed large.
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Day 27. Hydrangea? More like Died_rangea. After the Lord Mayor's Show eh? All that colour just oozing out of my pores yesterday and today I go for this shot. I was fascinated by (a) the sunshine which appeared out of nowhere and (b) the lace like patterns of last year's hydrangea flowers where they have started to decompose. The rich sepia tints are natural. Raw processing in DxO Optics Pro, cropping and sharpening in Photoshop. Best viewed large
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Day 26. Hang on to your socks! Or this will knock them off. I am so tired of grey and dismal that I just wanted some colour in my life. Twenty odd years back I purchased this rug from a Peruvian friend because I liked the incredibly bright colours. This is the first time I have used it for anything. Lit by a single low wattage 5300K bulb through a diffuser, Raw processing in DxO Optics Pro, final tweaking in Photoshop.
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Day 25. Spot the dumbo. This picture has stupid people in it. Actually, there is only one stupid person but you can't see him because he is the idiot with the phone camera taking the picture at just before six o'clock this morning and getting wet into the bargain. Horsham looking from North Street beyond to the Carfax in the distance. It's a bit of a cop out because I haven't really applied myself to photograph taking today. Quality is appalling and in the words of the police "Move along please. There's nothing to see here. Move along now." Best not viewed large. Let's face it, best not viewed at all.
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Day24. Big fleas have little fleas... I don't often use the Canon EOS Utility remote tethering but today I did. My camera was on a tripod pointing at my monitor, the remote tethering software kicked in and I turned away to fiddle with something. When I turned back there was the live view of my screen and the live view of a screen on it with a live view of the screen on it and so on. Sensing an opportunity and with a bit of jiggling and juggling of camera and monitor to square them up, I had this wormhole effect to infinity (and beyond!). That was awesome enough but when I took the shot, the shot preview popped up in the lower left with a smaller version of the wormhole so I snapped the screen again. I took out the lens barrel distortion with DxO Optics Pro, cropped it in Photoshop and there you have it. Canon users - if you got the EOS software boxed with your camera then I urge you to install and use the remote tethering option of the EOS Utility. Well worth the effort (and it gave me today's shot!). Definitely best viewed large.
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Day 23. Down, up pedals, down, up, down... Ah Mungo Jerry and "The Pushbike Song". Alas I am not going to get to the other side of town before the sun goes down though. Part of my daily routine is a thrash on the exercise bike although I have spared you the sight of me in my shorts and T-shirt. I decided that I was taking too many photographs of "things" so I decided on (a) a selfie and (b) some motion. I make no apologies for the clutter in my study. This was a multi second shot, camera on full manual with a burst of second curtain sync flash to freeze some of the motion at the end of the exposure. I also made use of my flash diffuser and bounced the light off the ceiling to eliminate harsh shadows. Normal processing (DxO Optics Pro and Photoshop). Best viewed large.
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Day 22. The quali-tea of mercy is not strained... I am fascinated by different light sources and can get deeply engrossed on how they interact with subjects. I love bone china and this cup was just begging to be snapped. Using a black cloth as the background, I set the camera into aperture priority mode, and illuminated the inside of the cup with a torch to hopefully give it that lovely translucent glow through the wall of the cup. You can even make out the flaws in the china and glaze. This diffused-through-china light then illuminated the saucer for good measure. Raw, processed in DxO Optics Pro, tweaked in Photoshop and the quote added. Best viewed large.
After note - This picture made it to the "Popular Page" of photographs on the 365project.org website on 23/01/2013 |
Day 21. Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie. I went out walking this morning. I went into the fields intent on capturing the snowscene of all snowscenes.. I came back with a camera full of tat so I decided on a wildlife shot instead. This wee beastie lives in our porch where he has a home in an old piece of apple wood. He doesn't eat much and isn't really a bother to anyone and I managed to catch him unawares. Raw, lighting slightly altered in DxO optics and finally tweaked in Photoshop (for once, it is uncropped)
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Day 20. Unimpressed by it all. I was a bit hard pushed for inspiration this morning and saw that lots of people had put up snowy shots of leaves, plants, trees etcetera and I didn't want to compete with them. Whilst walking through the garden, I came across this Green Man plaque, partly covered with snow, looking singularly unimpressed by it all. Anyway, initial Raw processing done in DxO optics pro and then desaturated in Photoshop, one minor irritation removed and a big dollop of contrast and grain added to give it that "grunge" feeling. Click to enlarge it.
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Day 19. Brown rice is good for the heart. Since having to get healthier eight years ago, brown rice has been a large part of my diet. It has become my soul food and it is very good for the heart too. Seeing as the weather is too drab for comfort, I resorted to an indoor shot again. I put a sheet of pink sugar paper on my scanner, drew the hearts with rice and a paint brush, set my camera on manual and shot quite a lengthy exposure of six to eight seconds to allow the scanner bar to pass from left to right and back again. I tweaked it all in DxO Optics and cropped it plus added the text in Photoshop. The day wouldn't be the same without a pun or something so I will just say that when it comes to putting on weight "rice is nice but pasta is faster"
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Day 18. Windows of the soul. Everyone seems to do at least one eye photograph so why should I be any different? I was going to cheat and remove the thread veins and wrinkles but that wouldn't be me. After all, I am no spring chicken. As a diabetic with retinopathy damage, I have to be careful of my eyes and I am petrified of losing my sight. Perhaps that is why I look perpetually tired and worried, eh? Raw, processed in DxO Optics Pro, sharpened and cropped in Photoshop
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Day 17. Yirgacheffe Woreda - a jewel amongst coffee. Look, most people do "Macro Monday" but me? I do "Macro M...M...M...oh blast it...Wednesday" (or whatever day I fancy for that matter). You have no idea how many shots of different subjects I have taken today and this is just about the only one that seemed to do it for me. The beans are Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Woreda from the Monmouth Coffee shop in London and the jewel is a trinket belonging to my wife. Shot in Raw, (using a notebook as a reflector and a large Viyella bag as a diffuser - all expensive equipment here - no rubbish!), processed in DxO Optics Pro, tweaked and cropped in Photoshop
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Day 16. Shiver, Shiva. Waiting for the electrician to come yesterday, I noticed my wife's beautiful brass Shiva in the candlelight and thought... "That's the one!" I know it is a bit of cheat using one of yesterday's pictures today but I have been at sixes and sevens doing things and I have so much to catch up on that I just knew you wouldn't mind...
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Day 15. Back to the Dark Ages. No electricity so am sending thus via email from my mobile phone. Yep - the wonders of modern technology meant that the electricity failed on the coldest day of the year. We had to call in a qualified electrician who couldn't pinpoint the problem either. Turns out that the immersion heater / thermostat / timer is on the fritz.
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Day 14. See Emily Pray. In one of the graveyards nearby there is one of the most beautiful angel monuments I have come across. I have named her after the occupant of the grave, Emily Ward. In all weathers she stands looking beautiful and forlorn. Today, thankfully, there was some vagrant sunshine. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version.
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Day 13. Wet, wetter, wettest. I spy with my little eye something beginning with "R". "Rain" that's right! Give the man a good slapping. The river Adur had burst it's banks again and flooded the fields once more. These forlorn stalks were all that I could find worth photographing. The only bit of colour I saw all day was a dead crisp packet floating by. Ho hum.
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Day 12. <Sigh> Small memories. Happy days. I was sifting through my study, looking for inspiration, when I thought of my collection of several thousands of slides (which I STILL need to scan and save... some day). I had to stop myself from spending the whole day reminiscing... For this set up I used a low energy studio light with a diffuser on, and mounted my camera on a tripod over it. Raw processing was done in DxO Optics Pro - I set it to simulate the Fuji Velvia film I used to use. Further cropping and tweaking was done in Photoshop and the tacky film border frame was added as an after thought. Now if you will excuse me I am going to spend a month or two looking at my slides and seeing what a good photographer I was rather than the shell of one that I am now.<even bigger SIGH>
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Day 11. Rude Awakening in 3...2...1... I was meant to be going to photograph a bit of an industrial ruin this morning but having just failed in yet another job interview and scratched the car to boot, I decided to give it a miss for today and have a blatant bit of Photoshop fun instead. Three separate selfies merged in Photoshop and then layer masks to allow the different me to come through.Click the thumbnail for a larger picture.
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Day 10. Goodness gracious... great balls of plasma! One of my buddies gave me this USB plasma globe a couple of Christmases ago and I have never really found a use for it seeing as the light output is pretty punk. That is until today. I wanted to use it to light a selfie but I just couldn't justify spending all that time sitting still (note to oneself - find out if you could roast a thousand chickens over a candle quicker than doing a selfie with this). Still... with the ISO w@nked up to 1600 and a 50mm f/1.4 lens on, I managed to capture bolts of plasma rather than a generic light mush. Raw noise suitably suppressed in DxO Optics Pro and then cropped in Photoshop.
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Day 9. Vanishing point. I had to take Mum-in-law to hospital today so I made sure that I stopped off at the beach first to get today's photo. With the sun just coming up, I was hoping for a low tide because then there are more lines leading to the vanishing point but I think this one does well enough. Again I have made it a square format - it just seems to work for me at the moment. Here's another thing... get a load of that bright lighty stuff from the rather peculiar hot, yellow ball in that strange blue-ish sky... what's it called again? Sunshine? I don't understand... :o) Details: shot in Raw, Raw processing by DxO Optics Pro, tweaked and cropped in Photoshop.
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Day 8. To Infinity and Beyond! Another grey day, what to do, what to take...? I have a toy orrery in my study and I have always wanted to have a go at long exposures. So I plonked it on a dark background and let the camera meter try do it's thing. In the end I had to settle for Bulb setting and guess work as to the exposure. Lighting was from (a) the sun in the middle of the orrery (dim) (b) an energy efficient bulb above (i.e. very dim) and a small LED torch which I rotated around the plane of the ecliptic faster (about twenty times faster) than the planets orbited. This made for an interesting challenge for the White Balance but it has given what I consider to be pleasing multiple exposures of the planets as they rotate. The whole thing was shot in Raw, as much noise as possible removed in DxO Optics pro and then cropped in Photoshop to be another square format shot. I know, I know... it's gritty, dark, mushy or whatever but it's my baby and I'll love it no matter what! ;o)
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Day 7. Dank and soggy. My seventh picture (hell's teeth, I have completed a week here!). I thought I would try a square format picture today. Once again the weather is fifty shades of yuck but it didn't seem to worry the ducks down at the local bird reserve. There was no point in making this a colour picture so I desaturated it in Photoshop Lab mode and sharpened it a little too. Thankfully the weather is due to change this week... to heavier rain!
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Day 6. Kapow! Blow that grey weather away! The weather was very dank and grey today and nothing inspirational came out until we went to get the veggies and there was this almost atomic explosion of gorgeous colour. You can almost get your day's recommended intake of Vitamin C just by looking at the picture and if you have a scratch and sniff screen then it is even better ;o). Shot on my camera phone, tweaked in Photoshop for sharpness and contrast.
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Day 5. Something different today. I have always wanted to try using my scanner to make a picture. Seeing as it is an image capturing device, I can't see any problems with classifying this as a photograph. I love the fact that it gives a more three dimensional feel to it than a traditional DSLR. The black background is reasonably natural because the scanner can't see more than a few inches above it and the depth of field is so slight. I did have to blacken it a little more in Photoshop to remove the ghost of a shelf bracket and to remove the inevitable dust. Then it was just a case of a bit of text and "Bingo!" - something my cats thoroughly approve of!
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Day 4, Belated lunch. I was pondering whether to use the "farm trailer graveyard" photograph or the "stack of environmentally unfriendly tyres dumped by the side of the road" photograph while I prepared my lunch . Mango hedgehogs and mandarin segments (well, the mango wasn't ripening at all and the mandarin was about to turn...) and I realized that it was lit most beautifully. So I binned the other pics! Shot in Raw, processed through DxO Optics Pro to simulate Kodak Ektachrome 64 print film and finally, cropped slightly in Photoshop.
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Day 3. There never seems to be enough time to do things these days! Isn't that the shout of human beings around the world? I had just finished taking our friend's dog out for a very muddy walk when I saw the opportunity for a picture. I snapped the shot on my phone and did all the tweaking at home again. I wanted to give it a gritty, sepia, "olde worlde" look with the splash of red from the leash popping out to provide the interest.
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Day 2. What do you mean that you can hear me scraping the bottom of the barrel already? I had a picture in mind but what I envisaged just didn't want to work (perhaps another time) so I grabbed a handful of glass cat ornaments from the shelves, sat them on my scanner and set it going. As the scanning bar passed beneath the cats it made for some interesting lighting.
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