Opposites Attract

As usual with the silly season December’s topic flows into January. I was glad of this as I spent the whole of Christmas week sick with a dreaded summer cold. In fact having been spoilt with more photography equipment for Christmas it wasn’t till Saturday I was feeling well enough to play.

Nick had decided that Mick and I had to come up with four subjects that had an opposite. We then took one half of the topic each to make our four pictures. Mine were White, Hot, Dirty and Heavy (Mick’s were the opposite) and that was it - it was our interpretation of the topics and they didn’t have to match the other half at all. Will be interesting to see them side by side at the end. From the start of December I had been sketching and planning out shots in between a very busy work and social life so it was good at the end of the month (and year) to finally get one in camera so to speak.

On to White - I had the whole shot planned out however the light was not in my favour and was not giving me the results I wanted. Gulp! Flash time! Flash is something I am still not entirely comfortable with. How the film photographers managed to get the shot without using up rolls and rolls of film I have no idea (plus maths is not really my strong point). So on went the flash onto the new light stand, then the diffuser went in front of that, the snood was next until out with the big guns the umbrella! A couple of rolls of film later (or about 40 pics) I downloaded my trials to the computer. With the joys of digital I had looked at each shot after taking it and moved the flash; adjusted the aperture; added a gel etc for the next shot. The last shot with the umbrella was perfect just what I had envisioned in my sketches. Looking at these on the computer however I decided to go with this one. It has had very little work done in photoshop (a bit of curves to bring out the shadow more and some sharpening) but  to me this was just perfect. So with me throwing out the maths (I didn’t adjust anything on the flash at all) and playing I got not only the shot I wanted but an added bonus of the shot below.

Hot was next on my list and was a bit of fun as I have been reading about food photography so this didn’t take long.

Heavy - now this had me a bit stumped until I came across a tutorial about using a granite tile. Off do the local DIY shop where I found a tile and was graciously given it as a ‘sample’. Nick then came up with the idea of the kettle bell with the feather in the reflection. Off to get a feather and then much to Nick’s patience off to a fishing shop (yes - fishing!) to get some line to hang the feather up invisibly. this has taken a bit of play and patience in photoshop but for a first attempt am rather pleased. Photoshop and layers is one of my projects this year to improve on. 

Last but not least Dirty - I struggled with this the most to come up with different shots during the month however going back to basics of the topic and some great texture in the back yard I am done and dusted early for a change.