weekly Graham's "I don't know what the hell I am signing up for" - TP52 2015 Scenic & Companions Added

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Right, early bird gets the worm... or so I've been told. I'm up waiting for Santa so to pass the time, I had a go at the practice round...

My thinking was combining regular and irregular shapes in one image. This is showing the light/dark/light regular shape of the rings of light combined with the irregular shapes of the circles of light. I went for B&W as it shows the contrast of light and dark in pattern, complementing the theme.


52 Week 2015 - Practice Round
 
:woot: First 52 post of 2015!
Welcome aboard Graham and what a great start!

I seriously have absolutely no idea what that is, but I honestly don't think that matters at all to the final image - in fact it's keeping me looking at it and trying to work it out.
Really like that you've shot at an angle to the 'tubes of light' rather than straight on so that there's that degree of interest with all of them at slightly different angles,
Lovely B&W conversion, nice composition which almost sits diagonally across the frame and certainly lots of patterns there.

I know it's 15 minutes early, but Merry Christmas to you and your family and looking forward to seeing more from you through the year.
 
Thanks Sarah. I have high hopes of this 52 week lark - need to push myself creatively so am looking forward to it immensely. I'll keep the reveal to a little later in the game, but it's a photographic item, if anyone wishes to guess. It was quite an interesting lighting experiment too.

Merry Christmas to you and yours too :D
 
Hi Graham :)

Well done getting the first image done...

You will have to add a photo to the 'Photo's Only Thread' that Andy started (Posiview) this enables everybody to follow just one thread and follow links back to all entrants... I also use that thread to update the spreadsheet :)

You will find step by step instructions written by Andy on the first post - the thread is HERE

I'm struggling to see images on my tablet EE connection so will pop back and comment when I get near wi-fi :)
 
Thanks for the comments so far (y)

I'll keep the reveal going a little longer, but I'll probably give in tomorrow if no-one else has a stab :)
 
Well back on my lappy, and I must say I really like that, have no idea of what it is, but I like the positioning of the main cluster of 'tubes' and the good dark black background, interested to see what it is and what the natural colours are :)
 
Yeah, I'd say it was a snoot.

Nice low-key submission and once again welcome aboard.

Just to add, the first few weeks of the TP52 can be mental, trying to comment on 80+ submissions can be very taxing. What I intend to do is for the first few weeks comment on what I consider to be the best submission for the previous month. Once numbers dwindle, which they unfortunately will, I'll comment on more. Of course, I would not expect you to comment on all my submissions (y)

Cheers.
 
HI Graham & welcome to the madhouse :wave:

Cracking shot to start your challenge.......I was also thinking it was a snoot or one of those grid things used for lighting - as you can tell I'm well up on the technical terms :D or then again it could be a bunch of drinking straws with a light shining through them .......... whatever it is I like the placement in frame & the lighting (y)
 
Thanks for the comments guys (y)

It is indeed a snoot, Yvonne guessed it correctly first but @blondie606 is the closest - it's a DIY snoot gridded with drinking straws :D - shot from the inside and backlit by an LED monitor...
 
Great photo.... Very striking and feels like a powerful object - I initially thought it was part of a jet engine or something[emoji15], just goes to show drinking straws are clever things![emoji38]
 
Fab start to the challenge and I'm a sucker for abstracts. Didn't have a clue what it was but love the composition, lighting and b&w conversion :clap::clap::clap:
 
susiejb said:
Hi Graham and welcome :) great to see the first shot on the thread, and a smashing one too ... really like the black and white and the abstract look.
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Thanks Susie :)

ferg007 said:
Great photo.... Very striking and feels like a powerful object - I initially thought it was part of a jet engine or something[emoji15], just goes to show drinking straws are clever things![emoji38]
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Cheers, like the idea of a jet engine part :D

Bruja said:
Fab start to the challenge and I'm a sucker for abstracts. Didn't have a clue what it was but love the composition, lighting and b&w conversion :clap::clap::clap:
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Thanks Jill (y)
 
I like it. Strong B&W conversion with good contrasting tones. Abstracty enough to work as a desktop wallpaper, yet recognisable to those in the know.

gbmphoto said:
It is indeed a snoot, Yvonne guessed it correctly first but @blondie606 is the closest - it's a DIY snoot gridded with drinking straws :D - shot from the inside and backlit by an LED monitor...
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Home made stuff is the best! I had lots of fun with my welding glass 10 stopper and my toilet roll neg scanner.
 
Hi Graham

I'm liking this a lot. B&W is one of my favourite styles, especially when it is pretty contrasty, so this ticks a few boxes for me. Although I guessed the subject, there's enough interest and mystery there to make it much more appealing than a more obvious single subject shot. I also like the lighting inside the snoot itself, just a subtle glow. Composition good: classic 3rds and all the technicals (focus, DOF choice, ISO choice) all ideal for me.

A very good start to the challenge - well done!
 
I seem to have missed this even though you were first off the mark, you have set a precedent now you know ;)
I thought it was a LED bulb, but obviously that's wrong.
Nice and contrasty, and if you stare at it long enough there is even a 3D effect going on too :)
 
Ah its a UFO cool (y)
 
welcome Graham

very creative and very beautiful. (y)
 
Very striking image, now I know how a spider feels as he goes down a plughole.
 
Looked at this a couple of days ago when I was thinking of joining in. Got the straws bit. A beautiful shot and well presented
 
Nice simple but very effective start. Good Luck for your 2015 52 challenge.
 
Welcome to 2015 52s Graham - a great start! With 68 starters for the year, I don’t think any of us have a chance of commenting on every entry every week, but I hope to keep popping in to each thread at least once in a while.
 
michael23 said:
Now that works very well Graham, a super start indeed. Lighting is great and I like the composition too. B+w was the right choice here.
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Thanks :) it definitely looks better in B&W!

d00d said:
welcome Graham

very creative and very beautiful. (y)
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Thanks :)

Barrysprout said:
Very striking image, now I know how a spider feels as he goes down a plughole.
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Lol! Yes, poor spinning b*gger :D

HeartandSoul said:
Looked at this a couple of days ago when I was thinking of joining in. Got the straws bit. A beautiful shot and well presented
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Thank you :D

sr1867 said:
Nice simple but very effective start. Good Luck for your 2015 52 challenge.
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Cheers, good luck to you too (y)

XenosElaine said:
Welcome to 2015 52s Graham - a great start! With 68 starters for the year, I don’t think any of us have a chance of commenting on every entry every week, but I hope to keep popping in to each thread at least once in a while.
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Haha, thanks - I think I might spend more time commenting on everyone's threads and updating mine, than anything else!
 
I really like the original shot for pattern - there is joy in exploring the photo with the eyes whilst not having a clue (nor caring) what it is! Lots of light and shade to keep the eye interested with a strong composition.
 
Nice image Graham. Good use of the subject as well. Your lighting is good and the mono conversion strengthens the image. Great first submission.
 
philthejuggler said:
I really like the original shot for pattern - there is joy in exploring the photo with the eyes whilst not having a clue (nor caring) what it is! Lots of light and shade to keep the eye interested with a strong composition.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot Phil (y)

Delta Skies said:
Nice image Graham. Good use of the subject as well. Your lighting is good and the mono conversion strengthens the image. Great first submission.
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Cheers Peter :D
 
Wow, so this was quite a challenging theme. I had a concept straight away - bubble bath, wine and candles. But then I dragged my feet and saw a few submissions that used that concept so I decided to push myself to think of something else.

I knew I wanted to use a person in the shot rather than a still life so I started thinking of how I could incorporate Tammy into the theme and so asked her what she felt bliss was. Her first response was chocolate... great, how do I make chocolate and a woman appealing in a photograph?? That was a rhetorical question ;D

Started browsing Google Images and saw a few images of strawberries dipped in chocolate (amongst the ones of women just devouring a whole slab of chocolate :eek:) so I thought I'd try to achieve something similar.

Shot it tonight using a speedlight through a softbox with a large white reflector directly underneath - think classic butterfly lighting. I used the D800 for detail and croppability and then used the 70-200mm at 200mm to compress things and try to fill the frame. I used shutter speed of 1/250 (flash sync), ISO100 and f/7.1 to get a softish image to blur the nearest facial features with enough DoF to ensure that whatever was on the same plane as the strawberry, was sharp.

I took a number of images through the various stages of eating a strawberry. The approach, the landing, the munching, etc. I settled on the one that showed some space around the strawberry inside her mouth, as it appealed more to me.

I was going to submit it only in colour, but when processing it, I tried it with my usual B&W conversion and really liked the result. I lose the colour of the chocolate and strawberry, but gain so much more atmosphere.

So, here we have them. I decided to submit both versions so that we could discuss the merits of each. Hope you like them :D


Bliss - B&W


Bliss - Colour
 
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