Shugpug's 1st 52 - Week 52 - Decoration - Complete!

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Shamelessly stolen and adapted from @Dave70D - sorry and thank you!

First visit to the 52s - going to be interesting fitting this in to a 6:3 work schedule... What can possibly go wrong... Mostly these will be shot on my m43 camera, but a Garmin Virb (Garmin's GoPro equivalent) and maybe an Intrepid 4x5 might make an appearance or two. Possibly other analogue cameras, depending on how things go, but I'll try to avoid posting any phone photos!

Techniques
Abstract
Multiple Exposure
Panorama
Panning
Filling the Frame
Framing
Leading Lines / Shapes.
Motion blur
Mirrored
Wide Angle
Low Light
Negative space
High key
HDR
Soft Focus
Silhouette
Black and White
Juxtaposition
Artificial Light



1 - Local Interest - Strat Casino Resort
2 - Pleasure - Coffee
3 - Tool and Silhouette - Paul Bunyan
4 - Discarded - Goodsprings Jean
5 - SNAPPERS CHOICE - Certo Six triptych
6 - Wild - Calico Basin cactus
7 - Broken - Inyo Mine lower tramway
8 - Ability - Piano scales
9 - Winter - Mary Jane falls
10 - Depict a book - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
11 - Transport - Shoe tree, Cedar City
12 - Fence - Red Rock Casino
13 - Flora - Cactus focus stack
14 - Time - Triple selfie
15 - SNAPPERS CHOICE - High Key egg
16 - Initials - Sagebrush Artemisia
17 - More than One Of... - Empty Parking Spaces
18 - Music - Piano sheet music
19 - Colour - Film 4 panel
20 - Old and B&W - Trees on the Bristlecone Trails
21 - Liquid and B&W - Trichrome at Las Vegas Wetlands
22 - Household Items and B&W - Pinhole of Kitchen Utensils
23 - Hidden Leaf
24 - Small Tent
25 - SNAPPERS CHOICE - Canyonlands Hike
26 - Mother Nature taking a beating
27 - Sign of the Times
28 - Secure Relationship
29 - Personal Achievement
30 - Graceful Yucca
31 - Static Polaris
32 - Patterned Leggo
33 - Camouflaged Mule Deer
34 - Tiny bugs
35 - SNAPPERS CHOICE - Upper McCloud Falls
36 - Textured Lava Tube
37 - Preparing for Activity
38 - Artificial Tent
39 - Autumnal aspens
40 - Wet Desert Spring
41 - Topical Fire Danger sign
42 - Food transformation
43 - Sharp Cacti needles
44 - Backbone of the Digital Age
45 - SNAPPERS CHOICE - Soft Focus autumn desert wildlife
46 - Narrow Cathedral Gorge
47 - Paper Money
48 - Phone Camera
49 - Backlit Leaf
50 - Abstract stones
51 - Showcase - Death Valley Sunset
52 - Decoration - Close Up Reindeer
 
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I did it for the first time this year, it was great fun, don't worry about getting something to fit the theme exactly, (ask @Dave70D about that ;) :D ) and most of all, enjoy the challenge. Good luck and I look forward to seeing your shots!
 
don't worry about getting something to fit the theme exactly, (ask @Dave70D about that ;) :D )
Yep he can Jazz up any old image :LOL:
 
Local interest - a great theme! I live in Las Vegas (for now), and work ~45 minutes drive from where I live - the drive is through the desert and is stunningly beautiful. The city is a stinking cesspit, and its reputation is well deserved, but it is surrounded by an amazing amount of incredible places. Fifteen minutes drive from where I live, I can be on the strip or in Red Rock National Conservation Area - I have spent far more time in the latter than the former! An hour brings a National Wildlife Centre, the Mojhave National Preserve, Lake Mead Recreation Area, the Hoover Dam and Valley of Fire State Park. Another hour and I am in Death Valley National Park, the West Rim of the Grand Canyon. Joshua Tree and Zion National Parks are withing another couple of hours, and 8 hours brings the gems of Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings' Canyon National Parks in to play. Whilst some of these might not quite be "local" interest - they are far more local than they will ever be in my future! Sorry for proselytising - but this place is (or should be) a photo Mecca!

But for now - a much more local image... This was taken on a short hike about ten minutes drive from home, on the very outskirts of Vegas where we started the hike through a future housing development (complete with the vandalised no trespassing sign in several languages...) The shot I have chosen represents my Vegas, and is therefore as local as I can make it. It was taken in Cliff Shadows Open Desert Park, and shows the Strat Casino Resort.



20200102-Local_hike (34 of 34)
by Alex Morrison, on Flickr

The other contender for this week was to hit the silhouette theme as well, and shows a desert Yucca against the sun just north of the Reverence housing development.



20200102-Local_hike (22 of 34)-2
by Alex Morrison, on Flickr

But whilst this is local (actually slightly more local as it is closer to where I live), it doesn't feel as local to me - yucca plants are everywhere in the this part of the world, but there is only one Strat! Plus, the image of a tiny sliver of Vegas hidden by the desert spoke to me far more as a personal local image than the yucca did - but I will admit that I may be overthinking it...
 
I think I prefer #2, because it's not a landscape shot (which most others have been for the theme - so it stands out) and for the starburst and back lighting.
I also like the blue hour lighting that you've captured in it.
 
2 really good shots, I have driven from L.A. to Death Valley, up to Bad Water then to LV the scenery is quite stunning, very different to my South of England scenery. Great light in the first and a beautiful silhouette in the second.
 
What an amazing place you live in Alex!
I prefer 2 TBH. Pretty much for the reasons that Tim has given (y)
 
Nice start to the project :) Good to have you on board.
 
Welcome to the 52
That a good start, I like the portrait orientation and that sky is great.
 
at first I thought too much sky in your first shot but I was scrolling through it as it was too tall for my screen, when I see it all on the screen it works well. I really like the starburst in your second shot
 
i like the second shot - it is just that bit more unusual :)
 
Welcome to the 52 and it's interesting to read your thoughts about where you are and why you took the images. About 15 years ago we drove from Los Angeles through Yosemite and the desert to Las Vegas and I agree with your description of the surrounding areas, and indeed Las Vegas itself!

I like both images but particularly #1 for the deep shadow and shape of the earth, the sunlit colours and the distant hint of Las Vegas. It works very well and I look forward to seeing more of your images (y)
 
Two cracking shots Alex and love both of them, if I had to pick just one it would be the #1 shot as love the shadow and beautiful BG in the scene.
Thanks!
I think I prefer #2, because it's not a landscape shot (which most others have been for the theme - so it stands out) and for the starburst and back lighting.
I also like the blue hour lighting that you've captured in it.

It wasn't quite blue hour - Lightroom assures me that I took it about 2:30pm and blue hour would have started about 5. It was up on a ridge after we'd scrambled / slid / managed to not fall down a much crumblier and more difficult scree slope than I expected, and taken at something of a crouch to get the sun poking through the leaves.

2 really good shots, I have driven from L.A. to Death Valley, up to Bad Water then to LV the scenery is quite stunning, very different to my South of England scenery. Great light in the first and a beautiful silhouette in the second.

Thank you!

What an amazing place you live in Alex!
I prefer 2 TBH. Pretty much for the reasons that Tim has given (y)

Yes I really do - I am unbelievably lucky to have my time out here, and am intending to make the absolute most of it!

Nice start to the project :) Good to have you on board.
Welcome to the 52
That a good start, I like the portrait orientation and that sky is great.
at first I thought too much sky in your first shot but I was scrolling through it as it was too tall for my screen, when I see it all on the screen it works well. I really like the starburst in your second shot

Thank you all - there definitely is a lot of sky, when I cropped the top of it out and lost the clouds, I felt that the photo lost a certain something.

Love the second shot. Well done, and welcome! :clap::clap:
i like the second shot - it is just that bit more unusual :)

Thank you both - I'm blessed with the 340-ish days of sun here, so have started using it quite a lot, and it's started to feel a little boring to me - but noted that I don't share many of my photos...

Welcome to the 52 and it's interesting to read your thoughts about where you are and why you took the images. About 15 years ago we drove from Los Angeles through Yosemite and the desert to Las Vegas and I agree with your description of the surrounding areas, and indeed Las Vegas itself!

I like both images but particularly #1 for the deep shadow and shape of the earth, the sunlit colours and the distant hint of Las Vegas. It works very well and I look forward to seeing more of your images (y)

Yosemite is possibly my favourite place in the world (so far...) We went there last autumn, and have another trip planned in May, hopefully before the schools break up and it becomes unbearable. It will become the only National Park we are going to more than once without enduring escorting accompanying family visitors.
 
Good stuff - No2 floats me boat.
 
I like the colours in the rock in your first photo, but for my taste there's too much not too interesting sky in there (the let-down of living in a place where you have an almost permanent blue sky...).

I find the second photo much more interesting!
 
Good Start, both Images are nice and sharp, I prefer the second due to the very limited colours in it.

Pete
 
2 Great images to start your 52 challenge Alex difficult to pick between to 2 as I like them both equally
 
Looking at the images on an iPad (in landscape mode) so not sure If that clouds my judgement. The sky appeared to go for ever, which might be a good or a bad thing, personally I would crop from the top but then that’s a different image
 
What a fantasic start to your 52 challenge Shugpug!:clap:

Both images are amazing!
#1 is certainly a spectacular landscape, and the iconic tower of the Strat Casino way off in the distance is a perfect payoff!
The colours are excellent, and those shadows...just wonderful!
#2 is also excellent, really well controlled exposure and the starburst is perfect!
Couldn't pick a favourite to be honest.
 
Somewhere between pleasure and necessity... Especially on next week's night shift!

Definitely out of the comfort zone this week with a "studio" style shot. Usually, I prefer being outside with my camera...

No fancy espresso machine (at least not one that works on 110V) so no crema unfortunately, even with undrinkably strong coffee from a moka pot. The shot I had in mind initially was a high key backlit with OCF. Then I remembered I didn't have a flash for the G9, and that the car needed fixing, so swapped emphasis for a low key instead... Manual everything in a little photo-tent with a black cloth background, and a touch of burning the foreground to clear out some light that the cloth caught, and burning some of the highlights to tone them down a bit.

And just spotted that I've managed to start the date reference with 2019... Took it today - promise!



20190110-Low_Key_Coffee (7 of 8)-Edit by Alex Morrison, on Flickr
 
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A nice touch getting *just* enough light on the handle for it to show in the shot too :)
Very arty with the low key, everything fading to black look.
I would be interested to look at the shot on flickr, but your settings have it as private so we can't click through.
 
Very dark but it works I like that the light just catches on the handle
 
Interesting shot, clever exposure. Very creative.
 
Very minimalist which I like a lot, the blurred focus suits the composition very well.
 
For someone out of their "comfort zone" I am most impressed. Well lit and composed.
 
Hi Shugpug, very subtle, really nicely light.:clap:
Great picture, and like the negative space
Very good abstract picture, perfect lighting. :clap:
I love this image...such subtle and well controlled exposure to get just enough light on the handle for context.
Almost abstract, and better for it in my humble opinion!
Excellent work @Shugpug!:clap:
Very dark but it works I like that the light just catches on the handle
Interesting shot, clever exposure. Very creative.
A very well thought out setup shot. Creative and abstract at the same time.
A clever shot for pleasure nicely composed and lit
A very nice and clever take on theme Alex, just the right amount of lighting and looks great in mono.

Thank you all - when I set this up, the image I first had visualised had the mug lit much more, and from just one side, but against a fully black background. When I tried it, it just did not work for me at all. I had the photo tent set up in evening light coming in through the side of it, but when I moved it in to the shade, it suddenly just clicked.

Very minimalist which I like a lot, the blurred focus suits the composition very well.
For someone out of their "comfort zone" I am most impressed. Well lit and composed.

Thank you both! I am really enjoying this challenge, and am determined to use it to push me out of the comfort zone and in to areas / subjects that I wouldn't usually photograph.

Looking forward to week 3!
 
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