SimonTALM's Photo 52 Thread

A reflection of my working week spent in hotels


click it for the exif

I chose this as the photo for the week not because it was my favorite, but because I felt that this reflected my life quite well - drinking in hotels whilst away on business (business travel sounds fun but when you do it week in week out it's dull, dull, dull)

There are other shots I took that I like and want to share but didn't quite make it - these can be found here
 
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SimonTALM said:
I chose this as the photo for the week not because it was my favorite, but because I felt that this reflected my life quite well - drinking in hotels whilst away on business (business travel sounds fun but when you do it week in week out it's dull, dull, dull)
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Yeah - that's what Mr jg used to say, too. :LOL: Only joking - the acid test is when you get home and only want beans on toast for dinner. :)

The shot is a good commentary, imo, and an excellent reflection (pun intended!) on life in hotels on business. Well done. I don't know how you find the time - but glad that you do. :clap:

Jean
 
Like the crisp reflection contrasting with the actual glass. Nice image.
 
Thats a nice composition Simon and says it all - I've been in that boat for a while and its no fun :)
 
(y) well done Simon, reflection in more ways than one.
 
Aha! Another booze related reflection :)
Very well executed, makes me want a cider and I hardly drink the stuff!
 
I love the crisp reflection and the way it also tells a story. Also, thanks so much for setting this up, it feels like a real community already. (y):clap:
 
been there too!! Love the idea, and the composition. I hate cider but that's making me thirsty!!
 
Kitten, Thank you, I've been away on business most weeks now for the last 18months and before that it was every other week for 2 years. When people say I'm off on another jolly they are suprised when I have a sense of humour failure.

I note others have been putting what they've learned this week so I think it's only fair to do the same.

1) Sometimes getting the camera out and just experimenting relying on the unconciouis mind to guide you works better than planning a shot.
2) When shooting reflections and you set the focus point on the reflection you need a really wide the depth of field to capture both the original item and the reflected image.
3) Setting the focus when doing a self portrait is very difficult.

If I was shooting this image again I would use a tripod and use a smaller aperture to try to get a bit more of the logo in sharp focus (the bottom of it is starting to get a bit soft)
 
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Wow, I can't imagine being away from home so often. Part of me thinks it would be fun and part of me thinks it would be very tiring.

Great photo, but I hadn't twigged it was cider in fact I spent quite a while looking at it at work trying to work out what the glass said. Even though on closer inspection the word cider is extremely clear with only the i and r being upside down in the reflection. Blame it on being a Monday and not being a cider drinker!!
 
staffitaxi said:
Wow, I can't imagine being away from home so often. Part of me thinks it would be fun and part of me thinks it would be very tiring.

Great photo, but I hadn't twigged it was cider in fact I spent quite a while looking at it at work trying to work out what the glass said. Even though on closer inspection the word cider is extremely clear with only the i and r being upside down in the reflection. Blame it on being a Monday and not being a cider drinker!!
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It is very tiring, but it does give me peace and quite away from the distractions of house work to focus on building my Photography Business. It can be fun, especially when you are with colleagues. The worst bit is that when the time for taking a holiday come round the last thing I want to do is get in a car, drive somewhere the other end of the country and stay in a hotel (as that's exactly what I do every week), unfortunately that's precisely what the GF wants to do. It's not all bad; I get my breakfast and dinner cooked for me every day, I don't have to tidy my room and I can get big brownie points ;) by taking the GF away for the weekend without paying a penny as the points I collect pays for the hotel bill :)

P.S. the drink is Dry Blackthorn Cider, and I'm about to go to the bar and get another before I go back to my room and carry on browsing the forums.
 
Another week and another photo that gives a bit of insight in to my life. This is a photo inside the back of one of my mechanical One Arm Bandits despite its age I use it as my penny jar as handily takes 1p coins (although orginally it took the original sixpences).


click for EXIF

The first few shots I took of this didn't seem to be that special and I nearly gave up, but for some reason I decided try to capture the action by using a slow shutter speed as the reels were spinning and use rear sync off camera flash (thank you Nikon for your built in commander on most DSLRs) to attempt to give the symbols some definition. I'm glad I did as I really like the results.

Once again I have a number of other shots that nearly made it this week - these can be seen here. I chose this over the others as I thought it better reflected the theme of History with it being sepia. There is a colour version of this and another similar image of the whole of the internal workings of the machine

Things I learned (or relearned) this week:

1) To think more about the effects that can be obtained from Slow Shutter Speed or Narrow/Wide Depth of Field before starting to shoot.
2) How difficult it is working with flash in daylight and wanting to use a slow shutter speed.
3) Smart Filters in Photoshop are really cool, but really need a powerful computer to use lots of them.
4) I really like vignettes.

As always C&C very welcome
 
Nice capture Simon. Like the sense of motion. Can almost see the symbols going round. The symbols look ghostly. Like the sepia tone which does give it an old, antique kind of feel. Great seeing the different interpretations of this weeks theme (y)
 
Very clever image Simon, and great result. Love the effect of the flash (y)
 
I really like that Simon, a beautifully thought out and executed shot.(y)
 
Good shot Simon - I remember these as a lad in Margate and Ramsgate eating up (old) pennies :) I think I prefer the colour shots as the device itself says 'history' to me and one arm bandits, in my day, were in bright colourful noisy amusement arcades so the colour, in a way, is part of the history!

Great shot :)
 
Dark Star said:
Good shot Simon - I remember these as a lad in Margate and Ramsgate eating up (old) pennies :) I think I prefer the colour shots as the device itself says 'history' to me and one arm bandits, in my day, were in bright colourful noisy amusement arcades so the colour, in a way, is part of the history!

Great shot :)
Click to expand...

You raise a good point there about the location of the bandits and something I hadn't considered. I'll add that to my learnings this week.

5) Consider everything about the image and it's subject
 
This is a really interesting shot - I'd never thought about how the one-armed bandits of my youth stole my pocket-money pennies. Well, a jackpot of ten bob (50p) was riches indeed. I like the sepia treatment - it seems to go well with the inner workings of mechanical objects. :LOL:

It's a very good use of off camera flash - the definition v. blur on the fruit symbols is perfectly judged. This challenge is pushing us all in different ways, imo. It's great. (y)

The Mechanical Action shot in colour is my favourite of the 'best of the rest'. I presume the machine fitted back together and still works. What a great icon of the mid-20th century to have. :)

Jean
 
Thank you,

All I did was take the back cover off and take the photographs, it works fine with the cover off :). I use the machine as my penny jar and it works very nicely, I have 1 other of my own and have one more from on loan from my father (who has quite a collection of them).

Interesting you like the Mechanical Action in Colour as the best of the rest as this nearly made it, I thought it was too square on.
 
What great subject to photograph... you got a great action shot.

Like Dark Star I prefer the colour one, but what do I know.:shrug:
 
That is a really cool penny jar and a great image.

I can remember we found an old aracade full of these somewhere when I was on holiday as a kid, just can't remember where. We had great fun putting our pennies in. I still like the old penny push machines, although a lot of them have been converted to 10p now.
 
Class - interesting, fun and innovative :)
 
Very good. On topic, interesting, technically looks good, the rear sync flash adds that detail that completes it nicely.
 
All looking good so far Simon, think the black and white in the second one works really well. Good Choice!

Took me a while to find this thread, as the one in the 52 directory just leads to the instructions, but I'll bookmark it now for future.

Keep up the good shots!

John
 
Lovely image and a challenge really well handled problems identified and dealt with. For myself,I prefer the colour image but given the title of the theme Your choice is the better one in that context.
 
A tough theme this week, so I wondered if the definition could help me and it struck me. The dictionary is the one book that sits on more student desks and ultimately provides learning to everyone. So I suppose the defintion did help me ;)


Click for EXIF

Sorry no other photos yet, but perhaps by the end of the week there may be...


Things I learned from this week:

Focus in macro shots is a nightmare
2 off camera flashes can really help control shaddows.
Extra props (in this case the pen) can make a dull photo more interesting by providing focus
 
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Great shot, inclusion of the pen takes it out of the normal 'dictionary/page' shot - depth of field is working really well on this and the contrast is spot on!

Good stuff :clap:
 
me too, spot on shot, well done (y)
 
Yep thats good, sometimes you don't have to leave the house to get a good shot do you !:)
I hope to have something good soon myself :thinking:
 
Nice! I like this one a lot :) DOF works excellently on it.

My girlfriend also pointed out, she likes that "Learning Curve" is actually a curve :)
 
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