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Week 17 – Winter

Week 17 - Winter

It wasn’t actually that wintery this week, but work was manic and I knew I wouldn’t have time to get out and about. Grabbed a couple of chilly shots with the iphone, but wanted something more and something a little different to the icy, snowy shots. Dug some gloves out of the cupboard and placed them on the radiator for a quick grab fully intending to stage something properly later (the plan was to have these, snowboots and a puddle on the floor) but as is more often the case, I never actually got round to finishing it. Still at least I never missed a week in actually taking the shots. Just never added any to the group.

Week - 17 Winter

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Triggertrap – Test shots….

I’ve had the app and the dongle for a while and other than some time lapse vids of the journey home from work I’ve never actually used it. This week I finally got round to purchasing a 2.5mm to 3.5 mm cable so I can use it to trigger the flash instead of the camera and subsequently started thinking about what I could use it for.

These were a hastily set up test session to try and get the setting for the ‘Bang’ trigger to work – Had a few issues initially whereupon the camera kept snapping away after the noise but after a few tweaks I think I got it sorted. I know that these are a bit rough round the edges, but as test shots I’m quite happy with them. All I need to do now is set something up properly with a decent background (not the shiny sink), replace water with milk (or cream) and swap out the smelly pickled onion for something a little more attractive……

www.triggertrap.com

Onion splash - Triggertrap Mobile

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Week 16 – Hidden (Submitted Entry)

Bit of a rush job for a change, that never quite worked out how I wanted it to, but nevertheless ended up working quite well I think.

Week 16 - Hidden

I once saw a photo of a girl in a shower, mascara running down her cheeks. Although she wasn’t crying, the raw emotion on her face that the photographer captured was obvious to anyone viewing.

As soon as I saw this weeks theme, a similar idea started to form in my head because the only thing I could think of that related to hidden was ‘feelings’ or ’emotions’. that led me off on a path of pondering and it occurred to me that chaps, or gentlemen of a certain age don’t deal with emotions particularly well. For some reason we ignore them for the most, and certainly never ever talk about them (unless drunk !). I wanted to try and capture this with an ironic tip of the hat to the girl in the shower shots to say that blokes have feelings too…..
Unfortunately, space and time were a bit short and I never managed to capture the RAW emotion I saw in my head. Partly because I was too much of a coward to face the camera and partly because I couldn’t see what I was taking (I could do wirth a wireless way of triggering the camera) .

I was hoping that the image would be strong enough to convey this without the lengthy description but the couple of people that saw them before I posted didn’t get it at all (Erm it’s a bloke in a shower? being the primary response)…….. I’m kind of hoping that it will get you all thinking anyhow, be interested to know what spring to mind.

Was worth doing, just to get me out of the comfortable still life mentality. Out of my comfort zone for this week’s theme. I could have taken the easy option and gone for hidden beauty, or hidden detail but decided to plough ahead with this one. Didn’t quite convey the message I intended and the composition isn’t quite right (which effectively kills the entire photo) but think it was a reasonable effort and still makes you think about what’s going on a bit.

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Week 16 – Hidden (and other projects)

Hidden – So many things sprang to mind for this week that it was almost a bit too much. From magical worlds hidden in the fridge, to lost socks poking out from under the washing machine a jumble of images tumbling through my head, some relatively ‘easy’ to set up and shoot some almost impossible without hair, makeup and models. Importantly though, pretty much all of them don’t involve the tabletop set-up that’s getting quite familiar now, and all of them are different to the previous submissions.

Of all of the ideas I’ve had, it’s the very first one that stuck in my mind. Over the course of the week it”s developed in my head and going for this will be both ambitious, and challenging. Totally outside my comfort zone both on a technical and artistic level (in that I’m not sure that I’ll be able to convey the emotional side of it as clearly as I ‘see’ it in my head. Hopefully I’ll have some time this evening to get it sorted and make it in time for the deadline !!

Another interior itch (which has potential to develop into a minor obsession) has been getting worse and I think it’s about time I scratched it. There’s an old Kodak Box Brownie languishing in my loft somewhere. I thought it was with the Cine8, clockwork movie camera, but had a quick peek and it isn’t. so it must be up there with the other super8 cine camera underneath something else. Guess I’ll be up there at the weekend rooting about. I remember using it as a child and I’m more and more interested in seeing if I can get anything decent out of it. Not sure if it still works, nor am I sure that I’ll be able to get my hands on any 620 film for it, but it’s got to be done at some point this year. The trouble with this is that I can see this going somewhere unpredictable and me ending up with a spare room full of chemicals by the summer…… Not sure how this will pan out but watch this space……

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Happy New Year (Week 15 – New Start)

Happy new year everyone, and apologies if you’re a bit squeamish…..

Was going to save this idea in favour of a completely different approach for this week, but on reflection, asking the wife to pack a suitcase, and pose for some bye bye shots with runny mascara probably wouldn’t have been the best way of starting the new year, even if it was just for a shoot.
The second idea I had was a bin bag full of booze, not sure why I never did that now but sure there was a reason.

Anyhow, I read today that smokers on 20 a day will lose 2 teeth on average, every 10 years. I lost my 10 year 2, just before christmas within a week off each other. Ties in niceley with one of my resolutions….. No, I’m not giving up smoking, I’m giving up reading about healthier choices…….

Anyhow – After 12 years of neglecting my gnashers, I decided on a new beginning for my remaining pegs, with regular trips to the dentist.

(Just noticed that I also forgot to check my ISO before setting up – I thought the flash was doing a good job on 1/64)

Week 15 - New Start (Ouch)