Morning Dew

I don't really notice stuff like this, but as I was standing there making coffee, I noticed all the little droplets of dew on a plant near the window. I thought they'd make a pretty interesting subject to photograph, so I went and got my camera. Unfortunately, I couldn't frame a shot to my liking so I scrapped that idea but as I was walking back around to the front door, I noticed another plant that was covered in droplets and far more interesting.

(Click to see bigger versions)

I thought the detail was pretty amazing and how every little droplet reflects the world around it. It made me think about just how far you could actually zoom in and see exactly what was reflected. Because the subject is green and I favour black and white photography, I decided to try something a little different and that was turning down the saturation inside the camera, so I almost got a half and half colour/bw effect. I like how the out of focus droplets glow and fill the surrounding area.

These droplets were collected on spiders web on the lower side of the plant. I think the amount of detail is incredible, there must be hundreds and hundreds of drops there!

The last one, composition-wise I think is quite weak due to the out of focus part at the bottom. However, I do really like how the drops almost glow in the morning light. They remind me of fairy lights on a christmas tree.

These were taken using a Nikon Micro-Nikkor 40mm f/2.8 lens, which is pretty cool because while it's not as fast as my 50mm f/1.8 lens, it has macro capability and is a LOT sharper.

Photo Montage

Something I've wanted to do since having this camera is to set it up and using multiple shots and Photoshop, create an image composed of the same person in various positions to make it look like they were in the same shot. I've done photo manipulation in the past, so it was fun to go back to it and play with it again. 

To set this up, I positioned my camera on a tripod at one end of the sofa. I set the camera to manually focus on a set point because I didn't want to have different focal lengths and it was faster to get captures without waiting the extra milliseconds for auto focus. Using a remote shutter control, I dangled one of my cats toys and made her jump repeatedly, each time pressing down on the remote so that the camera took shots. Many of the shots came back useless. In the end I took around 80 shots just so I had enough to work with. 

Using Photoshop, I played around with various different shots and tried to come up with ideas for composition. I settled on composing 4 different images that somewhat gave the impression of the motion of climbing. I was pretty happy with the results because they were quite sequential. I would of liked to have had a background that wasn't so distracting. I see this as a test, so it's something I can put more thought into next time.

Finally, I didn't like the colours of the base images. Indoors you generally get very orange white balances due to light temperature and that wasn't working at all. I did try the image in black and white but that didn't work for me either. I played around with colour gradients and settled on a subtle orange to black tone. I then used a secondary colour layer which changed all black/grey tones to blue and that was where I decided to stop.

Next time I try this, I need to definitely re-consider:

- Background (less distraction from subject matter)
- Lighting (so I can use a higher shutter speed)
- White Balance (potentially keep the final piece in colour)

Edit:

After review, I decided I still wasn't happy with how this turned out. I changed it back to Black and White and further cropped it. I also lessened the background by editing out some of the distracting areas. While I do wish there was more contrast in the image, this was the best balance I could get without getting bright whites or overpowering blacks.

Adi Nugroho

It's rare that I come across somebody in the art world that completely blows me away. Honestly, Adi Nugroho is/should be an inspiration to anybody that likes to draw and wants to improve. 

You can view more of his work at: http://a-d-i--n-u-g-r-o-h-o.deviantart.com/

Starting a Book

I have found that over these past few weeks that my ability to draw comes and goes. While that may sound weird, I believe it's down to not enough constant use of a pencil. 

When I first came back to college, I initially really struggled with drawing the boxes due to not drawing over the summer. We then moved on to drawing this old rusted bike and for one of those lessons I felt that I definitely made an improvement and got back into things a little. Last week's class was a complete failure for me. I was late joining the group and because of that, was stuck with a position I wasn't comfortable with. The class was too crowded to move. I tried drawing different areas as a starting point and switching between drawing the outer and inner shapes. In the end, I had erased my work countless times and was left with nothing.

I have decided to take my tutors advice from last year and start drawing as often as possible. I found a little A5 sketchbook that I bought last year and while it's not directly observational drawing, I find that copying something is a good way to warm up. My goal for this book is to improve on my drawing and with my observational skills. I am also hoping that it will improve on my speed, because as of right now, I feel I take way too long to draw direct from observation. While that isn't a bad thing, it's certainly not in my favor in class where time is limited. 

So my first drawing, was Walter White from Breaking Bad. I didn't use a variety of pencils, just the same mechanical with a HB grade lead. I asked two of my friends that attended the Rhode Island School of Design and they said their tutors frowned upon using mechanical pencils. Personally, I find I have more control with it and it sits more comfortably in my hand. Also, a higher quality of lead won't snap under pressure, so you are able to get a variety of tone out of it. Plus it's nice not having to get up and constantly sharpen it.

Edit:

Here is a quick sketch I just did whilst waiting for food to cook. It's just a little pair of scissors that were laying around.

Friday, I'm in Love

On Friday we unexpectedly (to me) traveled to Hawick and visited the Hawick Museum at Wilton Lodge.

Photo credit: BBC - Your Paintings

The main purpose was to look at an exhibition of work by the late Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. There were quite a huge number of pieces on display and while a lot of them seemed quite interesting (mostly her technique) I didn't really connect with any of them except for one.

The piece I liked most was titled "Vermillion Discs onto Turqouise Square" and it literally was just that. I liked that it had a retro vibe about it and I would of thought that regardless of it being made in the 70's. I also liked that the colour contrast was quite harsh. In my opinion, the tones didn't compliment each other and that off-set the piece a little, which is while it stood out so much. A girl called Alice made some interesting points about the piece symbollizing new life. Elaborating on it more, I came to the conclusion that the Turquoise could represent the sky, whereas the Vermillion discs could represent blood cells, hence the new life coming into the world.

I didn't get a photo of the piece, which was really disappointing because if I had of known we were going to Hawick, I would of brought along my camera which could of benefited my Location Photography unit. I did however look into Wilhelmina's work online and found she did many more pieces using discs. I quickly did a re-creation of the piece I liked from memory, as I couldn't find any visible archive of it online.

From memory representation of Wilhelmina's "Vermillion Discs onto Turquoise Square"

After we had discussed Wilhelmina's work, the curator came in and we watched a short video about Wilhelmina. I didn't find it that interesting as it was more of a personal account from a close friend. Also by that time, we had been standing around for way too long and pins and needles were starting to kick in.

The curator also started talking about other pieces they had on display, some from quite famous artists. Now while I don't have a major interest in fine art, I did feel quite annoyed that the most expensive piece on show was left on the floor. Considering it was worth 5 figures or more, I thought that was not only an insult to the artist but very careless. Anybody could of walked into it or dropped something in it's direction.

After the Wilhelmina Exhibition we had a few minutes to wander. I and the rest of the group went into the next room which housed a lot of classic LP covers. This was very nostalgic for me because many of the covers I was already used to seeing as my Mom had owned the majority at one point or another while I was growing up. A few I also owned. I thought it was pretty awesome that the gallery had original covers from Madness, The Cure, Joy Division, The Clash, The Smiths, Pink Floyd, The Sex Pistols, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Talking Heads and of course, David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust. I also liked the fact that I wasn't the only person in the group to like some of the music on display. A lot of the best music is lost within the rubbish of today, so it brought a smile to my face.

Once we got outside, the surrounding area really did make me wish I'd brought my camera. Another disappointment was that my Galaxy S4 is currently back at Samsung for repair and my temporary phone, which is the Galaxy S, has a pretty bad camera. I did take one photo which I thought was pretty cool. It is bad quality but I really liked the angle in which I took it at. One feature on a phone is that you can display an on-screen grid to help with the rule of thirds. I often use this and make use of the straight lines to position my subject matter. I feel that the statue and perspective of the shot gives an almost "crucifixion" feel to it.

I changed it to black and white because I felt the green from the trees was too distracting against the cloudy sky. Another reason was simply because of the camera in the phone being terrible, the colours were all over the place. Plus, I like Black and White a lot more, with the idea of simplifying something to give it more depth.