Monday, July 20, 2009

Day 201 of 365


Some days you just gotta call it quits when the frustration level hits a certain point. I had this vision of photographing playing cards in motion but just couldn't get it to look how it was in my head. I initially tried flipping the cards with a long exposure and they were just a blur. Then I tried dropping them from above with a faster shutter speed but didn't the right look I was going for. I tried a few other things, none that worked. So I cheated.

If you look at the blue card to the far left, next to the joker, you'll see a piece of tape. This is holding a piece of transparent fishing line. I decided to tape fishing line to 5 cards and jump them around while taking shots at 1/125 second exposure and holding the shutter release down to take several successive shots, hoping to catch one I liked. This shot is about as close as I got. Of course if the tape and the slight shadow of the fishing line across the joker and king in the background I'd like it better.

I enjoy listening to podcasts. One I recently subscribed to is Lenswork, which is part of the Lenswork Magazine and the podcast is on photography and the creative process. The podcasts are short, most in the 2 to 5 minute range. If you don't listen to them all I would really suggest that everyone at least listen to the "If Only" posted on Thursday, July 16, 2009.

Here's a snippet...

Deciding what equipment to take with me overseas implies that some things will be left behind. I know that the implication is that I will set myself up for the "if only" game -- "If only I had that piece of equipment I could . . ." But, this is a trap of procrastination that is counterproductive for our creative process.

I think this short 4 minutes & 15 second podcast sums up what I finally figured out a while back. We, as in creative people, tend to get hung up on all the toys we can use to do our craft and forget the actual process of creating. Would I really like to have a professional quality lighting kit and the best lenses? Sure, but I believe I can take just as good a photo with my four $8 work lights from Home Depot, my almost 40 year old flash and my $86 50mm f/1.8 and $150 70-300 macro lens. It's a bit harder but doable. If I had the uber equipment would my creative process be as experimental? I'm afraid I'd get lazy and lose what I've gained by having to think outside the box.

1 comment:

Ron a.k.a. Danudin said...

Just a though Rob, you could try building a House of Cards or a tower or what ever, and jostling the table as you shoot multi shots, If I had a light box built I would have a go and report back to you, Don't though, what you achieved is fairly good until you pointed out the tape.