Hobbies, Photography

SooC52 – Green

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This week’s Straight Out Of Camera theme was “Green”. My first thought was, “Have you been outside? Ain’t NUTTIN’ green out there!” So ok, time to think a bit more. I have some green coasters made from old printed circuit boards, which are pretty cool, but no good ideas on how to use them were coming to mind. Finally, I realized that a way that I could incorporate the term “green” in multiple ways setting up a winning roll on our craps table. So I set up the table with typical types of bets, most pass line, a couple of come, a few place bets, and that one jerk that always plays the don’t pass. I set the point to eight, and set the dice to an easy eight. Sucks for the player with the hard eight bet and the jerk playing the don’t pass, but everyone else is a winner and gets some nice cash salad for their efforts!

For the lighting, I used a remote speedlight with a bounce card high and behind the scene and the pop-up flash with one of those little hot-shoe mounted pop-up diffusers.

PicPerDay_02-14-14_sm

Here is the exposure data.
Camera Nikon D7000
Exposure 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 28 mm
ISO Speed 100

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Hobbies, Photography

SooC52 – Night Sky

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This didn’t come out exactly like I wanted, but it was close. I’d give it another go later in the week, but I’m not confident that I’ll get another clear night. If the weather cooperates, I may post an update later, but for now, here’s my shot and my thoughts on its creation.

I’ve taken star trail images in the past, but I’ve never tried to put myself in them. What I wanted was an image of me presenting the Universe. Unfortunately, I failed to take into account how bright the northern sky would be. As a result, instead of me in front of the swirling starry night, it turned out to be ghost me.

SooC52-NightSky

Device: Nikon D7000
Lens: 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G
Focal Length: 18mm
Focus Mode: Manual
AF-Area Mode: Single
Aperture: f/16
Shutter Speed: 1927.4s
Exposure Mode: Manual
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 400

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Hobbies, Photography

SooC52 – Porcelain

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This week’s Straight-out-of-Camera project theme was Porcelain/Ceramic. At first, I thought about doing something with an old set of ceramic brake pads, but then I saw the Bailey’s mug. I figured this would be a good opportunity for me to work on my product photography. The set-up was fast and rough, and there’s a few other things that I think I’d do differently if I’d taken the time to get all of the lighting gear out. Such is the problem of not having a dedicated studio space here at the house. I need to fix that.

PicPerDay_01-28-14_sm

Camera Nikon D90
Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/2.8
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Return not detected
Lens 50.0 mm f/1.8

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Hobbies, Photography

SooC52 – Lighting

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This week’s theme is “Lighting” and there’s been some REALLY stunning and creative submissions so far. For my submission, a couple of things that I ordered in preparation for this year’s solo and rallycross seasons arrived. So I don’t have to use a loaner helmet this season, I finally bought my own. Last year, I had a hard time keeping my butt in the seat. The CG Lock that Brian, one of my fellow photographers at OpenPaddock.net, gave me does a good job, but I have a lot of mass to try and contain so I also got a racing harness. Hopefully the new harness will keep me from sliding around so much.

On to the photo! I set the helmet and harness on our black velvet backdrop and removed every light source I could find. If you look at the visor, you’ll see the dim red reflection of a light in the kitchen I didn’t think would show. ..it showed. I set the exposure for 4 seconds which gave me time to position an LED flashlight filtered by a blue plastic toddler’s plate. Could I have spent a gazillion dollars on gels and variable power strobes? Sure, but I’m cheap. I had the flashlight and a cleanish plate at hand.

PicPerDay_01-23-14_sm

Here are the EXIF data.

Camera Nikon D90
Exposure 4
Aperture f/6.7
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash No Flash

Check out my fellow Project SooC52 photographers.

Hobbies, Photography

SooC52 – Footwear

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Ok, this isn’t the shot I really wanted. I had these boots in mind, but I had a very different setting for them planned. Unfortunately, this particular week was amazingly hectic and I never got to the camera in time to setup the outside shot I wanted. I’ll admit, I phoned this one in, but I will make up for it in the coming weeks! These are some hand-me-down workboots from my stepdad that have lasted me several years! They’ve kept my feet warm and safe through a lot of wood cutting, snow shoveling, and they’ve logged a lot of miles up and down various rally stages. They’ll log a few more miles next month as I head back to the 100 Acre Wood Rally in Salem, MO.

PicPerDay_01-16-14_sm

Here are the EXIF data:

Camera Nikon D90
Exposure 0.7
Aperture f/4.8
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 800
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash No Flash
Lens 18.0-70.0 mm f/3.5-4.5

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Professor of Astronomy and Physics