Paul's: With no rabbits

Tofu-knitting bunny-huggers... Well, I thought about this and decided that one interpretation was a theme of environmentalism. And seeking to emphasise the 'environment' rather than the 'mental' side, I took this:

Nikon D300s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 170mm
1/200s
F/5.6
ISO Auto

Nice bright colours to attract the environmentally responsible. It works too. As you see, at least one of the bins is full to overflowing.

I waited until the sun was low in the sky so that there would be some shadows, not that rectangular boxes offer much in the way of texture. I also shot the image low and close-cropped so that the blurred background was an unobtrusive plain wall in a fairly neutral colour.

While I was there, an actual environmentally responsible person turned up and posted a handful of newspapers for recycling.


Nikon D300s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 52mm
1/250s
F/4.8
ISO Auto

This was a quick candid shot, so the framing wasn't good; I missed the back of the car. The irony of going to recycle old copies of 7DAYS in a two-seater over-engined sports car was not lost on me. Every little helps, I suppose.


Enough of the environment. There is a different interpretation for this month's subject. As tofu is perhaps perceived as Japanese (at least in my house it is) I present an actual Tofu Knitter.

Nikon D300s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 48mm
1/30s
F/4.5
ISO Auto

Shot hand-held with available light at a well-known emporium of Japanese-style fast food, I was looking for a shot with the chef's hands blurred with the rapid movement associated with knitting tofu. Of a score or so attempts, this one had the man's face in focus with his eyes open and his hands suitably blurred. All the movement was done in camera. There is some PhotoShop: the background of square tiles was not quite parallel with the photo frame, but a little Free Transform sorted out that issue. I think the fan is a distraction, but it's real and authentic, and anyway I made a right mess of trying to clone it out.

Wheels

Cogwheels

Nikon D70s
Tokina 12-24mm at 19mm
1/2 sec F8

I spotted this unlikely sculpture-cum-machine in the Museum of American History. Hand-held, propped against the glass with rear curtain synch to catch both the movement and the real shapes of the cogwheels and cams behind them.

MOVEMENT: Paul's stuff

Despite vacationing being on holiday in the United States, I found time to take some photos on the subject of "movement". Curiously, all my previous month's submissions would have sufficed. But here are some new ones, edited for size and removal of those annoying dust bunnies.

Salem swing

Nikon D70S
Nikkor 18-200 at 40mm
1/30 sec F27

Maybe this should have been cropped to portrait. However, I left it landscape to retain the blurred, movement-streaked background. This is the best of about a dozen attempts to get the child's eyes in sharp focus. I nearly managed her hand. This sort of shot is intensely difficult to get right.

From a moving train

Nikon D70S
Nikkor 18-200 at 20mm
1/30 sec F22

Shot through the filty, scratched, graffiti-strewn window of a Boston tram, I was amazed that this one came out in any way acceptable. The blurred background of parked cars, plus interference patterns between railway sleepers and fencing all serve to accentuate movement.

Night train

Nikon D70S
Nikkor 18-200 at 48mm
1/4 sec F6.7

Not actually shot at night, but in a tube station. Other attempts to take photos with even longer exposures were thwarted by the Tripod Police. I was leaning against one of the columns and a Metro employee seemed to think that I was trying to shoot passengers with some (unspecified) firearm.

The Hare and the Tortoise

Nikon D70S
Nikkor 18-200 at 62mm
1/500 sec F6.7

Bronze statues in Boston, Massachusetts don't actually move very much. The fable in which they appear revolves around the subject of movement, so it counts. Image cropped in Photoshop^(TM) and an annoying distraction has been clumsily cloned out of the image.

Boston lights

Nikon D70S
Nikkor 18-200 at 32mm
1/1000 sec F6.7

The green traffic light is for "Go", hence movement. I tried to clone out the annoying power cable but it proved too difficult for me. The repetitive pattern of the building's windows was too hard for me to align accurately enough to fool the average bear. Fail.

Moving bridge

Nikon D70S
Nikkor 18-200 at 22mm
1/250 sec F16

The bridge at Mystic, Connecticut opens at twenty minutes to every hour, at which time there is a procession of boats up and down the river.

We're on a road to nowhere...

Nikon D70S
Nikkor 18-200 at 18mm
1/750 sec F3.5

I wanted everything in focus, but in a moving vehicle it wasn't likely to happen. The large discrepancy between bright outdoors and dark car interior has almost lost interior detail. I used a little Photoshop^(TM) to burn in the highlights on the dashboard. In retrospect I could have improved depth of field by closing the aperture, relying on the lens' vibration reduction to deal with camera shake, and setting the 'film speed' to automatic to allow a moderate shutter speed.

Movement - Richards Attempt

Hi All,

It's that time of year when there is nothing left to do but trawl the Mauls, however, at least this weekend there was some point. I was able to do this assignment, hope you like.

Dubai maul is famous for tripod police and being very anti photo, no tripods, no flash (it's "professional equipment") etc..
Therefore all of these were hand held and used photoshop to give me the balance of slow shutter speed and detail in the divers.

Close up
Shutter priority.
1/200, F4, ISO 400
Canon 350D, Sigma 17-70 Mancro
Hand held (tripod police !)
Pop up flash for fill.
Only very minor photoshop :-
- Smoothing the dried water drops on divers head.
- 2 degree tweak and minor crop to make horizontal.

Stood Back
Composite image.
Shutter priority
1/13, F4, ISO 100, Slow shutter to capture the falls.
1/200 sec, F4, ISO 400, Fast shot to capture the diver.
Canon 350D, Sigma 17-70 Mancro
Photoshopped to bring together, also :-
- Smoothing the dried water drops on divers head.
- Masked levels on the diver.
- Cloned out a complete diver top right as it badly effected toe composition.
- Cloned in small section at bottom where falls didn’t fill the frame and a small pebble that was sticking out and effecting flow.

Flying
Composite image.
Shutter priority
1 sec, F36, ISO 100, Slow shutter to capture the falls.
1/200 sec, F8, ISO 400, Fast shot to capture the diver.
Canon 350D, Sigma 17-70 Mancro
Pop up flash for fill.
Photoshopped to bring together, also :-
- Smoothing the dried water drops on divers head.
- Masked levels on the diver.
- Cloned out the stand on divers belly.
- Filled in small section at right and bottom where falls didn’t fill the frame.

Flying serious Photoshop.
Same as flying but also added about 8 varying layers of movement blur.

As always comments, critque and any abuse welcome.

Cheers,
Richard B.

Next Assignment = MOVEMENT due 1st Sept

Here is the next one :-
Movement
Due 1st of September.

As for those who haven't done the last subject (sorry, I mean, taken it but not downloaded off the camera yet) come one !

If you don't belive me for "Movement" here is the random topic generator :-