Still Life Continues

[Paul Lange]

OK, its the vase sheets and metal box again but there is now a metal try too. Got ideas just not enough accumulated interesting stuff or **** making the place untidy as Kerri calls it . These are the pick from the bunch I took Sunday evening. Probably need to boil it down to one of these but I usually need quite a while to finally settle on what I actually like the best. Why is it I can make the choice when looking at other peoples photos but not my own. I have read somewhere that all photographers have **** but but the trick is don't show it. I think I need to learn how to access my photographs better.


_DSC0472-Edit-Edit.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr



_DSC0467-Edit.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr



_DSC0464-Edit-Edit.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr

 

[Pete Askew]

Of the three, I am intuitively drawn to the second one. Overall I really like the muted tones. I also like the components in the first but not the crop. I find my eye drawn too much to the vase. Losing some from the top might balance that though. What do you think?

 

[Paul Lange]

I think you could be right about the crop as usual but I will never go all the way to make it square on principal!

 

[Pete Askew]

I don't blame you!

 

[Paul Lange]

I have to admit that does work, maybe just this one I will, just this once mind you.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

It does look good "ensquared"

 

[Hamish Gill]

I can't quite put my finger on what these remind me of ...
The second one with the glow on the round thing for me

 

[Paul Lange]

The tray is made from tarnished brass and sometimes it comes out matt and other times I get the flicks of gold. Not worked out what it is I do to make that happen yet. I'm quite a way from achieving what I am hoping for but I am finding the process really interesting and learning a lot from it. Amazing with just a few objects you can keep finding new ways of setting them out, lighting them and photographing them.

I have also bought a Holga lens that I modified but removing the masks out so it is faster than f8. It gives quite a nice effect at times. An Ebay appropriation also saw a Braun 120 camera come my way for very little. I stripped out the 75mm lens and stuck it to a lens hole cover cap with a hole in it. Again the imperfections in the lens can give nice effects at times.

What was also interesting was that the lens I primarily used for the long exposure portraits doesn't seem to work as well on inanimate objects but the fuzziness is just lovely on people. I had real trouble with the Lensbaby then but for inanimate objects it works really well.

 

[Hamish Gill]

sounds like you are having a lot of fun!?
How are you getting on with my nifty 1.2?

 

[Paul Lange]

TBH, I haven't used it since coming back from holiday. I have become a bit partial to lenses with terrible optical qualities and the 1.2 was just too sharp. I should give it a try though especially with the potential with the narrow DOF.

 

[Hamish Gill]

yeah, at 1.2 its soft as you like too ... its only really after f2 it comes into its own sharpness wise!

 

[Pete Askew]

TBH, I haven't used it since coming back from holiday. I have become a bit partial to lenses with terrible optical qualities and the 1.2 was just too sharp. I should give it a try though especially with the potential with the narrow DOF.

Stick a bit of Vaseline on the front, that'll probably help!

 

[Paul Lange]

Funny, in the bathroom I have cling film and various creams but no Vaseline. If I ask Kerri to buy some she might start to worry what I want it for!

 

[Beth Carter]

i like the third one best. i think it's the way the light is hitting the vase that does it for me.

 

[Paul Lange]

Thanks Beth. I've been putting the still life images up to see what feedback I get and to see if anyone is interested in the gradual process to what will hopefully be a set of final images. Still life is harder than I first thought. So far I have managed to produce images that have elements of what I really like but I haven't yet managed to put it all together in one image that I am satisfied with. I've done quite a bit of reading and searching for other photographs that spark an idea and alternate between putting ideas together and then trying them out. It's an interesting process though and a real learning curve.

 

[Ahmad Bhai]

So far I have managed to produce images that have elements of what I really like but I haven't yet managed to put it all together in one image that I am satisfied with. .

This is usual when trying. At some point the "eureka" just happens without even giving a second thought to arrangements & photographic instruments.

 

[Paul Lange]

It also male you realise your limitations and makes you want to push harder to overcome them. Humbling experience in some ways. Hopefully the eureka moment will come soon though.

 

[Pete Askew]

Probably when you're in the bath!

 

[Ahmad Bhai]

It also make you realise your limitations and makes you want to push harder to overcome them. Humbling experience in some ways. Hopefully the eureka moment will come soon though.

Apt choice for the film with part of the sub context being about memories and how having them could give the illusion of having a soul.

Thinking does get in the way of the essential and the more we think the further away we get ...
Really real learning we all already possess, just that all the clutter accumulated over years acts as a dam,
& adding to the clutter ...

In photography humbleness for me is knowing i had so little to with the image.
Ansel Adams was adamant (i think) that he was just a conveyor of natures grandeur.

 

[Laurence Cremetti]

Yup, number 2 for me, too!