Friday, October 16, 2009

Totems October 15th

Shot a few more lightpoles. Still working on the "variety" that Odin suggested. These are very different from the ones shot on the tenth.
Also did a few shots of Janet at dinner. It is getting very difficult to eat out with Janet. She just will not stay at the table. I finally blocked her chair with my foot (very uncomfortable) that kept her from rolling off. But I still cut dinner short. Fortunately she did not refuse to eat although she ate very little, just little over half of a club sandwich. She is about to dry up and blow away. Everything is difficult. When she really needed to loose weight no matter what I did didn't work. Now that she really needs to gain a little weight nothing that I do seems to help.The shot above was actually from the fourteenth. I used the Tokina 11-17mm fisheye. It works in FX mode on the D700 between 11mm and about 13mm, which makes it a super wide angle. Beyond the 14mm I have to switch to the DX mode.

These were shot on the fifteenth. I tried a new tactic, getting to Denny's earlier. It worked well for the photography but didn't work any better for the eating part. We sat where Janet was facing the east windows so the lighting was beautifully rounded. It was like having an eight foot by thirty foot softbox of natural light. I would really like to think that I could find a place to do the Help Portrait shots in December that had this type of lighting. I would sure like to try this along with the opposite hard light that Dave Black used in his October post of the Workshop on the Ranch. I think it has a possibility of being pretty grand even without the gymnast's chalk dust flying in the air.

Then after dinner she was very hyper. This had tapered off somewhat but still on occasions she gets very agitated. We finally went to bed after midnight then she started getting up just before three. Two, two and a half hours of sleep just isn't cutting it for me. Where is the woman I married that could sleep non-stop for eight hours?

2 comments:

  1. Gary, I continue to be amazed at how many different ways one can shoot a light pole! HAHA Seriously, these are really beautiful. I especially like the darker ones that were posted on the 10th and the second one in this group (or lower left, depending on if it's being viewed on the blog site or thru e-mail) with the light clouds at the bottom. I am curious to know which one of your totems is your favorite?

    I agree about the lighting on these last ones of Janet at dinner - absolutely beautiful.

    I'm sorry to hear that her appetite is not as good as it could be. Does she like sweets? If so, try mixing instant jello pudding with Boost (chocolate) instead of milk for "super pudding". Lots of calories and some good nutrition as well. My sister also likes a product called Muscle Milk. I think you can find it at Walmart or probably any drug or grocery store. It comes in several flavors and is very high in protein.

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  2. Jan, thanks for the nutrition tips. Now, how about some on how to counteract stubbornness (excuse me bullheadedness?) LOL

    Favorite totem? It changes. The ones with the dramatic clouds are still the most visually appealing. However, I also like the really subtle, quiet ones.

    Of these four, I like the top left for the double totems but the backgrounds on both of the top don’t do much. There was a great cloud formation when I stopped but it was fading fast and I really couldn’t find a shooting angle that would capture it behind these two.

    The ones on the bottom I like for different reasons. On the left, the “arms” are practically perfect although I am really not wild about the background. On the right, I love the subtle coloring of the clouds but the arms are confusing. If I could take the pole from the left and the background from the right I would be happier about the image.

    On the previous post I really like both much better than any of these four. The background does not have the order/chaos thing going but I like the gradations, quietness, and in the case of the bottom one I might even say dignity, although I am still debating how blue, how gray it should be. You can’t see it in the small post, but on top there is a single red light. On the double, because I was not trying to position the pole and clouds I was able to place the four light the way I wanted them. And of course, I like the single bird perched on the edge. There were originally three birds; I had to shoot two to get the photo (okay, I shot them with the clone tool.) Not sure how much longer I will be doing this but as long as I enjoy it.

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