This image is an infrared shot taken at a shopping mall last year, with IR you can find images almost anywhere the light is hard.
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Experimented with some diffusers and reflectors yesterday to get a softer looking image…I kind of like this look. Could be the last of the mantis images…REALLY…time to move on to something else.
Here’s two more shots using the diffuser and reflectors again…click to view a little larger.
I was experimenting with some off camera flash today and this female mantis was very, very patient…here’s the setup:
D700, 85mm PC with polarizing filter (on a tripod), PocketWizard MiniTT1 with SU800 (on camera). SB900 (on light-stand) with LumiQuest Softbox and a piece of polarizing film over the flash-head, triggered with PocketWizard FlexTT5. So what’s extra piece of polarizing film over the flash head for? It allows me to dial out any glare on the subject caused by the flash by adjusting the polarizing filter on the camera. Trust me…IT WORKS. You may need to do some test shots adjusting the filter on the camera an 1/8 of a turn each time and checking the results on the LCD to get rid of all the glare or just a little.
Here’s a 100% view of the mantis head in the first image:
Here’s another shot of the same very, very patient female mantis using the same flash setup:
Sometimes I find a scene where I like the light but don’t find a composition that works for me. I have found that you should just take an image of what attracted you in the first place and review the images later. Playing around with the images in CS5 can be lots of fun or really frustrating depends on your frame of mind at the time. Here are some of the scenes where I liked the light but not the original composition…so I played in CS5 with mirroring, and a few other things to come up with these. A touch of surrealism can be just what is needed sometimes…the architectural images make me think of something out of an old Buck Rogers movie.
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Flower impressions from some flowers we had sitting on the kitchen counter. I was attracted to the color combinations of RGB. Single shot done with a slow shutter speed and some motion blur moving the camera during exposure. Just having some visual fun…
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After a rain storm these leaves were laying on a paver in the garden, I was intrigued by the pattern of the leaves and the textures. When it came to processing this image I went for just what attracted me, no color, just shape and texture. A bunch of steps in CS5 were done to get this look, don’t even begin to remember what all I did.
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Two images from the garden with an impressionistic interpretation…the kousa dogwood is covered in flowers this year so I wondered around the tree looking for a image. Shot a bunch of multiple exposure images spinning and zooming between each exposure. When I walked around the back of the tree the sun was back lighting everything with a glow. I think this one illustrates the feeling I was getting.
The next one is a some poppies we had until the hail storm the other day pounded them to the ground. Good thing I got a few shots while I could…this is a multiple exposure (2 shots) done in camera, one focused on the front poppy and one focused on the back poppy. A fair amount of post processing was done to this image.
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Just like a ‘Cathedral in the Pines’ the ferns carpeted the aisle. Having some fun with mirroring but this is just what it felt like. Below is the original per-mirrored version processed with Topaz Simplify.
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