Nothing to Photograph??

With these dark cold and often dull days and nights, what exactly do you Blip?

I, for one didn’t fancy yet another midnight jaunt out into the freezing cold for some lengthy time exposures...

So, meet the Two Lens Caps. If you’ve got two lenses, then this shot is for you.

Nikon back lens cap is top, Tamron one, underneath.

Simple.

Fancy lighting, set-up? Oh, yessssss. An angle poise lamp directly behind the subjects. How sophisticated is that! I didn’t even leave my armchair to take it, either...

Lens is Tamron SP 90mm f2.8 macro, at life-size. I then added two segments of my Kenko Extension tube set, the 20mm and 12mm. Some Blippin’ boffin will most probably be able to tell me how much bigger than life size the result is.

Adding these tubes messed with the EXIF data, so details are Nikon D7000, 90mm, f5.6 (which is actually the maximum aperture of the Tamron at life size), 1/800, iso 640.

The resulting colour was pretty turgid so Auto Colour in Photoshop CS5 and then black and white conversion, with some fiddling of the colour sliders to get the most pleasing result. The minute, tiny depth of field means only one knurl on the plastic caps to be in focus. I focussed manually. Chromatic aberration in the original colour, caused by the lens’ maximum aperture, turned this zone of focus purple. In the mono conversion this was brought out and to make it stand out, it was easy to make it black.

If you didn’t understand a word of that, I understand. The point is, is that you can turn almost anything into a subject and you can exploit the inherent fault in lenses. Knowing how to and when, is a different matter but if you don’t try, you never will!

See it LARGE

So – I hope I have inspired you to try something a bit different, closer to home, close up – when the weather’s rubbish, the dog has already been walked and isn’t up for posing for yet another doggy portrait – and it’s 11.30 at night.

Huge thanks to all who favourited, starred and commented on my watery Moon rise Blip of yesterday - it finally getting to the Top of Spotlights and is still there as I write this, just as I go to bed. It has now the third highest number of hearts of any I've ever had! Thanks also to the new subscribers - I believe I've thanked you all individually and so a big welcome to my Journal!

In other news – Salisbury Camera Club, whom I was a member with for many years and was also on the committee, had their annual exhibition in Salisbury’s Guildhall, which ends tomorrow. They are also part of the annual SPF exhibition in Salisbury Library.

I haven’t seen the work of members – many which I know, of course, for many years and it was good to catch up. To be honest, aside of two or three excellent member’s and their prints, I found the standard quite disappointing. Maybe I’m comparing them to what’s here on Blip, or my own work, I’m not sure. Maybe I’m being too harsh and forgetting that everyone has to start somewhere and inclusion by all members may be their policy. But it was good to chat to the two retired people manning the desk. They were quite new to the Club and were enthusiastic. I still believe that Clubs are extremely useful for beginners and improvers to really learn the skills as well as seeing their work fitting in with others and it being judged, by a professional judge. All these things are really good experiences and teaches us that while we may think our efforts are brilliant – or otherwise – others may disagree. That photography is subjective.

They were totally gobsmacked by the idea of Blip – which I had to show them on my smartphone. Though I left them with the website address, I really doubt if either of them take it further. Which I understand – let them be comfortable within the Club; however much you sweeten the idea, the very thought to most that they should (if they want to) post up a picture every day most daunting and possibly something to aspire to the distant future. But it did show them that I had found life after Clubs and was now even more active than ever before in Photography.