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Stories and Photos By Alan Mars |
I just got this off of ebay and am eager to start playing with it! My pack of film will be coming shortly. Meanwhile I need to figure out a way to seal off light from my bathroom door so I can load and unload film in total darkness!
I have added a Photo Journal section to my blog. Hopefully, I will be able to add my projects in here as I go along. The site is starting to take shape and it’s really getting fun to manage now. Enjoy!
The main purpose for this site is for me to try out new things. Hence the new theme here. If I find something I really like I’ll use it on my business page also. This new one looks nice however, it’s too laid back for a professional web site. It’s perfect for blogging though. I like it for now.
I’m playing with some new HDR software. I’ve used Photomatix before but I got my hands on Machinery HDR 2.2 which has many presets and is pretty slick compared to Photomatix. Here are a few examples.
From time to time I like to sharpen my knives on a challenge or two on some challenges on the internet. No prizes are awarded usually except for bragging rights if you win a challenge. This weeks challenge involves things that don’t belong together. You find a couple things that don’t belong together and you get a shot of it. Using good composition skills and lighting to take you over the edge. The one I entered today allows 3 images. Here are the first two I entered:
I am hoping for an exciting year for me. I plan to graduate in June this year and hopefully start a new job. After three years of no steady work and one year of no unemployment I am ready to start making a living again!
This last semester will be a true challenge for me as I am trying to get all the classes I need so I can graduate. I am scheduled for FIVE classes this semester. Three of those classes have Lab classes also. 2 Biology classes and an Astronomy class. I am also taking one History class and a Philosophy class. Sounds like a bundle of work? Yes it is! It should be pretty interesting.
More info to come!
2011 was a fun year for me behind the camera. I started shooting many weddings as a vendor for a wedding contractor in Griffin, GA. I have shot about 9 weddings with them and hope to do more in 2012. Also, in November, I started working for a company called George Street Photo and Video. They are based out of Chicago. As of December 31st, 2011 I will have shot 2 weddings with them as a second photographer.
But I have also expanded my technique as a photographer using many cool tools that are at my disposal. This gallery shows a handful of my favorites.
Enjoy!
Well, Thanks to the wonderful world of the internet I’ve had to turn off the posting feature for visitors. I’ve been getting some SPAM posts here in the comments and I really don’t want to deal with that on my site. So until I can find something that will automatically control the SPAM I have turned off the comment feature. Sorry!
Alright! This is what this blog is all about! Me doing some cool stuff with my camera!
I had heard about this technique of twirling flaming steel wool around and catching it with a long exposure in early December. It sounded pretty cool but I had little time to mess with the idea due to finals and projects due before then end of the semester. Well, I finally got around to trying this out.
I bought me a cheap whisk (the wirey thing you mix cake mix and other ingredients together with by hand), some steel wool (very fine), and a cable with a clip on the end. I already had the ignition source. I’ll get to that awesome unknown phenomenon in a bit.
I took the steel wool and pulled it apart a bit so as to make it more breathable to get more sparks from it. I stuffed it in the whisk and attached the whisk to the end of the cable. Then I set my camera for a 30 second exposure at f9 ISO 200 and I set the 10 second timer to give me time to walk to my position before the shutter opened. Then I pulled out the ignition source… a 9 volt battery. I rubbed the battery on the steel wool and it lit the wool not on fire but it got very hot and started the hot ambers. Then I started twirling it around and got the effect you see here.
So, I think I found the sparklers for the adults next 4th of July.
I took some close ups of some ornaments on our tree after we finished decorating it and one of them really jumped out at me. But it needed some work. After toying with it in Photoshop, I decided I just needed to re shoot it. Let me tell ya, it’s hard to replicate a shot after you’d done so many different shots before and after it. But I finally nailed it last night. The first one is the first one I took that jumped out at me. But the Gold string attached to the glass ornament below the blue ornament was a distraction I felt. So after I moved some things around I came up with the second one. With some tweaking of the lens I was able to get that blue ornament in sharp focus in the low lighting I had. I didn’t want to add any background lighting because it would have reflected back in the green and blue ornaments. Also, in the second shot I setup a tripod so I can get out of the reflection in the ornaments as well. It turned out quite well I think.
