Category: effects

1

Boom!

I've lived in Minneapolis for a long time, but as usual, it took having someone from out of town to get me to see the sites in my home town. The TFTTF Photography Workshop expedition to Fort Snelling gave me a chance to chill out with some heavy field artillery. No matter how old, boys will be boys and a bag of gunpowder the size of a kitten is a rollicking good time. The deafening blast of the cannon was a true dude delight, but my experience there had an additional geek delight sound added to it. A small contingent of us photographers were gathered together to record the cannon fire and we all had the same idea and technique. We watched the soldier on the left bring the golf-club-sized matchstick down to the back of the gun and when he got close, we all held down the triggers on our DSLRs -- a chorus of 3, 5 and 11(!) frames-per-second cameras clicked away hoping to capture the blast. This weekend is the last of the season for the fort to be open, so I might head back. If you get a chance, the cannon is fired at 1:00pm and 4:00pm. If you don't think that's worth the price of admission, then go check out the old-time cooking at the commander's house and leave the marching field for us boys and our toys...

1

The Mascot Arrives

Here's the new Mitchster.com mascot. This is a 30 second exposure of a glow-in-the-dark duckie. I set it up on glass to get the reflection.

0

Fake Solution

Welcome to Day Three of the TFTTF Workshop (explained below Oct. 11). We went on an excursion to Historic Fort Snelling. The assignment was: Find something fake at Fort Snelling and use a predetermined focal length - I chose 28mm. I went to see the doctor and found on his shelf this little bottle hiding on his shelf, tormenting me in his bad light. Once everyone else left, I asked the 'doctor' if I could move things around. He said sure, and I set this image up while he continued to try lighting some wet logs in the fire place. I think I had greater success than he did. The light from the window cast some great shadows through the rippled glass and by using a big aperture, I was able to narrow the Depth of Field to draw the eye to my intended subject.

1

What's Yellow Isn't

Welcome to Day Two of the TFTTF Workshop (explained below Oct. 11). This was for the assignment: Silhouette without using the Rule of Thirds. I struggled for a while to find something to silhouette on this typical gray rainy day. I eventually saw this dandelion and went to work on it. I found the McDonald's wrapper in a trash can near by (it was right on top and pretty clean, and yes, I put it back). Placing Matt's Nikon 800 strobe under the edge and taking lots of shots to get the light in the right place, I managed to get a silhouette. I like the yellow background for the recognizable dandelion shape, sort of a negative space effect.