Mr_Leeman

Decided to give a vintage feel by adding some grain and making black and white. I lightening the background and added contrast to the plane to make it really stand out. Not much else to do as it was a pretty decent image.

I'm wokring on eyes for the coming month. Below has an assassin feel to it.

Assassin by mr_leeman, on Flickr

Combined both my drips and reflections!

20150207-_DSC0546 by mr_leeman, on Flickr

Wow, thanks to all who voted. I'm really humbled to be chosen. Well done to joint second, both super images!

I've moved on from dripping shots... and the next month will be reflections/shiny objects. Below was my favorite from today, hoping to get some outdoor stuff tomorrow... as it's very wet out.

20150131-_DSC0089 by mr_leeman, on Flickr

Following on with my theme for the month of dripping and tried some different ideas and got some very different results. Here are a few:

20150118-_DSC0170 by mr_leeman, on Flickr

20150117-_DSC0185 by mr_leeman, on Flickr

20150118-_DSC0178 by mr_leeman, on Flickr

The last one is a mirror and paste in photoshop, kinda looked like an alien bug, inspired me to play with these concepts a little more.

I have set myself a task for 2015 to shoot something different each month, inspired by the project 52 concept. I've been creating myself a list of things to try and then breaking the ideas down into detail before I ven turn the camera on. origionally I had planned to do smoke for January and had an amaizing idea - which required certain elements unavailable to me at this moment, so it got pushed. Instead today I worked on the subject of pouring, or in this case dripping.

20150110-_DSC0191 by mr_leeman, on Flickr

Simple set-up, glass vase with window to one side and a lamp to the other, black and white card to altenate backdrop. I got together a whole bunch of pouring devices and various liquids to try out. I settled after a batch of test shots, that my son's bath toy/siv worked well for pouring as it had very fine holes, meaning the viscous liquids had to settle first. This allowed me to get in position and fire. The prefered liquids were Glycerine and food colouring, and handwash in a squirty tub. I took around 1000 shots and it was really hard to throw any away, each one being unique. I narrowed down several favorites and then chose the above to share. Very fun, and I actually learned from it. Tri-pod, with manual focus got the best results.  Next week I'm trying paint/ink and a few others - plus I may try this set-up again with what I learned. If time permits!

Second shot, bit of fun again. A toy dinsoaur I was playing with, ended up looking like it's final moments when the comet struck!

20150105-_DSC0008 by mr_leeman, on Flickr

Both images have been processed through LR4 and PS5.

I use the D3200 and find that the preview rarely gives an accurate representation of final image, but I shoot RAW, so fixed easily. The historgram is crucial to keep an eye, especially if you're moving from daylight to shade/indoors. As mentioed above, I agree the metering mode for those kind of scenerios would be suited to Matrix, the cmaera is good enough to do that job for you.

As a fellow noob, I would recomend almost starting from scratch - put all your settings to the standard and slowly change one thing at a time and establish where the over/under exposure is being effected. I went through a spell where my shots went all weird - turns out I had dialled in +1 compensation and forgotten.

Another option might be to experiment with the exposure lock... I've not got much experience of it myself, but you can half press on the subject whilst holding the exposure lock button (I think?) and then reposition the shot as normal. I've tried this and had surprising results.

Yes, Peter, the watch looks fabulous. Thanks for putting in your lighting setup!

 

And Mr_Leeman--I love the frozen bubble! How did you do it?

Well first it needs to be cold... -figures and ideally just as the sun is rising and not directly on them. What was weird when I blew it it partially metled, then re-froze - very unusal to see.

I tried first to shoot on a soft towel, but they wouldn't stay and somehow on the roof of my frozen car, they sat and froze upwards - happened in about a minute. Then I set up the camera on a tri-pod, got as close as I could and did a stack of about 5 images. I used my 50mm 1.8, 1/60, ISO 100. I autofocused on the car and then set to manual - and adjusted ever so slightly for each shot - although stacking wasn't the idea at the time (never done it before), it actually worked out really well.

Other than that I had fun.lol

I think a 105mm Macro would be better suited but would love to know peoples thoughts? What lens would you try?

And a few more from me...

Yesterday morning was white over with frost (no snow for us yet!) - so I dragged my poor ill family out for some snaps!

First I had a stab at some frozen bubbles, although I could have done with a macro lens (on the wishlist) - it was ok.

Ice_Bubble_1 by mr_leeman, on Flickr

A small park around the corner.

20141231-_DSC0287 by mr_leeman, on Flickr

Some frozen moss.

20141231-_DSC0402 by mr_leeman, on Flickr

And this one which I really like - lets hope I can keep this up for 2015 - really enjoying my photography at the moment.

Wintery Wonder by mr_leeman, on Flickr

PS - Peter, love the watch shot, very classy.

Firstly... the boy helping his mummy with chocolate muffins. He had a little baking set for Christmas and he seems to like it!

20141224-_DSC0258 by mr_leeman, on Flickr

Secondly... Daddy got a new toy too, a tripod! So I wanted to try it out. What started as a quick play turned into a few hours of 'fun'! My son had a new light up toy, and I got some old packaging and played about with some light painting. I've also wanted to do a self portrait for ages, so I thought I'd turn it into something more personal. I love science and sci-fi so it turned into something more visual than I'd started out to do. Got lots of unusal shots, some rather freaky. This one, both sharp and freaky stood out, really captured a science fiction element. It could be time travel, alien torture, cryo freezing... all manner of thing - but I really enjoyed it and was happy with the final result. I've post processed in lightroom and added a radial blur in photoshop to help draw attention inward.

Time-Warped by mr_leeman, on Flickr

Visited a friend as they wanted a shot of a cake she'd made, but couldn't resist a different kind of pudding!

20141223-_DSC0095 by mr_leeman, on Flickr

Their little ones eys are like mercury, he's such a perfect little baby - would love to shoot him more!

Oh, and the cake!

20141223-_DSC0102 by mr_leeman, on Flickr

^^^^Proof right here you do not need the biggest and baddest full frame camera for spectacular shots..... Wow! You have some talent!

 

My selection for the year....

Not Drowning by Crew One Photography, on Flickr

 

Handful of Joy by Crew One Photography, on Flickr

 

Focussed by Crew One Photography, on Flickr

 

Entering the Bluff by Crew One Photography, on Flickr

 

Heron Sunset by Crew One Photography, on Flickr

 

Spinaker Park by Crew One Photography, on Flickr

Thank you kindly for the wonderful compliment, really helps with the motivation! Coming from someone with your abilities it truly is very much appreciated! Those are some stunning images, especially number 5, thats an image I'd expect to see in a book!

What a great idea!

Here are my 5! And might I say how hard it is to choose.  As of 2015 I am setting myself monthly challanges, based on the project52 concept - January is Smoke, so you'll porobaly see a bit more themes from me and the idea is to expand and learn - so I will look forward to seeing what next years are!!!

_DSC0005 by mr_leeman, on Flickr

Sea Bird by mr_leeman, on Flickr

Swan Lake by mr_leeman, on Flickr

_DSC0483 by mr_leeman, on Flickr

Poppet by mr_leeman, on Flickr

Had another photoshoot for the brother-in-law for a new t-shirt, this was my pick of the bunch.