Mike's Colour Images

I had many ideas for this month’s theme but in the end I settled on two concepts. The first is a technique that I have been doing for a while now. In it I combine different liquids (usually milk, oil and food coloring) to achieve an other worldly effect. In the provided exempts below I have started to control my subject more to achieve a predetermined result.

My second concept is one that I have been thinking about doing for several years now. I have always wanted to photograph the human eye. I was amazed with the amount of detail I could get from the iris. I photographed both Jaimie and Logan and I am amazed on how different their Iris’s can be in color and in design. There is no doubt I will be doing more of these in the future.

Bright Colors

I had these grandiose plans for the bright color theme.  My visions included taking pictures of neon colored clothing (remember the 90's?), capturing the motion blur trail of the tail lights left by cars whizzing by on 96th street and finally pictures of the rainbow that Skittles advertises on their bag....I wanted to do something with the candy rainbow inside.  But alas, plans change and realizations are made (it was too cold at night to shoot pictures on 96th street....no one I know owns neon clothing, etc).

Here are the images I shot instead.  They were all taken with my "nifty fifty" lens that I received at Christmas.  I used all artificial light in the basement, which was very hard for me...I prefer shooting outdoors.

f/4.5    1/250    ISO 1600

 

f/4.5   1/200   ISO 1600

f/22.0   1/5    ISO 1600

   These next two pictures are my favorite.  My daughter, Danielle, is my partner in glow-stick picture taking.  She has become very good at taking the image from my imagination and turning it into reality.

f/18.0    3sec.   ISO 1600

f/18.0    8sec.  ISO 1600

The Photo Co-op: Hello everyone. Nice to be part of ...

The Photo Co-op:
Sorry all, I thought I had this to be displayed on the 1st but I guess I lost that request when I did an edit of the blog.













Hello everyone. Nice to be part of ...: "Hello everyone. Nice to be part of your group. I am always looking for a way to better my stuff and to spark my creativity. I..."

Hello everyone. Nice to be part of your group. I am always looking for a way to better my stuff and to spark my creativity. I took all of these photos on 1/15/11 in a little fishing village, Puerto Morelos, just north of Playa del Carmen, MEX. I was very intrigued with the multitude of bright colors and I wanted to fix not only on this but also on the play of shapes and design. I shot with these intentions. For the most part, these are full frame photos with just minor cropping and/or adjustments for the horizon. With the exception of the street scene, I shot all of these with a tripod. I did do color corrections and saturation to vividly create my desired objection. In short, I had fun with it. I carried this theme with quite a number of the stuff that I shot on this day. My biggest mistake.... not taking more photos! But the grouper tacos were fantastic and the margaritas hit the spot!

The first idea I had for "Bright Colors" was triggered by enjoyment for different beers.  Beer labels and beer bottle caps are as diverse as the sweet nectar contained within, so I figured I would try and capture the bright colors that the different breweries decorate their bottles with.  I used what bottle caps I had in my cap catcher and also borrowed Mike's collection.  The first two show basically the same shot, but one is using an ultra wide angle for a different perspective.

ISO 100 | 1/160 | f/22 | 50mm

ISO 100 | 1/160 | f/25 | 17mm

The next idea I had was to show how color display technologies have evolved over the years.  The following image combines macro shots of, in order from top to bottom, a CRT (tube) TV, CRT computer monitor, Nintendo DS, laptop LCD screen, plasma TV and a AMOLED screen from a smart phone.  The images are scaled the same, so the relatives sizes between each type is accurate; notice how much bigger the elements are in a standard CRT (tube) TV at the top and the smart phone screen at the bottom.  It's always amazed me how screens can trick the mind into seeing the entire color gamut from just red, green and blue elements.  I blurred the transitions between sections using the lens blurring feature and gradient masks in Photoshop.

Each shot had different settings

The last idea I had was to play around with droplets of different combinations of liquids.  I have to say, I got ideas of what liquids to use from Mike and my wife Stacey.

ISO 100 | 1/250 | f/16 | 100mm

ISO 100 | 1/250 | f/16 | 100mm

Well, I guess it's fitting that the newbie posts first! As some of you may know, I recently purchased my first "real" camera, a Canon 20D, from a guy in Lincoln on craigslist. It was a good deal (ask Mike), but I am still using a borrowed lens (EF-S 18-55mm) and shooting on automatic. I'm thankful for the helpful suggestions and hints from the rest of the guys, and I'm very excited to hear your thoughts on these submissions.

When Mike suggested "color" as the theme, I instantly thought of crayons. I had this still-life in my head, but wasn't able to get a new box of crayons in time. Then, the kids came home today and had to get 100 of any candy to celebrate the 1o0th day of school tomorrow, and my lovely wife bought a bag of M&M's. Perfect! Color! So I set up a black background and started shooting. I used some overhead light and a side light (as suggested my Mike), and started shooting. I took them from several different angles, including some that you would not normally look from.

I also took a series of "stop-motion" photos that I will post on my facebook page as a video somehow, but for now, please enjoy these colorful photos...

At first, I just threw all the M&M's out on the table and took some pictures with all the colors, and then I thought it would be more interesting with a single red one.

I think I like the 4th and 5th ones the best though. Something about the side angle on the 4th, and something about how they all fill up the frame in the 5th one.

Welcome to The Photo Co-op blog page. This is a community based bog that is intended to challenge the member’s photographic creativity. This is how it is will work, on every 5^th of the month a theme will be assigned by one of the members. This will rotate every month so everyone gets to choose a theme. The theme should be something that fosters creativity and imagination. Everyone can work on this theme throughout the month. By the 1^st of the next month the members will post up to 5 pictures on the blog of the work they have done on the theme. They can also include a text explanation or thought process behind what they have done. Everyone is encouraged to give constructive feedback on the image posted at the end of the month.

Keep in mind that the purpose of The Photo Co-op is not for competition but rather to challenge you to be creative. The showing of the work at the end of the month is meant to open up your minds on how others view things and to get your creative juices flowing. It has always been my belief that the best way to get better in your craft is to explore what others in the same field or doing.

Here are a few rules of the blog,

1. Keep it tasteful.
2. Though nude photography is a legitimate art form we want to keep the site family oriented. So please no nude photography.
3. Do not use old images. All images posted have to be images TAKEN between the 5^th and the end of the month the theme was posted.
4. All images posted or the exclusive property of the photographer and can not be copied or reproduced without the consent of that photographer.
5. If you plan on participating please let me know jmcameron9721@gmail.com . I want to keep a log of all participant in order to assign themes and to send emails updating everyone on experiment.
6. You should only critiques others work if you have submitted work for that current month yourself.

The theme for this month is Bright Colors (Colour for us Brits). I can’t wait to see everyone’s images on the 1^st of February. Let the Co-op begin!!!

Thank you,

Mike Cameron

jmcameron9721@gmail.com

www.mikecameronphotography.blogspot.com/

www.mikecameronphotography.com