Project 365 - Week 6

As I hit day 30, I was taken aback.  Wow... I've been shooting constantly everyday(more like every night).  The same worry that clouded my head from the day I started this project is that I would run out of ideas.  So days kept coming and so I kept shooting.  I'm still surprised that I'm still undertaking this despite of the pitiful work schedule that I have and still having a few things up my sleeves.

February 28, 2013 - Japanese Doll revisited

Sometime ago probably a year or two, I shot this Japanese doll from my wife's godmother.  It's one of our props for our wedding reception I believe.  I'm more impressed on how I did this shot here since I got more light compared to back then.

Forgot to mention that I borrowed a light box from my sister.  It's used to diffuse light coming from outside the box, which gives it a more like an even controlled lighting look used for product photographs.

Equipped with the 500d, flash trigger mounted to remotely fire off the flash coming from the upper left hand side of the doll.  I'm not sure if I'm using the Sigma 70-300mm or the Canon 50mm.  The doll was placed in the lightbox with black background.  I tried using the white background but I don't think that the color suits the subject.

March 1, 2013 - Venetian Feel 

I find it tough to look for something to photograph for my project 365 often times, I look into things more closely.  For example, this image above is a top cover of my Versace Blue Jeans perfume.  Like the title I find this one has a Venetian design. But the perfume's can has an old american feel to it.

Shot with Canon 500d, Sigma 70-300mm macro, remotely trigger flash directly at the top of the subject.  Lightbox utilized in this shot as well. 

March 2, 2013 - GOT

My wife finally got all of her Game of Throne books back from people who borrowed them.  I remember that morning coming from work she told me to get a photo of all the books together.  

I think this was with ambient light coming from the window, or a subtle flash but I couldn't remember how I did this.  I'll probably check out Lightroom and review the catalog tied to this shot for reference.  

As you may have noticed, I've been shooting with 500d and 50mm more often. I find the fix focal length lens quite tough to handle at first, but it forces you to hunt for angles and move close or away from your subject since you don't have any zoom capabilities.

March 3, 2013 - Screwed Jeans

I've been noticing that a week doesn't go by without macro photo.  This maybe my macro shot for this week.  My trusty pair of jeans has a philips inspired screw head on it.  I know that this shot has all been done before, but I just want to try it out and say to myself that I can do it too! :D

As always, shot with 500d, reverse mounted with a regular EF 18-55mm f/3.5-5.2 IS, remote trigger for the flash that is positioned on the left same level as the camera,1-2 feet away from the jeans. Flash power output may be 1/8 or 1/16.

I think this shot is too dark for my taste, but I can't seem to pick another photo of the set I did. 

March 4, 2013 - Light in the dark

The evening of March 4, my office mates opt to go to Metro Walk to had a couple of bottles of booze.  Yes, we had a reason to celebrate since one of our co-workers got promoted.  Don't worry it wasn't me.  So as I walked around I noticed these set of lights propped up on each pillar of a Chinese restaurant.  So I shot it in a way that it leads the eye on the nearest lamp.

Shot with my trusty 500d, and 50mm f/1.8 lens.  Nothing fancy, just a walk around setup.  I told myself to shoot only with ambient light.  I'm quite pleased with this shot, even though some details aren't showing due to light constraints.

March 5, 2013 - Self portrait

Coming home from work, I had been drained as I couldn't think of any subjects to shoot.  Reluctantly I setup the equipment for a self portrait shoot.  The 500d, was setup to self timer(10 sec), mounted with 50mm lens, as it was the only lens that would give me sufficient clarity.  If you noticed I was holding the flash with my left hand.  This was only lit with flash to give it a dark and contrasty feel for portrait.

In post processing, I killed the colors(desaturate), raised the clarity to show how rough my face is, and darken spots that would distract the viewer.  I think this shot was done well, but can be improved.  How you ask?  The answer I don't know yet,  I'll have to gain more experience with lighting and portraiture.

March 6, 2013 - My frustration

As a kid, I was enchanted by the violin.  I told my dad that I want to learn to play the violin, but was discouraged and taught to learn the guitar instead.  I never got around to learn the beautiful stringed instrument.  Later that week my wife was able to borrow a violin from a friend.  We needed it as a prop for another post here. 

Of all the shots that I did for the album review, this one is my favorite shot.  I like the angle that I did here, as you can clearly see the bridge of the violin, this was shot with the 500d and 18-55mm lens.  The flash was positioned 3 feet away from the violin and  angled toward the subject to give us hard shadows. If you look closely you can see some flare coming off the flash and of course the tripod in the back.


As I come to a close for week 6, I find it easier to just shoot, but harder to write.  To date(March 25, 2013) I have already shot up to day 60, and my blog posts are still behind.  So please bear with me as I'm quite busy for the past few weeks, but I'll do my best to write as much as possible.

As always, keep on shooting, to learn some stuff that you won't be able to see in the internet.