NikonGear'23
Images => Life, the Universe & Everything Else => Topic started by: Bjørn Rørslett on June 26, 2015, 00:02:05
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[ Posted 10 October 2011 - 10:56 Edited and reposted by agreement ]
Today I got the first results back from my remote deep space probe. IR of course, that's the better approach on space trips. Need remote control as I'm prone to getting space sick. The advantage with the remote is that you get a glimpse of the space craft itself blasting into the starry heavens.
Sunrise at the Dark side of the Moon (Astral Domain)
(http://www.fotozones.com/live/uploads/monthly_10_2011/post-15-0-42138100-1318244190.jpg)
This might have been Jupiter, however. The camera didn't have a GPS feature. Darned.
Ingredients to arrive at this photo were as follows;
Panasonic GH-2 [modified], Rodenstock TV-Heligon 50 mm f/0.75, morning coffee at the breakfast table
Can also be perceived as a way to get over the disappointment by waking up to yet another rainy day. So I finalised the M39 alternate mount on one of my 50 mm X-ray lenses to fit the M39-m4/3 adapter for my Panasonics, imbued myself with strong Swedish coffee, and let imagination roam. Pink Floyd blasting from the speakers put me on the appropriate track. Shot with the GH-2 in semi-IR mode to capture alienated colours.
Including the actual shoot and a little PS work later*, about 5 minutes worth of work. The coffee hadn't time to cool down.
(hint: reflections captured with an f/0.75 lens really are out-of-this-world, so you're already flying when you use it).
* to produce the stars, the remaining elements already done in-camera
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Obvioiusly I need to practice more on shooting the Universe. Some of the stars aren't entirely sharp. Next trip hopefully will see improvements.
For now, back to the strongest Swedish coffee available. Morning has truly broken. My head aches.
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Wow. Looks more like a rendering than a photo. Very fine art work.
PS: Looks like some Ergot derivative might have been in the Coffee?
PPS: Now I get it: The dark side of the moon is a coffee mug from above and the "stars" are some bread crumbs left on the table :-)
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Not even in the same solar system, Frank. But kudos for giving this a try anyway.
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One has to take into account that a lens such as the 50 mm f/0.75 is utterly alien in all its behaviour. The plane of focus is so extremely narrow that virtually everything dissolves into bokeh. The three-D dimension warps completely and all sense of reality is lost. All this makes the lens a tremendously powerful tool, yet well-nigh impossible to gain strict control over. Thus you simply have to let any previous perceptions float away and enjoy what the finder shows you. Just a slight movement of the lens relative to the subject alters the image entirely.
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After your last throw in I suggest that camera stands in front of an old mirror and the lens is taking a "selfie". The stars are "speckles" on the worn down mirror, the huge lights are reflection from light sources?
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No mirror. No specks. But indeed light sources and reflections.
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I'm not even gonna try to guess what the moon is made of, (cheese I suspect). It is morning here now and I wake to this out-of-this-world image is quite refreshing and reinforces and reminds me of the good side of man. Much, much better than reading of the financial woes of Greece. Colombian Supremo this morning, invigorating after being semi-conscious over the course of a night. Coffee is good.
(I wish I had the skills and vision to create such art.)
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Gary: I just work trough the "Encyclica Laudate Si" obviously the best text about global responsibility and biodiversty I have yet read or written ... should cheer you up... good side of man wise
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Gary: I just work trough the "Encyclica Laudate Si" obviously the best text about global responsibility and biodiversty I have yet read or written ... should cheer you up... good side of man wise
Thanks for the tip ... I shall immerse myself into your suggestion. :)
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whatever that is - I like.
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very cool indeed ;D
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The scene that facilitated this picture has met my eyes for 20 years, yet no picture was created until now. To my defence mostly at a time of the day in which my perceptive faculty was at its minimum level even after a morning ritual of imbibing strong Swedish coffee and reading the newspaper.
This brings me to the underlying point here: we urgently need to look beyond what meets the eye and explore the visual potential inherent in the scene. We are in essence blind as long as we trust our eyes and deny our imagination to play around.
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You lie under a glass table and take a shot upwards. A vase stands on the glass table. Several light sources reflect in the surfaces.
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Kudos *** for imagination Frank, but no. I just put down my newspaper, lifted the camera that was in the pile in from of me, and shot this capture. Then, went over to the nearest work station and did the rest in a few minutes. Got back, continued reading, coffee still warm.
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Wow. Cannot see it yet.
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My point here, Frank, is you cannot provide a quick-and-dirty recipe to show how a given scene is to be transformed into a photograph. I have nothing against telling exactly how this photo came into existrence, but to what ends?
The eyes see the scene elements, the brain does the pre-visualisation, and the camera and its lens register your idea. How is that to be conveyed in a meaningful step-by-step cooking-book like description?
As I stated earlier, we are effectively *blind* unless we allow ourselves to forego any preset ideas for whatever potential a scene has, and start discovering it instead. There is nothing more boringly unproductive for a photographer than stating "there is nothing to shoot here" or "I have shot this scene before, now let's move on".
In fact, the oldest trick in the book when you feel uninspired and apparently cannot make a photo, is just sitting still at a given spot and don't think of anything at all. Sooner or later your mind begins to connect to the surroundings and ideas of images commence to appear out of the blue. Trust me, I have done that so many times myself to know this always works if you just allow yourself the required time, be it 5 minutes or 5 hours.
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I call it "going into the foto trance".
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I will post a tread with a photo that I pulled from a reality I was very
conscious about. It perfectly pictures my subconscious good wishes
here the camera was more of an extension of my feelings than an
instrument of realizing a previsualized content. I am sure it will be very controvercial.
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Yes, please do, Frank. We need photos that break out of the box.
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Done
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Inspiring and fascinating work Bjorn.
Anything's possible with Pink Floyd, though I think Dave Gilmours "Castellorizon" from his album "On An Island" suits this image perfectly :)
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These re-posted threads get even better than the original. :)
My take: Could the great Jupiter be the flare inside the lens since we are in IR, thus created "out of this world". What cause the flare could be a reflection in the surface of the coffee cup (which is out of focus), but there are many other possibilities (for instance light coming in from the side) and the stripes on Jupiter could be a pattern of something much closer to the lens than the focus point, but of what I am uncertain, possibly at the surface of the coffe cup. And it could be helped by movement and long exposure time (The edge of Jupiter would still be sharp as the lens does not move relative to the sensor). A hand is probably also involved in creating slots for the space ship etc. Could the space ship itself be a piece of the newspaper; it appears almost in focus? The origin of the stars has already been stated so there is no need for breadcrumbs.
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You got a major component right, Øivind. And no, it's not the coffee cup, as it is well outside the field of view.
Exposure time is very short. Remember this is an f/0.75 lens so lots of light get through.
The discussion is illuminating as it were. Like trying to predict a Black Swan.
Had I shown the entire scene, it still would not have made much sense in explaining how the picture originated, as you don't observe it through the 'alienator' (Rodenstock lens) and its twists on 'reality'.
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To illustrate my point (again), here are the Master Foo Fighters;
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/344/19322414801_2ea7480d58_h.jpg)
A clinical analysis would be I had captured two stems of the grass Deschampsia cespitosa rubbing against each other in the wind. Or maybe they really are the *Foo Fighters* ??
Exactly the same setup as in the 'Sunrise at the Dark side of the Moon', by the way.
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Yes, I gather I got the IR flare right, with the rest to be the creation of the moment. (The Jupiter stripes could have something to do with wood structure in the table, but at this point I am not sure I want to know the whole story, it would sort of take the magic out of it...)
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Ain't that the truth ...
As image makers we shouldn't have a pressure to "explain" everything, should we? Seeing is believing.
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...
Had I shown the entire scene, it still would not have made much sense in explaining how the picture originated, as you don't observe it through the 'alienator' (Rodenstock lens) and its twists on 'reality'.
But to the 'alienator', our perception of reality is twisted.
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In the present situation 'it' is the dominator and stamps the image according to its whims.
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In the present situation 'it' is the dominator and stamps the image according to its whims.
History is written by the conqueror and not the vanquished ...
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The vanquished can be very sneaky, however.
The Foo Fighters look like they are skiing.
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Skiing Ninjas Indeed :)
Great fun this thread, I might be inclined to bring my 50mm f/0.75 back to life - After all it survived the boiling with added soda... It needs a mount though so I will have to go though the boxes to see if I have any left - They seem to get adobted by Scavengers... ;)
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That's my lens, don't forget ;)
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To illustrate my point (again), here are the Master Foo Fighters;
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/344/19322414801_2ea7480d58_h.jpg)
A clinical analysis would be I had captured two stems of the grass Deschampsia cespitosa rubbing against each other in the wind. Or maybe they really are the *Foo Fighters* ??
Exactly the same setup as in the 'Sunrise at the Dark side of the Moon', by the way.
Bjørn, I love this image!
The simplicity or should I say minimalism is something I really like!!!
I remember JA making a similar shot at your place in Norway with a clothespin as the main subject. I simply and minimalistically adore such images!!!!
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Erik: Shoot me a PM before our next meet-up and I'll bring a few spare mounts with me :D
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Ain't that the truth ...
As image makers we shouldn't have a pressure to "explain" everything, should we? Seeing is believing.
I agree, seems these days we are expected to justify our images, that's my main bugbear with image critiques.
Just sometimes(often actually) folks need to appreciate the images we create are intentional and we don't necessarily need or expect modification of our ideas or product.
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To elaborate further, there is this wide-spread belief that if we only know all details of the EXIF, we'll understand the image itself :D