Humor

Dog Blog Post #465: Today's Daily Shoot assignment...

Monday: Make a photograph that expresses humor or laughter today.

... didn't leave me laughing. I was short on ideas and devoid of time until well after dinner.

The good news is that I was able to use a pair of butterfly clips to overlay two trifold cardboard backboards together to create a "wall" high enough for the boys to wear hats and sit.

The bad news is that the lighting is just not there, and it showed, causing me to opine in the flickr description:

How I wish for decent light.
Not to dim and not to bright.
To illuminate the boys
Eliminating photo noise.

Perhaps it was the blue background, and had I used white it would have been better. I don't know. The shots were blurry, with poor color, flatness, and just plain sucked (to use the technical term.)

As for windmills, here's Yet Another Shot, taken through the wind shield so the color isn't quite there, but it might do a better job of showing size...

And finally, we have...

23) Be on the cutting edge. Photograph a knife, scissors, shears or any other sharp tool.

A mat cutter I bought years ago for my aging kitty, but was too afraid of it to actually use it much.

© 2011 BZ Training - All Rights Reserved

Today...

Today was a run around with your friends...

Dog Blog Post #464: Sunday's Daily Shoot assignment: Make a photo that captures the day for you wherever you are.

... watch your friends run around...

... make your friends happy...

... stick your head in a bag...

... just hang out and "be"... 

... sort of day!

Clearly, there was no setup involved in any of those. I just grabbed the camera and hung out with the boys for a while, snapping pictures as the mood struck me.

Had I been more inspired, and Zachary been a bit more cooperative, I might have tried a "cleaning the house" shot (since that's what I actually did) with Zachary's paw on the dustpan while I swept up.

Alas, Zachary wasn't about to rest his paw on the dustpan, and precious puppies don't allow their paws to be placed anywhere, so there you (don't) have it.

(Sigh)

What did I used to call those sorts of moments?

Missing Skill of the Day?

Yeah.

It was one of those.

And on the Scavenge Challenge side, we have...

18) Wind power is in the news. Find and photograph a windmill or wind turbine of any size.

The new windmills they are putting in are positively massive, standing 450 feet from ground to highest tip. Pictures really don't do them justice, as there is very little around them to give a sense of scale.

11) Three of a kind! Find three nearly identical items together. NO ARRANGEMENTS!

13) Find a red item beginning with S. It should be obvious without reading the title.

© 2011 BZ Training - All Rights Reserved

Gamer Dog

Zachary clearly doesn't believe on-line gaming is just for puppies.

Dog Blog Post #463: This was not my first idea for...

Saturday: Make a photograph that illustrates an aspect of communication.

My first idea had me taking many shots out back of wagging tails - a simple and effective solution to the assignment (or so I thought.)

But then I had a better idea (perhaps.)

Which may or may be better than wagging tails, but it did prompt me to spot-wash my non-fleece white backdrop...

(Mystery stains. Don't know, don't want to know.)

... and then try it out draped over the $4.99 trifold cardboard backboard with ends tucked into the kitchen drawers behind it to keep it things from falling over.

(Remember the shot below? The boys are in exactly the same spot...



... with the camera just a few feet closer and a few feet lower.)

Which turned out to be a smashing success - at least for prone pictures, as the boys are too tall for the backboard when they sit, unless they slouch a little. This is the plus for my normal setup (using the ex-pen) as I can use butterfly clips to raise the backboard 4"-8" higher by clipping it to the pen.

And while the lighting is still poor (as evidenced by the ISO 1800 and its associated noise) with an additional lighting source (and a taller backboard) this might actually be the best location yet, as I can put some distance between the boys and the camera then zoom in to avoid distortion, and still have room for me to direct attention without being in the shot.

The pictures were taken with the camera on the tripod on a 5 second startup delay, 2 shots per push of the button, 2 seconds apart. I was kneeling in front of them, just off camera, showing off my cookie collection.

Neither dog seemed to even notice the headset.

On another front, Scavenge Challenge for September is over (and complete!) and here is the list for October. As usual, you can click on it to see it larger. What's the grid at the bottom for? I write the numbers (1-25) in the squares in pencil, and then erase them as I upload. I find this to be most helpful at picking out what's left when I start getting down to the last half-dozen shots or so.

And finally, a spare sunset shot...

The End. :)

© 2011 BZ Training - All Rights Reserved