flash

Day 248

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Kylo Ren

Kylo Ren

The annual Offenbach Strassenfest is accompanied by the German Garrison of the 501st Legion of Star Wars troopers. All the costumes were really impressive and correct down to the finest detail. Due to my son being petrified of the sand people (that noise they make still scares me too) and having to prepare for his birthday party, I couldn't spend as long as I'd hoped to take photos of all the troopers. Hopefully, I can get more next time!

Day 243

in

the unstoppable hands of time

the unstoppable hands of time

I got a watch for my birthday present and because my daily update photos have been conspicuously absent I wanted to commemorate it with a photo before it gets any dings or scratches. I had forgotten how complicated it is to get photos of shiny things without too many bad reflections!

Day 219

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 'roid rage!

 'roid rage!

I tried developing a Polaroid negative or two recently. It's a simple process really but involves cleaning it with bleach. Actually, you clean only one side of the negative film with bleach. If bleach gets anywhere near the side with the actual image on, you get to watch it fizzle into oblivion as you cry and hurl curses and abuse at the harsh world of analogue photography. I like the gnarly look of this picture now and still have the original photo. The solarised green at the bottom of the bottle is actually how the Polaroid came out and not due to my clumsy dark room skills.

close up detail

close up detail

In case you thought Polaroids were just for kids and hipsters, here is a bit of closer detail of the above image. The negative is a lot bigger than a 35mm photo or digital sensor at roughly 9 x 12cm. It's possible to see the beads of condensation on the glass and the feathers that are part of the DHC logo clearly. I read about some photographers using Polaroid negatives for magazine and poster prints and can believe it!

Day 154

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Modern still life

Modern still life

I have to say a light meter is something that most photographers think they don't need and maybe they don't given the technology found in modern cameras. However, what most don't realise is there is a massive difference between reflected light which your camera sees and the incident light which is the light falling on your subject. For some basic daylit scenes my camera was over a stop out compared to my meter. This is because a camera is easily tricked by light or dark subjects. When using flash, even in this modern digital age, a good flash meter is indispensable.