Day 2 of 365

Yesterday I knocked a few things off of my to do list but I spent some time making a 2010 list. It seems I am often so consumed with getting through the moment, hour, day that I forget about the bigger picture. My goal is to take some time to put quality thought into a list of the major accomplishments I want to work on in 2010..

I took my camera with me while I was out running around but the only really interesting shot didn't turn out the way I planned. Instead of using that I decided to do something else last night. One of my hobbies is creating kiln formed glass and I've never been able to get a good picture of my creations. I read an article last week about lighting glass objects from below to create an inner glow. The other thing they did was to use a black background. I know that many of the shots I admire have excellent lighting and that's a big failing for me. I have a friend who always talks about using the camera's CLS setting but in my shots it just ends up screaming this is a photo using flash. I've invested in a couple of speed lights and a ringflash system but my skill level hasn't increased with my monetary investment.

I decided to try and capture a casting I made that has different levels of pink, red and white in it. This piece is a perfect example of my procrastinating nature. I've keep it in my living room for almost 2 years trying to decide if I'm done with it. I intentionally let it with a rough texture which I really like. But I keep thinking about taking the front side to an optically clear finish and leaving the rest as is. I think it would make a nice contrast but on the other hand I like it as is. This in the kind of thinking that keeps all my projects in limbo.

I spent a couple hours last night setting this up and playing. The results don't reflect the amount of time invested but I learned a lot. This is the 1st time I've put my flashes on different channels and used the adjustments to control them independently. Shooting in a darkened room and using only my speedlights was another 1st for me. I'm happy with the colors and the amount of detail & texture I was able to capture. I used a piece of heavy black paper that wouldn't bend so I had to cut it for the base and back part. Even though I taped it I was still having some trouble with light coming up through the edges. The under lighting was still a little too much but it's close. Overall I'm happy with the effort and learned quite a bit about my flash system.

Today I'm going to buy a sheet of flexible black paper and try it again. I'm also going to buy some white fabric and try making my own light box based on instructions I found at the same site.

Yesterday after I posted I managed to visit all the 365 blogs mentioned on the Shutter Sisters Flickr site. Boy was I impressed with the level of effort going on. There were just so many great shots I ran out of words to describe them. I probably won't have time to check everyday but I will make it at least a couple time a week. It's exciting to be involved in an effort like this with so many dedicated people.

Now I need to go find the day 3 shot.