Making Light Do

Hi,

I’m sorry it’s been so long since I had a chance to post.  I had to take time off to live in Interesting Times for a little while,  but now I’d like to share a few pictures with you.  I’ll have to make a special effort to be brief, and not ramble overmuch,  for I’m far behind schedule.

This week I’m posting images that are illuminated in somewhat non-standard ways.  Where I live, in a valley of the California Coastal range, across the bay from San Francisco, lightning, for the most part, is something happening somewhere else.  We hear distant thunder and rig for cave-dweller  running (unplugging unprotected processor chip-run devices)  in anticipation of a powerless interlude.   On the rare occasions that the storm is right on top of us, the lightning,  being typically cloud-to-cloud, is only seen as a bright blast.  This storm was different.  When I looked out the window to watch for a flash in the dark,  the crooked traces of the discharge flashed quite visibly.  I  ran for the camera.  Tyrone, my photography sidekick-cat, using  Severe Look With Misgivings #35,  clearly conveyed his opinion that the photographer was having some sort of intelligence malfunction and declined to budge from the recliner.

I set up the tripod and gear on the porch and, as it was quite dark between flashes, closed the camera down and used a locking shutter release cable to open the camera up and wait for the lightning to create its own exposure, which it eventually did,  actually giving me a brighter exposure than I had banked on having on film (below).

Another example of differently achieved lighting comes from a time when I was photographing custom jewelry for a goldsmith and the metaphysically-inspired art pieces created by the goldsmith he had working for him.  One afternoon,  as we were working and chatting about  minerals and gems, he brought out an asteriated (star) quartz, a beautiful clover-honey golden-hued,  slightly flattened ovoid.  It was a puzzle to shoot; the high polish and round shape reflected everything and made the bright curtain of inclusions forming the star hard to see.  So, I took the copy stand into a closet and tried the flash in there, which was better but the reflection/glare off the top of the stone still hid the star’s best effect.  In an effort to mimic the tiny spot of the sun, I built an enclosed, internally reflecting “snout” for the flash, which fed into a 1/8th inch diameter fiber optics bundle.  Measuring the output suggested that I’d need 18 or so flashes with the end of the cable positioned a few inches away, so I started there.   This being film photography, I then increased the light amount to obviate any reciprocity failure.   This last exposure

was taken with 22 flashes per exposure and shows the wispy curtain of the asteriation  going down through the stone nicely.

Here’s one you see happening every year during at least one holiday! I haven’t tried this a lot, but with this house close by I could take a night photo from my front walk .  The picture has been cropped down to get rid of the gross orange sodium vapor street lamp.  I managed to get only two cars going through this exposure, which only messed things up a little. If I can,  next time I’m getting a bit closer,  though my one and only lens is really too long for this kind of thing.  It’s tempting to think about a neutral density filter for the right half so that the large inflatable snowglobe on the left can have time to build into the exposure, as well.

The other holiday that sees, well, at least me, with a camera, is Hallowe’en, to record the years’  carved pumpkins,  if I’ve had time and oomph to do any. I’ve overdone these a bit, to  try to get better light through the skinless flesh areas of the pumpkins, but lost detail doing so, ah well.

Anyway, you get the idea.  It’s a lot of fun to find light to take directly, and a small exercise in remembering to alter the white balance for different sources, though it does seem a little like shooting sunrise/set, where it can be odd which setting works best.  This parlor organ light,  above the voicing stops,  is much more straightforward than the combination lamp and pumpkin ‘lampshades’, above.  Set the White Balance for incandescent light  and you’re off and running!

I hope you’ll try some alternate light source experiments.  Take reverent photos with candlelight, group camaraderie in campfire light, ruins or land features carved from the night with flashes, flashlights, or even lanterns.  Gentlebeings, start your imagine-engines!

Cheers,

pete