Shot of the Week June 2020 - Iggy Tavares

[Iggy]

S23: Getting Ready for Dancing

The Challenge: Dancing, Extra Credit: Stroboscopic Photography

During the week I was considering slow mo flowers dancing in the wind.
However, not much wind today inside our sheltered garden.
Another consideration was hover flies dancing to hold territory.
All my efforts though with manual focus resulted in just one image in focus.
The afternoon brought a good shower of much needed rain to the lawn.
But this was a wash out for photography in the garden.

Surely I was not going to put on my dancing shoes and twirl around.
Remote control image capture would have been near impossible.
Dancing shoes did however trigger an idea.
So I went hunting and came back with some gold coloured shoes.
A gold clutch bag and a bottle of golden elixir were added to the haul.
Tried various compositions and finally came up with one that I liked.
Here is “Getting Ready for Dancing”

[Iggy]

By the way, image was not shot with some newly acquired black velvet.
Rather, an old, single, dark blue velvet sofa provided the backdrop.

[Iggy]

S24 Time in hand

Challenge: Hands, Extra Credit: Make a Statement

As usual I have left things until the weekend to fulfill the Challenge.
Lots of ideas churning around.
The starting point was a hand casting a shadow of an antelope.
Then there was a hand giving the powerful signal of Stop!
What about the black power fist? Or finger pointing direction? Boring!!

Suddenly realised that my hand was going to be the star of the show.
OK. No problem. Will use a tripod.
Today had an idea to use objects in the hand to add interest.
What about a nice colourful necklace?
My wrist watch however proved a better choice.

“Time in Hand” clinched the deal.
I was also making a statement: Time is not so much of an enemy now!

[Iggy]

S25 Wild Flower in Woodland Chorus

Challenge: Make a Background. Extra Credit: Custom Bokeh Shapes

This week’s challenge stipulated paying attention not only to the subject but particularly to the background.

One backdrop option was our dining room woodland chorus wallpaper.
With lens wide open, robin and butterflies were nicely out of focus.
Single, small, mauve wild flower in translucent vase did grab some attention.

However, I was keen to showcase our buddleia flowers in the garden.
Weeds they might be, but they do attract a plethora of insect life.
However, buddleia is too big for a delicate woodland chorus backdrop.

Decided to use the big sky as the backdrop for the buddleia on its bush.
Weather was kind with sunshine and wind offering a selection of backdrops.
Grey clouds were followed by delicate cumulus like clouds over blue sky.
Took a dozen images or more to try and capture what was in my minds eye.

That left me time to mow the lawn followed by watching more football!

Only managed to work up the Mauve Wild Flower in Woodland Chorus!
Will hope to work up Buddleia in Sky tomorrow.

[Iggy]

Big sky as the backdrop for the buddleia flowers on location on their bush did not satisfy my imagination.
Hence stuck with Wild Flower in Woodland Chorus that reached my expectation.

With the sun out, more butterflies are now turning up to enjoy the nectar of the buddleia flowers!

[Iggy]

S26 Flower Cage in Flashlight

Challenge: Flashlight! Extra Credit: Light Painting

This week's challenge was that the light source had to involve a flashlight.

I found this to be a rather fascinating, thought-provoking challenge.
An effective outcome meant having to work in a darkened room.
I found a small LED flashlight on Saturday evening and adjourned to the study.
The plan was to play around with torch and camera and shoot the next day.

Looking around, I checked all the photographic paraphernalia on the shelves.
A 3-D caged flower artifact looked particularly interesting under flashlight.
Enjoyed experimentation of spacing between flashlight, camera, object and backdrop.
Obtained the large, atmospheric, live shadow to complement the flower cage.

That meant Sunday was free to visit family!