Still Life

The model I had arranged to photograph this evening bailed on me, despite lots of communication and a confirmation this morning about the time and place we were to meet.  Lovely.  Go to Plan B.


So, I worked on my still life project for a few hours this evening.  The idea is to do a still life, but to use light painting as the light source.  I took forty-four pictures, with no exposure of less than thirty seconds and several of more than two minutes.  As usual, I was far too ambitious  with my initial set-up.  Too complex, with too many objects.  And of course I obstinately refused to budge from my concept.


Shot with a Nikon D700 on a tripod with a cable-release, using a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom lens.  ISO 200 and f/22.


First picture was a thirty second exposure.

Second exposure was ninety seconds, a blast of ambient light to start and then an LED flashlight.  

My feeling -- indeed my suspicion -- is that my class assignment still life is probably going to take somewhere in the neighborhood of four or five hours to pull off before I have an image that I am happy enough with to submit for a mark.


- Vince Hemingson