Who knows where the time goes?

click photo to enlarge
I turned off comments in January and February because I was rather busier than usual and I found that I couldn't devote as much time to the blog as I usually do. Then, at the beginning of March, feeling that things were easing off a little, I turned them back on. That proved to be the wrong thing to do! Things are busier than they were earlier in the year! In fact, the other evening when I glanced at the clock and noticed that a couple of hours had passed in what seemed like a few minutes, I found myself reciting the title of the Sandy Denny song, one that I recall her singing on the Fairport Convention album, "Unhalfbricking", of 1969. "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" will be known by many through Judy Collins' version. I like them both, but of the two singers' voices Sandy Denny's is the one I prefer: her version of "She Moves Through The Fair" (on the album "What We Did On Our Holidays") is one of my favourite songs by a female vocalist.

All of which has little to do with today's photograph. It's an exercise in applying natural lighting and burning that I did a while ago. I'm not a fan of flash, though I do use it occasionally when I try to make it mimic natural light. Here I wanted "Caravaggioesque" lighting i.e very directional light with deep shadows. To achieve it I arranged some curtains to so that a shaft of light from the window fell adjacent to darker areas in a room What better to use as the subject in this exercise in trying to achieve the lighting that one of the Renaissance's greatest painters made his signature effect than the subject used by countless other painters down the centuries - a simple bowl of fruit. In fact - and here I'm consciously trying to establish a link with the title of today's post - a timeless subject. I post it with an apology. This photograph was one of my rejects. I've run out of fresh photographs due to having no time to pursue them. So, if my posting rate declines further you'll know the reason why.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 100mm macro
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/15 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On 

No cost photographic lighting

click photo to enlarge
I sometimes think I'm a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to lighting. I've looked at photographic lights, reflectors, backgrounds, desktop studios and the like, and invariably my response has been, "I'm not paying that!" It may be that the items I reject are reasonably priced for what they are, though I think that's frequently not the case. However, it isn't the absolute price that I'm considering when I decide to reject the manufacturers' offerings, and the calculation that goes on in my mind has three components. Firstly the kind of use to which I'm likely to put fixed lighting and backdrops, secondly the price being asked, and thirdly the output that I'm already achieving with my no-cost DIY lighting. When I factor those together I always end up carrying on with what I've already got.

Most of my lit photography is still life shots, close-ups and macros. Often there is a semi-abstract angle to the latter two approaches. If I were doing "product" style photography, portraits, etc then my thinking might be different. But, shooting what I do, I'm fairly happy with natural light, a single flashgun, sheets of black and white vinyl for backdrops and reflectors, and for fixed lighting, ordinary domestic light bulbs.

Today's photograph is an example of my minimalist approach to the fixed-light photography of a semi-abstract subject. It shows a macro view into an empty, green glass, apple juice bottle. The "studio" set up was to place it on a sheet of white A4 paper on my desk. This was pulled out of one of the two printers that sit there. Then I adjusted my anglepoise light so that it illuminated the side of the bottle. Finally, I hand-held the LX3, set to macro, at the mouth of the bottle and composed a few shots into the emptiness. It's not the greatest photograph I've ever taken, but it is the one I wanted, having shallow depth of field but with the writing at the bottom sharp, concentric circles with the focal point off centre, areas of dark and light, and a light source that is obviously to one side.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f2
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On