Project 67; Rain

Inspired by gothic novels and Joe Mc Nally's book the hot shoe diaries:

Although I got the original idea from his book my end result is very different. Took a lot of fiddling and setting up. One direct flash outside the window on manual with a radio trigger. Positioned about 20 feet away.. I sprayed the glass with water at intervals. I tried a hose but the water came in sheets not drops on the glass.

I could not get the water droplets to show on the glass at all. I wanted the shadow on the models face and I got that but in a lot of the shots it looks like weird streaks and lines on her face. Also I had trouble with the reflections in the glass. My reflection turned up in a few shots and also a lot of the stuff in the room behind. Including a large silver reflector.

Project 66; Juxta Position

I got the inspiration for this from a photo that I came across in the letters section of last months black and white magazine. The idea reoccurred after a morning playing with my camera and two strobes to set up for the next project.

It took a little time to get the set up. In order to throw a good shadow the light source need to be further away from the object you are trying to shoot. I had to adjust the strobe output to get the light right and then move the fork around to get a nice shadow. The light is positioned to camera right about a meter away and I have raised the fork and plate a little off the table. I used a plain white background to catch the shadow with.

This is one of my later attempts after all of the fiddling with the light levels, zoom and distance were complete. As you can see there is a white line which cuts right through the shadow of the fork. Its caused by light bouncing off the surface of the plate. I solved this by raising the plate a little higher.

Here is my final attempt. It could be a cover for a food magazine or book.

I really enjoyed this and I intend to try out some more examples.