Paul's Photoblog
My 2012 Project 52
The Firepit
A far less planned and much more off-the-cuff shot this one. We had one of the hottest days so far this year during the week. After the sun sets and it starts to get cooler we like to light a fire in the garden and finish off the day with a drink or two.
Handholding an image stabilised 24-105mm lens at 70mm allowed me to keep the logs sharp at a slow shutter speed of 1/25s. At the same time, this allowed an impression of the dancing movement of the flames. The camera was set to daylight white balance which resulted in the flames being recorded with rich oranges and reds without needing any saturation in post production.
I can’t help but wonder at the shape of the flames though…
Canon 5D MarkII, 70mm, 1/25s @ f/5.6, ISO 400
Carnations
I originally got these flowers for a different idea which simply didn’t work out as I had planned. Not wanting to let them go to waste I decided to stick with them, try something different and see what I got.
The original shot of the flowers was taken with them against a white background. To this I then added the stone texture in photoshop. The texture is a shot of a bathroom tile and the flowers have been masked to allow them to be seen as separate from the texture itself.
Canon 5D MarkII, 100mm, 1/16 @ f/11, ISO 125
Strawberries
A rummage in the fridge this week yielded some fresh delicious looking strawberries.
This is a quick and simple shot. Taken directly overhead (standing on chair) and lit by an off-camera flash to the left. All that was really needed was to be careful not to blow the white plate that the strawberries are on. As the shot was originally in RAW a slight touch of saturation was needed to bring back the red colour as RAW files are typically a bit flat and lacking in colour.
Now, where’s the cream? 
Canon 5D Mark II, 105mm (with 12mm ext. tube), 1/60 @ f11, ISO 125
Bog Oak
As an engagement present, my Mother-In-Law got us a piece of ancient Irish bog oak from the area in Mayo where my wife is from. These pieces of wood are naturally preserved for thousands of years in the bogs of Ireland, then worked on by local artists.
This is just a detail from the piece that we have. In actuality it is a black colour, but a slight over exposure in camera to capture the texture in the shadow area along with a deliberate split-toning in lightroom have helped to bring out the texture and give it a slightly bronzed look.
I really do like this piece and looking at it I often wonder and try to imagine what life was like all those thousands of years ago in Ireland.
Canon 5D Mark II, 105mm, 2s @ f/11, ISO 100
Beach Pebble
One of the things I like about visiting my Mother-In-Law in the west of Mayo is the number of nearby beaches. The area itself is quite remote and a walk along any of the beaches is refreshing, especially when it’s windy!
Walking with the dog during a recent visit I picked up a number of small stones, about half the size of a tennis ball with the idea of using them in a still life.
This is one of these stones sitting on a red platter and some beads of the type my wife used to use in the bottom of bowls adorned with floating candles. The initial shots were taken with an ordinary room uplighter (hence the 2 second exposure) but the overall image was flat. A touch of off-camera flash to the side during the exposure provided some much needed contrast and highlights to liven up the image.
I’ve yet to get a good shot of the actual beaches themselves, but until I do I’ll settle for the details from them.
Canon 5D MkII, 40mm (with 12mm ext. tube), 2s @ f/8, ISO 200
