Fox Paw's Close to Home Project

[Fox Paw]

I thought I was getting too serious and too bound by habit, so I decided to take pictures in the backyard and around the house. I don't have the discipline for 52 weeks but I hope to keep it up for a while.

1

Birdbath.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f29/CornflakeAZ/Birdbath_MG_6406.jpg

2

Unidentified intruder.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f29/CornflakeAZ/Gazingball2.jpg

3

Still life with cowbell and dress sword. A cliche, I know. I think it needs more cowbell.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f29/CornflakeAZ/Cowbellandsword_MG_6815.jpg

[René]

Love the processing in #1

[Antarctican]

http://dnbforum.com/images/smilies/Cowbell.gif


Great start! My fave is the bell/sword (the lighting is so dramatic, and the curve of the blade 'slicing' diagonally through the shot is really pleasing to my eye.) Birdbath is really interesting too....almost looks like infrared.

[MissMia]

I'm glad you started a project! The shot of the birdbath is cool and I like the processing a lot.

[Fox Paw]

Thanks to you all. It's fun.

[Chiller]

Great lighting and processing. Any project is a project.:mrgreen: Glad to see you have one on the go too.

[kundalini]

The little gif that Anty laid on us was just a taste.......


but it was contagious, I gotta fever and the only one prescription is.....more cowbell (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mie9hhQTUM&feature=PlayList&p=DFF88C082CAC6375&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=21)

[PhotoJet]

Love that first shot! Looks VERY IR! :)

[Fox Paw]

Thanks for the comments. I'll supplement it soon.

And everything needs more cowbell. (We actually use this cowbell in my music group, but sparingly.)

[Fox Paw]

Some joyous spring photos.

1. Slinky entertainment

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f29/CornflakeAZ/Slinyentertainmentsidelit.jpg

2. Sunrise over resting slinky

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f29/CornflakeAZ/Sunriseoverslinkyatrest.jpg

[invisible]

Ah, the second shot of the slinky is very interesting!

[PhotoJet]

I'm with Federico! Very interesting! :)

[Chiller]

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

The slinky shots rock. Now ya got me singing a song. :biglaugh:

[Fox Paw]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm having many slinky inspirations. I'll have to make sure the project doesn't get derailed into The Slinky Chronicles.

[Fox Paw]

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f29/CornflakeAZ/Box5.jpg

Part of the idea for this project was to get me to find new ways of looking at and photographing things that are overly familiar. Like the backyard and one of our dogs.

[MissMia]

Holy Cow! How cool is that?! I love it.

[invisible]

^^^ Coolissimo! The dog makes it happen!

[Fox Paw]

Thanks! I had to wait a while for Jenny to get in the right place.

[Fox Paw]

I decided it was too symmetrical.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f29/CornflakeAZ/Box5cropped.jpg

[invisible]

This is a nice edit too, but I prefer the original... The dog breaks the symmetry for me.

[Chris of Arabia]

I decided it was too symmetrical.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f29/CornflakeAZ/Box5cropped.jpg


I have decided we need much more by way of explanation as to how to make one of these - I need to do a desert one.

[sleepingdragon]

Really cool shot. I like the first one best.

[Fox Paw]

Invisible, Chris, sleepingdragon, thanks.

"I have decided we need much more by way of explanation as to how to make one of these - I need to do a desert one."

I'm flattered to be asked. It's a sort of photographic origami.

I have Paint Shop Pro; there's probably an easier way in Photoshop. You take what amounts to a three-shot horizontal panorama but with no overlap. In this case I consciously decided not to use the same exposure for all three shots so as to differentiate them. Then you take a shot of what's above the center shot and one of what's below. You add the various shots as layers on a new image and arrange them like this:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f29/CornflakeAZ/OrigamiImage6.jpg

Using the pick tool, you then distort the outside edges of the outside layers into a box. It can be tedious to line everything up but it's not difficult.

If you do one, I'd love to see it. I'm sure someone else must have done this, but I haven't seen it. The idea first occurred to me when I figured out how to distort things with the pick tool.

[doenoe]

thats just groovy

[kundalini]

Whoa. Cool work on the backyard shot.

[Fox Paw]

doenoe and kundalini, thanks for commenting. Glad you like it.

[Fox Paw]

1. Tortoise emerging from burrow. This desert tortoise, Toby, wandered into our yard as a baby, seventeen years ago. It's illegal to release them into the wild, so he's been here ever since. His shell is about eight inches by ten inches.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f29/CornflakeAZ/TobyHDRwarmed_MG_7279_7_8.jpg

2. Exploding birdbath. I was experimenting with zooming out while the shot was being exposed. Interesting, but it's wearing to look at.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f29/CornflakeAZ/Explodingbirdbath2nd.jpg

3. Wagon. I it see on my morning walk.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f29/CornflakeAZ/Wagon2nd_MG_7154.jpg

4. Self-portrait. I redid this.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f29/CornflakeAZ/Selfportrait_MG_6838.jpg

Thanks for looking.

[johngpt]

Great project F_P.