2016 PhotoChallenge Week 41: B&W Wealth

Over the past 2 years now, I've been taking part in the PhotoChallenge.org weekly photo challenges.  The goal of these challenges is to get people taking pictures every week, gain inspiration, and to try new techniques.  I've done pretty well keeping up (except those portrait challenges) and have tried a lot of new things.  In these blog posts I'm going to post my response to this week's challenge, as well as some of my older pictures that fit the criteria... Oh, and feel free to take part, this is a free and open challenge for all budding photographers!

Week 42: B&W Wealth

Last week we were tasked with getting a picture that personifies "Wealth" in black and white.  It was interesting to see people's takes on this one.  Lots of fancy cars and houses, but some more intangible ones like love and natural resources as well.  I went pretty literal on this one and broke out my old childhood coin collection to set up for a macro shot or two.  I used coins from 1800's to the 1980's since coinage hasn't changed a whole lot over that time, other than the actual worth of the coins themselves.

2016 PhotoChallenge Week 24: National, State, and Local Flowers

At the end of last year I discovered Photochallenge.org.  This is a small group of photographers who set forth a weekly challenge to other professional and amateur photographers.  What I was drawn to with this weekly assignment is that is pushes you to try new techniques and get out and take pictures on a weekly basis.  I'm taking part again this year and will also do a quick blog post about each of them.  The rules of the challenge do require that these are new pictures, not from your back catalog.  With my busy work schedule, I may not be able to get out each week and do this, so I will likely add a few of my older photos on the blog--taking the opportunity to look at the plethora of pictures I've taken and actually do some processing and weeding.

2016 PhotoChallenge Week 24: National, State, and Local Flowers

This past week's challenge was to take pictures of (ideally) your state's flower.  In 1902 Minnesota's State Flower was named the pink and white lady slipper (or showy lady slipper).  It is a rare orchid that only grows wild, and is protected in our state.  The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum has few on the grounds, and the week before this challenge one was illegally picked--making the newspapers locally.  We take our flowers seriously!  Unfortunately the flowering period for these is very short and I was unable to get out there in time for the post.

Wait!!!  Update Time!  I managed to get out to the Arboretum today and discovered a few remaining blooms of the the Showy Lady Slipper hiding their odd shaped faces in the shade by the edge of a swamp.  

This week I've also been continuing to go through my old photos and organizing them within Lightroom and just happened across a shot of a tiny wild orange orchid that I assume is some kind of Lady Slipper that I discovered at the Arboretum last spring/early summer.  

PhotoChallenge Week 45: Macro Camera

This week's PhotoChallenge.org mission is to take a macro shot of a camera.  This is challenge is very meta.  The only old camera we had at home was a Cybershot pink-red camera that just wasn't very interesting to me.  I looked up in the library at home and realized I might have a slightly cheaty option instead.  My cheat is a stereoscope--the precursor to the ViewMaster that many of us grew up using as a toy.  There are photo pairs on firm card stock that the stereoscope helps the eyes to view as a three dimensional image.  This type was invented by Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1861, but I don't know exactly when my particular piece was crafted.  My mother-in-law gave this too us, along with several of the photo cards for it, and as an amateur photographer I find this amazing!  Back in the 1800's or even early 1900's people could see "lifelike" images from all over the world in their own homes.

This is a macro shot of the stamp in the metal on top of the viewer.

I did take this with my macro lens, though the shot isn't strictly macro at this point.  I wanted people to be able to see the stereoscope a bit more.  Just a little side light from my window in the afternoon.

Photochallenge! Macro Fasteners

Just a quick one this Monday.  The Photochallenge.org assignment for Week 41 was to take a macro shot of some type of fastener.  I struggled with time on this one and got mine in on Sunday.  I had planned on setting up some lighting in the basement and shooting some of my wife's fancy jewelry clasps...but that didn't happen.  Instead I used this picture on my iPhone of a telephone pole in Northeast Minneapolis.

While not technically a macro shot (since I didn't use a macro lens) it looks pretty good.  In this modern day of social media, (Blogger anyone?) we tend to forget that at one time social media was by telephone pole!

Here's another I took from a second pole in the neighborhood...

This one makes me wonder who put this little cat's cradle or dreamcatcher up on this post.  Was it an urban Blair Witch?  A friendly Wiccan?  Is this a protective charm for the neighborhood?  Is it the faded symbol of a secret society?

Photo Challenge: Macro Plastic

This week's PhotoChallenge.org challenge is to take macro (close up) pictures of something made of plastic.  The idea is to take something common-place that we would normally not notice and see what it looks like blown up and close.

I took a little walk-through of my home and discovered that I have many plastic toys, trinkets, etc. sitting around on my copious shelves.  So I gathered a handful of these pocket-sized models and got to work taking some portraits!

First up was my model of Brandon Lee as The Crow.  This was one of my favorite movies (and graphic novels as well) during my college years and I've been hanging onto this little trinket since then.   I did my best to get his face in some shadow during the shoot.  I changed the tint to a blue cast to match that of the movie, then added a vignette to focus more on the face.  I think it turned out pretty good considering it this guy's face is about a half-inch in size.

Next up is a plastic miniature of a mummy.  I painted this little inch-tall fellow when I was about 15 years old.  Mostly these old miniatures were for playing Warhammer tabletop battles, and they now sit in boxes or in a small display case on my study wall.  I miss the days when I had time to do this intricate work and then spend 8 hours with friends trying to get through a whole game...

Here's a size reference picture...

Next I pulled out my old dice bag from decades of playing Dungeons & Dragons and many more role-playing games.  I don't get much use for these anymore, but can't get rid of them.  This was a good excuse to put them on display again!  These little bits of plastic and I have been through many a vicious battle with dragons, werewolves, and more…

And last but not least was to showcase the new meeples I ordered for the amazing board game Lords Of Waterdeep.  The game was designed in part by my old schoolmate Peter Lee and is one of the most fun games I've played in years.  You should buy it now.  In an attempt to be a little more like the European board games, the player's hirelings (wizards, clerics, rogues, fighters) are represented by different colored wooden tokens--usually called "meeples" by gamers.  Nothing says "fighter" like an orange block!  My wife refuses to call them by name and instead calls them carrots.  So I purchased a pack of tiny meeples shaped like the characters!