Week 14 is here – CIRCLE one. Last week I had a pleasure to meet again my friend from Death Valley – Jennifer Wu, she was presenting in St. Louis. And we had manage to have une petite rendez-vous in Missouri Botanical garden. To be very honest, we’ve spent more time chatting than shooting, but at least I kept my eyes opened for a circles around me. And this bamboo pipeline with a juicy background just got my attention! Happy Easter everyone! PS: And this is the bamboo circled pipeline in a more intimate detail…
Author Archive: Patrik Banas
project 52 | week 13 – pets/animals
My last 52 assignment covered several topics (windows, green, asymmetry), so let’s go right to the week 13, which is “pets/animals” focused. Well, being at the farm during last days gave me an opportunity to take a tons of animal pictures, so I’m just picking two of them. My favorites of the day ๐
sunny daily commute
Everyday commute can sometimes provide a breath-taking scenery. Driving highway 40 in St. Louis is my daily routine and sometimes I can go in almost autopilot mode, listening morning show @ Y98. But in last few days, thanks to a two specific conditions, I am rewarded with this stunning view (together with thousands of other commuters travelling from West County to downtown). Well, day is a bit brighter in the morning! Those two conditions creating this magic moment: a) time change from winter to summer time, when a typical commute time is during a sunrise – about 7.00-7.15am. b) only during a limited time of the year (twice a year, actually) you can have sun rising right in front of you, popping up from the highway at the hill where Hwy 40 meets Hwy 270. You must admit this definitely looks like riding towards a very sunny day! When I’ve noticed existing opportunity, I’ve spent next three mornings waking up at 5.40 to find a safe spot, where I was trying to capture with my camera what my eyes were seeing. Not an easy task! Let me tell you why… First of all, weather didn’t cooperate. One morning rain arrived 20 minutes prior the sunrise. Second morning a thick fog hide the sun above the horizon. However, both those mornings I’ve transferred into my advantage and took a very pleasing shots, as heavy clouds and thick fog gave sky a very dramatic look, full of lights, colors and rays. Raining clouds are approaching. Foggy dawn with a soft lights in the background – vs “standard” morning dawn. And thanks to a really thick fog I didn’t have a chance to catch sun rising from the horizon, but later on, when sun was reaching top of the fog – oh boy, that was a […]
project 52 | week 10 – symmetry / asymmetry
Last week assignment was symmetry or/and asymmetry. And this week is all about windows. So when I was actually searching for windows I’ve realized, that this is actually a great symmetry photo! So I’m filing this under “symmetry” and in case I won’t find a nice window in coming days, I’ll just extend this post for two weeks and I’ll be covered with windows too. Am I smart or lazy man looking for shortcuts? ๐
i, rock (or size sometimes really doesn’t matter)
It’s exactly a year I’ve spent a fantastic photo 5 days in Death Valley with Scott and Jen and other fellow photographers and I still have to get back to my pictures. I just love them! ๐My dear friend Andrea send me few months ago a nice snapshot of myself at the Racetrack and that reminded me favorite topic about the power of photography to mess with your size perceived vs the real size. One of the most common reaction when presenting “Moving rocks” from the Racetrack was: “Wow, those are HUGE rocks! How they can move?” Well. It’s actually just a perspective trick when you use very wide angle lens and you get very close to you subject. With an aperture at f/13 and combination of wide angle I’ve got a pretty sharp background, but heeeey, that rock in front is enormous, right? ๐ Well, not really. You can compare here. All moving rocks are actually pretty small ๐ It’s just again another evidence supporting our men’s position – size really doesn’t matter, right boys? ๐The best of my Death Valley is located here. (c) 2011 photo by andrea cannistraci
project 52 | week 9 – “two” (aka – background matters!)
Flowers are finally starting to peek out from the ground everywhere and after a mild, but still long winter I could not resist to photograph them too. Very first (and very small ones) appeared in front of my neighbor house, so I didn’t want to grab a bunch and I’ve “borrowed” just a one. To deliver on this week assignment – “two”, I’ve used our small mirror and played with it for a while to get TWO flowers to the frame. The most funniest part of this play was to try different backgrounds behind the flower. I would say those examples are pretty self-explanatory, how a simple and plain objects (like my kids seat or winter slide) can significantly change an overall look and feel of the picture. Just place them a few inches (half a meter) behind the subject and with a proper aperture you can get still very naturally looking, but much more contrast (or tone in tone harmonized) picture… See inside the post for more examples.PS: And with a bit of delay – those are for you, all women reading this post. Happy International Woman Day, aka MDลฝ ๐ โ This is the original w/o background โ and the right one is showing a simple set up with a simple orange subject.
project 52 | week 8 – reflections
This is 2 x 2 reflection post. Well, reflection itself is about having one subject presented twice (usually). And as both my kids gave me this week a great opportunity to photograph them in a reflection, I have no other choice just to share both great shots. First picture is Vi riding her orange bike around our private garden lake. OK, you got it probably now. No, it’s not a lake, just our small mirror, laying down at the ground. Following picture (in the article) can describe it better, “how I did it”.
do not touch
Have no fear! A lot of fun in the abandoned/forbidden chamber of old castle with flash off the camera. Simple set up, with Monika’s hand in front of the flash. It took a while to find a right angle, so fingers would create a proper scary effect. But we had to hurry up, as ground was freaking cold and some delicate parts of the model’s body didn’t really enjoy this part of the session…NIKON D90 with lens 24-70mm, 1/200 sec at f/18, ISO 200, slightly enhanced in ACR only.
project 52 | week 7 – love
I’ve got mail! It has arrived on 14th of February, well hidden in my laptop! And it was a beautiful Valentine’s card from my beloved one. So finding an object for this week’s theme wasn’t an issue. It was more a question of finding THE right angle… Thank you sweetheart! I love you too! All pics taken with 105mm macro Nikkor and “who cares” appertures between f/8 – f/11. And here’s the card in its full beauty. The simpler, the better, right? ๐
less is more…
As often it is a case – to show less is more. Would you agree? What is your imagination seeing?PS: And yes, I do have also a front shot too…