And here we go with another assignment! This week is is all about the lines. I was pretty sure to meet some nice line elements. And voilá – I didn’t have to wait too long. It came actually at the nice and quite unexpected place, when we went last Sunday with kids to Magic house. (if you are not familiar with St. Louis Magic House – it’s THE coolest place to go with kids, where I’m playing with them all the time!).  And there, next to giant Lego blocks and tiny mouse family house, right after a mirror maze was the board, where my kids played for an about 15 minutes and myself for another 30 minutes (but with the camera only;) Going out to “playground” only we didn’t fetch any serious camera equipment, but thankfully our little pocket size Leica was with us. That’s why all shots have been taken (again) with “point and shoot”, in RAW, handheld only. Mostly in full manual mode, especially those with motion. So much fun!!! 😉 PS: At the end of the post I’ve enclosed a picture how this playing board really looks like, so you can get a perspective of the size and what the heck those colorful spots really are.   Yup, that’s it. Colorful hard plastic rolls, which you can take as much as you want and stick them inside a holes of  metal plate. Behind metal plate is a strong light, which illuminates plastic rolls and make them glow! Easy and so cool, right?

I can’t thank enough Monika for involving me into a project 52! I’ve kicked myself out twice this week – just to go shooting for fun and pleasure. I’ve tried live models – Chocco and Willis and I got quite decent result, but I still had one more good “opposite” idea, so Friday afternoon I’ve grabbed my son’s toys and went few blocks away, where our city is reconstructing Baxter road. And I’ve just played. HDR, single shots, with flash, without flash… Coool! Just a time for myself 😉 And this is my the most favorite one… Few more are inside the article. BTW – Two neighbors stopped by questioning me, if I’m from union (I was in orange hoody 😉 or what the heck I’m doing in the construction area on Friday afternoon with tripod! 😉 Don’t you love being photographers? This one is not HDR in a typical HDR meaning. It’s a composite of three shots. One layer of very underexposed one, to get details of upcoming storm sky. Normally exposed bulldozer in the middle and the third one is an additional picture, with a small toy on a boulder lighted by flash with orange gel. A bit too artificial, but hey, what the heck… I said I was just playing 😉 Pin It

I should probably rename this post to “I will never become a pro pet photographer!” 😉Silly me! I’ve asked my two colleagues in our pet friendly office (thanks again Sarah and David!) if I can photograph their lovely dogs Willis (bigger one) and Chocco (smaller one) for my Opposite theme. It shouldn’t take more than half an hour… Ha! You bet!!! At the beginning, I’ve started with fixed 85mm lens and tried to give instructions to the owners, how I envision to get dogs posed! Ha ha! I quickly replaced lens for 24-70 zoom trying to get any snapshots… And after an hour spent with patient owners and their pets, which din’t care about taking nice pictures, neither my 52 photo project, I was glad to take at least few panning shots towards the end… But hey, this one worth the effort, huh? 😉 Well, mission accomplished. They are opposites, right? 😉 Thanks again Sarah and David. And of course Willis and Chocco! Pin It

Ok, first weekly assignment on time! This week theme are “letters”. And here are mines. Actually still within my “being in love” theme of our anniversary week 😉This romantic word is made same way as my favorite “light through” technique, but doesn’t look so shiny as some other flowers – rose leaves are quite thick. Anyway, it still counts as “letters” and I still like to play with it. Here’s how flowers with thin skin and thinner leaves look like: Bryan’s fans are familiar with this technique. It’s actually white piece of plexi glass (semi-transparent plastic sheet), where you lay down your flowers (veggie, fruits, watches… go wild and go creative!) and you’ll fire two flashes. One directly above and one located below the plexi glass. Bryan’s “how to video” you can find at The Perfect Picture School of Photography page and a small example of my set up is here:

Still catching up with week three of my new weekly duty – project 52. Actually a new theme for week 4 has been already announced, but there is a “week” of time, so let’s focus on a current one – “eye”. I can search around the world and I won’t find a nicer, deeper, more sensitive and prettier eye with a spark, which is winking just at me. I’m falling in love with this eye already for 16 years and I still can’t get enough. Thank you for keeping an eye on me, sweetheart! I love you! Happy anniversary 😉

Catching up quickly with previous weeks. Theme of the week is BLUE and I actually have taken this picture around that week. Fight of the blue vs red. Blues vs Detroit. Hell vs heaven. Calm vs energetic…. My kids (and their toothbrushes).Under macro 105mm and a tiny (1/128) little help of flash.

In order to not become mentally dwarfed, or should I say photographically dwarfed –  I’ve accepted a challenge of my fellow photographer and I’m joining her Project 52. What is it? Similar to project 365, where you have to take one picture every day, but logically here you are supposed to take one picture per week. And BTW, there is a theme for every given week, which I may or I may not adhere every week. Let’s see 😉Oh yeah, and that fellow photographer is my dear better half of myself, my Monika and actually her idea inspired about 70 other photographers who joined her already. So I’ll be sharing same theme every week with a pretty sizable community!So here it comes, theme of the first week is: “HAPPY, NEW or 12”. I go with “new” and picture is here. Well, while it might look as a new galaxy has been born, don’t get fooled 😉 It’s just Monika’s new nail polish…Together with my 105mm macro on tripod and side directed flash…PS: Monika’s approach to Project 52 can be found here.