Game The weekly random-subject challenge!

**savoche** · 03-18-2020, 11:14 AM

Originally posted by Wasp

OK I will have a go at this.

Wood - the leg of the chair is real wood.
Disparity - the floor is vinyl, not actual wood. Also, the piece of string that does not belong there.
Close-up - it was taken with a new (to me) Tokina RMC 400mm f/5.6 lens that I was trying out.

Well played. I was thinking along the same lines, but haven't gotten around to actually do something about it... Too much to think of these days

cprobertson1 · 03-19-2020, 03:12 PM - **2 Likes**

Originally posted by savoche

Well played. I was thinking along the same lines, but haven't gotten around to actually do something about it... Too much to think of these days

I know the feeling... I got the cold and had to self isolate for a week!

I think I'll make an effort to clean the living room this weekend, and make an effort to do next week's challenge - hopefully it won't be something really strange for a livingroom shot! It is not big enough to do landscape photography properly - the mountains never fit in frame!

Oh, that reminds me!

I added "quarantine", "panic", "self-isolation", "pandemic", "infectious", "cancelled", "whoops!" and "bad advice" to the keyword list.

---------- Post added 2020-03-19 at 15:22 ----------

Originally posted by Wasp

OK I will have a go at this.

Wood - the leg of the chair is real wood.
Disparity - the floor is vinyl, not actual wood. Also, the piece of string that does not belong there.
Close-up - it was taken with a new (to me) Tokina RMC 400mm f/5.6 lens that I was trying out.

Having just had a gander at that lens, I like the look of it - I might add that to my list of lenses to grab at some point (not in the near future though - I'm saving up for a new lens!)

That is an interesting shot - it's not what I was expecting at all, and I keep coming back to it to try to figure out what intrigues me so!

...For starters,the lighting on the leg is playing tricks with my eyes - it kinda reminds me of an Escher etching, actually, with the way the perspective seems "wrong" for lack of a better term. My brain interprets the bottom of the leg as if it's tilted back, but the shadow and the direction of the texture on the floor means it's not! I can't even figure out why my brain interprets it that way - I think it's due to the long focal length but I'm unsure! That alone is worth my coming back to it.

That's before we even get to the composition and colours of the shot! Lots for me to analyse! I approve! Thanks for that

::Thumbs up::

Wasp · 03-20-2020, 01:22 AM

Originally posted by cprobertson1

Having just had a gander at that lens, I like the look of it - I might add that to my list of lenses to grab at some point (not in the near future though - I'm saving up for a new lens!)

That is an interesting shot - it's not what I was expecting at all, and I keep coming back to it to try to figure out what intrigues me so!

...For starters,the lighting on the leg is playing tricks with my eyes - it kinda reminds me of an Escher etching, actually, with the way the perspective seems "wrong" for lack of a better term. My brain interprets the bottom of the leg as if it's tilted back, but the shadow and the direction of the texture on the floor means it's not! I can't even figure out why my brain interprets it that way - I think it's due to the long focal length but I'm unsure! That alone is worth my coming back to it.

That's before we even get to the composition and colours of the shot! Lots for me to analyse! I approve! Thanks for that

::Thumbs up::

Thanks for the kind words. I guess the angles can be explained by the foreshortening effect on perspective by what is a super telephoto - 600mm equivalent on crop frame. What gets me is that the chair leg seems to out of focus but the floor next to it is sharp.

It was a grab shot but it worked out well. I had just got home with my new toy and I was on my way out the door to go and try it out when this scene caught my eye.

Edit: If you can get one at the right price, it is a nice little lens. For a 400mm it is very small and light. That means that it can go along when something bigger would have had to stay at home. The lightness makes it tricky to handhold, though.

**MossyRocks** · 03-20-2020, 11:09 AM - **2 Likes**

Originally posted by Wasp

For a 400mm it is very small and light. That means that it can go along when something bigger would have had to stay at home. The lightness makes it tricky to handhold, though.

My only experience with 400mm is this cheap light nothing and this monster so basically opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to 400mm lenses.

I should probably see about using that old cheap 400 more.

cprobertson1 · 03-22-2020, 02:58 PM

Due to the imminent lockdown fears, I'll re-generate next week's challenge if it is heavily slanted towards outdoor shooting (for instance, "Mountains-Trees-Landscape" would me hard to do in the livingroom.

I'll need to be careful with this as I want as little human interference in the subject generation as possible.

If I re-generate, I'll list the old one and why I re-generated.

Hopefully the subjects will be ambiguous enough to be done indoors anyway and I won't need to worry!

cprobertson1 · 03-24-2020, 01:54 PM

No need for editing

Week: №09
Duration:2020/03/24--2020/03/30

Subject: CURIOSITY
Focus on: DEFOCUS
Style: MODERNIST
Optional Challenge: Maximum of 30-shots - Take a MAXIMUM of 30-shots

This week's challenge will use CURIOSITY as the subject matter, with a focus on the concept of DEFOCUS in a MODERNIST style.

The optional challenge is: Maximum of 30-shots - Take a MAXIMUM of 30-shots

Let us harken back to the days of film: you have only 30 shots to spend on your journey... use them wisely!

(The purpose of this is to encourage photographers to plan and treasure every shot, and to use their resources sparingly)

cprobertson1 · 03-30-2020, 01:19 PM

Just a quick submission before I update the weekly challenge

This was taken with my DIY 3D-printed lens

Its not a perfect match, it is a curiosity rather than showing curiosity as a focus... its not even that great an image - but I still like it!

It's a straight-out-of-camera image too, I don't think I even denoised it... er, I probably should have...

Last edited by cprobertson1; 03-31-2020 at 03:52 AM.

Wasp · 03-30-2020, 01:38 PM

Curiosity killed the cat, they say, although this one is no danger. Defocus? Shallow depth of field from an 85/1.4 lens means that little is in focus. No real idea what a modernist image looks like, but is very modern. I mean, it was taken a few days ago. It doesn't get much more modern than that.

cprobertson1 · 03-30-2020, 01:58 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by Wasp

Curiosity killed the cat, they say, although this one is no danger. Defocus? Shallow depth of field from an 85/1.4 lens means that little is in focus. No real idea what a modernist image looks like, but is very modern. I mean, it was taken a few days ago. It doesn't get much more modern than that.

Just be grateful it wasn't postmodernism or your cat would probably have ended up with a tin of beans sitting beside it (Andy Worhol joke)

Teehee - that cat makes me happy

It looks so peaceful! It's a very balanced feeling image actually - feels like there's just the right amount of unfocused cat vs whitespace, and the slight colour cast adds to it. Man, I love cats. Dogs too - but I haven't managed to get a good picture of a dog yet!

cprobertson1 · 03-31-2020, 12:26 AM

THREE TIMES last night, I sat down to post up this week's challenge. THREE TIMES... and THREE TIMES I got distracted!

Here we go, finally up! For those that don't know, a vanitas is a symbolic work of art showing the transcience of life. I have no idea how to do this - I have no idea how to capture ephemerality in "crystals" (though I suppose "crystals" could itself be symbolic) - but I reckon it's still an interesting topic.

You probably don't need to literally interpret the vanitas focus btw - traditionally, skulls were popular in Netherlandish art in the 17th century, but we've moved on since then! Well, we've moved on in art at least - I haven't moved on from having a skull - we still have skulls - but we don't generally paint them these days.

Week: №10
Duration:2020/03/31--2020/04/06

Subject: CRYSTALS
Focus on: VANITAS
Style: CLOSE-UP
Optional Challenge: Maximum of 30-shots - Take a MAXIMUM of 30-shots

This week's challenge will use CRYSTALS as the subject matter, with a focus on the concept of VANITAS in a CLOSE-UP style.

The optional challenge is: Maximum of 30-shots - Take a MAXIMUM of 30-shots

Let us harken back to the days of film: you have only 30 shots to spend on your journey... use them wisely!

(The purpose of this is to encourage photographers to plan and treasure every shot, and to use their resources sparingly)

cprobertson1 · 03-31-2020, 03:51 AM

I really need to get my act together: the house is messy and I'm stuck in it when I'm not stuck at work (though I can detour from my work commute to get some exercise with the camera, of course) - so I really want to take the opportunity to really think about the weekly challenge and make a big effort to do something interesting.

Earlier on in the challenge, @jcdoss posted a really cool image (...no pun intended!) of a flower set in ice.

I really loved it - and it'd have fit quite well with this weeks' challenge - but at the same time, copying is boring. jcdoss has inspired me to do something with ice - but I don't know what exactly...

Now, a traditional vanitas would involve contrasting symbols of life, wealth, and death - inspired by the Christian doctrine of vanitas which asserted that earthly possessions are merely transitory which of course was carried over into the art of the time, particularly in funerary arts. I didnt know funerary arts were a discrete type of art, but it makes perfect sense now that I think about it!

I intend to interpret it in a more modern light, maybe featuring ice, as I mentioned earlier. I do also have a bunch of random glass and acrylic lenses lying around from my experimental lens construction - I'm sure I could use that symbolically somehow?

OH! I actually have an acrylic sphere I haven't used in earnest yet - this might be the perfect opportunity! I mean, technically it's an amorphous solid and not a crystal... but whatever, most people can't tell the difference. Heck, even glass isn't a crystal - it lacks long-range order - and don't get me started on "crystal glass" - yup, amorphous solid - not crystalline. Its name is broken! Who even does that!?!

In all seriousness though, could be a good time for me to get the acrylic sphere out - or to play with ice. Or both?

jcdoss · 03-31-2020, 09:48 AM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by cprobertson1

Earlier on in the challenge, @jcdoss posted a really cool image (...no pun intended!) of a flower set in ice.

Thanks for the mention, and I'm glad that image had a positive impression on someone other than me!
It wasn't easy to get that image, btw. I had to do experiments in freezing water in order to get it to freeze without cloudy air bubbles blocking the scene. I didn't take notes at all (because usually no one cares what I do), but I can tell you that salt was added to the water, the flower was weighted and submerged by tying it to a metal weight, and the glass was allowed to chill in the fridge for at least 24 hours prior to the freeze. It did not work every time, either. Sometimes the flower broke loose, or attracted too much air which clouded the view. Flowers are blooming all over the place, so if you want to give it a shot, please take better notes and post your results on the forum!

cprobertson1 · 04-01-2020, 01:17 AM

Thanks for the info!

I wasn't planning on replicating the shot, per se - I was hoping to avoid making an obviously derivative work (not that I see anything wrong with that as long as I say "hey, this dude inspired me") - but at the same time, I'm not entirely sure what I can bring to the table! Simply copying the shot is boring (though it is useful for learning how it was created, but it is not creative in and of itself) - I want to do something with ice, and freezing something in it, but not quite the same a you did. I haven't figured it out yet - the puzzle is eluding me!

Before I start being creative (it's Wednesday and I haven't even given it a thought yet! Oh no!), a quick look at the technical aspects.

Let's see... freezing water clearly... there is dissolved air in the water which will come out of solution as the temperature drops (because the solubility of the gas in the water decreases with temperature, possibly related to gay-lussac's law (that's pronounced "Guy", by the way) and charle's law but I can't remember the details) - so we need to degas it before freezing, or freeze it slowly enough that the bubbles won't become trapped.

I suspect that by adding salt (freezing point depression), you've slowed down the freezing process which is why it helped - as did leaving it in the fridge for 24 hours to give it time to offgas at a lower temperature.

Next up is chloramation - which is chlorination with chloramine for those curious. Chloramine can also off-gas, but it should off-gas at roughly the same time as the air, so I dont think we need to concern ourselves specifically with it.

Contaminants: so, water is salty. Not sea-salty - salty as in contains metal salts - "minerals" as normal folks call them. These can act as nucleation points in the crystallisation process, causing multiple crystals to form, which will cause grain boundries. It probably won't be a problem though. If it is a problem we can use deionised water, or distill it ourselves by cooling steam. It would also mean we can't depress the freezing point with salt - meaning we'd have to find a different way to slow the rate of cooling. I think it'd be easier to just use salt, which means we dont need to worry about the other minerals since we're adding way more salt than was in it already.

The freezing container should probably be as smooth as possible to reduce unwanted crystal formation - we want to grow the crystal staring in one place, if possible, and have it spread out from there in one giant crystal. I don't think that's really all that feasible - but using a seed crystal may help - the problem is preventing the seed crystal from melting in the much warmer water... but thanks to our freezing point depression from the addition of salt, we may have a way around that - salt-water at, say, 272K (-1°C) won't freeze, but should allow us to float a pure-water ice crystal in it to act as a seed crystal.

If we're doing that, we need a separate container of regular (preferably pure) water of roughly the same size as the main container - when we see it start to freeze, but not the main mixture, it's time to put in the seed ice-crystal. We can't stick a thermometer into the main mixture as that may introduce contaminants, aspirate air into the mixture, or if you somehow manage to supercool the water, it will actually act as a seed and cause the water to rapidly freeze - which would be very cool.

We might also try introducing an imperfection in the container - something with sharp edges and lots of surface area - say, a small grain of sharp sand, or a little fragment of pumice. Speaking of the container, it should be made as utterly clean as possible - I would suggest rubbing it down with soapy-water first, then a bucketload of water - we could go cleaner, but at the end of the day, we're freezing something in the water anyway, so it's probably not a problem. Probably

Right - so with all that in mind, let's put together a proposed method for getting clear ice:

Requirements:

Container (plastic or silicone - glass will shatter as the water expands)
Salt (table salt, rock salt, metal salts, any salt will do)
Something to freeze
A seed crystal (a flake of ice), a grain of sand, or a tiny bit of pumice

Method: this may or may not work, it's just a framework for me to work off, based on the above principles and what I know of chemistry. It may turn out to be entirely wrong since we are encroaching on materials chemistry and I am a biochemist, so there isn't a lot of overlap between wanting to make good crystals and the chemistry of how organisms work (though you might be surprised at how many overlaps there actually are!)

Clean container
Pre-cool container in freezer
Mix salt in water (concentration should be based on 1-degree above the temperature of your freezer, see this chart for the concentration vs temperature)
Pre-cool salt-water mixture in fridge for 24+ hours to allow off-gassing
Pre-cool a rinse-mix of the same salt-water mixture in the fridge for 24+ hours to allow off-gassing.
If the sample-to-be-frozen is inorganic, submerge in the rinse-mix during pre-cooling
If the sample to-be-frozen is organic, keep it fresh until ready to begin freezing, and wash in the rinse-mix before freezing
Place the sample in the salt-water mixture, and place it in the fridge
If using sand or pumice as a seed crystal, place it in the mixture.
If using ice as a seed crystal, you'll need a second pure-water reference mixture to freeze alongside the main mixture. Periodically check on it - if the reference mixture is frozen but not the saltwater mixture, add the ice crystal.
Wait
Keep waiting
Wait some more
Stop waiting
Profit???

I'm also going to consider supercooling some bottled water - its moderately easy to do though it may take some tries (run the process redundantly so you're guaranteed at least one success!) - I may be able to pour it on the "subject" material to coat it, or dunk the material into it which will initiate crystallisation. It would be interesting to see, if nothing else. You can do weird stuff with it, like pouring it onto a surface slowly to create a stalagmite - it's fascinating to see!

cprobertson1 · 04-06-2020, 12:39 AM

Whoops - I never managed to get that last one completed; mostly procrastination on my part. I've had no energy at all after finishing with work - I just want to go home and not do anything! The water is in my fridge off-gassing as we speak but I haven't yet got to the point of putting it into my freezer - no space for it - and I haven't made space due to my flagging ennui and rampant procrastination!

I still want to "play" with ice though - so I shall hopefully make a late submission at... some point.

---------- Post added 2020-04-06 at 00:52 ----------

Some quick notes:

The following keywords were removed from the "genre" section and duplicated to the "subject" and "style" sections, as it felt like they were "wrong".

Cubanist > Cubist/Cubism (I believe this was meant to be "Cubism" rather than "Cubanism" since few of us live in or near Cuba)
Modernist > Modernity/Modernism
Impressionist > Impressionist/Impressionism

Looks like we've got a good one for shooting in the garden or from the window! The "Backtracking" optional challenge should probably be ignored unless you enjoy walking in circles around your house. I know I do, but it's not for everybody!

Week: №11
Duration:2020/04/06--2020/04/12

Subject: CRITTERS
Focus on: TYPES
Style: SELF-PORTRAIT
Optional Challenge: Backtracking - Take photos only on the return journey!

This week's challenge will use CRITTERS as the subject matter, with a focus on the concept of TYPES in a SELF-PORTRAIT style.

The optional challenge is: Backtracking - Take photos only on the return journey!

You may only take photos on the return leg of your journey - keep your eyes open on your way out and take a mental note of interesting photo opportunities. On your return journey, you may only photograph interesting photo opportunities that you remembered!

For added challenge, you must write down each opportunity you remembered at the END of your OUTWARD journey (before turning back); and can only photograph the opportunities that you listed!

(The purpose of this is to encourage photographers to observe their surroundings for things they might have missed)

cprobertson1 · 04-12-2020, 01:39 PM - **2 Likes**

Having spent two hours lying under a wool blanket waiting for some deer... I failed to photograph even a single critter!

Only for me to get bored, stand up, and realise they had gathered literally 20m behind me... And for them not notice me and promptly run off!

At least I got some fresh air, and a chance to lie on the ground for two hours. I have the best hobbies.

03-19-2020, 03:12 PM - 2 Likes	#107
cprobertson1 Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2018 Location: Irvine, Ayrshire Posts: 386 Original Poster	Originally posted by savoche Well played. I was thinking along the same lines, but haven't gotten around to actually do something about it... Too much to think of these days I know the feeling... I got the cold and had to self isolate for a week! I think I'll make an effort to clean the living room this weekend, and make an effort to do next week's challenge - hopefully it won't be something really strange for a livingroom shot! It is not big enough to do landscape photography properly - the mountains never fit in frame! Oh, that reminds me! I added "quarantine", "panic", "self-isolation", "pandemic", "infectious", "cancelled", "whoops!" and "bad advice" to the keyword list. ---------- Post added 2020-03-19 at 15:22 ---------- Originally posted by Wasp OK I will have a go at this. Wood - the leg of the chair is real wood. Disparity - the floor is vinyl, not actual wood. Also, the piece of string that does not belong there. Close-up - it was taken with a new (to me) Tokina RMC 400mm f/5.6 lens that I was trying out. Having just had a gander at that lens, I like the look of it - I might add that to my list of lenses to grab at some point (not in the near future though - I'm saving up for a new lens!) That is an interesting shot - it's not what I was expecting at all, and I keep coming back to it to try to figure out what intrigues me so! ...For starters,the lighting on the leg is playing tricks with my eyes - it kinda reminds me of an Escher etching, actually, with the way the perspective seems "wrong" for lack of a better term. My brain interprets the bottom of the leg as if it's tilted back, but the shadow and the direction of the texture on the floor means it's not! I can't even figure out why my brain interprets it that way - I think it's due to the long focal length but I'm unsure! That alone is worth my coming back to it. That's before we even get to the composition and colours of the shot! Lots for me to analyse! I approve! Thanks for that ::Thumbs up:: Last edited by cprobertson1; 03-19-2020 at 03:23 PM.

03-20-2020, 01:22 AM	#108
Wasp Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Pretoria Photos: Gallery Posts: 4,660	Originally posted by cprobertson1 Having just had a gander at that lens, I like the look of it - I might add that to my list of lenses to grab at some point (not in the near future though - I'm saving up for a new lens!) That is an interesting shot - it's not what I was expecting at all, and I keep coming back to it to try to figure out what intrigues me so! ...For starters,the lighting on the leg is playing tricks with my eyes - it kinda reminds me of an Escher etching, actually, with the way the perspective seems "wrong" for lack of a better term. My brain interprets the bottom of the leg as if it's tilted back, but the shadow and the direction of the texture on the floor means it's not! I can't even figure out why my brain interprets it that way - I think it's due to the long focal length but I'm unsure! That alone is worth my coming back to it. That's before we even get to the composition and colours of the shot! Lots for me to analyse! I approve! Thanks for that ::Thumbs up:: Thanks for the kind words. I guess the angles can be explained by the foreshortening effect on perspective by what is a super telephoto - 600mm equivalent on crop frame. What gets me is that the chair leg seems to out of focus but the floor next to it is sharp. It was a grab shot but it worked out well. I had just got home with my new toy and I was on my way out the door to go and try it out when this scene caught my eye. Edit: If you can get one at the right price, it is a nice little lens. For a 400mm it is very small and light. That means that it can go along when something bigger would have had to stay at home. The lightness makes it tricky to handhold, though. Last edited by Wasp; 03-20-2020 at 01:27 AM.

04-01-2020, 01:17 AM	#118
cprobertson1 Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2018 Location: Irvine, Ayrshire Posts: 386 Original Poster	Thanks for the info! I wasn't planning on replicating the shot, per se - I was hoping to avoid making an obviously derivative work (not that I see anything wrong with that as long as I say "hey, this dude inspired me") - but at the same time, I'm not entirely sure what I can bring to the table! Simply copying the shot is boring (though it is useful for learning how it was created, but it is not creative in and of itself) - I want to do something with ice, and freezing something in it, but not quite the same a you did. I haven't figured it out yet - the puzzle is eluding me! Before I start being creative (it's Wednesday and I haven't even given it a thought yet! Oh no!), a quick look at the technical aspects. Let's see... freezing water clearly... there is dissolved air in the water which will come out of solution as the temperature drops (because the solubility of the gas in the water decreases with temperature, possibly related to gay-lussac's law (that's pronounced "Guy", by the way) and charle's law but I can't remember the details) - so we need to degas it before freezing, or freeze it slowly enough that the bubbles won't become trapped. I suspect that by adding salt (freezing point depression), you've slowed down the freezing process which is why it helped - as did leaving it in the fridge for 24 hours to give it time to offgas at a lower temperature. Next up is chloramation - which is chlorination with chloramine for those curious. Chloramine can also off-gas, but it should off-gas at roughly the same time as the air, so I dont think we need to concern ourselves specifically with it. Contaminants: so, water is salty. Not sea-salty - salty as in contains metal salts - "minerals" as normal folks call them. These can act as nucleation points in the crystallisation process, causing multiple crystals to form, which will cause grain boundries. It probably won't be a problem though. If it is a problem we can use deionised water, or distill it ourselves by cooling steam. It would also mean we can't depress the freezing point with salt - meaning we'd have to find a different way to slow the rate of cooling. I think it'd be easier to just use salt, which means we dont need to worry about the other minerals since we're adding way more salt than was in it already. The freezing container should probably be as smooth as possible to reduce unwanted crystal formation - we want to grow the crystal staring in one place, if possible, and have it spread out from there in one giant crystal. I don't think that's really all that feasible - but using a seed crystal may help - the problem is preventing the seed crystal from melting in the much warmer water... but thanks to our freezing point depression from the addition of salt, we may have a way around that - salt-water at, say, 272K (-1°C) won't freeze, but should allow us to float a pure-water ice crystal in it to act as a seed crystal. If we're doing that, we need a separate container of regular (preferably pure) water of roughly the same size as the main container - when we see it start to freeze, but not the main mixture, it's time to put in the seed ice-crystal. We can't stick a thermometer into the main mixture as that may introduce contaminants, aspirate air into the mixture, or if you somehow manage to supercool the water, it will actually act as a seed and cause the water to rapidly freeze - which would be very cool. We might also try introducing an imperfection in the container - something with sharp edges and lots of surface area - say, a small grain of sharp sand, or a little fragment of pumice. Speaking of the container, it should be made as utterly clean as possible - I would suggest rubbing it down with soapy-water first, then a bucketload of water - we could go cleaner, but at the end of the day, we're freezing something in the water anyway, so it's probably not a problem. Probably Right - so with all that in mind, let's put together a proposed method for getting clear ice: Requirements: Container (plastic or silicone - glass will shatter as the water expands) Salt (table salt, rock salt, metal salts, any salt will do) Something to freeze A seed crystal (a flake of ice), a grain of sand, or a tiny bit of pumice Method: this may or may not work, it's just a framework for me to work off, based on the above principles and what I know of chemistry. It may turn out to be entirely wrong since we are encroaching on materials chemistry and I am a biochemist, so there isn't a lot of overlap between wanting to make good crystals and the chemistry of how organisms work (though you might be surprised at how many overlaps there actually are!) Clean container Pre-cool container in freezer Mix salt in water (concentration should be based on 1-degree above the temperature of your freezer, see this chart for the concentration vs temperature) Pre-cool salt-water mixture in fridge for 24+ hours to allow off-gassing Pre-cool a rinse-mix of the same salt-water mixture in the fridge for 24+ hours to allow off-gassing. If the sample-to-be-frozen is inorganic, submerge in the rinse-mix during pre-cooling If the sample to-be-frozen is organic, keep it fresh until ready to begin freezing, and wash in the rinse-mix before freezing Place the sample in the salt-water mixture, and place it in the fridge If using sand or pumice as a seed crystal, place it in the mixture. If using ice as a seed crystal, you'll need a second pure-water reference mixture to freeze alongside the main mixture. Periodically check on it - if the reference mixture is frozen but not the saltwater mixture, add the ice crystal. Wait Keep waiting Wait some more Stop waiting Profit??? I'm also going to consider supercooling some bottled water - its moderately easy to do though it may take some tries (run the process redundantly so you're guaranteed at least one success!) - I may be able to pour it on the "subject" material to coat it, or dunk the material into it which will initiate crystallisation. It would be interesting to see, if nothing else. You can do weird stuff with it, like pouring it onto a surface slowly to create a stalagmite - it's fascinating to see!

04-06-2020, 12:39 AM	#119
cprobertson1 Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2018 Location: Irvine, Ayrshire Posts: 386 Original Poster	Whoops - I never managed to get that last one completed; mostly procrastination on my part. I've had no energy at all after finishing with work - I just want to go home and not do anything! The water is in my fridge off-gassing as we speak but I haven't yet got to the point of putting it into my freezer - no space for it - and I haven't made space due to my flagging ennui and rampant procrastination! I still want to "play" with ice though - so I shall hopefully make a late submission at... some point. ---------- Post added 2020-04-06 at 00:52 ---------- Some quick notes: The following keywords were removed from the "genre" section and duplicated to the "subject" and "style" sections, as it felt like they were "wrong". Cubanist > Cubist/Cubism (I believe this was meant to be "Cubism" rather than "Cubanism" since few of us live in or near Cuba) Modernist > Modernity/Modernism Impressionist > Impressionist/Impressionism Looks like we've got a good one for shooting in the garden or from the window! The "Backtracking" optional challenge should probably be ignored unless you enjoy walking in circles around your house. I know I do, but it's not for everybody! Week: №11 Duration:2020/04/06--2020/04/12 Subject: CRITTERS Focus on: TYPES Style: SELF-PORTRAIT Optional Challenge: Backtracking - Take photos only on the return journey! This week's challenge will use CRITTERS as the subject matter, with a focus on the concept of TYPES in a SELF-PORTRAIT style. The optional challenge is: Backtracking - Take photos only on the return journey! You may only take photos on the return leg of your journey - keep your eyes open on your way out and take a mental note of interesting photo opportunities. On your return journey, you may only photograph interesting photo opportunities that you remembered! For added challenge, you must write down each opportunity you remembered at the END of your OUTWARD journey (before turning back); and can only photograph the opportunities that you listed! (The purpose of this is to encourage photographers to observe their surroundings for things they might have missed) Last edited by cprobertson1; 04-06-2020 at 12:54 AM.

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03-18-2020, 11:14 AM	#106
savoche Master of the obvious Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Lowlands of Norway Posts: 18,311	Originally posted by Wasp OK I will have a go at this. Wood - the leg of the chair is real wood. Disparity - the floor is vinyl, not actual wood. Also, the piece of string that does not belong there. Close-up - it was taken with a new (to me) Tokina RMC 400mm f/5.6 lens that I was trying out. Well played. I was thinking along the same lines, but haven't gotten around to actually do something about it... Too much to think of these days

03-20-2020, 11:09 AM - 2 Likes	#109
MossyRocks Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Nov 2017 Location: Minnesota Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,982	Originally posted by Wasp For a 400mm it is very small and light. That means that it can go along when something bigger would have had to stay at home. The lightness makes it tricky to handhold, though. My only experience with 400mm is this cheap light nothing and this monster so basically opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to 400mm lenses. I should probably see about using that old cheap 400 more.

03-22-2020, 02:58 PM	#110
cprobertson1 Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2018 Location: Irvine, Ayrshire Posts: 386 Original Poster	Due to the imminent lockdown fears, I'll re-generate next week's challenge if it is heavily slanted towards outdoor shooting (for instance, "Mountains-Trees-Landscape" would me hard to do in the livingroom. I'll need to be careful with this as I want as little human interference in the subject generation as possible. If I re-generate, I'll list the old one and why I re-generated. Hopefully the subjects will be ambiguous enough to be done indoors anyway and I won't need to worry!

03-24-2020, 01:54 PM	#111
cprobertson1 Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2018 Location: Irvine, Ayrshire Posts: 386 Original Poster	No need for editing Week: №09 Duration:2020/03/24--2020/03/30 Subject: CURIOSITY Focus on: DEFOCUS Style: MODERNIST Optional Challenge: Maximum of 30-shots - Take a MAXIMUM of 30-shots This week's challenge will use CURIOSITY as the subject matter, with a focus on the concept of DEFOCUS in a MODERNIST style. The optional challenge is: Maximum of 30-shots - Take a MAXIMUM of 30-shots Let us harken back to the days of film: you have only 30 shots to spend on your journey... use them wisely! (The purpose of this is to encourage photographers to plan and treasure every shot, and to use their resources sparingly)

03-30-2020, 01:19 PM	#112
cprobertson1 Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2018 Location: Irvine, Ayrshire Posts: 386 Original Poster	Just a quick submission before I update the weekly challenge This was taken with my DIY 3D-printed lens Its not a perfect match, it is a curiosity rather than showing curiosity as a focus... its not even that great an image - but I still like it! It's a straight-out-of-camera image too, I don't think I even denoised it... er, I probably should have... Last edited by cprobertson1; 03-31-2020 at 03:52 AM.

03-30-2020, 01:38 PM	#113
Wasp Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Pretoria Photos: Gallery Posts: 4,660	Curiosity killed the cat, they say, although this one is no danger. Defocus? Shallow depth of field from an 85/1.4 lens means that little is in focus. No real idea what a modernist image looks like, but is very modern. I mean, it was taken a few days ago. It doesn't get much more modern than that.

03-30-2020, 01:58 PM - 1 Like	#114
cprobertson1 Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2018 Location: Irvine, Ayrshire Posts: 386 Original Poster	Originally posted by Wasp Curiosity killed the cat, they say, although this one is no danger. Defocus? Shallow depth of field from an 85/1.4 lens means that little is in focus. No real idea what a modernist image looks like, but is very modern. I mean, it was taken a few days ago. It doesn't get much more modern than that. Just be grateful it wasn't postmodernism or your cat would probably have ended up with a tin of beans sitting beside it (Andy Worhol joke) Teehee - that cat makes me happy It looks so peaceful! It's a very balanced feeling image actually - feels like there's just the right amount of unfocused cat vs whitespace, and the slight colour cast adds to it. Man, I love cats. Dogs too - but I haven't managed to get a good picture of a dog yet!

03-31-2020, 12:26 AM	#115
cprobertson1 Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2018 Location: Irvine, Ayrshire Posts: 386 Original Poster	THREE TIMES last night, I sat down to post up this week's challenge. THREE TIMES... and THREE TIMES I got distracted! Here we go, finally up! For those that don't know, a vanitas is a symbolic work of art showing the transcience of life. I have no idea how to do this - I have no idea how to capture ephemerality in "crystals" (though I suppose "crystals" could itself be symbolic) - but I reckon it's still an interesting topic. You probably don't need to literally interpret the vanitas focus btw - traditionally, skulls were popular in Netherlandish art in the 17th century, but we've moved on since then! Well, we've moved on in art at least - I haven't moved on from having a skull - we still have skulls - but we don't generally paint them these days. Week: №10 Duration:2020/03/31--2020/04/06 Subject: CRYSTALS Focus on: VANITAS Style: CLOSE-UP Optional Challenge: Maximum of 30-shots - Take a MAXIMUM of 30-shots This week's challenge will use CRYSTALS as the subject matter, with a focus on the concept of VANITAS in a CLOSE-UP style. The optional challenge is: Maximum of 30-shots - Take a MAXIMUM of 30-shots Let us harken back to the days of film: you have only 30 shots to spend on your journey... use them wisely! (The purpose of this is to encourage photographers to plan and treasure every shot, and to use their resources sparingly)

03-31-2020, 03:51 AM	#116
cprobertson1 Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2018 Location: Irvine, Ayrshire Posts: 386 Original Poster	I really need to get my act together: the house is messy and I'm stuck in it when I'm not stuck at work (though I can detour from my work commute to get some exercise with the camera, of course) - so I really want to take the opportunity to really think about the weekly challenge and make a big effort to do something interesting. Earlier on in the challenge, @jcdoss posted a really cool image (...no pun intended!) of a flower set in ice. I really loved it - and it'd have fit quite well with this weeks' challenge - but at the same time, copying is boring. jcdoss has inspired me to do something with ice - but I don't know what exactly... Now, a traditional vanitas would involve contrasting symbols of life, wealth, and death - inspired by the Christian doctrine of vanitas which asserted that earthly possessions are merely transitory which of course was carried over into the art of the time, particularly in funerary arts. I didnt know funerary arts were a discrete type of art, but it makes perfect sense now that I think about it! I intend to interpret it in a more modern light, maybe featuring ice, as I mentioned earlier. I do also have a bunch of random glass and acrylic lenses lying around from my experimental lens construction - I'm sure I could use that symbolically somehow? OH! I actually have an acrylic sphere I haven't used in earnest yet - this might be the perfect opportunity! I mean, technically it's an amorphous solid and not a crystal... but whatever, most people can't tell the difference. Heck, even glass isn't a crystal - it lacks long-range order - and don't get me started on "crystal glass" - yup, amorphous solid - not crystalline. Its name is broken! Who even does that!?! In all seriousness though, could be a good time for me to get the acrylic sphere out - or to play with ice. Or both?

03-31-2020, 09:48 AM - 1 Like	#117
jcdoss Pentaxian Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 6,765	Originally posted by cprobertson1 Earlier on in the challenge, @jcdoss posted a really cool image (...no pun intended!) of a flower set in ice. Thanks for the mention, and I'm glad that image had a positive impression on someone other than me! It wasn't easy to get that image, btw. I had to do experiments in freezing water in order to get it to freeze without cloudy air bubbles blocking the scene. I didn't take notes at all (because usually no one cares what I do), but I can tell you that salt was added to the water, the flower was weighted and submerged by tying it to a metal weight, and the glass was allowed to chill in the fridge for at least 24 hours prior to the freeze. It did not work every time, either. Sometimes the flower broke loose, or attracted too much air which clouded the view. Flowers are blooming all over the place, so if you want to give it a shot, please take better notes and post your results on the forum!

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04-12-2020, 01:39 PM - 2 Likes	#120
cprobertson1 Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2018 Location: Irvine, Ayrshire Posts: 386 Original Poster	Having spent two hours lying under a wool blanket waiting for some deer... I failed to photograph even a single critter! Only for me to get bored, stand up, and realise they had gathered literally 20m behind me... And for them not notice me and promptly run off! At least I got some fresh air, and a chance to lie on the ground for two hours. I have the best hobbies.