[MossyRocks]

My uncomplicated light gradient plant picture of Black Dog Power Plant. Just look at that awful light pollution off of the clouds. It actually was hard to clean it up as the lights in the are a bad mix of sodium vapor lamps and mercury vapor lamps in different areas of the sky. There is no clear sky here and hasn't been for most of the week.




As far as things to contribute for some random words

1. Subject: Moon, The biggest thing you can see
2. Modifier: Industrial
3. Style: Bad/Poor lighting, night light

Now I want to go take a picture of the refinery either today or tonight, probably both since digital is cheap.

[jcdoss]

Three submissions for this week, two archival and one fresh.

First, frozen flower photography. A blue flower was uncomplicatedly frozen, light gradient provided by a single poor quality LED, and photograph taken with K-1 and M100f4 Macro.



Second, a six-foot tall flower of some kind or another, lit from above by the sun which produced an uncomplicated top-down gradient, and photographed with K-1 mII and M135f3.5 and the well-known Raynox 150 hanging off the front.



Finally, taken earlier today, a cluster of tree trunks which are plants as they were illuminated in a west to east gradient by the descending sun without any kind of obstructions or complications. Taken with the K-1 mII Ltd Silver, and the inimitable and unassisted M200f4 (at f11).

[ramseybuckeye]

This kind of combines either theme since trees are plants, the light gradient was easy in the early morning, but I was going more for the leading lines, the fence is a leading line taking me down to the farm.

[cprobertson1]

It's time for the weekly summary!

Week № 00--Roads-Desolation-Portrait
Week № 01--Plants-Light gradient-Uncomplicated

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We've had some new words added:

Subjects:

• The Moon
• The biggest thing you can see

Modifiers:

• Industrial

Styles:

• Bad/poorly-lit
• Night-lit

(these two I tweaked to fit the "in a _____ style" sentence structure: if I change the sentence structure in the future I can tweak them again.

If the above tweaks are unsatisfactory, just let me know and I'll get it sorted!

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We also finalised the rules because it turns out if you change the rules twenty times then people get confused! See the first post for the finalized copy of the rules!

---

Im also going to attach a list of the current keywords to the weekly posts, though once I get things open-sourced I'll instead link to the root directory.

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Speaking of open-source, I'm going to refactor the code later this week to make it neat enough that I won't be embarrassed to show it to other people! Once I've fixed the silly bits of spaghetti code and commented everything properly, I'll fire it up on the net for everyone to see. It won't take long to do: it's more tedious than difficult; which is why I've been procrastinating over it!

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Last edited by cprobertson1; 01-27-2020 at 01:39 AM.

[cprobertson1]

Week: № 2
Duration: 2020/01/27--2020/02/02

Subject: JOURNEYS
Focus on: TRUSTWORTHINESS
Style: STILL LIFE
Optional Challenge: Manual-only - Use only manual mode on your camera.

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This week's challenge will use JOURNEYS as the subject matter, with a focus on the concept of TRUSTWORTHINESS in a STILL LIFE style.

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The optional challenge is: Manual-only - Use only manual mode on your camera.

Set your camera to manual mode (usually marked 'M' or 'MANUAL'), and control each corner of the exposure triangle (ISO, Shutter speed, and Aperture) yourself. For added challenge, you may also disable autofocus!

(The purpose of this is to reinforce practical understanding of the entire exposure triangle, and to intimately familiarise yourself with the controls of your camera.)

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NB: "still life" doesn't necessarily have to be a literal still life! You can metaphorically or philosophically interpret it to your heart's content - it's only a guideline - not a hard rule!

... I mention this becuase I have no idea how to do a still life of "journeys" let alone "trustworthiness"!

[cprobertson1]

Three submissions for this week, two archival and one fresh.

First, frozen flower photography. A blue flower was uncomplicatedly frozen, light gradient provided by a single poor quality LED, and photograph taken with K-1 and M100f4 Macro.




Second, a six-foot tall flower of some kind or another, lit from above by the sun which produced an uncomplicated top-down gradient, and photographed with K-1 mII and M135f3.5 and the well-known Raynox 150 hanging off the front.





Finally, taken earlier today, a cluster of tree trunks which are plants as they were illuminated in a west to east gradient by the descending sun without any kind of obstructions or complications. Taken with the K-1 mII Ltd Silver, and the inimitable and unassisted M200f4 (at f11).

Oops, I meant to say, I can't see any of these images - just blank spaces where the images are meant to live!

--EDIT--

Added some new keywords. The sooner I get this up on github the better - I'll be able to just link to the changelog instead of having to take note of the changes I make

Subjects:

• Countenance
• Glory
• Mathematical progression
• Mortality

Modifers:

• Glory
• Mortality
• Vanitas

NB: duplicates are prohibited from being pulled through at the same time, they can only appear individually.

[cprobertson1]

So... anybody else a little bit stuck with this week's challenge?

I totally am! I may have to creatively interpret what "still life" means - I'm thinking I could reasonably construe it to mean "a snapshot (a still) of life" - but I still want to try a traditional still life because it's not something I do very often - once a decade at most!

I tried using my painted miniatures to create a WWII diorama, but the results were so poor I don't even want to submit them for advice on improving them! Maybe my fallback plans willl have more success!

[JensE]

Only struggling to find the time to follow-through on the idea. Will be another night session, I'm afraid.

[MossyRocks]

I now have an idea for a really good one but would have needed to do it Tuesday. I was struggling with this until now but presently I have some ideas along that line to explore.

[cprobertson1]

I now have an idea for a really good one but would have needed to do it Tuesday. I was struggling with this until now but presently I have some ideas along that line to explore.

Go for it! As per rule #2:

Don't worry about late submissions, submit them anyway! Just let us know that it's from a previous week so we don't get confused!

Another benefit from not running things as a competition is that I get to see the "really good ones" even if they take more than a week to get right! As far as I'm concerned, if it inspires someone to create something they wouldn't otherwise have done, it's a win, regardless of when it gets submitted!

[MossyRocks]

Go for it! As per rule #2:


Another benefit from not running things as a competition is that I get to see the "really good ones" even if they take more than a week to get right! As far as I'm concerned, if it inspires someone to create something they wouldn't otherwise have done, it's a win, regardless of when it gets submitted!

Actually I would have needed to come up with the idea on this past Tuesday (2 days ago) and as such the moment has passed. I have the ability to recreate a lesser one which I will do.

[jcdoss]

So... anybody else a little bit stuck with this week's challenge?

I have an idea or two, just lacking the motivation to do anything. Depression is a real bitch.

[cprobertson1]

I have an idea of two, just lacking the motivation to do anything. Depression is a real bitch.

It really is! Hope you start feeling a little better soon! I've been there, man - it sucks - especially on the motivation front! In my own case, I found that keeping busy helped a lot. I'm of the mad-scientist type, so I naturally burn the midnight oil anyway - and it was a natural way to distract myself from low mood. Alas, everybody is different - so I can only vouch for my own experience!

Sheesh! Brains! They may be amazing, but they're really quite terrible! They make stuff up and convince you it's real, their chemistry can go wonky with relative ease, and resists being un-wonkified for no apparent reason. They use a ton of energy, are super-sensitive to pretty much anything, they fail at the drop of a hat, and even worse, they smell!

No, seriously - they secrete hormones - and hormones smell! In fact, you can even train dogs to detect certain hormones... my favourite example is training them to detect hormones emitted shortly before an epileptic seizure: they can smell your pre-seizing brains! How cool is that!

[jcdoss]

I can't see any of these images - just blank spaces where the images are meant to live!

I just re-upped the photos to the PF server. I was hoping not to have them at attachments at the bottom, below the post, so I uploaded them into a PF Album and linked from there.

[cprobertson1]

I just re-upped the photos to the PF server. I was hoping not to have them at attachments at the bottom, below the post, so I uploaded them into a PF Album and linked from there.

LOVE that frozen flower

---------- Post added 2020-02-02 at 15:04 ----------

Right, here we go - I tried SO hard with this one.

My first attempt (which I have mercifully removed) was a little diorama crated with painted miniatures... it was unbelievably lifeless - my bad.

I then went to my fallback plan - I went over to discuss the matter with my grandparents - I wanted to capture their journey (of life). I wanted to have some objects from around their house, carefully arranged in a still life, but with a number of family photos in the background bokeh.

Unfortunately, I could not for the life of me get the arrangement right. I'll chalk this one up to not having enough experience with still-life photography, and not wanting to annoy my grandparents by rearranging their entire house!

So I went with my other fallback plan... which also failed... I wanted to just have their two hands, sitting atop each other over the table, and showing their wedding rings: THAT didn't work either...

Sheesh... so at the end of the day, I had a very simple idea... "May I borrow your wedding rings?"





It could have been better, but it was late in the day and I was interrupting their supper! Simple, elegant: a journey of trust and life. Im not quite sure it counts as a "still life" so much as a "close up".... but I still like it