Mannequin fetish

I have a confession.  I love shooting mannequins.  It sounds like a weird fetish, but let’s face it – they are the perfect model!  They never get grumpy, they always stay still when posing and you never have to deal with skin blemishes in post processing.

The biggest trick when shooting mannequins through shop windows is to not let any outside reflections spoil the shot, especially when shooting at night.  I’ve found the best way is to take the lens hood off and put the lens flush to the glass.  If you can’t, holding your hand over the gap usually helps.   One of those flexible rubber lens hoods for a wide angle lens could work well – I haven’t tried it, but that could be an interesting thing to try as it would allow you to shoot at an angle, without creating vignetting.  Better go try it.....

Too much stray light and reflections are a blemish on an otherwise great shot.

These shots were all taken in shops and department stores along Montreal’s famous Rue St Catherines last year, using a Nikon D700 and a Nikon 50mm f1.4 lens.

Wispy Cloudy

I’ve always liked this shot from Sydney.  I love the wispy clouds, and the apartment building gives a nice dose of perspective, something the eye can hang on to.   That the apartment building is bathed in lovely evening light gives the photo a rich tone about it.

Homegrown Mushrooms

Last year, I found several mushrooms growing in our lawn.  None of them were that big – the largest being only 2cm in diameter, but I decided they could make for some interesting photos.  When you turn them upside down, the finned structure looks very unusual and is a great basis for still life shots.

Spin

To me, one of the coolest things about photography is the latitude to experiment and discover.  

I had purchased an old Nikon F body and decided to play with it.  As they are they are almost industructable I decided to try a spin photo to create circular movement.  I tipped our lawn mower on its side and placed the camera on it.  I set the used another camera to meter, set the shutter speed to 1 second, released the self timer and gently spun the wheel.  Depending on where the camera is placed on the wheel, the pivot point will show up in a different spot.

The results for me have a little too much blur as it is hard to make out what you are seeing (tree tops).  In the centre point you can make out leaves (it doesn’t travel as far) however the outer pints are very blurred.

The second spin picture I just rotated the camera 90 degrees, trying to keep the centre point as the middle of the life buoy.  My hand is not 100% steady, as can be seen from the wobbly light trails, but I like how the circular theme of the buoy is built on by the circular blur. It's better than the first shot as there is not too much blur to distort the original photo. This shot was taken on the D90 when we were on our Dominican holiday and the buoy is right next to the swimming pool.

Puppy Love

Henri Cartier Bresson’s philosophy was “Capture the Moment”.  This is a moment I like – two adorably puppies chewing on each other’s toes!  

I shot this when my wife and I were walking around Harbour Front in downtown Toronto with another couple.  The manual focus Voigtlander and Leica lenses are often too slow when using them on the NEX to quickl capture moments.  I even tried to set a slower aperture to increase depth of field, but it still didn’t completely work.  This one worked out the best, but there were several “Moment” images I missed that I would have nailed if I had Auto Focus.

Sparkly

One of the interesting things about African Violets is that they are very sparkly when viewed close up.  It’s like they’ve all just had a fight with a can of glitter.  

The Nikon 55mm f2.8 Micro-Nikkor (with which this shot was taken) is one of those lenses that is always outstandingly sharp – a bench mark for which all other Nikon lenses are judged.  You can see from this huge crop just how sharp it continues to be.

Welcome back, friend

A couple years ago I purchased 2 orchids that were on sale.  One has been extremely plentiful in its flowers (on its fourth lot) while the second one has been a bit of a handful.  Soon after we got it he took a severe turn for the worse.  Within a couple days all the flowers dropped off, and the leaves went limp and leathery.  My wife thought it was done for.   We ended up re-potting the plant and slowly nursed him back to health.  A couple day ago the first flower came out in about two years and we were both very happy.  Welcome back friend.

The lens that I used for these shots is a Nikon 60mm f2.8 AF-D Micro on the D90.  I got it recently in a trade for some medium format gear I sold, with the intent of replacing the Nikon 55mm f2.8 Ai-S MF Micro I have.  So far it has proven to be a very good lens - sharp, compact and generally quite useful.