CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

One of the pleasures of living by the sea is beach combing. We will go for walks on the beaches near our home in Dunbar and pick up interesting items such as driftwood, rocks, shells and sea glass.   If you don't know what sea glass is, they are pieces of glass that have been physically and chemically weathered by salt water and the action of the tides. These weathering processes produce natural frosted glass and the beaches of East Lothian are a great place to find excellent examples.  In fact one of the best beaches for collecting sea glass is less than one kilometre from our front door. Over the past year we have collected quite a few pieces of sea glass and I decided to set up a table top studio to photograph the colours, shapes and textures of some of the best bits. Using the glass from an old picture frame as a table which I raised up on some books so I could put a light underneath to shine through the pieces of sea glass I placed on the picture frame glass to...

One of the best things about living on the coast is beach combing and one of our favourite things to collect is sea glass.  We have a glass jug that sits on the window sill in our living room.  In the morning the sunlight sometimes catches the glass pieces and the colours are enhanced in a beautiful display. On a day when it was impossible to get out and about with the camera and my trigger finger was itching, I remembered the sea glass jug and this gave me the inspiration for a table top still life.   Choosing some of the most interesting pieces of sea glass, I used an old picture frame complete with glass front and arranged the sea glass on top.  I raised the picture frame off the table and used a directional office lamp to put it shining up underneath so the light was through the sea glass.   I then took a series of images using the Fuji X-Pro1 and Fujinon 60mm f2.4 macro lens.    Fuji X-Pro1 - 60mm f2.4 macro - 1s @ f11 - ISO200 ...

More bad weather today meant no outdoor photography so it was back to the simple desk top studio set up.  On the Digital SLR Photography Magazine CC group page on Facebook we have a weekly challenge and this week's subject is 'flora', which provided me with the perfect subject for my desktop studio. Nikon D800 - Nikon 105mm f2.8G micro - 1/3 @ f9 - ISO100   A black cloth provided the back drop to the low key set up with a white rose as the subject.  The light was provided in the main from my office window, with a small desktop lamp providing some additional lighting when needed. Using the Nikon D800 and a Nikon 105mm f2.8G micro lens, I set about trying different settings and lighting to see what I could get from the set up.  The first shot is very basic, with the rose placed to the left and leaning into the picture. The black space to the right can be used to put text for either a card or a magazine page.  It is always useful to provide ...