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Location
First of all, I would like to thank ViewBug for the wonderful award, There are so many wonderful images here that i continue to learn from, and I enjoy looking at everyone's photos shared here, you all inspire me. This photo was taken in my living room. It was shot in aperture mode with the intention of gathering as much light and as much focus on all the elements on the table. Everything needed to be in focus.I deduced that f/22 with a long 20 second exposure should pull all those elements together. The table is black, the knife is black, the watch is black, the coffee cup is black, the coffee is black, the shadows are black, and then there is the fact that the room itself is low lit.
Time
The living room might be a bit gloomy you might say, but, it is very relaxing. A great place to recharge my batteries. It isn't always dark, I do allow light in during the day, but, in the evening....i just like to ponder without too many distractions.
The image metadata might say 8/18/19 12:29 PM, but i can assure you this image was captured after midnight, at 1:26 AM. The camera time setting is 3 minutes fast and am/pm is incorrect, and i haven't corrected for the daylight savings time.
The watch is correct. This camera was made in 2005 and it arrived that way. I never took the time to correct it.
Lighting
There was no high caliber speed lights, or even one soft box used here. Only the city lights glowing through the drawn curtains and a living room light on a stand. I did end up having to move the coffee table however. As i was looking through the EVF, i could notice the reflection in the coffee had an element to it. The reflection, though not remarkable, honestly needed some attention... a certain balance.
Equipment
More often than not, the photos i capture are shot in auto mode. Most of the shots are spur of the moment, and, rather than miss the shot fussing with the settings, i prefer to shoot in this manner. The camera is usually right enough. Sometimes though, there is more than enough time to switch over to manual mode and obtain a more thought out photograph. In this case, this was true. As you can plainly see, there is a lot of black, and having only one of the objects in focus wasn't going to cut it. So I went out to my truck and grabbed the tripod and set it up. This shot was taken in my living room. Hahaha, trust me, the living room was totally rearranged in order to fit myself and that tripod in a comfortable working area. Also, this image was shot using a Tokina 100mm AT-X Pro Prime, it has a lot of glass to allow the most light i could possibly get to the sensor.
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Inspiration
Like many people, I still wear a watch, its simply easier to glance at my watch whilst driving, or doing the dishes, than say, to dig out my cell phone. The knife is a tool i would be lost without. I awoke in the middle of the night, as is the usual course of events, to enjoy the peace and quiet and collect my thoughts about the on coming day. Having just put down my coffee, I looked at the table and thought to myself ....throughout my life, even through my stint as a NAUI Master Diver in the Caribbean i have always had these things with me day to day.
Over the years, some people have asked what does a diver need with a knife? Are you just being macho? Are you going to fight a shark? No, but, can you imagine getting caught up in fishing line? In the ocean, around the gorgeous reefs, fisherman have lost or left behind a bit of this invisible, quite strong material. Just imagine being stuck on the bottom of the ocean, trying to free yourself from a mess of this stuff.
Anyways, I just thought it might be a challenging photo .....so, out came the tripod.
Editing
I usually do post-processing on 99% of my photos mainly just to correct the horizon lines, although i have been getting better! As well if I see something that captures my interest in a photo I will usually remove some shadows and and enrich the colors just a touch. I prefer to leave as much of the original ambiance as possible, however occasionally I may try to introduce a new color to give the photo a little more personality.
Here on this particular shot, i added a small amount of vignetting, it's something i never do actually....but a touch was added simply to add a bit of mystery. As well, it you observe the second hand shows the time elapsed required for the shot, 20 seconds. The sweeping red luminous hand was simply overpowering the photograph, so, this was toned down. Originally, back in the early 1900's radium was painted on by hand, quite infamously by The Radium Girls. The girls used small brushes and often painted their lips, or highlighted their eye brows, which, over time, had disastrous results.
In my camera bag
I don't really have a lot cameras and lenses. A recent acquisition is an HX-80 by Sony, if its not in my shirt pocket, its in my tool bag. Its Zeiss lens covers an equivalent 24-720mm range It is a versatile little camera that truly fits in my shirt pocket. Another camera that I possess is .....by todays standards, quite old.
I present the Nikon D70s 6,1 MP made back in 2005. This camera goes with me on all my journeys, the Caribbean, Israel, Turkey, or even my backyard. Most of my shots have been taken with the D70s, including this photo "Black Coffee". Accompanying this camera are 3 lenses. A Tokina 100mm AT-X Pro Prime which was given to me by a friend, a Tamron 28-80mm 177D, and a Tamron 70-300mm 572D. Generally speaking, the Tokina is for my macro stuff, the 28-80mm for group shots, and the 70-300mm for just about anything.
Feedback
Well I'm no expert thats for sure, that being said, I would suggest to anyone who loves photography to pursue shooting things u enjoy in your free time. Also there are a number of little groups available for free on the internet that often give out free user tips and tricks out there these days. Some of it is repetitive but there is always some little gem of knowledge in those articles. Also take as many shots as u can from different angles and distances, you may never have the time or chance to come across the subject matter again. But, for the most part, enjoy your time in the field. I really enjoy being out in nature and having an activity like photography will drag me out of my cave and off on some little adventure.