Clouds In My Coffee
Canon EOS 80D
Aperture f/8 ISO 12800 Shutter 1/250 Focal Length 100/1 
Vassar, Michigan, US
May, 2020Views
610
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Winner in Best picture 2020 Photo Challenge
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in my home, on my kitchen counter.Time
This was taken at about 10 am.Lighting
Lighting was all ambient, with no flash. There was a lot of window light that formed the reflections off the counter.Equipment
I took this with my Canon 80D, fitted with my Tokina atx-i 100mm f/2.8 lens. The camera was mounted to a tripod. ISO was 12800, aperture f/8, and shutter speed 1/250s.Inspiration
I was feeling a little blue about being confined to the house during the Covid-19 lockdown, and wanted to create an image that was both nostalgic and melancholy, but yet had a twinge of hope to it. I envisioned adding some sort of "hopeful" image to the cup, with a reflection in the puddle on the counter. I decided on one of my favorite sunset images, and used that.Editing
Yes. I first created the black and white image of the cup on the counter with the water puddled under it in Luminar 4. Then, using GIMP, I added the image of the sunset into the cup, and added the reflection with GIMP as well.In my camera bag
I typically carry my Canon 80D with five lenses (Canon 50mm f/1.8, 10-18mm wide angle zoom, 18-55mm zoom, and 55-250mm zoom, and Tokina 100mm macro prime lens). I also have my Haida M10 pro filter holder with a 10-stop ND and 3-stop GND filter and circular polarizer. Of course, I always have my standard accessories like spare batteries, lens hoods, memory cards, etc., and I carry a Godox V860-II speedlight with MagMod Sphere & MagBeam flash modifiers with color gels and gobos.Feedback
My advice is always simple...soak up everything about where you are, and feel the story that starts to reveal itself about your subject and your surroundings. I'm always amazed that eventually a compelling story begins to emerge, and my job then becomes how best to capture that story. Sometimes that's easy to do, sometimes it's damn hard, and sometimes I'm not able to do it at all. It's those times that I just enjoy the story and the moment, and then later it drives me to get better at my craft so in the future I can perhaps succeed.
