Re: Xtreme photography - looking for inspiration/ideas

On Mar 21, 2:39 am, Paul Furman <p...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
mark.thoma...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Every now and then I feel a bit jaded and uninspired, and like to have
a go at new stuff.

I'm currently waiting on delivery of an X400 ND filter, so I can play
around with long daylight exposures (what a daredevil I am!).

OK, so maybe 'xtreme' isn't the word (O;, but I'm after *unusual* uses
of camera equipment to get unusual results.. I'm more interested in
the image-taking than the post-processing. Any brilliant ideas out
there, other than the obvious ones? I mean, most of us know about or
have played with IR, pinhole, HDR, etc...

Maybe light painting... but there's gotta be *lots* of other less-
known ideas - what else is around?

Get a lensbaby or super fast lens for shallow DOF to go with that ND
filter. Fast wide angle lenses get a shallow DOF when shooting closeups
like a foot away and that perspective can be quite interesting. It is
fun to push the equiptment to it's limits, that makes the act of
photography more apparent. Or take a 200mm lens with 2x TC & closeup
lens at 3 feet away wide open, it can look very exciting. Catch a bee in
flight with that... panning to blur the already OOF background. Shoot
architecture with a wideangle where the distortion is extreme, that's a
challenge to get something that looks good while looking to weird. Shoot
at f/32 for extreme DOF with a tripod, include subjects from a couple
feet away to infinity in dramatic layers to emphasize 3D, not just a
traditional landscape rolling from your feet to the mountains. Show some
motion blur in that like a city scene with people & buildings at various
distances overlapping. Use a long lens that way to get xtreme
perspective compression with the moon behind a flower with a bee in
flight frozen by fill flash on a long f/22 exposure. Experiment with OOF
background in night scenes with bright highlights in the background to
find the limit of where the bokeh looks interesting without becoming
dizzying.

Thanks Paul - yep, the lensbaby intrigues me - I will look into that
one for sure. And you have made feel stupid for not thinking the
obvious - I haven't pushed my lenses to their limits, esp. with the
possibilities of mixing closeup filters and telephoto, etc. I must
find my old reversing rings, too, and slap that 50mm lens on backwards
- I don't do enough macro....

And then there's a light box to build - yep, I'm getting enthused
again - thanks guys!


.

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