Picture of Squirrel view in tree

vipgraphx · Feb 5, 2012

I was out walking around this morning and decided to try something different.

Bossy · Feb 5, 2012

I feel like I'm playing Ispy. I can't find the squirrel!!

Interesting image though. That large portion of tree in the bottom corner messes it up for me though, its almost like a thumb over the lens.

Austin Greene · Feb 5, 2012

Bossy said:
I feel like I'm playing Ispy. I can't find the squirrel!!

Interesting image though. That large portion of tree in the bottom corner messes it up for me though, its almost like a thumb over the lens.

I believe its intended to simulate the view from a squirrel climbing a tree, not to actually have one in the photo. Its an interesting concept, though I think I would have preferred if you shot from a higher branch looking out onto a landscape, with the branch quartering off towards the horizon. That might give more of a peaceful feel to the photo, but I do like the concept of being very low to the surface of the tree/branches.

vipgraphx · Feb 5, 2012

Just loaded another one.

I see what your saying about the lower left. I used that area to rest my camera on. The squirrel eye view was just a way of thinking if you were a squirrel in the tree how it would look. There is really no squirrel sorry if it is confusing.

I never take pictures like this. I could not really find anything interesting to take where I was at so I tried something different.

Bossy · Feb 5, 2012

Oooh I see. Duh. Well, I do think your on to something, I find it fun to look at, anyway.

onelove · Feb 8, 2012

vipgraphx said:
Just loaded another one.

I never take pictures like this. I could not really find anything interesting to take where I was at so I tried something different.

Excellent way to train your eye. Always keep looking in new directions and taking new risks. We only begin to learn when we push our boundries into the unfamiliar.

My mentor 35 years ago used to give me training challenges. As we were out exploring with our cameras he would reach into his bag, grab a random roll of film and throw it as far as he could. My task was to place my right foot on the spot where it landed, load the film and shoot the entire roll in 5 minutes without lifting my foot. I never knew what film it would be until I got there. It could be B&W, color slide, print, infrared, photo micrography or anything else. He would intentenially throw me curve balls to make it a real challenge.

I had to assess the scene, find interesting subjects and compositions and produce images suitible for the film type. He would critique them and if I got one or two decent images he would be happy. 3 or 4 and he would be ecstatic and give me a small reward like a pizza. I often came up blank. He was a very tough judge

This led to my very first HDR photo.

One day he tossed out some graphic arts reduction film into a huge open lawn. The film was around ASA50 and produces fine grain pure black or white with no gray. It was used for graphics reduction masking and was never intended for any sort of camera or field work. The scene had absolutly nothing of visual interest, especially for the film type. What can you do with extreme contrast in a field of gray?

I shot my own foot with 6 different exposure levels at ASA 1000. Then I called a few other people over and shot all of our feet the same way. I ended up with 6 images of 6 exposure each. I pushed the heck out of the film with Rodinal and produced some major grain patterns. A lot of experimenting with exposure layering in the final print process gave me psuedo gray tones made up of the blocky grain patterns. It brought out the rough textures in the blue jeans, socks, sneakers and grass in a way that is almost exactly like what we find with modern HDR processing.

I presented him with 6 final prints. He just stared at them for about an hour and then took me out and bought me a new lens. The next day all 6 were on his studio wall.

VIP, I really enjoy your work. Your vision is really growing. Keep at it and keep experimenting. You are on a good path.

onelove