Some of my work....slightly off topic.

[Ice Tigre]

Hey guys,

I finaly decided to show some shots I did last summer, a couple of these I could have submited for the last contest, but I wasn't comfortable enough with them, for that.

The guns are mostly the center of atention, but there is a knife there in a couple.
I over lit them from a certain point of view, but I was realy liking the golden tone, and highlights.

working an idea I had, for the same knife, through different time periods;





Classic "guns and cards" theme;







See if you can find the artistic error in that last one.....

Any and all comments apreciated.

G.

(no Jim Beam comercial intended... )

[Buddy Thomason]

I enjoyed looking at these - thanks for sharing them. The notion of "working an idea" (in this case with photos) is a great one and through the progression you are really zero-ing in.

Experimenting with the golden tones and highlights is also fun and creates an interesting mood. IMO, you captured it best in the last image. The golden tone is there but doesn't overpower the other elements of the image. Another way of looking at it is that the contrast is nicely balanced - every color and every shade from light to dark is visible and more balanced.

I also like the composition of the last image the best - the arrangement of things is more pleasing to my eye. You could try and center things a little differently and rotate the camera so the lines through the floor aren't at quite as much of an angle. You could separate the objects just a little so, for example the trigger of the lower gun doesn't overlap the card as much. There's a million little things one could do but that's the beauty of 'working an idea' and in the end you'll get better and better at 'seeing' the final image in your head first, thus reducing the number of times you have to shoot, adjust, shoot, adjust, shoot, adjust etc.

I also like the next to last image for all the same reasons mentioned above plus the grain in the knife handle is real nice. I don't know what the artistic error is in the last one. The only slight goof I see is that in the middle image (#3 from the top or bottom) the prop you used to tilt the knife up a bit is showing. It's an easy mistake to make and when it happens to me I wind up either re-shooting the image or photoshopping it out.

Hope you'll share more of your efforts here. That's how we all learn!

[Ice Tigre]

Thank you. It means a lot.

Yes, I think your righ about the color on the last one. It hit the closest to what I wanted. The idea was the cast from a close oil lamp, in a semi dark room... I had sun light, 3 60 watt bulbs in a chadalier over the table and 2 40 watt spot lights on it.....

I did take these with variations in the light, but the only difference was, that the shadows were either too hard, or there weren't any.

I would like to open it up some, I was having a hard time getting things in frame. I need a higher tripod.

The artistic(maybe not the right word) error is that I have 3 sevens, and 3 queens in that poker hand. I've played enough 5 card draw... but I missed it until hours later. I hadn't noticed the piece holding the knife up... coins if I recall correctly.

G.

[SharpByCoop]

Somehow I missed this whole thread. Nice work, Gary. I see you had fun. Buddy covered the aspects nicely. I would only comment that you may try cropping in tighter and letting the guns, cards, bottles all run out of the photo, but still knowing what they are.

Keep at it!

Coop

[skipknives]

if i'm playing cards with somone, and they come up with 6 cards in thier hand they better hope i'm a friend cuz if not,,then guns are the last thing that needs to be on the table.
Skip

[Ice Tigre]

Thanks Coop! I Apreciate it.

I'll keep that in mind.

G.

[Ice Tigre]

Yea Skip, I know what you mean!

I've got a friend that actualy played a game where everybody had a rifle and a pistol either on them or in close proximity.... Hunting camp can provide some interesting situations.

G.