Friday, November 18, 2011

to whom credit is due

[click on image to enlarge]

The talent of Mark Highton-Ridley was featured at our friend Betty's blog. One flower (photo) in particular got my attention, and the creative technique inspired me to try something similar. The b&w image was called, "Lighting the Cosmos."

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I snapped this photo at night. First, I focused on the faux flowers, and made sure it was set to manual. Then, I set up an off-camera flash to the right, and turned the lights off. Since I do not have remote flash capability, I flipped up my camera's flash and deflected it to an optical slave flash trigger with a steel spatula from the kitchen. I was happy with the results, and I hope you like it as well.

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Now, here's the plot twist... I went back to Betty's, so I could give credit to Mark for his idea, and here's what I found. My brain got things jumbled up. I somehow thought that he did a night shot with off-camera flash, but the strong side lighting was all natural... from a sunset.

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Praise God for his handiwork in creation and for the talent he lavished on Mark. Praise the Lord also for the grace he bestows on us by allowing such occasions that our accidents and misinterpretations can sometimes have an aesthetic element to them.

15 comments:

Betty Manousos said...

my hat's off to you!

i have to say that your flower photo is really gorgeous!
very well done:)
the composition and colours are really terrific!


thanks so much for mentioning me in your post. much appreciated!


have a wondrous weekend!

Betty Manousos said...

...and great lighting, too!

Carletta said...

I saw Betty's post and looked around Mark's site. Now I'll have to click back there and take another look.
I think your image is quite lovely Craver!
I looked at Mark's work and said wow, wish I could do that. He has tremendous talent.

happyone said...

Wow, that is quite a shot. So very pretty!

HightonRidley said...

Hi Craver VII - thanks so much for the kind things you've said about my work. Betty let me know about this post, so thanks to her as well :>)

Jackie said...

I knew that men could use kitchen spatulas and I was right!! (again)
Smiles to you, Craver.
Beautiful job!!
Jackie

George said...

I think this is a marvelous picture, even if you misunderstood how the inspiration made. Very well done. Have a great weekend.

Craver Vii said...

Glad you liked the post, Betty. Thanks for showing us what Mark was doing. That's great work!

I have never taken any photography classes Carletta, but I'm always learning by looking at the work that others have done, and I love it when they explain how they did something. ...like the cool landscape you did with the textured sky.

Thank you, Happyone! That's from our fall decorating at home.

Craver Vii said...

It was a treat to see your brilliant work, Mark. It is so cool to see that you visited my humble ramblings. Maybe you were just curious. Be careful... you know what they say. Curiosity killed the cat. :-)

I have a bad reputation in the kitchen, Jackie. The thing I do best is scrub the pots (lol). If I wasn't married to a great cook, I'd weigh 80 pounds. Have a blessed weekend.

So glad you like the picture George. Peace to you and Betsy.

imac said...

Pure Magic.
I love Marks work also, he has helped me a lot with my shots with advice.

He's a real photographer.

EG CameraGirl said...

I've never thought of using a steel spatula! That is soooo creative!

Shammickite said...

That's a really lovely picture, I love the shadows on the petals.

Wendy said...

This picture looks like it's been shot either at sunrise or sunset, I can't believe it was shot at night! Very beautiful and creative.

Craver Vii said...

Advice from good sources is a great thing, Imac. I hope you know that I am open to a critique from you any time, my friend.

(lol) I'm not quite ready to keep a spatula in my camera case EG, but it seemed practical for the moment.

Did you zoom in on it, Shammy? I found a checkered shadow pattern from the light that got filtered through the leaves. That's a first!

Wendy, the upcoming challenge for these Chicagoland winters will be to find something inside to photograph. I don't have a large or fancy home, so it will be tricky. You might find more of these still-life portraits here in the next few months.

lime said...

i like when you tell us about the particulars of your experiments. helps me learn too.