The theme for this week’s 52 Week Project was humorous. The original plan was to acquire a pair of googly eyes (Not sure where my original pair is) and put them upon the dogs and capture them in a manner similar to this image of Axle from 2013.

Unfortunately, googly eyes seem to not be trending these days so I had to settle for a pair of nerd glasses and pair of aviator sunglasses. First up was Bender, who sported the aviators and my Nerf bandolier for a badass look. For the most part….

Icey’s turn for the aviators. She wears them like a pro as she’s had many a pair of sunglasses set upon her face, but to add a humorous element, I had her bark (she’s my only dog who will bark on command). The aviators clung to her face for dear life, and the element of a dog treat in my hand helped create some AMAZING drool!

Bring out the nerd glasses! They were novelty nerd glasses with a complementary swath of athletic bandage tape on the bridge, which I removed. This in turn made them look a little more like hipster glasses vs nerd glasses, but the right face could make them look more one way or another.  Bender rocked them first, and no I didn’t pose his feet, that’s all him.

Icey didn’t want to be left out. The nerd glasses were a smidge small on her noggin but boy did they hang on for her barks!

Next up, visit Kim with BARKography based out of Charlotte NC to see how she captured humorous!

(Did you see me in the aviators?)

 

This week’s theme for the 52 Week Project was flare. The goal was to create a flare with a series of different lenses, so as to know how each lens would create flare and how to work around it. The lenses chosen were the 10-24mm, the 85mm & 28mm freelens all mounted on my Nikon D750.

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First up, the 10-24mm – aka the creakasaurus.

Not nearly as much flare as I would have expected! This lens is made by Tamron and a bit of a middle of the road lens (it is designed for crop sensors – but works on a full frame!). The lack of flare means Tamron has a solid handle on their lens coatings which helps to negate flares (I also had a circular polarizer on, not sure if that would make a difference….). At least I got a cute little sunburst from shooting stopped down at f9!  The lens is called creakasaurus because it is MEGA noisy when it autofocuses – it fell to the floor of a Jeep, and ever since it makes an awful racket. Really fun when you’re in a quiet area…. haha!

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Next up was the new to me 85mm f1.8 D. Snagged it used on Ebay, its original owner purchased it new in 1999! This means the coatings on the glass are older (at least 17 years old!) and more prone to create a flare. And boy did it!

Giant rainbow flares! Wide open and stopped down! What a treat (though if I didn’t want the flares, what a mess!). This lens also trends towards a very heavy blue tone, all correctable in lightroom.

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The 28mm freelens was up next. Freelensing is holding the unmounted lens in front of your camera. This allows you to manipulate the in focus areas similar to a tilt shift lens. Plus there’s the chance of light leaks and flares happening! This particular freelens is a Tamron Adaptall 2 with the adapting mount removed (in most cases you need to remove the rear mount of the lens so you are able to get it closer to the sensor so your camera can “see” through it).

Freelensing is very challenging with dogs (or anything that moves) because you are manually focusing a very narrow area that can be changed with the tiniest tilt or shift from you or the dog. There are some very tiny minor flares on the right side of the image (I was kinda thinking there may be more…) – not sure if this was due to the lens being used as a freelens or if it was due to the lens (this is a vintage lens, possibly from the 70s or older).

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Since the 85mm was throwing some very solid flares, it was remounted and I continued to see how I could force them and manipulate the flares. Plus the bokeh on the lens is very pretty 🙂

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The following morning, the 85mm &  I adventured outside in our pjs and Bender to see how the flare was in the morning. Oofda! That’s a lot of light! But the flare was kind of neat as it framed Bender.

Next up visit Pet Love Photography, serving Greater Cincinnati and the San Francisco Bay Area and see how she managed to capture flares!

This week’s 52 Week Project theme was silhouettes. Icey, my rottie, was this week’s model. She’s been aging gracefully in her 10 years, though her hearing has been departing her as of late. This means those head tilts she has been known for are replaced with direct stares of body language reading. Luckily, she has a plethora of hand signals under her belt and since she watches me its easy to direct her (unless she’s in the yard facing the fence, only then does the biggest bellowing get her attention, sometimes).

Loaded up for a car ride, our destination 5 minutes away and the light fading fast. The destination, a little used sand pit, loomed like faux mountains against the sky. We spooked up a whitetail who veered away from us into the brush lining some of the smaller sand “mountains”. In rounding one particularly “hairy” mountain (it was covered with tall stringy plants and grasses) when a snort was issued and 3 whitetail deer shot out of the brush! They gave me a solid start and Icey watched with interest as they bounded away. The light was continuing to die (clouds on the horizon, ugh!) so we made our way to a small rise that was less “hairy” than some of the others. Behind this little mound of dirt was a calm little pond that was playing host to a trio of sandhill cranes! They gave a couple of squawks and flew out of view.

The silhouette images started. Icey watched me most of the time, though I wasn’t able to use words to get her to look away from me for a profile shot. Luckily, there were lots of little rocks that I could toss past her to catch her attention.  The end results.

Visit Northeast PA Pet Photographer, I Got The Shot Photography to see how she captured silhouettes!

This week’s theme was shadows. The evening approached and I snagged the slightly tuckered out Axle for a short walk to the elementary school in search of shadows. Without proper motivation (the biscuit just wasn’t enticing enough) I managed a handful of images before Axle decided that actually going on a walk was more fun. We popped over to the playground to see if we could get some interesting shadows out of vibrant pieces of equipment, then meandered around until the mosquitos threatened to carry us off.

Next up, stop over to I Got the Shot Photography, Elaine Tweedy, Northeast PA Pet Photographer and see how she interpreted shadows.