using odd combos

I was messing around with my auto timer and my cell phone camera today and some some odd portraiture continued. Restricting light and detail with screens and square formats seemed to be the theme today.

imagination at work

Imagination running wild. Believe it or not, this whole scene was carefully crafted, the carpet represents water, and the laundry basket and chair are mountains. I mostly play the role of some bad guy who needs to be jailed in Batman's cave. The remotes were also recovered during this session, thank god.

Canon Lens Cleaning

Having fun reassembling this unit, NOT! The good thing is, it worked. The dirt chunk is out, and it again functions.

A whole day of random shooting

Photography started on my way in to work today (6:23) through three walking trips with my Photo 2 classes (12:42). These are eight of the shots I liked, I kept it simple doing very little in Photoshop as usual.

Strange Portraits

We were playing around with some odd takes on portraiture. Cherie shot this RAW file of me hiding my face, and I liked it, so I went ahead and adjusted it, did some dodging and burning and printed it as a negative onto transparency film. We then placed the transparency film over a sheet of 8x10" Ilford B&W photo paper and exposed it for 5 seconds with a #3 polycontrast filter and this is what we got.

Water Motion Study

I returned to a spring in the woods that only remains active for a short time in the spring. We were playing with diffused flash and really fast shutter speeds, some as fast as 1/4000 of a second at f 2.8.

Rotting Buses Revisited

Taking a monotone approach to the ruins and it's surroundings.

Some of my Handmade Books

I went through a period were I built and bound several mixed media books that dealt with issues such as: space exploration, environmental strain, and land usage. There are more examples on my site:
http://ryanmcdonellphotography.com

yard findings

Playing around with settings again. Trying to stay at ISO 50 even with wind, so I was at f1.4 and 1/1000 of a second for one of the shots, f2.8 for the others.

friends

These two could do this all day.

rusting buses

Once in awhile I'll come across decay that's fun to examine and photograph. We found these old buses rotting away and of course we had to snap some shots. I always think about that show on the History Channel "Life Without People" when I find abandoned structures, vehicles, and objects. These buses are returning to the earth pretty fast, they're actually sinking into the mud.

Hamlin Beach

Hamlin Beach was gorgeous this morning and it was practically vacant. I had to shoot some engagement shots so my wife and son tagged along to play in the sand. I finished my work and walked down to meet them taking some shots of things along the way. I was again amazed at clear the water looked and what interesting reflections and textures were available to shoot. Fun little trip.