Assignment 1.9.1

This week's assignment is as follows:

Select six letters from the alphabet and take a picture for each letter. Do not just look for letters on signs; think creatively about the shapes in nature and of objects – for example a rope laid on the ground may become an s or a w.

OR Take six images of familiar subjects from below waist height or above head height (not at the normal head height). Try to find a subject that you can photograph from above and below and from the side. Take at least one shot which is close up to the subject and one which is taken from a distance. Use this opportunity to give an unusual perspective on a familiar subject.

OR Take pictures of a place, a person and a still life. For each subject take two shots, one using landscape format and the other using portrait format, i.e. with the camera held horizontally and vertically.

I chose option 1 and these are the results taken with the Canon EOS 350D:

So far I've taken four of the six shots.

'C'

I used some of my son's marbles to compose the shot above. I had in my head the idea that they'd look bright and colourful but the whole shot looks slightly grey even though I used the best natural light I could. The flash just washed everything out so the result above is without flash. I used my Canon EOS 350D but used the portrait setting as I didn't know how to get a reasonable shot otherwise. I have little or no knowledge about how to use light as you can see, hence the slightly grey image.

'S'

Here I made an S with my son's train set. I tried a straightforward 'above' shot but it looked a bit flat so I tried to get perspective on my side by using smaller track curves nearer to me then taking the shot from an angle.

'O'

Put my lunch to work here. I obviously need a DAZ button on my camera as all my whites look grey!

'D'

I used just the bells to begin with but they seemed a bit lost so I brought in some more musical instruments to give a bit of context.

I've received loads of helpful comments and discovered that I have an auto setting on my camera so I don't have to use portrait all the time!

It was suggested that getting lower down, nearer to the final 'music' still life would give more depth and that stronger, more directional illumination would help too. I just have to work out how to rig something up now.