• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

A Shell of My Former Self

That is, if I was once a sea creature. I have taken a challenge of a friend and started a Picture A Day project. I have been pretty lazy lately for one reason or another and have not been shooting much of anything. I started this project only in hopes of getting some inspiration or at least the motivation to get back behind my camera again. I am already finding it quite a challenge to come up with ideas and it is only the third day of the new year. This picture was my New Year's Day picture, the first in the project. The second photo was of my laptop screen displaying this same photo! How lazy is that? Hopefully I will get more into it as it goes along.
Lazy James Newman

january1small.jpg
 
Thank you Rachel. I am sorry for the late response. I did not see yours. I took this as one of my photo a day entries using my tabletop studio and Nikon macro flash system. I have a lot of other shells, starfish, etc that we brought back from North Caroline. I may try to add a few more and make a set. Thanks again for looking and commenting.
James
 
I'm not at all a professional photographer, but I do like how the shell looks glossy and shiny at the top, and how the shadow tapers in at the bottom. It looks very clean and smooth.
 
Thank you Kristen. I had some time today to spend working with some other shells we brought back from our trip to North Carolina. I try to show them in a little different way than just a photo of a shell. The symmetry of their design has always fascinated me and I enjoy trying to emphasize different aspects of that with the lighting.

James Newman

_DSC4141small.jpg
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thank you Kristen. I had some time today to spend working with some other shells we brought back from our trip to North Carolina. I try to show them in a little different way than just a photo of a shell. The symmetry of their design has always fascinated me and I enjoy trying to emphasize different aspects of that with the lighting.

James Newman

_DSC4141small.jpg
Hi James,

I do like this and the first shell picture. There are a lot of nuances one can bring out too. You picture is dark or light with little softness in between. That, however, is no fault, just one way of many in lighting the shell. Each photographer can thus develop a distinctive composition. However, even if one can imagine such an individual idea, getting that into a picture it does not necessarily come so easily.

Excuse me for now bringing in someone whose work humbles anyone even with the most creative ideas, Edward Weston who took his efforts to the extreme.

Edward Weston spent months photographing one shell. He obsessed about, wouldn't let anyone in that room as he had everything balanced perfectly and he waited for the correct light.

Shell_1927_(1S)_large.jpg


Edward Weston 1927 Natural Studies Edward-Weston.com

One result of this is that a standard of expectations in such photography has been set. You have no worry that yours is not good enough. It is very nice, but seeing the shell, I know there's more possible.

I do not know what visions you have for your pictures of the shell. However, by sharing with you the work of Edward Weston, perhaps you might get that extra creative inspiration to take your composition further. If it can be done without going against what you have in mind, try using very soft window light in the evening.
 
Thanks Asher for the comments and the story of Weston's obvious obsessions. I have plenty of time but I don't think the wife would appreciate me spending months locked in a room looking at a shell. I wonder, if after all of that time and trouble, when he finally ended up with this image, do you think he was totally and completely satisfied with it?

I will keep working at it though and trying different things to see if I can get closer to what I would consider a finished photograph. Along that train of thought, here is another two I did this morning.
James

_DSC4262small.jpg
_DSC4304small.jpg
 
Last edited:

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi James,

You are very tolerant of my views. Thanks for being kind and receptive. The pictures you have now posted appear less harsh. They seem now to be more sensitive. You are bringing out more physicality of the shells, not the obvious color as before.

Your wife has to tolerate and hopefully celebrate these struggles! The issue is this. The camera can record anything perfectly. However that is not a photograph. We need to somehow work in our own fingerprints and feelings. It's doable, just requires work. Luckily, we have at our disposal rapid means of imaging and electronic darkrooms that give even average photographers access to opportunity where what would take months in a wet darkroom now can be done in 10-20 hours.

This has great potential. Just keep thinking about your project, sketching and everything you look at, (even what people chat about) try to import to this work. Ask is there anyway this might impact my work. Of course the answer is no 99.99% of the time. Still, your brain will do the rest of the work for you while you sleep!

Asher
 
I try to be receptive, most of the time, especially when I am receiving input or advice or criticism from someone who I believe really has an interest in what I might be doing. I appreciate your support and suggestions on things I might try as ways to improve. I also like the thought of my brain doing something positive for me even while I sleep. Recently, with my job situation that I am really tired of thinking or talking about, I have slid into a frame of mind that makes me feel like my brain is not working very well anymore. I may have to get out and start planting me some cantalope seeds.
Here's a couple more I thought I would share. One B&W and one color so as not to leave anyone out. Now I will be going to sleep and hopefully something better will come to me while I am there. Thanks.
James

_DSC4330small.jpg


_DSC4338small.jpg
 
Top