November Storm

Hi Folks,

Just sharing an image I took this afternoon.



As the sleet came down diagonally in a brief storm, the leaf happened to stick to my kitchen window.

Image was taken on a 1Ds Mark III with a TS-E 90mm @ f/4.0 to get a blurred tree in the background. A bit of tilt was used to get better DOF, since I had to shoot the leaf at an angle in order to position the tree in the background. The leaf was composed off center, suggesting windblown speed. I Photoshopped (moved) one raindrop that didn't help the composition.

Bart

Hi Bart,

I do like the tension caused by the leaf not being in the strongest position, a little up and the the left. Like this one really does feel it has moved there at an angle given the directions of the rain against the window. The vague misty background with the faint mysterious limbs of blackness, add to the sense of restricted avalibility of space wide open space to us, right now.

When I see this, the scene seems rather personal as my space has shrunk and the windscreen of the car now represents not a window I see through, but rather part of an enclosure that tends to have me thinking inwardly and about my situation at that time.

Do any of these feelings have have resonance with you?

Thanks for sharing this captivating image.

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Hi Bart,

I do like the tension caused by the leaf not being in the strongest position, a little up and the the left. Like this one really does feel it has moved there at an angle given the directions of the rain against the window. The vague misty background with the faint mysterious limbs of blackness, add to the sense of restricted avalibility of space wide open space to us, right now.

When I see this, the scene seems rather personal as my space has shrunk and the windscreen of the car now represents not a window I see through, but rather part of an enclosure that tends to have me thinking inwardly and about my situation at that time.

Do any of these feelings have have resonance with you?

Thanks for sharing this captivating image.

Asher

Click to expand...

Hi Asher,

Everything photographic about the image was quite deliberate, once it happened. I tried to capture my feelings.

My attention was first caught by the position of the leaf in relation to the direction of the rain/sleet/hail that suddenly started coming down propelled by gusts of wind, it suggested movement. I then started experimenting with the position of the blurred tree in the background, while avoiding that it would become more than vaguely noticable/present. Then I tried to capture the windspeed in a still image by positioning the leave in an almost (but not quite) golden section position, on it's way to be blown out of the image, thus re-enforcing the sense of motion/speed. I tried different positions before I settled for that one, IMO it triggered the best sensation of motion, caught at the last moment before it disappeared. I did have to move one drop on the window because it didn't contribute where it originally was.

Because the surroundings have been anonimized in OOF blur, the scene could have unfolded anywhere, so it becomes easy to imagine oneself watching it happening from a dry enclosure, waiting for the storm to pass. So yes, a somewhat dreamlike moment of reflection/introspection is provided.

Bart

Hi, Bart,

Bart_van_der_Wolf said:

Hi Folks,

Just sharing an image I took this afternoon.

Click to expand...

Exquisite!

So resourceful to use the TS-E.

Doug_Kerr said:

Exquisite!

So resourceful to use the TS-E.

Click to expand...

Thanks Doug.

The TS-E lenses, especially the 90mm, are a joy to use. It offers so much more control, over perspective by shifting it parallel to the sensor-plane, and over in-focus and out-of-focus areas with tilt of the focus plane. It is also very sharp/contrasty (even at wide apertures) due to it's simple few elements design, so one can use whichever aperture is needed to get the desired effect, without compromise. Shallow DOF can be combined with a tilted focus plane, and it even focuses as close as 50cm. A close-up lens or extension ring or extender also work fine for close-up photography. Versatility to the max, in a small package.

It's manual focus, but that's hardly a drawback. One is only limited by one's creativity.

Bart