365 Challenge #254 - Light & Drops

Today's 365 is actually a series of pics. I was playing around with a CD, oil and water drops, the macro lens and my flash. As you do :). In the end, I used no flash for these pics - the flash seemed to be blowing out all the colour, despite having dialled the power right down.

I love the abstract shapes, colours and patterns that came out of this experiment - it reminds me of planets floating out there in the universe. But, I want to keep playing with this idea. Didn't quite crack the images I had in my mind, so it'll be back to the drawing board with all the gadgets another evening :)

365 Challenge #237 - Purple Rain

365 Challenge #237 - Purple Rain, originally uploaded by Melanie Surplice.

After practicing yesterday, I still wasn't getting the look I was aiming for with the dripping tap experiment. So I set up the shot again tonight and tried a different approach.

I shot this with my trusty Canon EOS 5D Mark II with the Tamron 90mm macro lens, on f/4.5 1/40, ISO-100, WB=flash. The speedlight flash was set to +2 exposure, and I used both a red and blue Honl gel over the flash to create the funky colours. The whole rig was on a tripod and fired with a cable release. This shot is definitely sharper with a tripod - that'll teach me to be lazy!

I used a white bread board as a backdrop, which seemed to carry the red and blue reflection.

I bumped up the clarityand contrast in Photoshop and voila. I still have a another shot in mind that I've yet to create, but I'll crack it...at some point.

365 Challenge #236 - Dripping tap

Droplet III, originally uploaded by Melanie Surplice.

Inspired by this week's focus on flash, I decided to experiment with the flash and macro lens to try to capture dripping water. I really should have used a tripod - this shot was taken handheld - but I kinda like the effect.