GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Month: August 2015

  • negative space and dates (otp91)

    My wife’s parents are drying some dates from the garden. So while I was taking photos for the “negative space” assignment I was able to get a few interesting photos with the baby and the dates. In general I think the dark grass made for stronger negative space shots, but I liked these as a series of explorations.

    5-150824-d40-9104
    7-150824-d40-9086
    6-150824-d40-9071
    Big Belly
    Big Belly
  • the office restroom

    Lately I’ve been reading William Eggleston’s Guide and Stephen Shore’s Uncommon Places.

    Which led me to take a few photos that tried to capture that plainspoken ethos…from my office restroom.

    150821-i5c-5296
    150818-i5c-5218
    150818-i5c-5220
  • upside down (otp173)

    Unlike the previous assignment, we happened to have a moment when we went to sprouts without the baby. I realized this was most likely my one chance to just shoot away and even though I forgot my D40, the iphone did quite well in the bright environs of the supermarket.

    One advantage of the iphone is that it facilitates a different shooting style and let me compose a shot without my eyeball in the viewfinder, which was quite necessary when digging into the cheese fridge. This was also one of the few items that was naturally upside down.

    Upside Down
    Upside Down

    There was also some green peppers

    Green Pepper
    Green Pepper

    And an artichoke that was invading the eggplants

    Artichoke
    Artichoke

    And a box of mac and cheese…but I cheated on that one.

    150819-i5c-5267
  • favorite things (otp172)

    The assignment for OTP 172 was Favorite Things. It would have been a fairly natural assignment but we were caught up in putting down the wood floors in the kitchen and barely had a moment to breathe. As such it turned out to be an all iphone assignment, with shots grabbed around and about my day.

    air conditioning and a rabbit
    air conditioning and a rabbit
    my ever changing signature
    my ever changing signature
    every once in a while I get to actually design at my job
    every once in a while I get to actually design at my job
  • parking lot (otp171)

    I accidentally thought Harbor Freight opened up at 7am instead of its actual opening at 8am, so I spent about 45 minutes wandering around taking shots. My favorite turned out to be this shot of the Home Depot parking lot behind Harbor Freight.

    home depot
    Home Depot

    But I did find an interesting little present on the ground at Harbor Freight.

    150807-i5c-5038

    I also went to the neighboring park and found a couple nice more ephemeral item on the ground.

    150807-i5c-5068

    Made some bokeh with the iphone

    150807-i5c-5076

    And here’s a little fun with a self portrait

    150807-i5c-5087
  • crayons

    A couple months ago we got some crayons for the baby.

    It didn’t take long for her to use it on more than just paper. When the paper hit the floor and the crayons did too.

    setting
    setting

    I tried some close up photos, most of which were kind of meh, but I really really like this photo. Its just a nice simple composition.

    abstract
    abstract

  • abstraction (otp158)

    OTP 158 had an assignment abstraction. Its been hanging over my head for the past couple months as I’ve been taking different abstracts as I pass through the world, but I finally decided to go ahead and upload them. I might keep doing it…or maybe not…but it was time I shipped.

    swatches
    swatches

    This is what I uploaded to the OTP group. The swatches came out really well and was just a strong graphical item.

    However I did a whole bunch of other photos I want to upload so here you go:

    Window Blinds really create some nice effects.

    Blinds
    shades
    Shadows
    shadows

    Like the shadows, I found that some of the photos were much more interesting with just a little insertion of people into the picture. Of course my dughter always wins for me, but so do strangers.

    Stripes
    stripes
    Tiles
    grid

    While at Jack in the Box, I also came across a really interesting situation at the dining counter. I tried several views but I am quite partial to this one with a perspective…but cut dead horizontal.

    Backsplash and Wallpaper
    dots

    Close ups of the glass espresso cup at the coffee shop up the street also worked nicely.

    glass cup without espresso
    glass

    And while looking at closeups, here is one of something that is so familiar that I can barely think of something more banal…my car seat cover.

    Cover
    pattern

    Interesting assignment all in all…but I’m happy its out the door now.

  • Tokina 500mm f/8, Cadatropic Lens

    When I first got my Nikon D40, I took a self portrait in the bathroom at Grant Street. I did the same when I got my manual focus 50mm lens. And then I got a 500mm f/6.3 lens which I’ve since given to my father. And thus ended that run of self portraits that was intended to celebrate each addition to the collection.

    But quite by accident I ended up taking a shot of myself with my Tokina 500mm f/8 lens. I had pulled out this lens due to the “watching/voyeur” assignment on OTP and I saw a glimpse of myself in the sliding glass door and took a couple shots of myself. Its not perfect, between the vanishingly thin DOF and the longish shutter speed, it wasn’t gonna be clean, but its good enough to kick up the collection again.

    Tokina 500mm f/8
    Tokina 500mm f/8