February, the second month of my monthly challenge which I created to keep me motivated while working on my photography. I picked some random subjects and the subject for February was called “Two things”.
 |
|---|
Where to start
Well this was a though month for me, to find subjects while bonded to your house and most of the times too tired to do other things. So I tried to combine my daily vitamin D walks with some photography. I ordered even a new backpack with a hip belt to get the load from my chest. Not walking every day with my gear but for a small walk it is doable for now. Try to combine the bad with the good things in life! 😃
My first thoughts for this challenge where with couples, like pepper and salt, apples and pears. But while doing this I found out that an amazing still life takes a lot of work and concentration (something I totally don’t have at the moment), you need to prepare the best circumstances for your subjects to let them shine. Another challenge would be to tell a story with your subjects in the leading roles in the picture that eventually follows.
Still life I'm trying to show here is actually how my head is in the clouds the whole day because I’m feeling like that with my drugs and my thoughts running anywhere with me. Thinking about what is wrong, and traveling away in my head to all those countries I've never been too looking for adventures. So that was basically the idea. But how do you work this out? Well I asked my parents for same colored paper and cotton and some creative lightning with some light filters will do the rest I hope. Here you can see a small part of the setup, and the next two pictures where my best results.
 |
 |
|---|---|
Discover new possibilities
During the month, I started to think all the possibilities I started to miss with my life at the moment (some amazing winds where visiting the Netherlands...). So while sitting at the couch I was checking the menu’s of my DSLR and even after ten years it still surprises me. I found out about the multi exposure option in my camera. So started to explore this option. Found out you can select older images or images you just load on your memory card. So that is what I did while I shot a new portrait. So without Photoshop you can create some interesting pictures that do look Photoshopped but it is actually done in camera.
 |
|---|
Not the best picture I’ve ever created, but my monthly challenge wasn’t even finished yet, although February seems to be a short month with its 28 days. So plenty of time ahead and I started to look around while doing my daily walks.
No one is really alone
When I started to look around during my daily walks I found a lot of groups formed by different kind of subjects. These groups were made by human hands or nature, and could be found anywhere. And when you think of two things you can start thinking in couples.
 |
|---|
 |
|---|
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|
 |
|---|
Life is full of contradictions
But if you can say couples than contradictions should count too. I found one beautiful example while walking under a clear sky but in the distance a rainfront formed above the water. There was a lot of wind so I tried to smoothen the water with my ND filter, but the wind is still visible in the rotating blades from the windmills. Because everyone thinks at the old wooden mills when they think of Holland I tried to compensate the modern tech with a old grunge Black and White look.
 |
|---|
Well there it was my winner for this month totally unexpected but this picture does mean a lot for me and shows actually pretty good how my life does look like at the moment.
Next month
March will be with a theme I still didn’t figure out completely because I try to keep all the chaos out of my life but I’m sure things will sort out and I’ll come up with at least one good picture.
PS. As you might have heard, I'm not 100% healthy at the moment. A reply at a comment can take a while. Sorry in advance for that.... 😔
Please Follow, Upvote and Resteem
If you like my content, don't forget to upvote this post and follow me for more every day life stories! Also, I will be happy if you leave a comment to tell me your thoughts and resteem this post to share my work!
Travelfeed
 |
|---|
Learn more about our travel project on Steemit by clicking on the banner above and join our community on Discord. How does travelfeed work? Simple just use the tag #travelfeed in your travel posts (min. 250 words) for a chance to be curated!
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://surfingnomad.nl/photography/photography-challenge-of-february-two-things-%f0%9f%93%b8/
Excellent shots you got here, & ideas too! Upvoted & resteemed! 😉
Posted using Partiko Android
Thank you very much sir!
May I ask what you did like the most about the ideas and what was your favorite shot?
Well, I really like the double exposed self-portrait cause it reminded me of some of my old shots while I was using the film camera. Actually, at the very moment the #self-portrait photo contest is going on & I'm organizing it! Please, be my guest! 😃 I would appreciate it!
I didn't know about the option of double exposure on DSLRs! Do you think that Canon 60D also has this option?
The long exposure of the windmills I also like a lot cause I'm fascinated with the wind & its energy! All the windmills in Croatia are made by some Dutch company & are exactly the same like those on your shot & I tried few time to capture their movement with my ND filter never successfully, mostly cause of the bad weather.
So, I like the ideas of double exposing on DSLRs, long exposure with ND filter & the story of couples & oneness! 😉
Posted using Partiko Android
Sorry for my late reply. Just checked your contest, will apply my double exposure later. First replying back to everyone otherwise I can't keep up anymore.
Back to the double exposure things. I think the Canon D60 can't do a double exposure with it's original firmware from Canon. But I hope you know the Magic Lantern software already for the Canon camera's out there? If not you can find it here. And with a quick Google search I found this, so I assume you should be able to do this double exposure trick on your D60. And it did really feel like the old days using this feature in-camera without any magic happening in Photoshop.
You need a longer shutter time for the windmills, but the trick is not to long and for me the results did work out the best with some texture from the clouds in the background or at a sunset. What ND filter are you using? Hopefully you get some nice skies to capture these mills, otherwise you should join me on one of my daily Vitamin D walks if you're ever around here 😉.
What do you think for my theme in March, need to cheat a little on that one because I didn't shoot all my ideas yet. But the theme is called chaos. What would you do with that theme?
I've heard of some alternative, so-called "pirate" softwares for cameras but I never installed any on my 60D. There's another "problem" with my 60D: I can shoot only 12 min of video without stopping. After 12 min it stops shooting automatically. Do you think that this Magic Lantern can resolve that too?
I use the 70 mm ND filter for my Canon EF-S 10-22 mm USM lens.
About your theme for March - do you also make a contest out of it?
Posted using Partiko Android
Very artistic, and new vieuws on depth pictures, great work
Hoe voel je je?
Well since I last spoke to you on the Whatsapp a lot did happen. Hope I'll find some energy to tell you all about it. How is life overthere? Just read about your Worldmap idea, that is what I call artistic. Really loving that concept. You want to know my exact location? 😉
Thanks for the picture compliments! Still, one of the things I can enjoy while bounded to my home area 😅
Yes please i ask it in the other comment, and i loved to know what the result were .... 📲📱
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by guchtere from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.
Hi, @guchtere!
You just got a 2.99% upvote from SteemPlus!
To get higher upvotes, earn more SteemPlus Points (SPP). On your Steemit wallet, check your SPP balance and click on "How to earn SPP?" to find out all the ways to earn.
If you're not using SteemPlus yet, please check our last posts in here to see the many ways in which SteemPlus can improve your Steem experience on Steemit and Busy.
Hi @guchtere!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 4.544 which ranks you at #1934 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has improved 4 places in the last three days (old rank 1938).
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 222 contributions, your post is ranked at #96.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server
What a great way to keep your photography fresh and creative. I just read your story. I hope they figure out what is wrong and you start feeling better soon.
I have to admit, being sick and not knowing what is wrong with you is no fun at all. But trying to make the best out of it and actually my photography is getting better by the time I'm doing this and I'm re-discovering the area surrounding my house and I do appreciate the beauty you can find nearby again.
Just ended up in the hospital last week, they did find something but that is a reaction not the actual problem. But it is a step closer to a solution, I hope!😅
How are you doing?
You got a 19.81% upvote from @ocdb courtesy of @guchtere! :)
@ocdb is a non-profit bidbot for whitelisted Steemians, current max bid is 60 SBD and the equivalent amount in STEEM.
Check our website https://thegoodwhales.io/ for the whitelist, queue and delegation info. Join our Discord channel for more information.
If you like what @ocd does, consider voting for ocd-witness through SteemConnect or on the Steemit Witnesses page. :)