Shutter speed

 Shutter Speed
All following images were taken with the following settings:
ISO: 100
F-STOP: 8-16
Time between flash: 13-30 seconds

This is one of my favorites! By slowly moving his arms in a flapping motion we created this photograph and reminds me of davinci's piece. It's very angelic and almost looks like wings or something.

I really like how you can clearly see in detail each individual step and layer in this image. I love how dark the surrounding areas are contrasted against the brightness and clarity of the facial area.

I don't particularly like this image as a whole but I like elements of it especially the bright yellow laniard spread across the image that really stands out and looks good against the dull surrounding colors.

this is probably one of the worst photographs, too much light was used resulting in this unclear shot that is too bright and blurred and not enough detail.

In this photograph we had a really good idea to stand in one place and flash the light behind us resulting in the silhouette with light surrounding it. It looks really good.

When we took this image we used more light as we got to the camera which resulted in this smoky effect that looks brilliant. Also, I really like how close tom got to the camera it finishes it off and adds a main focal point to the photograph.

This image was clearly a fail, the lighting was too dark and there clearly wasn't enough movement involved resulting in a boring photograph.

I really like this image because of the amount of compiled images we were able to fit into it and the lighting is just right.

This image probably would have been better if our faces weren't as bad and looked like we were actually aware of the images being taken, it makes the photographs look very amateur and was a complete fail.

We added a lamp shade into the equation and has resulted in some really interesting images and shapes.

I've came across a lot of photographers that experiment with shutter speed, but I came across an amateur class of photographers like our group who've made a blog and displayed their experimental shutter speed images on it like we have and i really like them, they've experimented more with UV light more than anything and looks really good.
Here are some examples of their blog work photographs:

Macro lens photography images

Macro Lense Shots
Here are the photographs I have taken during my first experience with a macro lense, altogether there are 15 images that are all relative to one another surrounding the theme of portraits/figure. All images were taken on the same settings:
Shutter speed: 1/40
F-stop: 2.8
ISO: 400 
I really enjoyed my first encounter with the macro lense simply because I love detail and the macro lense allows you to see everything close up and makes any picture you take look professional and is easy to use.
Here are the images I took and my opinions on each individual one even though I love them all as a collective group of images I really like some more than others.

Here is the first one, (all these images are in order to which I took them) It's a photograph of Tom's eye, I like this photo because instead of making the eye the main focus in the centre of the photo I've included the skin around the eye which I thought had really nice texture to it and is something we don't really pay attention to and was interesting to look at all the deep wrinkles, the changes in texture of the skin and the over all shapes around the eye. The eye itself is beautiful because it's so dark and deep and really brings some depth into the image. Over all I like this photograph and would definitely use it again in my work.

Here is an image I took close up of Tom's fingers, this is a favourite of mine simple because I love the detail and how the lense allows you to see even the smallest wrinkle in the fingers and around the knuckles. The lighting is particularly good in this photograph because theres dark shadow in some areas and in others the light is so bright and reflective against the skin and helps to highlight small detail again. I also love how I've got the focus on one main object and the other fingers are slightly more blurred I think it looks rather professional and artistic.

Here is an image of a wide smiling set of teeth, another example of facial features inkeeping with the theme of portraits and the figure, I like the photo because of how much it fills the frame in without being to overpowering. Also, the detail in the lips and the way the light bounces off them looks really good.

I took this picture of Sophie's piercing not just because it's a facial feature but because I'm including piercings in my current art project and the detail is lovely on the metal because it's a reflective surface.

Again, another hand piece, I particularly like this photograph because it's a pose I'm very farmiliar with (Holding a pen or pencil) and I think the close up of this looks great because of how complicated it looks and I think that's what a macro lense needs; more complicating objects to get more detail off. I like how the dark shadows in the centre of the hand contrast against the rest of the image which is rather light and less detailed compared to the deep wrinkled surface of the inner hand.

I don't really like this image mainly because it is of myself, but I like lips as a symbol, particularly red lips. They can mean a number of things: lust, passion, love, seductiveness, danger... and I think to use this photograph as a symbolic piece would be a really good idea because it's a bright bold colourful image and would definitely fit into my work because it's feminine and bold. I also like that the lips are red but the lipstick is so reflective that when the light touches the small detailed panels of skin it glows bright white.

I don't particularly like this piece I think it doesn't look good at all, there's no real quality in it as a photograph. The lighting isn't effective and the majority of the picture is blurred and has no real focus.

I like this picture because it's one of my more abstract images, it could be arm hair, leg hair, a beard, head hair pretty much from anywhere and there is an extreme amount of detail especially in the roots where the skin is and where the light touches the hair it glows golden which I like.

Here is another abstract piece.. it's actually a hairline under a hat, I really like how I've got the focus on the hairline only and that the hat and skin is more blurred and out of focus.

I absolutely love this picture of Sophie's hair.... mainly because Sophie has beautiful hair but I love how it curls and all the different colours combined entwine around eachother and the lense has captured each hair individually. I think it looks brilliant.

I also really like this image mainly because Sophie's eyes look full of emotion but also because the lense has picked up small detail in the small piece of hair and focused mainly on one eye, I love the detail in her green eyes against the paleness of her skin.

This is my favourite image of them all, it's raw and most find it disgusting but I absolutely love it because of the angle of the camera, the amount of detail inside the eye and that the focus is only on the centre in the eye, it brings the whole collection of images that seem random together.

I love the dark chocolatey tones in this picture, another abstract one, and the amount of detail in the hair. Even though it's not necessarily interesting it's still beautifully detailed which is what I was more concerned about.

Artist Research
Because I'm focusing my main project on the figure/portraiture and mixing in natural imagery I've decided to contrast this macro lense part of my blog so that I have evidence of them both and focusing my research on natural imagery. Also, I think nature is the number one topic to photograph when it comes to macro lense because then we can see even the smallest details in the smallest creatures and usually the photo's are beautiful, unique and contain things we'd never thought we'd see.

Leon Baas
Leon is a Dutch photographer with a huge passion for photographing insects in their natural habitats, he experiments with lighting, uses a special wide angle macro lense and also has self made depth of field filters that he uses to try and capture these bugs in many different ways. Here are some examples of his work:

This is the picture that inspired me to involve this photographer in my work research, I honestly think it's absolutely beautiful, reflective surface of the water absorbs all the colours of the flower/plant and gives the whole photograph a feminine feeling. I love the detail on the ant itself and how you can even see the small hairs on it's legs and back. The lighting is perfect and creates shadows in all the right places and is overall a stunning piece of photography.

This is another piece that I thought was too beautiful to leave out, it's called "Vagrant Darter in his habitat" and is wonderfully detailed. I love the glass-like wings and how the lense has picked up the light reflecting off them, and the furry legs and even the light hitting his eyes, the background is beautiful and all the green imagery looks amazing and is again a wonderful piece of macro lense photography.