Fake Landscapes: The Book
I am thrilled to announce the release of Fake Landscapes, my first photo book. The book is a collection of macro images of fruits and vegetables, lit and shot to resemble strange terrains. No digital manipulation was used, only the very basic tweaks that any photo gets. Only lighting, perspective, and other in-camera trickery turn these potatos and avocados into scenes of various landscapes throughout the day.
Fake Landscapes is available for $35 (plus shipping) through AdoramaPix. This book looks great and feels great, and holding it my hands makes me really proud of the work inside. I wanted to publish these images in a format that I really felt they deserved, and really, they look awesome here. The pages are thick, with brilliant colors and sharp lines (the book is printed on Fuji Crystal Archive photo paper), the covers are sturdy, and the binding is strong.
You can browse through a low-resolution copy of the entire book through the ordering page, but here are a few sample images:
If these look interesting, please consider purchasing a copy — it’s a beautiful photo book, and you’re supporting my work as an independent artist. And you can check out my work through my fake landscape gallery for larger viewing or prints.
Fake Landscapes: $35 plus shipping
conflicting addictions
Originally uploaded by mehampson
Prints of this photo are available at Imagekind, and sales there support this starving artist.
Zakim Bridge
Zakim Bridge
Originally uploaded by mehampson
I’ve been playing with the 40D for about a week now, and I’ll post some more thoughts on using it tomorrow.
Lamp ablaze
Lamp ablaze
Originally uploaded by mehampson
Quick break from my 40D notes for some Strobism. This oil lamp was lit basically from below with my Vivitar 285HV flash with a Cactus V2 trigger. I put the flash in telephoto mode and dialed down to 1/16th power, and wedged it between the table and the wall, directly behind the lamp.
This got me the exposure and overall effect that I wanted, but I still needed to shape the light a bit. I took a few small business and index cards and made them into really tiny barndoors — if you could see through the lamp, you would see them behind the oil-filled bottom section — and this shaped the light along the upper section quite well. To keep the edge of the table and bottom of the lamp clean, I took small scraps of paper and placed them directly on the flash head as small gobos, really just a half inch long on either side.
I also tried using a full CTO gel over the barndoor index cards to color the upper section’s light, but ultimately had problems keeping everything tucked away without having to shoot at a really funky angle. That color looked great though, and it’s definitely a technique I’ll use in the future — directing the flash output in different areas with different coloring.
These simple elements took some minor tweaking and adjusting, poking things with pens and whatnot to get them in the right place, but it’s amazing what you can do with the contents of a desk drawer.
the charles, the weeks footbridge, cambridge
the charles, the weeks footbridge, cambridge
Originally uploaded by mehampson
I went on a photo walk today with the 28-105mm zoom, a new knock-off ebay lens hood, and a Hoya Pro1 DMC circular polarizer.
The lens hood is not the easiest thing to get on and off of the lens, but it was about a third of the price of a genuine Canon hood, so I’m not complaining. It does what it’s supposed to do perfectly: it shades the front of the lens from light coming in along the sides. That light doesn’t form part of the image, but it does affect it by reducing contrast or causing irregular splotchy bits of light to appear. Canon doesn’t ship lens hoods with most of its lenses (the professional L series are the exception) and the prices they charge are frankly ridiculous, so I’m all for getting the imitation off-brand lens hoods. The one I got even has soft black flocking on the inside, to help further reduce any reflections off of the plastic. A nice touch.
The circular polarizer is not an item I would buy cheaply. Essentially they work by filtering light based on its polarization, a characteristic the human eye can’t really detect. Glaring reflections tend to be regularly polarized, for example, and light in the blue sky, so using a circular polarizer on a bright, sunny day can seriously enhance the color and contrast of your images.
Cheaply made circular polarizers are not worth the money: they can change the focus point of the lens, reflect light back and worth between itself and the sensor, color the image, and so on — and that’s not getting into quality control problems.
Anyway, it’s getting nice enough to actually get outside and take some photos. That’s a huge relief. I can’t wait for spring, so things start to green up a bit.
Potatoscape 1
Potatoscape 1
Originally uploaded by mehampson
Someone actually googled ‘potatoscape’ and it brought them to my Flickr page. So I checked, and I am the number one search result for ‘potatoscape’.
That’s cool.
silicon garden
silicon garden
Originally uploaded by mehampson
The sharpness and detail of my macro photography has been seriously improved with my recent tripod and ballhead upgrades.