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No Photoshop was used here. I just cut off my sister-in-law's arms (all three of them) and stuck them in a flower pot. Don't worry, we attached them back onto her the next day....

Definitely view as LARGE on Black. The sharpening as the photo is resized for this page makes it look a little weird. So, yeah, view LARGE! ;)

Tags:   proleshi d300s jamal josephs 50 mm 50mm 1.4 af-s hands arms growing potted flowers flower pot fingers conceptual art concept imagination photoshop

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...If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools...

-- Rudyard Kipling

» Any master you choose will one day require something from you. «

Back in March 2012, I attempted to use one of my photos to illustrate a small portion of Kipling's poem, "If—". Katrin Ray made a comment regarding what I would do with the phrase used here for the title, and since then, I've really wanted to pursue that idea, but never had the time. :( Well, now I'm on fall break and my trigger finger has been twitching to shoot SOMETHING, so I thought I would give it a go! :)

I know there could be many interpretations of this image and the portion of the poem, and I had other ideas, but we'll just leave it at that... ;) Take from it what you will.

Simple Lighting Setup:
One bare flash (manual at 1/128 power) about 6 feet in front of subject, bounced off silver reflector to add fill light on the body of subject.

Tags:   proleshi self myself window blinds window light d300s tokina 11-16 2.8 jamal josephs fire dreams master kipling bed bedroom flames nightmare agony slave engulfed blaze burning conflagration strobist nikon creative lighting conceptual advanced wireless off camera bare flash flash reflector bed sheets

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The Knife

There is a story behind the knife, and answers to all the questions, but only you know what that story is...

Lighting Setup:
1) SB-600 behind 1/8" Honl grid, about 3.5ft directly above floor, manual 1/20 power, 70mm zoom.
2) SB-600 inside 8" Honl snoot, about 4ft away from background, manual 1/80 power, 70mm zoom. Both flashes wirelessly triggered via CLS.

This is me trying to cram creativity into small amounts of time. Also, I don't do much black and white, and I would like to start exploring that area of photography a little more in the future.

Definitely View on Black, not Lightbox gray....

Tags:   nikon shoe knife cuchillo grid honl boot darkness d300s black and white black strobist proleshi 1.4 50 50 mm cls jamal af-s dark jamal josephs creative lighting creepy pronounced 'coo-CHI-yo'

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...let it burn, let it consume, spread it around...

55 matches in the shape of a heart, on a wood floor.

For me, this was a bit of a stretch in imagination. I'm not a big Valentines day celebrator, but this gave be the opportunity to try something different than what I would do otherwise. Even though I've seen variations of the heart/matches setup, I wanted to approach it in my own personal, unique way. And there's 2 things that I really enjoy in photography: bokeh and light. I'll admit, it's not technically perfect, but I like the feel of this nonetheless.....

Lighting setup: natural ambient light and the flame from one match. Natural bokeh patterns from the match sticks (it gives me ideas). :) And, I'm really starting to like this sort of candle/flame light photography. :)

It's amazing I had time to sit down on the wood floor and play with matches. The setup took about 10 minutes.

Thanks to everyone for the time they took to stop by the last photo. :)

Tags:   match ignite ignition symbolic symbolism d300s proleshi wood fire 50 mm jamal josephs flame valentine's day love valentine ambient light 50mm 1.4 af-s heart

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...as soon as we take care of the floating problem...

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Lighting Setup:

1) remote SB-600 at 1/32 power through 42" shoot through umbrella, camera right and in front of mug
2) bare remote SB-600 at 1/8 power, camera left and bounced off ceiling

Both fired via Nikon CLS
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Hey, another enormous "THANKS" for all the comments, faves, invites, etc, on the previous photo.

I've been super busy due to starting a new job....been pretty much tied up the entire week, so looks like Flickr will have to be a once-a-week thing... other than the holidays... and until things slow down.....

Have a great weekend (whatever's left of it).

[Explored, November 23, 2010, #36] ---Thanks again all! :)

Tags:   18-55mm plate mug silverware fork spoon cup dinner dining dinner time nikon d300s strobist umbrella proleshi sb-600 cls jamal josephs float hover 18-55 remote flash fly levitate

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