52 weeks: Week 36 wrapup

© 2010 Simon Hucko

My photo this week is a little experiment that I did with some dry ice. It's not a very interesting photo, more of a proof of concept, and I was hoping for something better to share for the week but it didn't work out that way. There are a lot of photos of dry ice on Flickr (mostly as a bubbly smoky liquid in a glass of some sort), but I wanted a different effect. I figured if a long exposure can be used to smooth out moving water, it should have a similar effect on dry ice fog. And it did. 4 second exposure lit by my trusty LED flashlight, which I think is getting close to deserving its own post. Maybe I'll do a "what's in your bag?" thing sometime soon.

This week's pick is "Big Skies over Mendon" by maryshelby:


© Mary Shelby

Big skies indeed. The wide angle really helps capture the big fluffy clouds and gives the photo a nice sense of depth. I like the little red bush (?) in the foreground, too, it adds a nice layer of interest to the photo.

This week's theme is "flare" - point your camera at a light source and let it go wild. An open aperture will give you large blobs of flare across your photo, stopping down reduces these and gives you a starburst effect around the light source(s). Try both and see what you like best.

~S

[title of blog] on flickr