Animal Allies – Sterilisation day

Last month I joined Animal Allies in Katlehong township, where they hosted a sterilisation day; basically, this entailed providing members of the township with free, on-site sterilisations for their dogs and cats. I’ve done similar work before, but I was nevertheless shocked by the conditions those animals are living in, and the overwhelming ignorance surrounding them.

The surgeries took place in a make-shift classroom / operating-theatre at a community centre in Katlehong. About eight or nine vets helped out, along with numerous veterinary nurses.

The room was lit with stunning window light, which made for some great silhouettes.

This little dog just about broke my heart.  He was emaciated, and covered in mange.  I can only imagine the pain he was in, and yet he was friendly and eager to play. At the end of the day, some vets from Bromhof Veterinary Clinic were kind enough to take him back with them, and he has since recovered.

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Altogether, 72 dogs and 12 cats were sterilised. How incredible is that?!

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One Photo Focus – February 2016

After-Before Friday is an event which allows photographers to share their processed images, and, if they choose, their post-processing steps. On the first Friday of the month, all participants have the opportunity to edit the same photo in the “One Photo Focus” challenge.

It’s been a while since I’ve taken part, but I hope to be more consistent this year.

After

Before

1/ First off, I cropped the image and filled in extra sky with Edit > Fill > Content Aware.  Then I added a Camera Raw Filter to darken the exposure and remove the highlight spot in the sky, which was produced by the sun.

2/ Something was still missing, so I added a moon.

3/ To create the illusion that the moon was behind the sails, I duplicated the lower layer, changed the blend mode of the duplicate to Darken, and added a layer mask.

4/ I merged all of my layers and applied a Camera Raw Filter to increase contrast and clarity, convert to black and white, and add a blue tint.

5/ Finally I tweaked a couple of things in Lightroom and added a vignette.

Once again, the before vs the after:

Before

After

I hope you enjoyed my edit!  I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on the end result. Images from other contributors can be seen here.

Project 365: Week 42

This week I eventually settled on a theme of backlit images.  I had a similar theme earlier in the year, before I got my flash, and while I think I’ve improved and changed since then, that week sticks with me as the beginning of my obsession with artificial lighting.

Monday, 12 October

Singing in the rain – This is one of my little Lego dolls, which I have photographed several times before.  I wanted to give the impression that she was dancing in the rain (though my mother later pointed out that she looked like some kind of zealot, and unfortunately I have to agree).  The puddle and splash were created by pouring water through a net, and the image was lit by flash aimed at the wall behind the scene.

Tuesday, 13 October

Irrevocable pessimist – I’ve seen many beautiful images on 500px of glasses with perfect rim light, but I must now tell you that it is nowhere near as easy as it looks!  After much adjusting, I finally got this image.  My flash, behind an umbrella, was slightly to the back and the left of the glass.  I think the trick is getting the light at the right angle; more to the side than the back.

Wednesday, 14 October

Broken strumming – This is my brother’s old, broken guitar again.  I originally wanted to light it with rim light, before realising that that is actually really difficult, and too much of a feat for such a hot day.  So, instead, I aimed my flash at the wall behind the guitar and tried to make the best out of those lovely curves.

Thursday, 15 October

Spectacles – these are actually my glasses (I was forced to wear my prescription sunglasses while I shot the image). I wanted to create a studio-type of shot.  I aimed my flash, which had a blue gel on and a tight zoom of 105mm, at the wall behind the glasses.

Friday, 16 October

Radiant cathode – Near the beginning of the year, I saw an image on 500px of a backlit, monochrome lightbulb, and at the time I had no idea how to achieve such an image.  Well, I’m proud to say now that I’ve tried, I think I’ve surpassed the previous image (or at least I’ve surpassed my memory of the image)!

Saturday, 17 October

Mannequin – This is my mother’s jewellery holder lady, who had her head-branches removed.  I originally strung jewellery from her arms, before deciding that I liked the plain silhouette better.

Sunday, 18 October

Lonely cab – I’ve wanted a little model car to incorporate into my photos for a while now, and finally found a shop near us which is selling them cheaply.  This is actually a little police car, but I wanted it to look like an cab during the sunset.  I created the yellow tone from attaching two orange gels to my flash.  I quite like the resulting fine-artsy feel.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Project 365: Week 17

At the beginning of the week, I made the decision to focus on back-lighting, artificial back-light in particular. That decision resulted in my favourite week of the year, in terms of photography.  I was amazed both at the extent to which I could achieve my vision by creating my own light, and at how much fun I had.  I’ve been playing with the idea of getting a speedlight for a while now, and this week has really segmented the idea into my brain (luckily my birthday’s coming up soon!).

Modest elegance – I waited until the sun had mostly set before heading into our garden to take this. I used my new LED light to create the highlights and increase the contrast.