Orange Shell

Orange Shell
Originally uploaded by Praetorianator.

Can somebody explain the appeal of this picture over any of my other pictures? Somehow this one is more popular than others.

I know my first few photo's weren't exactly 'ground-breaking' stuff [/sarcasm], and my later photo's still aren't, but I'd like to think I've improved a bit.

However, sometimes the best photo's are made 'in the heat of the moment'.

This picture was taken just after I finished eating my orange, and I noticed I had some really regular orange shell left overs. Maybe some of you always have really regular orange shell leftovers, but with me it usually turns messy.
It usually involves madly chopping and pounding away at the orange, because the damn thing (after I made several surgical incisions in the shell) just breaks apart. Pieces of actual orange 'stick' to the shell, so orange juice squirts out, right into your eye. After which you declare war on the fruit, and try to turn it into orange soup, with the help of a blender. So after I got my final revenge on the orange, I get another one and try again.

Aaaanyway. These shells came out relatively untouched, which was in and by itself quite a feat, and I was so ecstatic by it, I decided to photograph it. Luckely for me, right at that moment, there was an intense beam of sunlight directed into my room. I'm telling you, it was God's work, those untouched shells. This was evidenced by the intense sunlight that suddenly was.
So I planted the shells on a white surface and shot my photograph.

Personally, I think it came out 'nice'. Nothing in particular though, and especially compared with some pictures which can be found on Flickr, I am almost ashamed I didn't take more time to make it a better shot.

Preperation or not. It is still a relatively popular shot, and even received a 9 out of 10!

Well, that's all there is about this photograph.

I do still have something to say about a possible lightbox I am going to construct. A lightbox will especially come in handy to make shots as the one above better, more professional. I'd like to construct something much like the one featured on DIYphotography.net, only better.
I was thinking about conditions it needs to meet. The conditions I could think of were the following;

- It has to have an interchangable backdrop (blue,white,red etc)
- It can be taken apart, as to take as little space as possible
- It has to be sturdy. Probably constructed of wood or metal.
- It has to be about 50x50x50cm in dimensions.

I think I can come up with a solution to satisfy those demands. I've looked around on the internet for other people who constructed a light box. While I liked some ideas, I want to adapt it to my own situation, and to what I want, so I'll propbably design something myself.

Now I am finished.

Greetz!

Chrono

Chrono
Originally uploaded by Praetorianator.

This was really the first photograph I took with my new 60mm Micro-Nikkor I wrote about in my previous post.
It is a picture of my brothers Festina watch. I like the overall colour it has, and I also noticed that the macro-lens shows just about everything.
Also, the Depth-Of-Field of my macro-lens is amazing! Depending on your f-number, it can be very small, really just a DOF of 1mm or less, to about a few centimeters to very large.

Since in the macrofunction, the lens' Autofocus function does not work properly, it ghosts alot, you have to focus manually. Now, this wouldn't pose a problem if it weren't for the incredible sharpness this lens produces. Even if you are just a tiny tiny bit off with focusing it's going to show on the photo. Very difficult. It can be your enemy, but it also can be your greatest friend.
I have discovered that, combined with a very small DOF, you can really pick a subject out of everything inside the frame. Really useful.

Oh, did I already mention the Bokeh the lens produced is superb? Well, it is. Really silky. Even moreso compared with my 18-70mm lens.

Cheers!