I tried to think of all sorts of creative things to do with an eye. But unlike a contest where you have a week to cogitate and shoot and reshoot, I only had part of a day (went golfing the other part...I should have stuck to the photography, I think). Anyway at 12:00 a.m. I told my son I needed to borrow his snake to try for a snake eye photo. The normally docile snake didn't want to be still, and I had my macro lens on. I even put the snake on my left arm figuring it would go to sleep as usual and I'd just use my pre-focused camera in my right hand and move it closer or farther from the snake on my arm to take a shot of its eye. That was a dismal failure. The snake was afraid of the camera 2" from its face. So it moved its head behind my arm and started slithering around my arm. So I'm holding my arm up and maneuvering my camera around trying to just get it close to the snake and see what I could get. No luck. A lot of out of focus pics of the snake, and few even had its head in the shot...
Plan B....called my son over, told him about his non-compliant snake and asked if I could just take a few pics of his eye, also in the horrible light you find in your house at 12:15 a.m. So standing under a recessed light in the hall ceiling, with him looking up toward (but not at) it, I took some shots of my son's eye. BORING.... and bad. So I played with filters in the middle of the night and came up with this. Not particularly inspired, but he does have beautiful eyes.
Eye'm done!
It's just one of those days, isn't it. I also just got a shot of my cat's eyes. I really enjoyed reading about your adventure - or misadventure of attempting to get a picture of the snake's eyes. One thing is good. When there are not a lot of choices, then we can just relax and wait for tomorrow; then we'll have too many choices. LOL! I have say though, your boy has some very pretty peepers! Eury
ReplyDeleteI don't see how you could possible be unhappy with this shot. It is so hummm soft, floaty, high key, romantic... I am sure that is not what you want to think about your son, but I just love this one! Excellent job Carol.
ReplyDeleteWow, what a big fuss with the snake! Working with children and animals only leads to trouble! Nice closeup and good high key effect. I wish it was just a tad sharper, but bad lighting isn't very conducive to that!
ReplyDeleteTrue, and neither is handholding in low light with a manual-only focus macro lens. :) I wish it were sharper, but he had work today and I had plans, and I needed to get it done with so as not to have to wait and panic tonight to do it.
DeleteI feel your pain. It is so frustrating when you start with one thing and it doesn't work. You did a nice job on the eye.
ReplyDeleteI was taking pics of horses that wanted carrots and were bobbing their heads begging for them. It was a big challenge, like the snake. Does the snake need therapy now?
Pretty darn good for having all the odds stacked against you, it has a nice motherly touch about it, especially with the vignetting around the edges.
ReplyDeleteWhat a saga... never work with snakes and offspring I'm sure they say ;) Anyway, I like the effect here where the focus of attention ends up being the eye, with the surrounds fading to indistinct white tones. Well persisted :)
ReplyDeleteBTW: Great word... cogitate and phrase ... non-compliant snake :)
ReplyDeleteIt's a nice soft impression of a beautiful eye indeed.
ReplyDeleteVery pretty eye and good recovery from a difficult situation. Hmmm I can't imagine handling snakes, NZ doesn't have any but I did get pretty close to some when working in Australia many years ago :-)
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