Camera Labs

Fascinated by some shots from Viggo Mortensen (yes the one of LotR fame!) I took my Sigma 400 today, stopped it down to f/32, fixed the ISO at 200 and looked around in the garden for some beautifully colored and lighted flowers.
What did I want to achieve? Well, I wanted to "paint" with colored light and use the sensor like a canvas to produce some (semi)abstract images with strong colors and interesting forms.
To do this you need to get shutter times up to something around 1/4, 1/2 or 1 sec so you can capture the moves you do during exposure with the lens. I also set the image style to "vivid" and cranked the saturation and contrast even further. I also dialed in +2EV over-exposure primarily to get the slow shutter speeds in the afternoon sun but found out later that this was also perfect for my paintings.
But now without further ado I'll present a selection of those images that came closest to my original idea:

Geranium:


Rose #1:


Rose #2:


All images are without any postprocessing.
Tell me, what you think.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I think the first picture looks awsome! The colors are really strong. The flowers somehow remind me of under sea plants. I like the other one's as well(especially the last), but in my mind, they lack the variety of colors the first one has.

Thanks for the feedback, Andreas!
I've now added a poll to decide which of those three images to post on the Camera Labs June competition "The Power of Light".
So feel free to add your opinion and/or vote.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I voted for Rose#1. It looks like a falling rose with it's colours melting off it like those in "What Dreams May Come".

Geraniums!!

love this...wonderful work, Thomas..
Really like the water-color-y transparency of all of them...the colors, outstanding...the last shot of the roses, looks like flames almost...whoohoo...goooooood gooooood.

patti

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canon 7D, Mark iii 5D, ef 70-300 f/4-5.6, ef 28-135mm canon 100-400mm L IS 4.5, and a little 24-70 L f/2.8...

Geraniums.

Where did you see Viggo's shots? I would be interested to see where you got the idea.

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Critique and comment welcome
Nikon D40x|18-55|55-200|lowpro slinghot 100|asstd bits and pieces
Smile - it kills time between disasters!

Viggo is an artist, in every sense of the word...I saw some of his work, exhibited in a gallery, but I think he has some on a web page...haunting, gorgeous images...and, these ones displayed by Thomas, are gorgeous, as well...

Quick...where are Bob and Roy Google? They can find this stuff so fast...and I am never sure where to even look...

patti.

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canon 7D, Mark iii 5D, ef 70-300 f/4-5.6, ef 28-135mm canon 100-400mm L IS 4.5, and a little 24-70 L f/2.8...

Some of Viggo's stuff here http://specialrealms.com/VM/painting5.html

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Roy
EOS 350D, 40D + BG-E2N, EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM, 430 EX Speedlite




My Fotopic

Wow the first one even has a "canvas-y" look. Nice shots Thomas!

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Graham
Flickr

Thanks for your feedback. So far it looks like a draw
Another thread titled "Painting with light" can be found here including the one link I found was still working at that time to Viggo Mortensen about his "Miyelo"-Series

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I m going to have to say that shot number one is stunning mate, looks like pure art!

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