Sebastian Becher Photography – Award winning Canberra based wedding, portrait and commercial photographer.

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The man with the hoe: Photo 6 of 52

The man with the hoe

Photo 6 of 2: The man with the hoe

This weeks theme is based on the poem ‘The man with the hoe’ by Edwin Markham and the painting ‘L’Homme à la houe’ by Jean-François Millet (II). For this weeks theme I thought I’d re-interpret the the painting into a more personal photographic rendition.

“Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave
To have dominion over sea and land;
To trace the stars and search the heavens for power;
To feel the passion of Eternity?”
Ah stuff it, I’m out of here…

The man with the hoe - alternate

January 1, 2012 | Categories: 52 project, Bit of Fun | Tags: 52, Projects | Leave A Comment »

Etiology: Photo 5 of 52

Etiology

EDIT: Having had a few moments spare I’ve managed to catch up on a few photos. So this week was Etiology: the study of causation, or origination. Often used to refer to the study of why things occur, or even the reasons behind the way that things act. So I thought a quick self portrait trying to examine what is behing the photo would be appropriate. Enjoy…

Etiology, The study behind things

Next weeks theme: The man with the hoe.

December 20, 2011 | Categories: 52 project, Bit of Fun | Tags: 52 | Leave A Comment »

Annals of Connacht: Photo 4 of 52

Annals of Connacht

Hark to the deeds of great heros in the Annals of Connacht

This weeks theme was initially a daunting one, but the idea came to me in a flash of inspiration. The idea behind this image is the imagination of a scholar in the dark ages writing illuminated manuscripts of the heroic deeds of heros and the evil they have vanquished.

On a completely different tangent, and interesting fact; the book used for this image is a 150 year old bible that is a family heirloom. It was the bible of Rev Micheal Henry Becher who arrived in Australia in 1854, arriving on the super clipper “Champion of the seas” after a 75 day voyage. He became the Rector of St James Cathedral in Melbourne, and to this day there is a plarque commemorating his service in the cathedral. Oh yeah!

Technical stuff:

This is a composite of two elements.

The scholar

The first is the scholar at the table. This is lit with a single strobe directly above the book and aimed directly down. The beam was zoomed in to give a tight pool of light. The figure is lit using the reflected light from the pages of the book.

The ghost

The ghost uses a single strobe with beauty dish set high above the figure and in line with the camera.

Next weeks theme: Etiology (ok this one has me stumped!)

December 13, 2011 | Categories: 52 project, Bit of Fun | Tags: 52, Dark and moody, medieval, Projects, smoke | 1 Comment »

Gordo, Space monkey: photo 3 of 52

Even as a young monkey, Gordo dreamed of the stars

Week three

So here is week three’s photo. Gordo, space monkey. Gordo was one of the first monkey to fly into space in a Jupiter rocket. But, due a technical malfunction in the rocket, the parachute failed to open. Poor Gordo and his capsule were never seen again.

The idea behind this photo was to show Gordo as if he was a young child, gazing up at the stars, and like a small child would dream and pretend he was an astronaut. He has his pretend rocket and helmet (that were made out of cardboard). One day Gordo would be the first man (Monkey) in space. But little did he know of the dangers.

The technical stuff:

This photo was taken at night time (for obvious creative reasons) in the back yard of our lovely suburban canberra home. The camera was set to 400 iso, f9 and a 30 sec exposure to allow the camera to capture the star sky. I then walked around the scene with my trusty flash and manually triggered flashes (1/32 sec power) painting in sections of the foreground that I wanted illuminated; including gordo and his rocket.

Then using a bit of tweaking in photohop to adjust the contrast in the sky and add some lovely NASA insignia to the rocket and helmet.

December 5, 2011 | Categories: 52 project, Bit of Fun | Tags: 52, Flash, Monkeys, Night time, Strobist | 5 Comments »

The Goblin Tower – Photo 2 of 52

So week two’s theme for the 52 project was The Goblin Tower…

The Goblin Tower

(The photo is quite dark, but there is detail in the shadows – trust me I was using a calibrated monitor and it is there. If you can’t see the photo you may need to adjust your monitor).

I had a few ideas for this photograph, but after shooting a test shots it became quite clear that this assignment was going to be tougher that I originally thought.

So with the photography dead line rapidly approaching (and quite a few chores to complete before I could dedicate my time to the photo project) I rapidly hatched an alternate concept.

Looking back at Sprague de Camp’s original novel cover I thought I’d create a similar feel with a barely dressed barbarian as the focus. Not having a muscular barbarian looking photographic model to work with I had to use myself. Looking like a plump hero I decided to apply a bit of photoshop wizardry and transform our hero into a green goblin.

The backdrop is a combination of the oval across from my house to provide the grass, trees and clouds (although I think all but the clouds remain in the final photo); a tunnel from a electric train set, and a hand made model house.

The technical stuff

The models were shot with a single strobe set to 1/32 power. This was place high above the models and directly behind them. This was to create a moonlit feel to the landscape. The goblin was lit by two strobes. 10:00 and 2:00, both aimed directly at the backdrop. A white reflector was then place in front of the model about 3m away. (I’ll add some lighting diagrams as soon as I find where I put my diagram folder).

Next weeks theme: Gordo (space monkey).

November 28, 2011 | Categories: 52 project, Bit of Fun, Pic of the day | Tags: 52, Dark and moody, Goblins, Projects, Trees | 2 Comments »