Week 39: I Don’t Wanna Grow Up
By: dani photography
Tags: boots, Challenge, creek, dot, flash, nostalgia, pocket wizard, polka dot, Portrait, puddle, rain boots, river, rubber duck, rubber duckie, Self Portrait, splash, stream, string, strobe, Strobist, vintage
Category: Photography
| Aperture: | f/13 |
|---|---|
| Focal Length: | 50mm |
| ISO: | 100 |
| Shutter: | 1/59 sec |
| Camera: | NIKON D80 |
My goal this week was to create something nostalgic.
I’ve been feeling pretty sentimental lately. Earlier this week, I shook the dust off my old shoe boxes full of memories and dug in.. I spent a whole afternoon going through old pictures, ticket stubs, notes, and other oddities special enough to keep in a shoe box, mostly from the high school years. It was a lot of fun to look through all the paraphernalia. I scanned a few of the pictures and posted them on my Facebook (here) for my friends to see. It must have been a lot of fun for them too, they got a lot of comments back right away.
So, while this week’s image doesn’t have to do with high school memories, I set out to create an image that is reminiscent of old times.
My first challenge was to convince Abe to help me carry my equipment down to the creek.. no small feat! Once we got down there, I found many more challenges. The most obvious being just how slippery the rocks are when walking in rubber boots! The creek was deeper than I imagined. The camera needed to be low to the water, so I kept dunking the bottom of my skirt in the water when looking through the viewfinder. The rubber duck wanted to float on his side or upside down. Oh, and we got there later than intended, so all the light had vanished behind the trees. But! I stuck with it and kept a positive attitude.
Using my 50mm lens, I set the camera on a tripod out in the creek. Yes, that was a little frightening. Originally intending to shoot with natural light this week, I took a couple test shots to see how the lighting was, and quickly realized I would need a fill flash. I set up my SB-900 flash on the bank, with shoot-thru umbrella, aiming for some side lighting. Fired with Pocket Wizards.
Oh, and Mike (from Focal Point) would be proud of me. I actually bumped my ISO up to 500 : P
Because of the slippery rocks, I physically could not fire the camera, even on the timer, then get back in to position on time. So I composed the scene just the way I wanted it, locked it into place, then Abe was nice enough to step into the creek and hit the shutter a few times. Only took about ten shots before everything was positioned the way I wanted.
Back in Lightroom and Photoshop, I made some adjustments to make it feel more old fashioned.. like a memory that’s starting to get a little fuzzy.
Thanks for looking,
dani
P.S. Thanks to Mom for the rubber duckie!
P.P.S. Thanks to Tom Waits (here) and the Ramones (here) for both versions of the song “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”.
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Now i know why I was never good at photography…it takes so much time and effort. :> And what can I say….I just love your photo.
Ps: would love 2 have your boots
[...] Week 39: I don’t Wanna Grow Up This image was a test of will. With a very specific image in mind, Abe and I lugged all of my equipment down to the creek, only to realize the sun wasn’t shining through the trees anymore. Once I got set up, it took forever just to get the duckie to stand up in the water. He wanted to float upside down! It was a frustrating week getting everything how I wanted it to look. I ended up doing a lot of post-process practice this week, and learned new ways to edit my photos. I learned to never give up. I also learned that rubber boots don’t have traction on mossy river rocks! [...]