Sometimes it pays to clean . . .

Chris built some shelves over my craft counter the other day (the man is incredible) and so I did some tidying and cleaning, which mainly consists of moving stacks of stuff from Point A to Point B, and often entails putting things into jars so I can see what I've got (which is, basically, crap in jars, but it's cool crap).

The seven clock faces that I bid on and won on eBay don't fit into jars, however, and so are sort of stacked up on a shelf. I was moving that stack o' clock faces from Point A to Point B when I had the urge to stop cleaning and begin photographing. Funny how that happens.

For this shot I put the clock face on the counter and used a 100mm macro lens hovering over it to capture just the Roman numeral 12 on the face. My lighting was a fluorescent overhead garage light -- not ideal, but it sufficed for this sort of thing.

Tip: When your camera is placed so that bright light can enter through the viewfinder, cover up the viewfinder (the eyepiece). Why? Because bright light coming in through the back of your camera fools your camera's meter and your photo will be underexposed. Don't believe me? Try it. Set up your camera on a tripod. Point it at something. Meter the scene. Click the shutter. Do it again, only this time shine a flashlight in through your camera's eyepiece on the back of the camera and click the shutter. See what happens? Who knew?

Older cameras had little "curtains" that, with a click of a tiny button, would cover up the eyepiece, preventing light from entering via the back of the camera. Now camera manufacturers supply you with a completely impractical little piece of rubber that's attached to your camera strap that you can slide over the eyepiece. Have you tried using that thing? Sheesh. I just hold my hand up now to cover the eyepiece during the exposure, making sure, of course, that my hand doesn't touch the camera and jiggle it.

My point is that because my lighting came from overhead and my camera was on a tripod pointing down onto the clock face, I had to hold my hand over the eyepiece to prevent the shot from being underexposed.

So here's my shot of Roman numeral 12 on the clock. I've got 11 more numbers if you want to see them! :-) ©Carol Leigh

Cuckoo for clocks

I swear sometimes it looks like a clock repair shop around here. I am entranced by the various cogs, wheels, wires, springs, faces, numbers, etc. So here I combine a cuckoo clock face with an old wooden cog and a brass cog -- I just stack them up and shoot. Great stuff! You gotta hand it to Chris, being able to put up with someone who adores (and collects) oil cans, clock faces, dials, weeds, hearts, wooden boxes, old navigation charts, rusty washers, rusty metal gaskets (oh, my gosh! these are great!), and more. ©Carol Leigh

Chronology

It's a veritable chronological extravaganzo! Chronophile that I am, I'm having way too much fun photographing various watch and clock elements, including a wooden cuckoo clock dial that's sitting on a wooden cog that's sitting on a brass cog. Lens combinations range from an 18-55mm lens with a Nikon 6T diopter on the front to a 100mm macro lens, to a macro lens with various extension tubes. On the cuckoo clock dial photo I used a flashlight with an orange filter on it to give the image a bit more warmth. And you know what's weird? All these clock photos I've been taking the past year, all the clock parts that are finding their way into my photomontages -- all photographed by a person who rarely wears a watch! ©Carol Leigh

Clockmania!

There's a theory that if you think you're crazy, you probably aren't. Draw your own conclusions. I'll wait. I've got time. ©Carol Leigh

Time marches on

Two more with the Lensbaby and then a third using just a regular macro lens. From this point, I'll begin combining lenses, close-up filters, extension tubes, etc. to create an entire series of this set of gears and watch faces. And then? Some of these photos will be incorporated into photomontages. And then? The physical parts will be used in various mixed-media collages, with wires and rust and mesh and more. One life is simply not enough. ©Carol Leigh

Current obsession . . .

A couple of old watch faces are fun to photograph using a Lensbaby. No tripod, no special lighting, just sitting at the dining room table pointing and shooting. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship . . . ©Carol Leigh

More clock parts . . .

Taxes are just now finished. Ick. But there was still time today to make a few photos. I seem currently to be fond of oil cans, paper, and clock parts. Strange combination. Borderline insanity? Probably. ©Carol Leigh

Time for clocks . . .

In my current online macro class we're working on depth of field. It's a great excuse for me to play, so I selected this little gear from an old clock and used a 100mm macro lens with a Nikon 6T close-up diopter on the front. Depth of field is so shallow that just the tips of the foreground gear teeth are in focus, yet you can still see some of the details in the blurred background. Love this stuff . . . ©Carol Leigh

Clock parts

More clock parts . . . one can never have too many. ©Carol Leigh

Time for photography . . .

Do you ever feel you're on a roll? When things seem to come together (uh-oh, don't want to anger the photo gods) relatively easily? That you're finding new subject matter, new viewpoints, new techniques? This is what teaching my online photo classes does for me — it gets my creative juices flowing and photography is especially fun. And later today? When that peanut butter jar lid of water turns to ice? I'm expecting more intriguing possibilities. ©Carol Leigh

Clock gears

When you teach, you learn. I was so impressed with what my students did in my recent experimental "Parts is Parts" online photo class that I was inspired to take a new look at some "clock guts" I have -- gears from a clock that are still intact, about the size of my hand, about two inches thick. I can place my camera on the edge and shoot through the gears, focusing on bits and pieces here and there. It's hard, but it's fun. And without having taught this most recent class, and being inspired by my students' work, I probably wouldn't have thought about doing these shots.

This morning I was also photographing a daisy and combining it with a piece of metal. ©Carol Leigh

Boing!

When you take a clock apart, cool things leap out! This big old spring was a pleasant surprise. I photographed it in front of a red piece of fabric, but didn't quite like it, so I toned the picture in Photoshop to give it a colder, more (appropriately) metallic look. My current online class students are working on spirals. Who knew all you have to do to find one is open up an old clock? ©Carol Leigh