John Guilford's Photo Gallery: Fun Stuff

Experimental or more artsy pictures

All rights reserved. These images are not to be used or copied without my prior written permission.

Unless otherwise noted, through 2011 all pictures taken by me with a Nikon D70 camera.
Depending on the focal length, the lens is most likely either the Nikkor 18-70mm AF-S or the Sigma 70-300mm DG APO.
Starting in 2012, I switched to the Nikon D7000 with either the Nikon 18-105VR lens or the Nikon 70-300 VR lens.
In early 2013 I added the Nikon Micro 85mm lens.

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Splash of Wine
Date: 02-Jan-2012 Time: 2:43:41 PM Exp: 1/200s @ f/10.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 40.00mm Meter: Manual Flash: Manual		A splash of wine erupting from a goblet, this was a created image. I saw this technique on the internet, and I thought "I could do that." It is a bit messy, and it took a number of tries to get the timing down, but it was a fun way to spend a winter afternoon.

Green Frog
Kermit the frog said "It's not easy being green," but for this guy it is. This little glass frog finds it very easy. I illuminated him from underneath through a glass table top. The star burst highlights were not added with any filter or post processing - they were a pleasant surprise from the light reflecting around the lens.		Date: 26-Sep-2010 Time: 9:18:10 PM Exp: 2.5s @ f/10.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 220.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority

Hands and Dog(?)
Date: 09-Sep-2010 Time: 8:46:48 PM Exp: 1/6s @ f/9.0 ISO: 200 Lens: 95.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority Lighting: Kodak Carousel Slide Projector		I shot this picture for a competition with the theme "hands". For the lighting, I dug out my old slide projector (for the first time in decades). It was surprisingly hard to get good looking shadow puppets, at least for novices like ourselves. The subject of this shot made it a natural for conversion to B&W. Doing so allowed me to focus more on the texture of the hand and shadows.

Beartivity
Here is another example of using a cardboard cutout to modify the bokeh of the blurred out lights. In this case, the background lights are from my Christmas tree. The foreground is a Beartivity (Bear + Nativity, get it?) scene featuring a set of figurines made by Big Sky Carvers. The stable building is something my wife and I made using some rough cut sticks and a hot glue gun.		Date: 26-Dec-2008 Time: 8:47:08 PM Exp: 1/4s @ f/1.8 ISO: 200 Lens: 50.00mm Meter: Manual

Icicle
Date: 26-Dec-2008 Time: 7:18:13 PM Exp: 2.0s @ f/1.8 ISO: 200 Lens: 50.00mm Meter: Manual		We had an unusually cold and snowy end of December for the Pacific Northwest. Among other things, this allowed an icicle (quite a few, actually) to grow off my eave. This is a night shot with my Christmas lights showing in the background. The icicle itself was lit by my porch lights as well as a small table lamp I brought out, both using CF bulbs. Perhaps the more interesting effect is the shape of the blurred out Christmas lights. To get the star shaped bokeh, I used a lens with a wide aperture and placed a star shaped cardboard cutout in front of the lens. This had the effect of changing the shape of the blur from round to star shaped.

Happy New Years
The holiday season is a time to gather with family and celebrate. Here I photographed a champagne flute in front of my Christmas tree lights. I used a cardboard cutout in front of the lens to change the bokeh of the lens to little hearts. A half second time exposure blurred the bubble trails to show motion. Lighting of the glass was from a handheld flashlight.		Date: 24-Dec-2008 Time: 5:57:49 PM Exp: 1/2s @ f/1.8 ISO: 200 Lens: 50.00mm Meter: Manual

Drop of Cream
Date: 25-Dec-2007 Time: 5:21:23 PM Exp: 1/400s @ f/32.0 ISO: 640 Lens: 300.00mm Meter: Manual		Despite looking like a hard-boiled egg, this is actually a drop of cream about to hit a pan of water. A high-speed flash was used to stop the motion. Nothing fancy was used to time the picture. I used a turkey baster with needle tip to create the drops and tripped the shutter by hand. It is surprisingly easy to get the timing right, though you may still take many shots to get a good one.

Water Column
Another picture from my water drop collection. This one shows the rebound of a water drop landing in somewhat deeper water.		Date: 25-Dec-2007 Time: 5:18:24 PM Exp: 1/400s @ f/32.0 ISO: 640 Lens: 300.00mm Meter: Manual

Mini Cooper and Kayak
Date: 05-May-2007 Time: 11:56:58 AM Exp: 1/200s @ f/6.3 ISO: 200 Lens: 29.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority		This is our tandem kayak on top of Pam's Mini Cooper S. I love the contrast between the red and the blue. At first I was a bit concerned about carrying such a long boat on top of a little car, but Lil' Coop handles the boat rather well. I'm amused by the looks we get driving around with the kayak on the roof. We've even had people lean out car windows to take our picture as they go by.

Glass of Wine
At Thanksgiving we had the family over for dinner. I thought I'd try back lighting a glass of wine with a candle. The Pooh bear looking on was an unintentional addition to the picture.		Date: 24-Nov-2006 Time: 2:57:54 PM Exp: 1/2.50s @ f/11.0 Lens: 56.00mm Meter: Aperture Priority