BEACH CRUZER BIKE

1. I chose to go with a balanced symmetrical composition. The globe is my force that is centered with the candles on either side balancing the photo; thus, allowing everything to fall equally away from the center of my picture. It was shot horizontally to connote serenity which complements the lit candles and the atmosphere. The candles were purposely placed at a slight angle because I wanted them to embrace the globe. The camera was placed on a tripod and was level with the candles and slightly above the globe.

2. I wanted a shallow depth of field to focus on the candles and blur the globe. The background consists of a smooth, dark red wall. Tints are made by adding white to a color and the lit, white candles create that soft dark pink hue above the globe. The lit candles create a nice contrast in tone and color as the photo drifts from light to a darker background. The smooth lines of the candle also contrast with the sphere-shaped globe. All of these points: from the color of the wall, globe, candles and the two glows that are emitted from the candles above the globe were chosen specifically for my story which is explained in #5.

3. I photographed this scene at different times of the day to coordinate with the lighting to observe how it changes the photo. Lighting definitely can do that. I understand completely why the golden hours of shooting (sunrise and sunset) are called the golden hours. Shooting this at night made the photo too dark and during the noon hour created sun spots on the wall. This photo was taken early evening and with natural light coming in from the window. I diffused the lighting with drawn shades to eliminate glare on the wall. The lit candles add a dimension to the photo that was interesting. It creates a soft light and the reflection changed the color composition, also.

4. Technical challenges included working with lit candles. At night, I had a problem with two blue tinges from the lit candles showing up on my photos. Using a tripod (my first time with a tripod) and angling the camera down on the scene helped alleviate some of that, but still felt the photo was too dark despite moving my ISO to 200. Any higher than that made my photo grainy. Photographing at early evening, my settings were adjusted accordingly for a better shot. My Fstop was at 2.8 to allow for shallow depth of field. My white balance was on cloudy and the ISO was at 80 because I had enough natural light. My shutter speed was 25 to coordinate with the lighting also. I used the tripod and 2 second timer mostly because it allowed for a better focus manually on the candles.

5. My story: My pathophysiology teacher, Sue, read an excerpt from a book, “My Stroke of Insight”, which tied in very nicely with her lecture on strokes. It piqued my interest, and I decided to read it. This book is what I based my photo on, but it forced me to be creative and go outside my comfort zone! I am hoping after you read my story that my photo is not too eccentric and could be applied to the cover of this book. The is a real life story about a 37 year old, Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard-trained brain scientist who has a blood vessel explode in her brain. As an inquisitive neuroanatomist, she recognizes what is happening to her and watches her mind completely deteriorate to the point where she cannot walk, talk, read, write or recall any aspect of her life. She recovers, which is amazing, and writes this book of her journey through this process. She describes the brain as your universe (thus the world globe) and how her brain digresses as the hemorrhage (thus the dark red wall color) affects the right and left sides of her brain (the two hues above the candles). The insight (the lit candles) that Jill gains into the unique functions of her left brain and right brain as she shifts away from normal reality is amazing. Jill experiences herself “at one with the universe” in the absence of her left brain’s neural circuitry. Jill now tours the nation to help others how to rebuild their brains from trauma and maximize quality of life for them and those with normal brains to better understand how to cultivate our minds. Jill is quoted: “I believe the more time we spend running our deep inner peace circuitry, then the more peace we will project into the world, and ultimately the more peace we will have on the planet.”

A rare unseen photo of planet 2 stroke

This photo was taken with a Canon Powershot A95 looking down the spark plug hole of my Aprilia RS125. The engine is a Rotax 122. I manually focused the camera and then fired the flash up through the exhaust port while the exhaust was removed.

I thought the result from produced from the built up carbon and patterns in the piston crown looked pretty neat so I produced this photo.