Okay, this MSA: "How to catch a light beam" is now officially closed.
I thank you all for your effort and the fine entries.
There are 25 entries in this MSA. I would like to mention/comment each image posted in this thread and in (there was a url link here which no longer exists) in order of appearance. This will help me to choose a winner. I have made a top 4 for myself by now and will choose the winner tomorrow.
These are the entries:
MattKing attached a thumbnail called “empty skies” in post #22 of what I believe is a memorial wall with names on it. I’m not sure if it was meant as an entry or just as a “tutorial” for Barbara Ann on how to upload images to the MSA thread. But it is a fitting image anyway. There are some large walls with some names on it. I don’t know where it is and why these names are engraved, but the large empty spaces on the wall give me an eery feeling. As if there are many more people to come who’s lights will leave this world and therefore will be put on this wall so whe won’t forget them. The title “empty skies” seems fitting. (Matt, if I misread this image completely, please let me know).
Jeffreyg A beautiful image full of lines and forms, darkness and a single ray of light, hard and soft, and so much more. A very good interpretation of the theme. At first glance it looked like a person who could use some light shining into her own dark world. A hard world for a soft person. It reminded me of some lyrics from
the song “Hurt” by the elder Johnny Cash:
“
I hurt myself today to see if I still feel” (…) “
full of broken thoughts I can not repair”.
JRoosa shot a lovely high key portrait. Due to a sticky aperture the camera catched too many rays of light, but in this portrait it worked very well nonetheless. It’s a portrait of some beautiful eyes, the rest of the person like a fitting frame for these eyes. I like it. (BTW: keep that aperture sticky for your portrait photography).
Sly entered a fine Satuday morning walk. A selinium toned print on Oriental paper in Arista Lith developer. A beautiful image (composition) very well done (process). Bald trees, leaves on the ground and some (still?) warm sun light through the brenches. The brown/gold tones of the lith and selinium make a perfect atmosphere for this image. I love lith prints.
Bertus made a special interpretation of the theme: he catched some light beams in citric acid with a polarized flashlight, a Pentax camera and some filters. I like the "Kristal 1" best: like a light imprint of a wing. Maybe the wing of an angle on its way to bring the good news of the Light of Grace coming into this world on Christmas day?
Sly also entered a pinhole image, made with a Holga Wide Pinhole camera. An image of a beautiful ray of light illuminating some mushrooms in the forest. Well fitting the theme of this MSA. The ray of light in this image might be the result of a (beautiful) light leak. It was the last shot on the roll and the roll was not rolled tight enough. Well, if it was a light leak than it’s the best I’ve seen in a long time. Talking about post-flashing instead of pre-flashing your film
Way to go Sly!
Sly entered another beautiful image shot on Velvia: “Light beams on a few grapes missed in the harvest”, made on a perfect Autumn day: blue skies, sun light playing through the almost yellow leaves and rays of light bouncing off on the grapes. I can almost feel the sunlight and smell the earth on this day in the fields. Images like these make me happy.
OptiKen showed us a beautiful Autumn day. Beautiful colours in the leaves (as only nature can make) on a sunny day. Enjoying a nice day (in California?) while there is still time (winter is coming!). Taken into direct sun light but still well exposed. There are no details mentioned on how it was shot, but I’m guessing he used Kodak film rather than Fuji film for the restrained colours. Maybe Portra film? Or maybe expired film due to the pastel blue sky? The full size image is a bit grainy (not a problem) suggesting a 35 mm camera? Anyway, a vey nice image celebrating the season.
Heinz entered two nice B&W shots, playing with light and shadows. He played with an advertisement board in front of a fashion shop, backlit by the sun, and an unsuspecting pedestrian. Excellent interpretation of the theme. I like the one called “Different Directions” best and agree with Sly’s comment: “
The ad silhouette and the pedestrian going in different directions gives this one more tension and interest.“
Siompa entered (for the first time) a very nice shot of trees in the dark, lit by some beaming lights. What better to do after dinner than to catch some light beams with a Rolleicord on a foggy night? Night photography is very interesting and I like how those trees came out in this image! I think the Rolleicord, the Tri-X and the Rodinal are a good combination in your hands. Would love to see more of your images. BTW: was this shot handheld?
Heinz entered another ray of light. “
On a foggy morning on my way to work this scenery fitting for the MSA made me step out of my car...” he said, proving that you should always carry a camera with you – like his small Rollei 35S loaded with some fine Fuji Provia 400X. What a great way to start your day!! Thank you for sharing.
MrBrowning also caught some rays of light peaking through a fence in Lawrence, Massatuchets. A beautiful urban scenery. Looks like an abandoned housing project, fenced up years ago, looking at het plants growing on the fence. I like this kind of street photography. A perfect B&W image with good use of contrast and even details in the dark building on the right. Beautifully done!
Mopar_guy shot a beautiful Chritsmas light from a Christmas tree using an old Nikon F. A simple scene but certainly not a simple shot. The lighting is nicely done. You can even see inside the light bulb. As he said: ”
I knew that this would be difficult to print because of the extreme contrast in the scene. Before I even made the exposure in camera, I decided that the darkest shadows would be unimportant.” Maybe a little burning in of the shadow parts on the right would be possible or is the negative too thin? Well fitting the theme of this MSA. And I love the bird as well.
Nedl made a beautiful self portrait: “
Yours truly catching a light beam”. Perfectly fitting this theme and a pinhole image on instant film too! And did I mention the homebuild pinhole camera yet? Ned proves that you can catch a lightbeam with your bare hands within six seconds using only a non-aspherical pinhole after waiting for a mere 19 days ….. That’s pinhole photography for you! I love this one, Ned! As I’ve said before: you’re one of the best ambassadors for pinhole photography.
StoneNYC entered a great appeal to stop smoking with his image called: “
My friend is 24, I do wonder how long before she returns to the ashes..." I can’t agree more with Stone’s comment: “
This MSA submission comes from a years worth of hard experiences, I lost four relatives to cancer, two due to lung cancer specifically. I greatly dislike the idiocy of smoking, …“. Smoking kills: slowly and silently, just that simple. So please stop smoking and buy some extra film with the money you saved (along with your lungs). BTW: It’s a well made image of a lit sigarete. A beautiful composition of light and darkness, fitting his warning.
Captbrs entered an image called “backlight”. A beautiful B&W photo of some tree moss back-lit with the sun. Almost an abstract image. A very good composition and nice “colours” captured (do I make sense at all?). The hardness of the moss and the softness of the light cicrles in the back. Would also make a nice square image by cropping the bottom a bit. I love this image.
Barbara-ann captured the sun light as it danced on the waves. A beautiful image with a classic look, like it came from a Leica magazine from the seventies (meant as a compliment!). Must be the combintion of a faint winter sun and the Kodak Gold film, I guess. I love the combination of sunn light and water so this is a perfect entry for this MSA!
Barbara-ann also entered a photograph called “Christmas Eve Luminaria”, capturing the light from the candles escaping through the decorative openings. A well exposed image at night. I love the tonality and colours of this image. Probably the Kodak Gold again? Nicely done and perfect for this theme as well.
StoneNYC entered another fine photograph, called: "Sun Rays Like We've Never Seen". A perfect shot for this MSA: catching invisible light with a 8x10" Chamonoix camera on EFKE IR 820 film (4x5" sheet film). I never used infrared film myself but I like it a lot. And it is well used in this scenery. The foliage light up nicely. Like OptiKen said: “
The sunlight has turned the leaves to fairies”. It’s probbly made with daylight, but it looks like a moon lit nightly scenery, where the fairies come out to dance in het moon light. A perfect atmosphere and a very good contribution to this MSA.
Russljames made a beautiful shot in a forest: “
The sun was slipping away quickly and I caught this lone ray of light touching the base of several trees.” Perfect for this theme. And it’s a beautiful photograph too. I like the texture of the tree trunk in contrast with the soft back ground. As you can see here the moment just before sunset will give you a perfect light but only for a very short moment. And shot with an old Hasselblad 1000f from 1954-1957. Impressive.
TheFlyingCamera made a perfect three frame panorama shot from some festive lights in the night on a skating rink in a very large fountain at the National Gallery of Art's sculpture garden. It’s made with a Rolleiflex 2.8E and the Rollei panorama adapter, thus creating a 6x18 cm negative. You can hardly see where the three negatives meet. No digital stitching, mind you, but all in camera. Nicely done! I must get me such an adapter for my old Rolleiflex T (from 1958). I love the panorama format very much.
Grahamw posted the last entry (just in time) in this MSA. A nice photograph capturing some November light beams caught in water in Bristol, UK. It’s an interesting image of trees reflecting in the water. Funny thing is I made such an image myself yesterday as well. I was given a Leica M240 with 35 and 50 mm lenses to test. Friday we finally got some decent weather so I went into the forest for some landscape and close-up photographs. During my walk I passed a small pond when the sun peaked throught the clouds. It gave some nice reflections of trees and blue skies in the pond, a bit like Graham catched. Since mine was made with a d…..l camera I won’t post it here. But I’m glad Graham posted his, shot with a Canon T70: a fine and bulky (= beautiful) camera.
Well, that's it for now. Tomorrow I'll check my top 4 again and decide on a winner.