“Containers”
The yellow box on the left is, I think, what is called repoussé, or “embossed” metal, and it’s got to be brass, judging by the color, or perhaps an alloy with a lot of brass in it. It is very heavy and was made in the 1880s. It comes from my grandmother. The round thing in the center is a unusual lacquered wood and ceramic (the blueish part on top) Chinese box for opium and is supposedly 17th century. I was told once by a curator at the Musée Guimet in Paris that it is museum-caliber.
The other round thing, the one on the right, is extremely heavy (almost 3 kilos) and comes from Nepal. I reckon it is bronze. It is a set of measuring cups that fit into one another for storage like Russian dolls.
In the back, the black and gold thing is a kintsugi piece done by my wife. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of fixing broken items of pottery or china with a lacquer called urushi, mixed with powdered gold. Thus, what was broken is made whole again, and owing to its scars, more valuable than it was before —very symbolically Japanese.
The rusty, larger box is a personal lockbox from the late Middle Ages or early Renaissance. It is made of iron. It is essentially a small safe for jewellery and other precious personal belongings. It opens with a key but the location of the lock is very cleverly concealed. It has lost its front overlapping part, unfortunately, and so isn’t worth much, even though it is a period piece.
And as I felt the need for an item of color to top it off, the little round orange thing is a cardboard box from Hermès, in which they sell the small silk scarves they call “twillies”.
I only upload a small sized version here, but the full-size 8,300-pixel TIFF file has details that blow you away! This Z-mount 105 macro really is something!
Strobist and technical: One Phottix Pro Indra500 monolight on a Profoto light stand in lateral position to camera left, 1 meter from subject and 0.5 meter above it, firing at ¼ power through a Phottix Pro 150–cm Raja Deep parabolic softbox with double diffuser; and another Indra500 studio strobe on a Profoto light stand in Rembrandt position to camera right, 1.5 meters from subject and at about the same height, firing at ¼ power through a Phottix Pro 110–cm Luna octabox with double diffuser. Black paper backdrop.
Strobes set and triggered via Phottix Pro Odin II radio controller on the camera’s hot shoe, manual mode. Sekonic L–858D light meter used to balance light sources. Gitzo GT3543 XLS tripod with Arca–Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Nikon Z7 II camera body, Micro-Nikkor Z MC 105mm ƒ/2.8 macro lens.
Composite shot made of 16 focus-stacked exposures set using the built-in function in the camera. Stack processed with Helicon Focus software, Method B.
“Containers”
The yellow box on the left is, I think, what is called repoussé, or “embossed” metal, and it’s got to be brass, judging by the color, or perhaps an alloy with a lot of brass in it. It is very heavy and was made in the 1880s. It comes from my grandmother. The round thing in the center is a unusual lacquered wood and ceramic (the blueish part on top) Chinese box for opium and is supposedly 17th century. I was told once by a curator at the Musée Guimet in Paris that it is museum-caliber.
The other round thing, the one on the right, is extremely heavy (almost 3 kilos) and comes from Nepal. I reckon it is bronze. It is a set of measuring cups that fit into one another for storage like Russian dolls.
In the back, the black and gold thing is a kintsugi piece done by my wife. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of fixing broken items of pottery or china with a lacquer called urushi, mixed with powdered gold. Thus, what was broken is made whole again, and owing to its scars, more valuable than it was before —very symbolically Japanese.
The rusty, larger box is a personal lockbox from the late Middle Ages or early Renaissance. It is made of iron. It is essentially a small safe for jewellery and other precious personal belongings. It opens with a key but the location of the lock is very cleverly concealed. It has lost its front overlapping part, unfortunately, and so isn’t worth much, even though it is a period piece.
And as I felt the need for an item of color to top it off, the little round orange thing is a cardboard box from Hermès, in which they sell the small silk scarves they call “twillies”.
I only upload a small sized version here, but the full-size 8,300-pixel TIFF file has details that blow you away! This Z-mount 105 macro really is something!
Strobist and technical: One Phottix Pro Indra500 monolight on a Profoto light stand in lateral position to camera left, 1 meter from subject and 0.5 meter above it, firing at ¼ power through a Phottix Pro 150–cm Raja Deep parabolic softbox with double diffuser; and another Indra500 studio strobe on a Profoto light stand in Rembrandt position to camera right, 1.5 meters from subject and at about the same height, firing at ¼ power through a Phottix Pro 110–cm Luna octabox with double diffuser. Black paper backdrop.
Strobes set and triggered via Phottix Pro Odin II radio controller on the camera’s hot shoe, manual mode. Sekonic L–858D light meter used to balance light sources. Gitzo GT3543 XLS tripod with Arca–Swiss Cube C1 geared head. Nikon Z7 II camera body, Micro-Nikkor Z MC 105mm ƒ/2.8 macro lens.
Composite shot made of 16 focus-stacked exposures set using the built-in function in the camera. Stack processed with Helicon Focus software, Method B.