A Night at the Opera
Say hello to Blingbert :) Blingbert aka Bertie is a long-time companion of mine and wanted to take part in the "Bird" theme by all means. "I'm shiny, I've got bling, I have to be your subject for the theme!", he croaked. Since I don't have many more artificial birds at home, I quickly agreed. The how-to and presentation, however, became subject to a longer discussion between us. He had often expressed his wish to be in the limelight before, preferably as a famous singer ("My voice must be heard to be believed!" "Bertie, I don't really think so."), so I suggested that I present him as the lead singer of a Glam Metal band ("Isn't that called 'Hair Metal'? I've got feathers, not hair," he objected. "Feathers are much cooler than hair," I answered, "and besides, your ancestors were dinosaurs, how cool is that?!? So maybe I should make you the lead singer of a Death Metal band?" "But my voice isn't suited for that genre, I can't do growls, I'm a super high soprano. And I'm a romantic at heart. I want to be presented in a more glamorous way than that. Opera-style, that's it!" "Well," I said, I think we can do both: Glam rock and opera. Let's see...").
Said and done. As a first idea, I wanted to use my multi-coloured fidget spinner as background and blur its motion with a long exposure. So I glued the fidget spinner onto a black tile with some modeling clay and then used some more modeling clay to glue Bertie onto the fidget spinner's non-moving center part. Next, I set the camera to Live ND (32), let the fidget spinner rotate behind Bertie, and captured away. It worked. But it was too flashy because the rotating fidget spinner was a much too busy background. Bertie was supposed to be the star, after all. So I switched to a more classic (and tested) setup: the gold-coloured cardboard as backdrop. The round metal thingy Bertie sits on is from a gift wrapping. I kept it because it looked nice, and for MMs, of course. Extra bling was provided by the star filter. The final image is a single photo taken with the manual Laowa 50mm. Bertie isn't sharp all over but I think it is enough that his head and most of his chest are reasonably sharp so the image is pleasant to look at. Besides, I also liked the bokeh of Bertie's tail feathers and his metal seat.
Bertie is a small brooch of 4,5 cm / 1,77 inches in height, and although I haven't worn him in a long time, he sits on my desk (amongst other, strictly non-desk, non-work related items, in other words: clutter) and keeps company with me. But I also still think he would make a fantastic Feather Metal band lead singer ;)
HMM, Everyone!
A Night at the Opera
Say hello to Blingbert :) Blingbert aka Bertie is a long-time companion of mine and wanted to take part in the "Bird" theme by all means. "I'm shiny, I've got bling, I have to be your subject for the theme!", he croaked. Since I don't have many more artificial birds at home, I quickly agreed. The how-to and presentation, however, became subject to a longer discussion between us. He had often expressed his wish to be in the limelight before, preferably as a famous singer ("My voice must be heard to be believed!" "Bertie, I don't really think so."), so I suggested that I present him as the lead singer of a Glam Metal band ("Isn't that called 'Hair Metal'? I've got feathers, not hair," he objected. "Feathers are much cooler than hair," I answered, "and besides, your ancestors were dinosaurs, how cool is that?!? So maybe I should make you the lead singer of a Death Metal band?" "But my voice isn't suited for that genre, I can't do growls, I'm a super high soprano. And I'm a romantic at heart. I want to be presented in a more glamorous way than that. Opera-style, that's it!" "Well," I said, I think we can do both: Glam rock and opera. Let's see...").
Said and done. As a first idea, I wanted to use my multi-coloured fidget spinner as background and blur its motion with a long exposure. So I glued the fidget spinner onto a black tile with some modeling clay and then used some more modeling clay to glue Bertie onto the fidget spinner's non-moving center part. Next, I set the camera to Live ND (32), let the fidget spinner rotate behind Bertie, and captured away. It worked. But it was too flashy because the rotating fidget spinner was a much too busy background. Bertie was supposed to be the star, after all. So I switched to a more classic (and tested) setup: the gold-coloured cardboard as backdrop. The round metal thingy Bertie sits on is from a gift wrapping. I kept it because it looked nice, and for MMs, of course. Extra bling was provided by the star filter. The final image is a single photo taken with the manual Laowa 50mm. Bertie isn't sharp all over but I think it is enough that his head and most of his chest are reasonably sharp so the image is pleasant to look at. Besides, I also liked the bokeh of Bertie's tail feathers and his metal seat.
Bertie is a small brooch of 4,5 cm / 1,77 inches in height, and although I haven't worn him in a long time, he sits on my desk (amongst other, strictly non-desk, non-work related items, in other words: clutter) and keeps company with me. But I also still think he would make a fantastic Feather Metal band lead singer ;)
HMM, Everyone!