Party Bert
#MacroMondays
Happy 17th Birthday, Macro Mondays :)
I joined Macro Mondays on 26 September 2016, and I'm a happy member ever since. A wonderful group that has taught me new photo techniques, lures me out of my comfort zone, saves me from the Winter blues, and kept me sane during those weird, time- and endless days of the pandemic. I also admire how the moderators manage to come up with new themes every week. Thank you, MMs!
And for "Party", it's Blingbert aka Bertie again. Of course, it had to be him ;) He got all excited when he heard what MM's Birthday theme would be about. "Let me come along!", he begged, "you know I love parties! Will there be Karaoke?" "I hope not", I answered. "Don't worry, Silke", Bertie said, "you don't have to sing, I'll do it!!!" He always knows how to talk me around. Bertie got even more excited. "I will sing an aria! How about something from The Valkyrie?" "What?!? No, you won't!", I yelled. "It's a party, Bertie, parties are about people having fun together. Fun. If you sing something from The Valkyrie the party will be over before it begins." Bertie looked seriously abashed. And I felt sorry for being so harsh on him. "Come on, I know you love Classical music. So let's take the 'Classic', and add 'Rock'. How about that?" "There's something like 'Classic Rock'"? He eyed me suspiciously. So what is more "Classic" in Rock music than the archetype of all things Rock? Rock 'n' Roll, of course. And when I played the YouTube video of Wanda Jackson's "Let's Have A Party" to him, he positively turned nuts. "Yessss! That's it! Why have I never heard this before? It will be a blast! And from now on, my second name is Wanda!"
You've seen "Blingbert Wanda" before (please see the first comment). For "Party", I retried my other idea for the (artificial) "Bird" theme: Bertie in front of a spinning fidget spinner. Back then, the backdrop had been far too busy. In my first attempt, I had used the camera's in-built "Live ND" filter, and didn't like either the colours, light, or the way the motion blur looked. So this time, I used a real ND filter, a Vario ND filter. It's also somewhat of a filter overkill because I wondered if I could combine the star filter with the ND filter because party = bling. I'm happy to say it worked, and this time, I also managed to get a nice-looking motion blur of the fidget spinner.
Setup: I glued the fidget spinner to a black tile with modeling clay. Next, I put Bertie Wanda on/halfway into a small glass Christmas bauble filled with tiny, shiny confetti stars. I used modeling clay once again to fixate the bauble on a small plastic box to get the right height. At one point, I also knocked the tile over when I rotated the fidget spinner, so the tile knocked Bertie on the bauble over, and all those tiny confetti stars got tossed onto the table, onto the carpet, everywhere... The joys of macro photography ;)
Size info: Bertie Wanda is 4,5 cm long, and the entire width of the frame is about 6 cm.
HMM, Everyone!
Party Bert
#MacroMondays
Happy 17th Birthday, Macro Mondays :)
I joined Macro Mondays on 26 September 2016, and I'm a happy member ever since. A wonderful group that has taught me new photo techniques, lures me out of my comfort zone, saves me from the Winter blues, and kept me sane during those weird, time- and endless days of the pandemic. I also admire how the moderators manage to come up with new themes every week. Thank you, MMs!
And for "Party", it's Blingbert aka Bertie again. Of course, it had to be him ;) He got all excited when he heard what MM's Birthday theme would be about. "Let me come along!", he begged, "you know I love parties! Will there be Karaoke?" "I hope not", I answered. "Don't worry, Silke", Bertie said, "you don't have to sing, I'll do it!!!" He always knows how to talk me around. Bertie got even more excited. "I will sing an aria! How about something from The Valkyrie?" "What?!? No, you won't!", I yelled. "It's a party, Bertie, parties are about people having fun together. Fun. If you sing something from The Valkyrie the party will be over before it begins." Bertie looked seriously abashed. And I felt sorry for being so harsh on him. "Come on, I know you love Classical music. So let's take the 'Classic', and add 'Rock'. How about that?" "There's something like 'Classic Rock'"? He eyed me suspiciously. So what is more "Classic" in Rock music than the archetype of all things Rock? Rock 'n' Roll, of course. And when I played the YouTube video of Wanda Jackson's "Let's Have A Party" to him, he positively turned nuts. "Yessss! That's it! Why have I never heard this before? It will be a blast! And from now on, my second name is Wanda!"
You've seen "Blingbert Wanda" before (please see the first comment). For "Party", I retried my other idea for the (artificial) "Bird" theme: Bertie in front of a spinning fidget spinner. Back then, the backdrop had been far too busy. In my first attempt, I had used the camera's in-built "Live ND" filter, and didn't like either the colours, light, or the way the motion blur looked. So this time, I used a real ND filter, a Vario ND filter. It's also somewhat of a filter overkill because I wondered if I could combine the star filter with the ND filter because party = bling. I'm happy to say it worked, and this time, I also managed to get a nice-looking motion blur of the fidget spinner.
Setup: I glued the fidget spinner to a black tile with modeling clay. Next, I put Bertie Wanda on/halfway into a small glass Christmas bauble filled with tiny, shiny confetti stars. I used modeling clay once again to fixate the bauble on a small plastic box to get the right height. At one point, I also knocked the tile over when I rotated the fidget spinner, so the tile knocked Bertie on the bauble over, and all those tiny confetti stars got tossed onto the table, onto the carpet, everywhere... The joys of macro photography ;)
Size info: Bertie Wanda is 4,5 cm long, and the entire width of the frame is about 6 cm.
HMM, Everyone!