Trying To Stay Creative During The Lock Down; Part I

American Dogwood (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens @ 15mm; 1/3 sec. @ f/11; ISO 250

While locked down at home, I've been trying to keep busy.  Keeping busy all day, day after day, is certainly challenging.  One thing I'm doing is indoor close-up, macro and still life photography with found objects.  I plan to post some of these over the remainder of the  period we have been ordered to stay at home.  Hope you enjoy them.

I have a number of dogwood trees in my back yard (garden).  Seeing the blossoms day after day made me think to myself, "I have do to something with them before they disappear.  They are too beautiful to waste."  I appreciate nature's show.  I went out and cut a small branch and brought it inside.  The old bifocal glasses are just something we've had sitting on a shelf as a decoration for years and I wanted some sort of "filler" in the bottom right corner.  The glasses, I thought, were perfect for that.

The setup is very simple.  This was made on my kitchen table.  The background is a piece of good quality black velvet  I bought a yard of it in the 1970s and, if you buy good quality, it will last a lifetime.  The black velvet is draped over the back of two of my kitchen table chairs.  The camera is on a Manfrotto Pixi EVO 2 tabletop tripod.  I've written about it here and here.  The light is from two north facing kitchen windows directly behind me.  As I said, very simple.  You don't need to be elaborate to create an effective setup.

I made several variations, including some using the High Resolution mode and the Focus Bracketing mode of my Olympus camera.  This is the one I liked best.

What can you, or are you, doing to stay creative during these unusual times?  Let us know.

Join me over at my website, www.dennismook.com. 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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