Turning Negatives into Positives –
This week has not been a great week at all! Restful and relaxing is certainly not what I could would have called it. I needed to migrate my existing WordPress blog to a new server, so that going forward I can have unlimited file uploads. Over the last couple of months I have been continually filling up my disc space allowance, therefore things had to change. The technical support from my hosting company was initially quite good and on the surface it looked as if my website migration had gone smoothly. Unfortunately this was not the case! I found that I was unable to log in, I could no longer preview my drafts and my search box was no longer working, and if that wasn’t enough my categories were not displaying properly. To add further insult to injury the tech support team also ‘bailed’ out. Essentially on a scale of 1 to 10 things weren’t as bad as they could have been. For example I could have deleted the whole of my website, or messed up my WordPress theme to the point it was unworkable. However I would still place the disruption at around 5 on the scale, with 10 being horrendous, and 1 being the best it could possibly be.
I’m really not happy that things are not fully functional but at least I can still write posts. Indeed, more importantly my categories and tags are displaying the correct blogs. Ironically, today has been the first day that I’ve actually had the time to sit down and write. This is because during my website’s downtime, I’ve still been very active in other areas of my project work.
I’ve actually spent a lot of time working through more Touch Designer tutorials and Processing (programming language) videos. There was also a couple of Christmas present surprises to add into the mix. My daughter’s boyfriend gave me a special microscope lens with camera attachment and my daughter bought me a three month subscription to Blender. This gave me lots to focus on and it was a welcome distraction from my website/blog issues.
Moving Things Forward Despite the Setbacks
I was really excited when I realised what my daughter’s boyfriend had bought me for Christmas. Below is a photograph of the microscope lens with attachment. I enjoy macro photography and recently I’ve had some success with it, so this was an ideal present. I am particularly interested in microscopy so this is taking me a step further along that journey. I’ve also been doing a lot of creative thinking and reflecting which I will document at the end of the holidays. In the meantime here is a rundown of what I’ve been working on since breaking up for Christmas.
A Present from Santa
It wasn’t exactly Santa, but a present from my daughter’s boyfriend Aaron who has just completed an underwater filming degree. He is an excellent film maker and shares my passion for photography. This year he bought me a microscope lens and camera attachment. Below are a couple of photographs of the latest addition to my camera kit.
Initial Shots with the Microscope Lens
I had some old, dry decaying flower heads from an old project that had just started to develop what appeared to be some type of mould. I decided that this would make an excellent test subject. Below are the very first shots using the lens. It quickly became obvious that the focal length was fixed and without any aperture control. Essentially this means that in order to acquire a reasonable focus either the subject or the camera need to be moved slowly up and down until the subject comes into focus. There are specialist pieces of kit that we lower and raise a subject for this type of photography. Unfortunately as I’m just starting along the microscopy journey it was a piece of kit I don’t yet posses. I needed to improvise. My BTS (behind the scenes) set-up was hilarious! I placed my subject on top of a series of small, empty boxes. These boxes were very malleable so when I had achieved a reasonable focus I gently pushed down on the top box until the subject on top of it came into focus. It certainly wasn’t very scientific and tricky to do. However with perseverance and the right subject I felt sure I could produce something interesting. The initial shots below demonstrate how narrow the depth of field is and show how quickly the focus falls away. As someone who has worked a lot with macro photography I understand how to produce a perfect image. The subject needs to be relatively flat (like a microscope slide), and the camera needs to be perpendicular to the subject. I didn’t have a flat subject and I had no way of telling if the camera was perpendicular to my subject. I needed to think creatively!
Although the depth of field in the images above is very shallow, I decided to include these images as a first experiment with the lens. In order to produce something more interesting I needed something much flatter. Eventually I decided to try a £5 and £10 notes. These were relatively flat, although there were bends and creases in the polymer.
The Hidden Beauty and Details in UK Banknotes
Underneath the microscope lens I discovered that UK bank notes are actually extremely beautiful and detailed. I even discovered a small quote which read:
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading”.
The font is so tiny that it can be easily missed. Before posting up the images created by my new camera lens I remembered something from many years ago. Someone once told me that it was illegal to deface money in any way. Therefore, I wondered if there were any restriction regarding digitally reproduced images of money. I suspected that it could be a minefield with copyright issues etc. However I was pleasantly surprised to find that digital reproductions are allowed as long as certain criteria are met.
I believe that I have met all of the criteria to share my images here. Please note that the depth of field in the images below is exceptionally shallow. This is largely due to the fixed focus and aperture lens I was using. Focus stacking, or shooting the notes under glass to smooth the polymer bends would improve this. However I think it adds to the beauty of it all. I have chosen four of my favourite images which I have placed below. I have also included a full gallery of images showing more of the tiny details normally missed with the naked eye. Having photographed these images I observed that the tiny details are something hidden. There again, at the same time they are in plain sight. Hidden in plain sight – perhaps this could be yet another theme to explore on my journey into the unseen. Given that it is Christmas, a time associated with an indulgent consumerism the banknote seemed an even more suitable candidate for experimentation.
A Gallery of Tiny Details
Please click on the middle image to see a larger version of the gallery.
Images Set to Music as an Art Piece
Images Incorporating Transition Animations (Final Piece)