Posted by John Robinson on November 18, 2009 at 6:33 PM
Common Puffball.
Further to the seasonal fungi interest at the moment.
Sorting some old stuff out tonight for a talk lecture week and came across this old shot. Scanned (well, photographed on my home made system), off an Ecktachrome superslide done on a Mamiya 645. Not a particularly good job but brings back some memories.
Taken 35 years ago, and inspired by Heather Angel (My hero )
Took a long time to get the water droplet to hit the right spot.Done with a pipette mounted above the subject in a chem lab clamp.. A supply of ripe puffballs was difficult to keep up ! You can see the water droplet down the back and the dent in the puffball.
It only worked twice in a weeks attempts. Heather said I could have done with another flash ! When I use this slide I tell the audience I lay under a hedge for three weeks to get the shot - in the rain ! They believe me until I tell the true story.
Interesting anyway.
Details as I can remember
Pentax Spotmatic
Subject in front of a black felt lined box with two flashes from behind- One in front.
Shutter released when water drop hit fungus. A lot of hit and miss.
Wife contolling water drops.
Mamiya 645 Ecktachrome 100 ASA.
Cheers
JohnR
Posted by Fran French on November 18, 2009 at 7:03 PM
John this is the shot I have always wanted! Superb work as I know how difficult it is to get the timing right! Super stuff!!
Fran
Posted by John Robinson on November 18, 2009 at 7:05 PM
What a superb image, John. Very difficult but, you really did a perfect job.
Posted by Matt Cole on November 19, 2009 at 2:26 AM
very impressive John, a very nice shot. It must have been much more difficult pre-digital to take shots like this (and much more expensive in terms of wasted film!).
Matt
Posted by Jeroen Stel on November 19, 2009 at 3:10 AM
Excellent shot John!
Love this sort of experiment and well done getting the action!
Greetings,
Jeroen Stel
Posted by David Sewell on November 19, 2009 at 6:23 AM
I like the eerie lighting on this, John. Suits the subject very well. 100 asa Ektachrome? That was was the replacement for Ektachrome 64 wasn't it. Not to be confused with High Speed Ektachrome (160 asa). A different world.
David
Posted by Ian Macdermott on November 19, 2009 at 8:57 AM
Very nice John a lot of time and effort to get this superb shot, not to mention rolls of film
Discussion
12 repliesFurther to the seasonal fungi interest at the moment.
Sorting some old stuff out tonight for a talk lecture week and came across this old shot. Scanned (well, photographed on my home made system), off an Ecktachrome superslide done on a Mamiya 645. Not a particularly good job but brings back some memories.
Taken 35 years ago, and inspired by Heather Angel (My hero )
Took a long time to get the water droplet to hit the right spot.Done with a pipette mounted above the subject in a chem lab clamp.. A supply of ripe puffballs was difficult to keep up ! You can see the water droplet down the back and the dent in the puffball.
It only worked twice in a weeks attempts. Heather said I could have done with another flash ! When I use this slide I tell the audience I lay under a hedge for three weeks to get the shot - in the rain ! They believe me until I tell the true story.
Interesting anyway.
Details as I can remember
Pentax Spotmatic
Subject in front of a black felt lined box with two flashes from behind- One in front.
Shutter released when water drop hit fungus. A lot of hit and miss.
Wife contolling water drops.
Mamiya 645 Ecktachrome 100 ASA.
Cheers
JohnR
Fran
Time you were in bed !!
Cheers
JohnR
Matt
Love this sort of experiment and well done getting the action!
Greetings,
Jeroen Stel
David
Memories of yesteryear indeed !
What's it all about anyway ?#
JohnR
Ian
Robert