The Portuguese Man o' War

A Portuguese Man o' War

I went up to Turimetta beach to do some photography a few months ago and found a number of Blue Bottles, also known as the Portuguese Man o' War, washed up on shore. This is not unusual for a Sydney summer but I thought I'd take advantage of the light and the fact that the beach was deserted and decided to grab a few quick shots.

More Inside.

A Portuguese Man o' War

The Portuguese Man o' War is not a Jellyfish, it is a siphonophore. It's not actually a single creature, it is a colonial orgasm consisting of multiple small animals called zooids. Zooids are specialised and are attached to each other and are physiologically integrated to such an extent that they simply can't survive on their own. Large numbers of these animals get washed on to shore over the Australian summer and are responsible for a large number of human stings. The stings cause a lot of pain and leave red whip like marks on exposed skin. The sting can also trigger an allergic reaction but rarely cause deaths.

A Portugese Man o' War

I only had the 24 - 105mm lens with me at the time as I had set out to shoot some landscape shots. I shot at f/4 to get as shallow a depth of field as possible. The morning light was good at the time and I was able to shoot at 1/400th. I have not warmed up these images in post production, these shots are virtually straight out of the camera.

21/52 - A Bottle of Red

A Bottle of Red 

Here's this week's entry for my Project 52. I decided to use a bottle of Shiraz and light it using a straightforward two light setup. I wanted the image to have an overall warm feel to it and I also wanted to bring out the texture of the label on the bottle.

Lighting info and setup shots after the jump.

 

Setup - A bottle of Red

I used the Canon 580 EX II as the base light for this shot. I fired it at 1/4th power through a CTO gel at the ceiling. The CTO gel was used to warm up the light a little. The strobe was zoomed at 24mm.

The Canon 480 EX II was used as the key light. I fired it, aimed at the bottle, at 1/64th and zoomed to 105mm to light the top edge of the bottle. It is this key light that brings out the texture of the label.

13/52 - Jean Paul Gaultier

Jean Paul Gaultier 

My wife got a new bottle of perfume recently and I decided to use it as this weeks shot for the project. I feel my lighting skills are improving because I can setup the lights and capture the photograph I have in mind, a lot faster now. This again, was a two light setup. The most difficult part of it was getting the background light just right. In hind sight, I think a bigger part of the background should have been lit.

Lighting setup shot and lighting details, after the jump.

Lighting setup - Jean Paul Gaultier

I used two speedlites to light this photograph.

A Canon 480 EX II was fired at 1/64th and zoomed to 70mm, from camera left and aimed at the bottle of perfume. The light form this strobe lit up the left of the bottle. The light was bounced off a white foam-core board to light up the right side of the bottle.

A snooted Canon 580 EX II was fired at 1/32 and zoomed to 105mm and fired at the black background. This strobe was fired through a red gel.

Table 31