40/365 - self portrait - m.c.escher style

40/365 - self portrait - m.c.escher style
Originally uploaded by ddiemont

sometimes i get an idea in my head... and i'm gonna execute it no matter what...  and this was actually last evening's crazy idea which got postponed one day due to some extremely nice weather on Sunday ;-)

The inspiration for this is m. c. escher's self portrait.  I've always admired escher's work partially because he used a lot of math in his work, and as a kid I was REALLY into math.  that kind of wore off, except for I still love to problem solve...

So, this shot was successful after about 40 or 50 takes.  basically what I have done is tethered the camera to my laptop, then set an SB-600 flash off the camera aimed at me (so I would be properly lit for the shot).  Next I set the camera on a tripod and aimed and focused on a point in space... then set to manual, so that focal point would not be lost.  Now, I set the ISO to 1600.  It's kind of dark in this room, and I really wanted to control where the light was coming from in the image.  Now I lit the bar area softly, set the flash mode on the D90 to Commander mode, then set it's output to 1/128th power (would have prefered no flash at all, but the camera did not seem to want to cooperate).  Then i pulled out my trusty remote and just started clicking away, checking the laptop after every exposure to see how I needed to compensate for the next shot (the lens is zoomed to 140mm, and the 8-ball nearly filled the frame, so the slightest movement and I was doomed).

then click, click, click, click, click, rest my arm, click click, click, click... and BAM i got the shot i kinda sorta wanted.

maybe something easier tomorrow evening.