Day 3: With All This Crap, You'd Think I Could Find Something

Well I did it. I made it three days. What's that? I'm doing this for a whole year?! Aw, man.

I spent all day at work, and we have a lot of random crap in our store (Book Nook in Indiana, PA). A lot. So there must be something to take pictures of right? Well, yeah. Actually there is. The problem is that I've already taken a lot of pictures while at the store. I like to walk around all day and look for possible candidates, then after the store is closed I start snappin'. But rather than retake pictures that I've already done (it's only day three remember. I'll need to save that as a back-up when I'm really in a pinch), I wanted to make sure I took something new today. So I thought I'd play with mirrors.

Originally I wanted to take this small mirror that we have and try to angle it and zoom "through" it so that the picture would end being of me and the camera, etc. from behind (bouncing off of another mirror). It didn't work. At least not with that little mirror that we had (I couldn't even get it to work with me looking through the mirror, so I didn't even try it with the camera). So now what?

3.2 sec. exposure at F/14. ISO 100.
Click here for larger image.

I then thought to myself, "What would happen if I set the mirror up on the counter with an object in its view (angled, so the camera wasn't in the reflection) and slowly turned the mirror during the exposure?" The answer is this image here. While kind of cool, nothing really special. Plus, in order to get the long exposure time to move the mirror, I had to turn the aperture setting really high (for a smaller opening) in order to not wash out the image completely. The result is that a lot of the image is in focus (including the entire background) which takes a little away from the shot in my opinion.

1 sec. exposure at F/6.3. ISO 100.
Click here for larger image.

The next picture I took was mostly just for the sheer silliness of it. Rather than move the mirror, I simply propped it up against a book and turned the hamster so he was looking into the mirror. I call this image "Hamster's Big Day". Also, I love the fact that he's using a Sweet Valley High mirror to "get ready" for his big day. Honestly, I really like this picture, but again, for the stupidity of it. And because nothing was moving, I could use a smaller aperture setting (bigger opening) and keep just the fun stuff in focus.

The last pictures that I took were of the crazy blue snowman that sits in the window of the store. I really like the color of the snowman, but am never in the store when it's dark enough to really capture a great image. This is the "best" of the pictures that I took. Mostly because I like the red streaks from the car passing by in the background. If the snowman is still up next Friday, I'll try and get another picture of it. We keep the store open later on Fridays, so it'll be darker. But who knows how it'll come out still. I think that maybe too, I might try and shoot only the reflected snowman in the window rather than getting both in the shot. 

5 sec. exposure at F/13. ISO 100.
Click here for larger image.

Well, that does it for today. I work again tomorrow, but I think I'll wait and shoot until I get home. I have a couple of things I want to try so we'll see how those come out. Until then, visitor, I bid you a dew.