Along with the 'black cat on a coal pile' I was also given the

[flamin lib]

assignment of a 'polar bear in a snow storm'. Don't have a polar bear so had to settle for an egg on a white plate. AKA high key in portraiture.

[img]?1[/img]

Ironically the exposure compensation for both this and the black cat is counter intuitive. High Key is over exposed by a stop and a half and Low Key is underexposed by the same. The meter in the camera sees everything as neutral gray so to make white look white light has to added and vice versa for black.

Now, if you really want a challenge try a B&W of canned spinach in a white porcelain bowl and make it look appetizing . . .

edit to add: Can ya' tell I'm reallllllly bored today?

[Talitha]

1. Ok... how did you make the egg stand upright?

This reminds me of a graphite pencil sketching exercise. Sketch either an egg against a white background, or a crumped up piece of white paper. It's amazing how many shades of white there are.

[flamin lib]

2. I knew someone would ask this.

Hard boil the egg.

Drive a nail with a large head in the end.

Balance on the nail.

[Talitha]

3. I was guessing maybe it was a dab of blue-tack.

[flamin lib]

5. I got the idea from an apocryphal story about Columbus trying to convince

investors to support the boat trip west to India. It was a feast with all manner of food including hard boiled eggs. A detractor challenged him to make an egg stand on end because that was as likely as finding that the world was round. Columbus picked up an egg and smacked it down on his plate small end down. "See, it's easy if you know how . . ."

He did, after all, get the funding.

[MyOwnPeace]

4. Ansel Adams and "the Zone"

would be proud! Great stuff - I miss the fun of photography - wonderful to see someone working at it!

[flamin lib]

6. Ya' got a smart phone? Join in. nt

[MyOwnPeace]

7. Well, you see...........

that's one of the challenges! I'm REALLY old school - film in the darkroom!
Actually had one in my basement - developed my own film, then printed it. Loved reading and practicing the crazy techniques used to make things happen in the darkroom. Such a challenge - such a skill.
Went into photography as an income-providing thing (part-time - weddings) - took away all of the "fun" of what was happening - and never went back to it. Career changes and technology pushed me even further away (I've got some "very expensive" film cameras that I'm now using as door stops!) and while I still am actively watching composing my shots, it is not like the "good old days!"

[flamin lib]

8. I can sympathize. I was the Oly sales rep for NE Texas from

1980 to 1985. Career changes, some not under my control, took me away from photography and then when Olympus announced that it would no longer support the OM system it sent me into a bit of a funk. Sold all my gear except for the OM1 with Miataini's autograph on it and took a decade sabbatical from imaging. Then I found myself in real estate and couldn't afford to hire photographers to present my listings. Bought a little P&S Nikon and slowly came back to imaging. I had a couple of Oly DSLRs including the last issue E-520.

Then Olympus introduced the OMD EM5 which looked exactly like the OM1 and I fell in love all over again. EM5, EM5 MKII, EM1 MKII (not even in the same zip code as previous OMDs) I kept upgrading.

Come back in from the cold, your livelihood no longer depends on Bridezilla and her Mom. Frankly I'd do crime scene photos before I did weddings.

edit to add: I actually learned and practiced the Zone system. Even did it with 35mm roll film. Kept 3-4 rolls of Tri X at different ISOs and rewound/replaced to fit tonal ranges. Digital offers some advantages and some disadvantages over film. After some time applying 'shoot it by the pound and fix it in post' I realized that if it ain't right in camera it just ain't right and the mindset of you really only have one shot came back to me. I really do enjoy it again.