Week 8: Distorted

I'm actually quite pleased with this photo this week. The theme was distorted and luckily it coincided with my first attempts at playing with my new tripod which gave me a chance to play with some techniques I've not really been able to try before.

My first go was with some 'light writing', where you basically turn all the lights off, set the camera for a long exposure and write words in the air with a torch. I was trying to write the word 'distort' but it was tricky to get a longer word written in the air, without actually being able to see what you're doing while you're doing it. I'll probably have another go at this in the future for another theme, in fact, there's one coming up in a couple of weeks that I think'll work as well.

So I started trying to think of other ways to play with the idea of 'distortion'. It made me think of the 'ghost photos' I'd been playing with; it sort of distorts your expectations of a photo when you realise that there's someone in the shot who's sort of not entirely there. After playing around with stop motion photography, I left my tripod set up, set a 10 second exposure and took this:

Week 8: Distorted

It's probably a bit of loose interpretation of the theme, but I like the way it's worked out, epecially the fact that my arm has worked out being clearer than the rest of me so it's sort of emphasising the distorted bit. So that's me being a ghost (and also the most you're likely to see of me for a self-portrait for a while) and I'm reaching for The Duchess of Malfi.

I was really pleased that I managed to step out of the frame so quickly, because in some of the long exposure 'ghost photos' I took at the beginning, I'd move too slowly and leave a sort of ghost image behind as I went. The hardest part of this was standing perfectly still for the five seconds it took before I could step away.

I'm proud of it though, like I said, the tripod's giving me the chance to play with some next techniques. Next up is high-visibility which I think will be fun to come up with... I've got a couple of hi-vis Red Cross jackets upstairs, I'm thinking they might find their way into the photo...