Scanography

I bought a new scanner this week, and couldn't wait to try it out on some scanography. What is scanography? It's making images right on a scanner! I have seen some amazing examples of this type of image making, and was anxious to see what I could do with my scanner.

I started with some daffodils from my garden, and had fun arranging them in different ways on the scanner bed. My first scan was pretty awful! I had too much stray light hitting the scanner, so I used black foam board to surround the scanner and eliminate the problem.

Once I had the daffodil shot I wanted, I experimented with  a few other items. Had some fun with a trio of peacock feathers (feathers are tough to scan, they do not stay put!).

I then moved on to a nautilus shell. I loved the way the shell looked on the scanner, so I added another, and was quite pleased with the results.

 I converted the image to black and white with my Nik Silver Efex Pro software (love all of my Nik filters!).

Have I mastered this technique? No, far from it! But I can see some potential here, and will continue to experiment. I do love a challenge, and am looking forward to seeing what I can create with this technique as I learn and experiment more. I'm already envisioning scans using ferns, tulips, poppies, callas, so many ideas!

Happy shooting (and scanning!)
Kathleen

Butterflies

Last weekend I traveled to The Butterfly Place (https://butterflyplace-ma.com) in Westford, MA with a group of friends to photograph butterflies indoors, something I had never done. Photographers are allowed in an hour before the opening time on the first Saturday of every month, and my friends and I basically had the place to ourselves for part of that time. It was wonderful to see the butterflies flying about, and challenging to shoot them as well. Most of them didn't stay still for long!

The Butterfly Place had just opened for the season, so the plants were quite small, making attractive backgrounds somewhat difficult. I shot with my 180mm lens in the beginning, making some documentary style images.

I knew that blurring the background was essential, as some of it was distracting and not very attractive, so it didn't take long before the 180mm went back in my bag, and out came my Lensbaby Muse with the Soft Focus optic and +4 macro diopter. It wasn't easy to get as close to the butterflies as I needed to be, but I was patient, moved slowly, and came home with quite a few images that better represented what I was trying to capture. Here are some samples:

Happy Shooting!

Kathleen