Wall Street III - Forest Green and Gold

[jrista]

Another reworked pen, again to buff the blank and eliminate a small remnant of scattered scratches here and there. This was a WSIII, which is a fairly hefty pen.

 

[Alan Morrison]

Lovely, Jon.
I am most impressed with your photography.....what equipment do you use???

 

[jrista]

Lovely, Jon.
I am most impressed with your photography.....what equipment do you use???

The camera is an EOS R5. It has phenomenal dynamic range, which is a bonus for these scenes, where a highlight can really tax DR. This camera is phenomenal, but very expensive, and its not truly necessary for this kind of photography. Its what I have, as it was mostly used for landscapes, bird and wildlife photography. (I don't get out as much to do those things these days.) The sensor is very high res and produces PHENOMENAL color, though...so if you have the money, its hard to beat. I used to think the Sony A7r IV was an unbeatable sensor, but...I think Canon one-upped it a bit with the R5. FWIW, there is an R5 II out now...which uses Canon's new sensor technology, a stacked (not a bayer) sensor...thing about it, is it doesn't quite have the same dynamic range, although technically it should actually produce even better resolution (despite having the same megapixel count.) In any case, a lot of cameras should do. Any of the Canon EOS R line, any of the Sony A7 line, would be excellent for this kind if photography.

I use a combination of natural and artificial light. When I have it, during the day, I use window light to the left. Sometimes its rather cool, sometimes its warmer. I then have some vairous artificial lights, including a barn door and a couple of diffuse box lights. All have adjustable color temperatures, so I'm able to adjust primary vs. fill light colors and all that. The natural light can be hit or miss for photos like these. I think most of these were primairly artificial, with my barn door and a white reflector serving as the primary off-left lighting, one of my diffuser box lamps to the right serving as a slightly cooler fill, and then I adjusted my blinds on the windows to give me very indirect and diffuse natural light just as ambience.

Sometimes I'll include other lighting. In the case of these pen photos, I have a wax melt diffuser lamp, which is kind of old and rustic looking, which has a small Eddison bulb. Its design is such that you get really nice warm light, and also these interesting shadows. In this particular shoot, I didn't leverage that light well enough. In the next set, the one with the copper pen (See other thread), I moved my tulip over near the light, which then resulted in interesting caustics cast on the foreground. I try to do things like that to make the lighting more interesting.

Finally, there are props. Whatever you think you can put together to make an interesting scene. The scotch, or whisky, wine, or beer even, can do well as masculine props. I also have some others...picked up this awesome horn from an antique store, which is perfect for some scenes. I also have a number of these wood with interesting bark (honestly don't know what it is) that I get from the pet store. They are meant for reptile terrariums and the like, but they are AWESOME props. Then, just about anything else I can find, that I think will fill in the scene but not overly distract from the pen.

 

[johncrane]

i agree with Alan!

 

[mark james]

Very nice finished pen.