Thread: A Gnome's Eye View

Wow. That's some darn good work, on all fronts. (Well, I didn't check out the juggling, but everything else.)


Do you have any larger versions of those macros? If you don't mind, I'd like to try a couple as wallpapers. I've been trying to find something like that next-to-last one for weeks.

Those first two drawings especially are great. Keep up the good work!

Sure thing, all of these are smallenized for internet use. I actually used the first shot for a background for a pretty long time, flies have very strange faces. Anyways, here's the second-to-last one full sized. If you want any other ones, just holler!

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/8594/img6523fi3.jpg

It's pretty big so I won't link it directly onto here.

*Edit*
Speaking of desktops, I have this one picture of a garden spider attacking an ant that got caught in its web, which makes an awesome background. I'll link it for anyone who wants a cool background.

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/6130/img6352md6.jpg

Originally Posted by thegnome54

I have a Canon Powershot A610. I LOVE my camera, it was very cheap ($260), and it has awesome manual settings, video support, and an amazing macro function. I don't really know what type of lens it has, I just use the one that came with it. It has a 4x optic zoom, and 4x digital, so I can technically go up to 16x, even though I never go past the optic zoom for clarity. I don't use zoom at all for macro shots, as it seems to mess up the focus. It is, in my opinion, the perfect amateur camera.

If you like my pictures, I just made a thread in the art section with a few more. I'd love to have input from a (professional?) photographer!

Ok... so I was a bit skeptical when you said you had a Canon. I'm a Nikon user. Not a Canon fan at the least. Then when I googled what your camera looked like, I was even more skeptical of the quality of your pictures you'd have on here. But then... I looked. Wow. Very impressive: your eye, your camera, the lens... Makes me wonder why I spent $999 on my Nikon D70S... at a discounted price! Lol.

I'd give you some input but... it looks to me like you don't need any! The only advice I can give you is buy a professional camera. It looks like you've found a career!

Can't wait to see more photography from you!

Originally Posted by meggyfayephotography

Ok... so I was a bit skeptical when you said you had a Canon. I'm a Nikon user. Not a Canon fan at the least. Then when I googled what your camera looked like, I was even more skeptical of the quality of your pictures you'd have on here. But then... I looked. Wow. Very impressive: your eye, your camera, the lens... Makes me wonder why I spent $999 on my Nikon D70S... at a discounted price! Lol.

I'd give you some input but... it looks to me like you don't need any! The only advice I can give you is buy a professional camera. It looks like you've found a career!

Can't wait to see more photography from you!

Seriously? Thank you!! I'm actually a science person, I'm considering a
career in research neuroscience. I think I'd hate to risk photography becoming a chore, so even if I got good enough to make a living at some point, I wouldn't like to. But I think I've found a lifelong hobby in amateur photography!

Seeing as no one seems to mind me uploading a bunch of pictures, I'll stick in a few more while I'm posting.







My sister and her fiance

no spiders...

i love the water drop pics

Your macros are phenomenal!!!

Never before have flies been so beautiful.

Wow very cool!! You are going to inspire all of DV to take close ups of small things now. The very first picture on this thread is my favorite, I think.

Damn, Man. Each of the three talents you've demonstrated here are in top form. Bravo.


If you've never seen Michael Moschen, look him up:

Example 1 (clip from "In Motion")
Example 2 (clip from "In Motion") Too bad these aren't the entire routines. They are really quite impressive in their entirety.

If you have not seen his video "In Motion", you owe it to yourself. You'd be able to pull off a lot of what he does. He does some really amazing "standard" juggling as well.

You know, I actually had those running shoes you drew. Or something that looked like 'em. Are they K-Swiss? :p

Wow, thanks everyone!

"Never before have flies been so beautiful."

Haha, boy was I surprised the first time I took a sharp picture of a fly. They make very good subjects, because they like to sit still a lot. Macro photography changes the way you look at the world - I'll think twice next time before swatting a fly.

Originally Posted by Oneironaught

Damn, Man. Each of the three talents you've demonstrated here are in top form. Bravo.


If you've never seen Michael Moschen, look him up:

Example 1 (clip from "In Motion")
Example 2 (clip from "In Motion") Too bad these aren't the entire routines. They are really quite impressive in their entirety.

If you have not seen his video "In Motion", you owe it to yourself. You'd be able to pull off a lot of what he does. He does some really amazing "standard" juggling as well.

Thanks
I think once I can do most 3- and 4-ball juggling tricks I'll try my hands at contact juggling. That guy is AWESOME! I love that four-ball pyramid spin thing, I've tried before but it's very hard to get them all going smoothly.

Here are a few more pictures...



Barbecue cover after a rain :p


...And some "normal" pictures (not of uber tiny things I would normally step on)

Originally Posted by thegnome54

Sure thing, all of these are smallenized for internet use. I actually used the first shot for a background for a pretty long time, flies have very strange faces. Anyways, here's the second-to-last one full sized. If you want any other ones, just holler!

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/8594/img6523fi3.jpg

It's pretty big so I won't link it directly onto here.

*Edit*
Speaking of desktops, I have this one picture of a garden spider attacking an ant that got caught in its web, which makes an awesome background. I'll link it for anyone who wants a cool background.

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/6130/img6352md6.jpg

Wow, thanks! That second one is awesome.


Actually, think you could put up a link to the 'barbecue cover after rain' one? For some reason I love the look of it.

Originally Posted by Man of Steel

Wow, thanks! That second one is awesome.


Actually, think you could put up a link to the 'barbecue cover after rain' one? For some reason I love the look of it.

Sure thing!

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/2410/img6439xn8.jpg

Wow nice, I particularly liked the pine cones, and the one looking up through the foliage of the two trees on either side of the photographer.

Your photography is brilliant
Keep posting

Imran

I love the seagull on the post on the dock. I have a shot just like it! But I can honestly say I love your much better! I love the ocean, do you have any more shots from there?

Originally Posted by meggyfayephotography

I love the seagull on the post on the dock. I have a shot just like it! But I can honestly say I love your much better! I love the ocean, do you have any more shots from there?

I don't think I have any more from that specific dock, but I have a few other good ocean shots if you want.













That's a bit much, but I live in Rhode Island, so I get lots of face time with the ocean =P

Originally Posted by meggyfayephotography

I love the seagull on the post on the dock. I have a shot just like it! But I can honestly say I love your much better! I love the ocean, do you have any more shots from there?

I don't think I have any more from that specific dock, but I have a few other good ocean shots if you want.

Hmm, I don't know why that got posted twice

I have some internet issues sometimes. Does anyone know how I can delete that?

I love all the stuff you've posted. But I'm most interested in the freehand drawings. I really really really want to be good at drawing, I love to draw but I'm not good at it. So, could you tell me how you learned to draw so well? Did you just doodle and draw anything you could lay your hands on and you started to get better and better through experience, or did you have some professional tutoring?

Originally Posted by badassbob

I love all the stuff you've posted. But I'm most interested in the freehand drawings. I really really really want to be good at drawing, I love to draw but I'm not good at it. So, could you tell me how you learned to draw so well? Did you just doodle and draw anything you could lay your hands on and you started to get better and better through experience, or did you have some professional tutoring?

I've never had any tutoring or anything, but I can only (at this point) draw things I can see - for example, that character I drew from the MMORPG I drew from a CGI picture of him I thought was cool. Maybe the ability to draw stuff from your head comes with lots of experience with things you've seen, or something... I don't know. I consider my drawing a skill more than art, in some respects, because all I really do is copy what I see - if one part of an object is darker than another, I make it darker, etc. - I don't feel that I'm really adding anything to what's already there in real life, just trying to make a copy.

For still lifes and doodles of things that really exist, all I can really recommend is to ignore what your mind tells you. It's very hard, but for example if you see someone's face, you think 'nose' and you'll be tempted to draw an outline of the nose. This outline is what your retina sends to your brain after processing the face - if you input that outline into someone else's eye, they will not recognize it as a nose. You need more 'raw' data - the nose isn't outlined on the face, one side is just darker and your mind fills in the outline for you - you have to allow the viewer to do the same, and draw what's actually there while ignoring your perception of the object.

It could be that I'm still young and I haven't really developed a style of art, but I definitely have friends my age who can do caricatures and things very well. I suspect that some people are born with the ability to draw freehand. If I were you, though, I would just start with some basic still-life type drawings and see what you can do. I recommend a clear plastic water bottle, they are great for detaching yourself from what you perceive and drawing what you really see at the most basic level.

Hope that helps a bit!

Originally Posted by thegnome54

I
Hope that helps a bit!

Yeah it helps a lot, thanks for the advice.

I figured I would take a little break from the photography and post some more of my writing.

First, just a tiny, amusing rhyme I came up with today while on a walk. I saw a butterfly and the word 'butterflew' popped into my head. After a while of trial and error I came up with a way to incorporate it into a stanza.

It caught my eye;
The butterfly
Which butter-flew
‘Round lovely you

Second is a poem I wrote for english class last year. The assignment was to try to emulate the style of a particular poem. I chose "Ode to the West Wind", by Percy Bysshe Shelley. I really hated the romantic era, because of all the pompous 'we aren't part of nature' nonsense disguised as reverence for nature. I got into the mood anyways, and cranked out what I consider a fairly decent poem.

The Dance

The Gingko trees dance jubilantly, splashes
Of yellow gallivanting across the autumn pond,
Unaware of their certain doom, their fate as ashes.

Behind, earth’s jagged peaks are hidden in a haze
These ancient mountains rage in silence
While men with metal teeth begin the trees to raze

The mirrored surface of the pond is shattered
By the trees, the lifeless beauties, as they lay
In disarray, bodies unceremoniously scattered

The land lies in silence, the earth in shock and pain,
As the fallen trees are dragged away, to be burned
In the insatiable fires of industry and material gain.

The Gingko trees dance jubilantly, splashes
Of yellow awaiting the men’s return with axes
Forged in flames fed by their companions’ ashes.


This next one is from the same type of assignment, but this time I chose "An Essay on Man" by Alexander Pope. I meant my attempt to be an epigram, and I even slipped in some religious overtone for good measure (I'm an agnostic/atheist).

The Hate Triangle

The general disposition of any man may be
Comfortably classified as one of these three –
First, there are those who simply hate,
Then, there are those who hate those who hate,
And finally there are those who orate
That they hate the very concept of hate.
Each man believes himself to be on higher
Moral ground, yet each has some form of ire
Seething inside, each more ridiculous than the last
In the all-seeing eyes of our Lord, which see past
Their petty masks of righteousness and feigned love.
The only true love is that which comes from above.

Last but not least, a piece I wrote yesterday in the "Type whatever comes into your mind" thread, and found amusing. It makes very little sense, but I think I pulled off some good imagery without getting too heavy.

The Radish

I watched the radish as it rolled slowly towards the edge of the counter, unsure if its inertia would take it all the way. It hesitated, made one final revolution, and wobbled to a stop maddeningly close to the brink. I stood immobile, hoping it would somehow reanimate. The trail of water the radish had left behind began to bead with agonizing finality on the formica expanse.

I sighed.

I had no choice, after all. I reached out and gently prodded the thing with the tip of my knife. It tipped towards the ledge, paused for one final moment, balancing perfectly on its side, and dropped from view.

It hit the floor with a satisfying thud, and Lucky trotted over to assess the situation. After a few brief sniffs, I heard the radish crunch sickeningly in his jaws. I turned back to my salad with resignation. I had had no choice. That radish was far too spherical for culinary use.

That's all for now, comments and constructive criticism are welcome!

Originally Posted by thegnome54

Hmm, I don't know why that got posted twice

I have some internet issues sometimes. Does anyone know how I can delete that?

You could have just edited it into being a new post.

Originally Posted by Oneironaught

You could have just edited it into being a new post.

The edit ran out somehow, I could only quote or double quote it