Nice Photo of the Week - Oil
Jul 28th, 2008 | By Mr.K | Category: Photo of the Week - ok, Month
The Idea:
“Oil” is an attempt to illustrate the blood for oil war. The ingredients I felt were necessary: oil to represent, well, the oil and sand to represent the location where the war is taking place. The “war” and “blood” parts were the variables I needed to sit down and figure out. For war I decided to go with a plastic toy grenade. I had access to real artillery, fatigues, soldiers, etc. but felt going with a toy was more inline with my take on the situation that the government is acting like children playing with toys. I also felt the fact it was fake and plastic had deeper meaning than using the real thing. I could have used a toy gun, but felt the grenade implied a more indiscriminate and bloody violence. The trickiest part for me to figure out was how to illustrate the blood. I could have just used blood, or some facsimile, but I wanted it to have more resonance. I wanted it to go deeper. I’m not sure how it happened, but the idea that a flag reflected in water - or in shiny oil - could look like blood. This is the part of the photograph, conceptually; that I feel takes it to a higher level. It also complicated the execution. But that info belongs in the tech section. Oh, here it comes now.
The Tech:
“Oil” was taken with a Canon 5D and the 24-105 L at f5.6 1/200 sec. 400 iso. I took a fold out card table, covered it with a garbage bag and then some sand. I used Henry’s Roof Tar for the oil. It wasn’t quite shiny enough so I poured water on top of the tar. I tried using a real flag for the background, but couldn’t get it to hang in a way that I like - don’t forget I needed the reflection of the flag to look at least a little like blood, so I went with a printout of an illustrated flag. To give the flag a glow the printout is lit from behind with a Sigma EF DG500 Super set to optical slave mode. Then I popped the scene from front camera right with a bare 580ex via the canon off camera shoe cord. Getting just the right angle for the composition I wanted, but still getting the reflection to look just right was tricky. In the end I think I got it right. Here is a Nice diagram of the lighting setup:
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Nice!
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Thanks for explaining the thought behind the artistic concept. I enjoy reading more than what I think I’m already seeing. It’s a great image.
Wow. That was the first word that - literally - came out of my mouth when this photograph appeared on my screen. IMHO, this photo is the epitome of the proverb “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Technically - very well done; controversial - absolutely; moving - very much so (to me at least).
The granade is perfect: soldiers would be too personal (and the individual soldiers didn’t start this war), a gun (or guns) would be too specific (guns need to be aimed), a bomb would be too big, too distracting from the rest of the story. As far as telling a story or presenting a point of view, this photo is perfect. It makes one think.
Now I normally try not to heap praise on photo bloggers I like because I do not want to sound like a “fan” or a “groupie.” But, after this photograph, I must break my silence. So, here goes: thank you for your efforts, for sharing your knowledge and experience, your tips, your lighting diagrams, explanations and your sytle. Your site is on my “Home Page” and I’m always excited to see a new post.
If you decide to start doing small (8-12 person) seminars or workshops, and if I get enough advance notice to schedule the time off and travel arrangements, I’ll be there.
Thanks again.
Deena: Thanks!
Benson: Thanks!! I think you win for my favorite comment I’ve received so far. I have some interesting ideas for a workshop I’m putting together. It’s still many months away. Stay tuned.
Nice!
[…] that have been killed. So multiply the crosses by 300 to get a better idea of the impact from this blood for oil […]