autofantasia's photos with the keyword: alien

For this week's Sunday Challenge for which we were asked to create a triptrych . However, it was made slightly more difficult because we were also instructed to shoot something from 3 different angles and then to convert those images to monochrome before then using them to create the final triptych. Now, I've got to be honest a triptych for me would have been challenge enough, but to find a subject that I felt I could shoot from 3 different angles, which would work effectively in mono left me pulling out much of what little hair I have left. And I quickly came to realise that my mind's eye is clearly better suited to seeking out photo opportunities in colour than it is those that will work in mono, be that black and white or otherwise. In the end, after many, many trials, this is what I ended up with. It's a series of shots of a shower hose which I tied up into a knot before shooting it from various angles. Initially, I was struggling, really struggling, to get a series of shots without capturing the ends of the hose, but eventually I decided to work with them and try to use them in the overall design to create the effect of a pair of eyes. The final triptych was then processed in Photoshop and instead of going down the black and white route I elected to convert it into cyanotype, which I thought just lifted the design somewhat and gave it a slightly more sinister edge ... that's if a shower hose can ever look sinister!

Don't worry, no need to call Mulder or even Scully ... just the results of me messing about again in the 'processing room'. Please view large on black if you have time.

What started out as a simple orb became my very own tribute to the man in the little blue box as well as all those that have travelled with him over the years. Don't even ask what I did or how I got there as it would take ages to xplain, but please do take time to view it large. Thanks to everyone who takes up the invitation. Best wishes PAUL

Here's another shot I took of my little robotic friend for a recent Sunday Challenge , which had the theme of forced perspective . I struggled to reproduce the processing I ran over the earlier shot I submitted into the main TSC group pool. Guess that'll teach me to make proper notes! Despite that I still like this one. There's a copy of the earlier shot in the Notes above for anyone who perhaps didn't see it and who would care to check it out. Worth pointing out too that this little fellow is actually only about 8 inches tall yet that fence I've tried to make him tower above is actually about as tall as me, so nearly 6 feet in height.

This week, the Sunday Challenge was forced perspective a technique that attempts to manipulate our sense of perception to make us believe something is smaller and/or larger than it actually is. The old horror films used to use forced perspective and more recently Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy took the technique to new levels. Now, as I had no desire to appear in my photograph and no willing volunteers were forthcoming I had to go down the model route. This toy robot, purchased from Boyes in Northallerton specifically for the challenge, is only about 8 inches tall, but I've tried to create the illusion that he is much, much larger. I set up a small table in my back garden and positioned it about 10 feet away from one of our boundary fences. Then I covered it in fine gravel and added a few small stones before positioning my little intergalactic friend on a piece of wood hidden behind the larger of the stones. I secured my camera on a tripod and zoomed out to get the smallest focal length possible on my stock lens, as this apparently helps you achieve maximum depth of field. I also tried to ensure I squeezed every inch of DOF possible by using Apperture Priority and selecting f22. Then I moved the camera and tripod as close as I could get to the table whilst still being able to focus making sure that I was looking up at the model to make him look as big as I could. I opted to use this shot as I'd positioned everything so as to get the gable end of our neighbour's house into the frame, which I thought that would aid the illusion. This was the first time I've tried working with forced perspective so I'm fairly pleased with the results and am fairly confident I'll try experimenting with it more in the future.