Inspirations – Cantus Arcticus by Jared Lim

© Jared Lim

I came across by chance “Concerto for Birds” also known as Cantus Arcticus, Op. 61 (an orchestral composition by the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara written in 1972) in youtube and fell in love with the music. It gave me inspiration to create something of the same title or concept. I like to create something fun, not a too serious image.

I was in Moscow last month, the day when I arrived, it was a beautiful day with the perfect “poofy” clouds all over the sky! I spotted two buildings outside my window with lines connecting them. However, there weren’t many birds, just 2 or 3. I took a couple of shots because the sky was too great to give it a miss. The next day early morning, I was awakened by the birds chirping! Lots of black birds on the lines! I took a couple of shots at different focal length. The final image is a composite of the several shots, the whimsical clouds, the lines and the birds. I spent a lot of time layering and arranging  the lines and birds since I wanted it to look chaotically organised like a music sheet yet with identifiable musical ” notes”. ~ Jared Lim

Inspirations – 354 photographers

© 354 Kevin Laloux and Maxime Delvaux

Box is a collective project by Kevin Laloux and Maxime Delvaux. It’s a series of pictures made with cardboard and miniature furniture. The project represents several scenes that we created following our inspirations. The people in the pictures are shot in our studio and integrated by computer. ~ 354 photographers

Inspirations – Jason Lee

© Jason Lee

Nikon D700, Focal Length 70 mm 1/15 sec f/16.0 ISO 800

I wanted to create a comical twist on washing the dishes, and imagined the kids using an alternative cleaner. This is what I came up with. I photographed each child separately, as well as some of the dishes, and combined them together. All the bubbles are real. To view more images in this project, click here. ~ Jason Lee

Inspirations – Andrew Brooks

© Andrew Brooks

Shot with the camera in waterproof housing so I could have the camera point of view around an inch of the top of the water.  Shot at f8 on a lens at 24mm using exposures of 1 second, to allow me the time to fire the flash whilst the lens is open.

The Flooded Tunnel image is a composite photograph, made from over 250 captures.  The tunnel was pitch black and I could get no power down there to bring a lighting set up,  so the whole things it lit using one Nikon flash gun.  I set the camera to open it’s lens for 1 second every 5 seconds, allowing me to walk within the shot, firing the flash in a different position for every exposure,  I then used Photoshop to bring all of these exposures together,  taking the light information from each burst of flash and then overlapping that with other flashes.  It took me around 45 minuets to shoot the shot and around 3 days to bring all the elements together.

The image is from an ongoing project working with curator Andy Brydon where we look at the Hidden City, visit this gallery to see more from this project. ~ Andrew Brooks

Inspirations – Snacktime by Justin Van Leeuwen

© Justin Van Leeuwen

Canon 7D with a 24-70mm F/2.8 L lens at 50mm f/5.6 @ 1/100th sec ISO 400

This image is a composite of three separate, horizontal, photographs stitched together in Photoshop–all shot with the above settings. I used two Canon speedlights to light the scene; details can be read here.

I usually fire my strobes in manual mode, but it’s good to work with the parts of your gear you’re less familiar with, so I hooked up a Canon 580exII to my 7D, but I moved it off the camera by using a 16′ TTL cord from Flashzebra.com.  I was able to use Canon’s Flash Control Menu to adjust the ratio’s between my lights so that the front flash was lighting my subjects (ie: kids) and the rear was pumped up enough to create a rim light behind us.

I was inspired to do this (as part of a series I’m working on) as I’ve been a Stay-At-Home-Dad with my two young boys this year, and I can get kind of restless when I’m not working my brain. I also wanted to keep my photography sharp for my clients; who usually book me on weekends and evenings.  My kids love Goldfish crackers and I wanted to put a playful (though possibly dark) spin on the literal meaning of having “goldfish as snacks.” I pre-envisioned the scene, set it up, making sure my lighting was right, and then brought the kids in one by one.  Even the photograph with me dangling the goldfish is a separate composite (the fish itself was acquired from iStockphoto.com, not my local pet store… no live goldfish were hurt in the making of this image, though many wheat-based treats were consumed afterwards).

The image itself may seem complex, I find it MUCH easier to photograph my sons one at a time instead of all at once, with them prone to running off or quickly getting distracted while I’m trying to occupy the other boy – it can be an endless cycle resulting in no usable images.  The composite also allows me to have a wide selection of images to work with, so I can make the best match between the three of us for the final photograph.  Hopefully this will create a unique archive of fun and different images for my boys for when they’re older – it beats the standard embarassing “baby Justin with no diaper on” shots my mom has. ~Justin Van Leeuwen