White

My 1^st period students got hold of some of my small whiteboards and here are some of the works of art they came up with.

Egg Whites

I took a Photography class at the University of Utah in the fall of 1981, and one of the projects was to take a picture of a white egg on a white background.  Not as easy as it sounds, when you consider that I had to do it all by manipulating the f-stop, shutter speed and developing process.

If you’ve been following the chatter on Karen’s blog, you’ll know that taking a photo of her white car in the garage was what brought this project to mind.

Well, I mentioned it and Karen (Minnesota) had to try it.  (I’m headed over there to check it out in a second).  Now Bob’s (North Yorkshire, UK) gonna try it and Alexia (New Zealand) is thinking about it too.  Seems like I’ve started an international incident.

Well, here’s the picture that brought about the whole thing.

Remember, I got this picture by scanning the original print, which is is just about 30 years old; yes I am that much of a pack rat.  The key to the project was to get as much detail of the egg, especially the entire outline, without too much greyscale showing.  And showing as little salt at the bottom as possible.

Don’t even ask what grade I got on the project, that was way too long ago, but I did get an A in the class.

Now, head on over to Karen’s blog and check out her eggcellent fowl ovum photography.  And please, anyone else who does the egg project, post a comment here to let me, and other followers, know.  I’d love to see them all.

Oh, and the whole thing started because of Carmi’s “white” theme.  Click on the banner below to check it out.

Thematic Photographic–good thing I got an early hint.

I checked the blogosphere just before heading out to the Bonneville Salt Flats to photograph the sunset, and saw Carmi’s latest post.  In “About this photo:” he gave away next week’s Thematic Photographic theme.

Which was a good thing.  The sunset was phenomenally unimpressive, but the Salt Flats are a great place for “white” photographs.  It would have been a waste of a 120 mile (190 km) drive if all I went out for was the sunset, but fortunately about half way out there I made the connection between salt and white.

Now, it’s a stupid thing to actually drive your car out onto the salt flats.  They are salt after all, and anyone who drives in a snowy climate knows that salt eats cars.  But I have a 13 year old, $1,500 car that just needs to last two or three years, so I figured I’d just spend $10 at the spray car wash when I got home and when the car rots out in three years I’ll pick up another $1,500 one.

Real stupid is driving a $50,000 Porsche Boxter out onto the Salt Flats, look right above my car.  Then look at my tire and the back of the wheel well.  That’s not snow, that’s salt caked on there.  Now, I’m not saying driving my 1998 Ford Escort out there was the smart thing to do, but it’s definitely not a Porsche Boxter.  I wouldn’t even have taken my 2004 Subaru out on it, well, maybe in 2020 I would have.

Well, I sat out there until about 9:00 taking pictures.  There were a couple cars doing speed runs up and down a makeshift track, that was fun to watch.  The sun set and I headed home.  Since I had been out there with friends before, I knew how dark it could get without a full moon, so I pointed the car straight toward the parking lot that would lead me out of there and back to I-80.  And it was a really good thing that the Parks Department had added reflectors to the information sign because I was just a little bit off and without them I might have gone right past the road.

It was an enjoyable, and thanks to Carmi’s theme, a productive trip for me.  I got home about 11 and spent 15 minutes spraying down the underside of the car.  I think I got most of the salt, you can never get it all.  The car should last at least another 3 years before things start dropping off.

		Salt Flats are White VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

If you want to see more pictures for this theme, and especially if you want to join, click on the banner below.  It’s a lot of fun.