The Internet is full of photography resources. One particular fountain of info is Chris Marquardt's Tips from the Top Floor podcast. He talks about digital photography, post-processing with Photoshop, and every so often goes on sound-seeing tours. But an even better reason to listen to Chris is his assignments. He descibes a subject or a mood or a technique to use, then its time to build on the scaffolding the assignment gives you.

The first assignment that I've actually completed is the recent (due Feb. 12!) Distortion project. I was going to break a sheet of safety glass, and put it in front of the lense, then photograph something colorful through it. Bought two sheets of safety glass, and acquired a metal punch from work (thanks Dave!). The glass lay outside on the balcony, I grabbed the punch and donned my safety glasses. An experimental stab at the glass.

Crack. Hmm. That wasn't too thrilling was it? The punch left a quarter-sized star-shaped fracture in the glass. Not exactly what I was going for. I tried again closer to the edge. This time I got a spider web of large cracks running out to the edge, more like what you'd see in movie. Better, but it was not helping me creating a “cracked lens” effect.

I tried a quick, darting stab at the glass, resulting in a bubble-like deformity. This was an unanticipated response, but it was good. I made a few more quick jabs, and soon had a field of bubbles to photograph.

Even though I did not get to the actual shot I was going for, this turned out to be a very productive experiment, and I'm pleased with the result. And I just listened to Chris' show on noise reduction, which came in handy while cleaning up the photos.