A Change of Focus

Time Pieces

Several months ago, my sister's former mother-in-law sent me a large package of pocket watch mechanisms to photograph. (I traveled to India with her, so we now have a friendship that transcends those broken family bonds. Once you ride an elephant together, you never forget.) At any rate, I finally tackled the watch parts.

Deconstructed Pocket Watches

There weren't quite enough to make a square, so I dug into my own collections, and was amazed at the amount of stuff in my "Clocks" box. I filled in the square, and then went on to take two other photos of clock-stuff.

Clock Faces

These were all taken on the new lightbox contraption, and I will say that metal is an absolute bear to light. I struggled for ages with trying to adjust my (extremely primitive) set-up so the lights would not glare off the glass faces or burn out the edges of the (highly reflective) metal cases. I've jury-rigged an inexpensive lighting system that works well for a very simple and specific type of photograph, but does not adapt easily to new directions. This is the first time I've had to deal with reflections, since the ocean does a wonderful job of sanding, weathering, eroding, rusting, and dulling all the shiny things that fall into it. Betcha if I threw all my clocks into Frenchmans Bay for a few weeks they'd be much easier to photograph (and believe me, by the end of this session I was tempted!)