Shop Zen

[parnoldo]

I love my garage shop and spending whatever time I can steal there is a kind of Zen experience for me. It's not always just the working of wood, sometimes just hanging out in the shop away from everything is a blessed, needed break from it all. I'm sure many of you know exactly what I'm talking about.

As a photographer by trade I'm always looking for interesting pictures. Last year I was building some cabinets for our home office and went out to the shop early one morning and was struck by the quality light coming in the window onto the crosscut sled. So I did what any self respecting photographer / woodworker would do and grabbed a camera.

Here's a couple of shots from that morning. For me they kind of reflect that sense of when a shop is more than a shop; the dust, the light, the smell of the wood, all that is a part of life that I'm grateful for the opportunity to experience.

[lighthearted]

Beautiful Shots! The woodworking magazines could use a photographer like you. Why do they all have to take such generic boring shots? Woodworking is such a romantic hobby--it would be great if someone documented it as such.

I wish I had fantastic sunlight like that in my shop!

I look forward to seeing more of your work.

[TimV]

Very nice. The subtle playing of light and texture really makes me want to get into the shop.

If those are the cheap router bits, where's the nice router bits?

Tim

[RenaissanceWW]

It's official, the sound of one hand clapping is these photos! I think you captured the essence of the shop perfectly. These would make a great screensaver at work for getting nothing done!

[Chuck M]

There is something very relaxing about just being in the shop.

Nice pictures.

[blkdiamond]

Great looking pictures! There isn't a whole lot better than a cool Saturday morning out in the shop with a cup of coffee and project on the bench.

[Sac]

These are real nice. As someone who is just getting into photography, I am intrigued my these. I just want to know all the specifics, like what lens did you use? What kind of body do you shoot? What aperture did you use? I just recently got a new Canon T3i with a 18-135mm kit lens.. I think I need to spend a little more time in the shop when the sun comes up.. I have a ton of natural light that floods the shop in the morning.. I just have never seen it.. Thanks for the inspiration..

[parnoldo]

Hi Guys,

Glad you like the pictures. I don't know that they're quite as esoteric as one hand clapping but they do have a nice quality to them. And yes, Sat. morning in the shop with a cup of coffee and a free day of woodworking ahead is about as good as it gets.

Wow Sac, I'm very happy to have helped inspire you. Funny thing, the day I took these pictures was the first time I had ever been in the shop that early as well! I had no idea the light in there was so pretty at that time of morning. I should probably stop drinking beer and get to bed earlier at night.

As far as the tech particulars go...

For personal use I have a Canon 20D body (a few years old now) and a couple different lenses. I don't usually keep track of exposures and lenses and such, but knowing how I usually shoot and looking at the pictures I'd guess a medium wide zoom lens (like your 18-135) shooting as wide open as I could (between f3.0 to f5.6 depending on the zoom)

When doing these sort of shots I'll usually set the camera to aperture priority (AV) open up as far as possible to get a shallow depth of field and let the camera set the shutter speed. When I have the room to move back I tend to like a longer lens (70-300mm) that drops the backgrounds more out of focus. But I can tell that the stack of boards was shot very close with a very wide angle focal length. (probably had the camera actually sitting on the table) These shots also have a dark corners type of vignette added in Photoshop. Photoshop is my friend.

If you're just getting into photography, from a tech point of view I'd say learn everything you can about how to control your camera. Practice shooting everything on manual setting and see what effect changes in focal length, aperture and shutter speed have on your images. It's just like woodworking, once you have control of your tools you have a much better opportunity to get the results you want.

That's about it. My Flikr page has some of my stuff, personal and commercial. www.flickr.com/photos/patrickarnoldimagery/

Hopefully I'll have pics of some woodworking up soon If I can stop staring at the light in the shop long enough to actually get some work done.

[mdoering]

Wow, fantastic pictures... I work from the house and am lucky enough to be able to throw a couple laptops on the workbench and go back and forth between real work and wood work... It's my favorite room in the house and my morning coffee and an occasional cigar are a great way to start any day in the shop. Thank you for being one of the few pro photographers to admit to using a setting other than manual for everything... So many times people ask questions on specifics and are greeted with a dissertation on how they should learn to use every knob and button but never use programs... that they somehow produce inferior shots...

These are stunning photos that as others have said would work well in a magazine setting (I wonder if the Schwartz is around) but I also think they would make some great gallery prints...

[parnoldo]

Well I'll tell ya, I think settings rock. In fact anything rocks that works for you and gives you the results you want. For me, the less I have to think about the camera the more I can think about the picture. Pictures don't care how they got to be made, they just want to look good. Just like furniture, eh?