Creative Response to “Working” Assignment

Dale Forrest - "Workin" Drill Press

This week’s photo is a preview look at one of many submitted in response to the “Working” theme assignment for May. Dale is a member who knows how to best use his equipment to transform his creative ideas into a striking photographic image. To help offset the low ambient light, he attached a very fast f/1.5 lens, a Russian made 85mm Helios 40, to his Sony A700 DSLR. An ISO of 640 and a relatively slow shutter of 1/60 second were selected, allowing sharp focus of the stationary elements and a motion capture of the rapidly spinning drill chuck and bit. Those ghostly appearing horizontal streaks are metal shavings clinging to the drill bit as it penetrates the metal object. It’s the inclusion of the fingers and the cleaning brush that lifts the final image out of the ordinary, adding the human element to the cold blue of the machinery.