Flame Box Elder 3-Footed Bowl

[Prashun Patel]

7" diameter. I am still figuring out how to work my new phototent. Any criticisms (bowl or photography) welcome.

Finished with blonde shellac and wax.

[Baxter Smith]

Simple lines work well with great wood. I think this wood fits that category! A little light and a little more depth of field would help on a couple of your pictures. Back up a bit and or increase your f-stop. You will also have to slow down your shutter speed so a tripod can help.

[Kathy Marshall]

Very nice bowl! The wood is really nice and I like how the color is oriented in it. I might have gone a little thinner on the sides, but that's just my preference and there's plenty of people that prefer thicker walls.
I'll leave the photo suggestions to those that know what they're doing.

[Jim Burr]

I'm trying to get ahold of the wall thickness...about 3/4-7/8"? I like it! It reminds me of a pumus or volcanic bowl with the feet. The way the colors sweep across the top is very nice. Feet look like it gives good lift and no flat spots...it's a solid bowl all around!

[Dan Forman]

That's a really nice piece of wood, and the bowl makes the most of it. Very good. Anyone else see the face peeking out from the foot on the right, in the third picture?

Dan

[Steve Vaughan]

Love the colors of your wood, the red looks like flames! I'm liking the three feet, never tried one like that but gonna have to add that to my list. Can't tell you much on the photos, needs a bit more lighting, but I have that same issue sometimes and don't know how to fix it.

[John Keeton]

Anyone else see the face peeking out from the foot on the right, in the third picture?

DanYep!

Prashun, I really like what you did with the feet, and the form is very good. The walls may be a bit thick, but really they go quite well given the form. Beautiful wood. It has some nice figure, and it would be nice if the red flame remained, but odds are it will fade.

On the pics, Baxter is correct. You don't have enough light - that is the main issue. When you increase your f-stop (close down the aperture) that is going to worsen that situation. You definitely will need a slower shutter speed. Backing up some will help, as well, and a tripod is a necessity. The last image is tilted. If you use FastStone to process your images, you can rotate the image by degree and get it oriented such that it appears level - or vertical depending on the turning image.

[Roger Chandler]

Nice foot on the bowl..........that part is well done............walls are a little thick for my taste..........what a great looking piece of box elder.......super flame figure in it!

[Donny Lawson]

Very nice bowl. I love the feet but have no idea of how you done that. I've seen it before but I'm guessing there is some carving involved.

[Prashun Patel]

Thanks for the feedback. The wall thickness didn't even occur to me; I was just aiming for a wide rim. I will consider this next time.

The feet are fun! They're done by turning a ring on the bottom, then sawing and chiseling out the feet. Then you use a rasp to shape the squared off edges to blend into the sides and bottom. I used a rasp for that. You just have to take care to cut the ring wider than the desired foot size so you have room to blend.

[Scott Hackler]

Disclaimer: I'm no expert photographer

I am constantly tweeking my tent/camera setup and have learned a couple good things from Jamie and Ken and others. A tent setup with controlled lighting, would require an F-stop around f5-f9 and ISO of 100 or 200. You should "shoot" the piece in profile with the angle raised just enough to see the inside. Your defininitely under exposed. That would be either not enough light or not a long enough open shutter. When I change up things (lights) at the tent, I will take as many as 10-12 photos where I am changing the exposure time each time or a little setting (F-Stop) and look at them on the PC to determin the best picture. The last piece (Sissoo and Walnut) had 11 pictures taken with the lights aimed different and exposures changed. I them selected the best to my eye and scraped the rest (there were some really bad ones)! If your shooting under the same lighting and such, you can usually repeat the exact same settings and reproduce the same good results.

I also use Paint Shop Pro to crop, reduce, sometime rotate .5 degrees to straighten, and sometimes to add a tiny amount of contrast to make the photo look as close to the real thing as I can.

Now on to your bowl.... Really nice work with a great looking piece of wood. I really like the foot treatment as well.

[Prashun Patel]

Scott, how do you position your lights?

[Scott Hackler]

Scott, how do you position your lights?

Prashun, I used to have two lights on each side of the tent but some recent critques of my photos said that I needed to loose the "headlight effect". Sooooo, I took the latest one with only one light on the right, shining down into the tent from the front to the back corners. I like this one a bit better, but there is a lot of "tweeking" yet to do. (I did 11 different shots until I got one that the light orientation and seetings worked for me). Of course high gloss is a nightmare to shoot because of the reflection and so I just do the best I can. Jamie used bounce board lighting, but I haven't tried that yet.

[Jamie Donaldson]

Let see now, where to start on the image corrections!;) The first problem is underexposure, by about a full f stop, but you don't necessarily need more light, but slower shutter opening speeds, and don't adjust f stops when you have sufficient depth of field. Try bracketing exposures with manual shutter speeds, and if your camera has exposure compensation settings, try a + 1 as a correction. I suspect that you have a rather small enclosure for this bowl size, and the ability to move the bowl forward is limited, away from the background, as well as smoothing (ironing?) out the wrinkles in the background material.

[James Combs]

Wow, when I first read the title I failed to note the "ed" on footed, thought I was going to see a monster bowl. Well it may not be a monster but it sure is pretty. Keep them coming.

[charlie knighton]

very nice.....

[David E Keller]

I like it! Simple form with beautiful wood and a touch of whimsy with the carved feet... What's not to like? I suck at photography also, so I'm glad you asked... I may employ a few of the tricks listed above.

[robert baccus]

Here in e. texas we call that a dennis foot but his bowls may have a balance prob.

[Scott Hackler]

Prashun, I can't get a picture to upload in a PM so here is the info:

The picture isnt great, but this is my setup. Its in the unfinished part of my basement and sitting on the unused air hockey table! I have two desk lamps on either side and one clamp on version on the top. 75 watt equivilant CFL bulbs. I experiment a lot with moving the lights around and placing a sheet of paper in front of the lights and such. The goose necks on the lamps let me move the lights around good. The frame is just a simple 1x1 pine frame that I stapled the el cheapo white bed sheet to. Kinda simple. I think I need a different material to cover it because I would like a better diffuser.

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[Jamie Donaldson]

Scott- it's very easy to change the translucence of your cloth walls by moving the lights further away, reducing the point light source problem.

[Sid Matheny]

I like this one "as is". Love the way you blended the feet into the bottom. A1 job.

Sid

[Mike Cruz]

Prashun, that has got to be one of the coolest pieces of wood I've ever seen!

As for the bowl, I love it. I think I would like to have seen the walls a little thinner (just a bit), but that is just my eye...

[Steve Schlumpf]

Wall thickness is always a matter of personal taste - and this time around it works well! Love the wood and I really like how you carved the feet! Nice work Prashun!

[Marc Himes]

That's one of the nicest pieces of boxelder I have seen in a while. I like the feet too. Well done.