Still life with natural light series

Beauty in the Process – Natural light series with food

Phew – This assignment was tough mentally! I spoke about this in my write-up for TECH Ex 05, but I really struggled with this assignment.

In the end I am incredibly happy with how it turned out. In the beginning I only thought of still life as one of those early century drawings with a watering jug sitting by an old farmhouse window, but after a great conversation that finally got my creative juices flowing I realized it didn’t have to only be that. Still life can be anything that’s sitting still. It can be pictures in the process of the actions of life.

This week we celebrate my daughters 8th bday and she couldn’t be more excited. We had discussed baking some brownies for this special day and she wanted to help make them herself as some of the wonder of getting older is the responsibilities and exciting new hands on things you get to do as you get a bit older and more capable. So many of those things we adults just think of as the monotony of adult life, so this was a wonderful moment to see past the chore of cooking and cleaning to the beautiful moments that can be made while doing those tasks.

This turned into a wonderful photoshoot with my daughter and some memorable shots I’m sure we will look back on for a while to come. Being able to capture things the way you can with a lens I’m finding so much wonder in.

I shared a few of the pictures I got with her in them in the image gallery as well.

The four final photos I chose tell the story of the beginning, middle and end of these moments. It was later in the afternoon and we don’t usually get as much light in the kitchen at that time, so we opened up the back door as well. By doing so we got the most wonderful light and shadow contrast. I didn’t end up using any backdrops or reflectors as I really love how deep the shadows are on the one side and how it accents the contrast so beautifully.

I also had a tripod set up and ready to go, but I really love being able to move around with the camera. I think that’s another reason ‘still life’ really messed with my head. ‘How am I supposed to get that magical shot when I have to just sit still’.

I didn’t do too much editing on these. Most of the edits consisted of adding some black and deepening the shadows. Taking down some of the orange tones, because of my table top. I really wanted it to be able the bowl and the contents, not the accessory pieces. Made some minor EXIF adjustments as I was shooting, since from one angle the lens took in a lot more light than the other angle. I liked the f-stop quite low as it really kept in focus what needed to be seen.

In the end I’m very happy with how it all turned out and I hope you are as well.