Project 52: Week 11

28mm, ISO 500, f/2.5, 1/200ss

28mm, ISO 800, f/5.0, 1/125ss

Week 11: Vegetable Still Life

The low key kale image is one that I REALLY like.  This came out pretty much exactly how I wanted it to.  Nice and dark, with the focus and attention on the curly ruffles.  But that's because I seem to do better with single items without a background.  

The second image is an example of trying to push past my shortcomings.  My brother challenged me to do a still life with 9 different kitchen related objects, one of them had to be the mortar and pestle and something had to be cut (the tomatoes).  I have some images with all 9 items (some dry spaghetti and an olive oil bottle were the other 2 objects), but it always looked weird.  I just couldn't figure out a good composition for them, so I took a couple away and tried more of an overhead shot (mostly because that eliminates the background, which I've already established is one of my weaknesses).  I'm pretty happy with the light, color, and overall image.  But it isn't at all what I set out to do.  Which is why I see frustration when I look at this.  I spent most of this "session" just trying to position things in a way that didn't look awkward.  I shot this using natural light from a window.  I definitely could have used a reflector for the second one so the knife and tomatoes weren't so dark, but I didn't catch that at the time.  I'll have to pay more attention to the shadows next time.  It's not great, but the only way it will get better is if I keep trying.  So I will.