More Camera Exercises

Asparagus was on sale this week.  Sweet, sweet asparagus.

I feel the need to shoot things.

... but not in a disconcerting way.

Since I've gone a fairly long time without doing regular photography experiments, I thought it was high time I started enforcing a shooting regimen.  So, I now have to upload at least one thing - something, anything - for stock photography every week.  I'm going to start out by playing around with food related items.  Even just playing with arrangement and textures.

Yup.  At least one thing a week.  Even if it's not all that impressive.  Like garlic cloves on my fireplace hearth.

Boom.  Weekly goal realized.

Gourmandise, take II

Two more sugary pictures.

My cupboard

One day I felt like photographing all of the dried bulk foods in my cupboard.  Here they are.

Beginning top left: Black beans, brown rice, garbanzo beans, popcorn, lentils, quinoa, split peas, whole wheat rotini.

Now you know what I eat.  I think we've bonded.

Cafe La Boheme tidbit...

I ate this less than two minutes after this photo was taken.  Yes, it was divine.

Food by Chef Christine at Cafe La Boheme.

Broken Doll

When I was hunting for broken and breakable objects at the second-hand store, I came across this doll that was already missing a foot.  Honestly, the doll was all-around creepy-looking.  Perfect!  I'm doing a series on broken objects, so I figured it would fit in well.

The trouble was that a lot of situations I put the doll in made it seem like a stereotypical "creepy doll" shot.  I wanted it to be about a broken doll, not about the spawn of Chucky.  I hope this worked out...

Broken things...

We'll see where this series goes...

Leland's dinner party

I know it's been a long time since I've posted, but I've been quite busy.  To ease you all back into my somewhat regular posting, here are a few snapshots from a recent event I was lucky enough to take part in.

My friend of culinary talent, Leland, threw a Mediterranean-themed dinner party in an orchard.  I took my camera because I knew the food would be beautiful.  I put it down because the food was delicious.  These are actually the only four pictures I took.

(Okay, technically there was one more, but it was just a test shot)

There's just something about food...

Below are a few more tantalizing creations from Leland Spindler.  He was catering an event this weekend, and I got to come ogle the food through the camera (and eat it, as well).

Merry Christmas! Drink chocolate!

Two more things from the still life class

The first is a copycat ad, which nearly kicked my trash when I tried to mimic the lighting on the glasses in the background.  It took FOUR lights on the background alone!

(Go to Bigelow's site to see the original.  I switched to herbal tea.)

The next I just turned in today.  The subject was technology, so I borrowed my roommate's Ipod and my friend's hands.

I claim no affiliation with either brand.

Figure Skates

For still life class, we had to do a white on white photograph, so I grabbed my very own figure skates and took them to the studio.  I used to compete when I was younger and I miss it a lot, so this particular set of footwear is important to me.

DRINK!

This semester, I'm taking a still life photography class at BYU.  We were finally turned loose in the studio this week, and here's what I came up with!  Enjoy gazing upon my favored health-freak soda, and I claim no actual affiliation to the brand.

... and I dare you to find a nicer picture of their product on google.

 

FOOD!

I realized that the last time I posted was somewhere close to forever ago, but I would like to reassure everyone that I have not ceased to make photographic goodness!  The time to post my work has been scarce.

That said, I present my very first food photography work!  Yes, this is my first dabble.  I'll be presenting one of these as a print in class tomorrow, so they can have a heyday pulling it to pieces, but I'm alright with that.  That's how you learn.

Food prepared by the wonderful Leland Spindler.

Squares

This would be the latest image for class. The topic was extension, or the balance between different colors.

The tongue here is from my final portfolio last semester. I call it "synesthete," and the idea came from the fact that certain colors evoke flavors for me. (More about synesthesia)

This is also from last semester. Each of us was given a CD with about 4 songs from a given artist, and we had to design a CD cover based on the music. This is what I came up with for a few songs from Everclear. I had fun burning envelopes.

Massive update

What I've been up to lately:

Here's a little still life from the kitchen.... profusely sugary and lit using a hand-held flashlight during a 30 second exposure.


And the final version of the "Wild Girl."


And a low-key portrait.


And an illustration-type image for color class.

Ta-da!

Still life in the kitchen

When I saw my roommate's flowers decomposing on the counter, I got the sudden urge to do a still life. This is the result:
I'm letting them decompose a little more and I want to get an additional element or two to re-shoot this tomorrow...