It’s easy to explain the creative spark that resulted in the photos in this gallery, my featured gallery for September.
It was boredom.
Snow and frigid cold had me stuck inside for a few days when I would have preferred hiking through area parks chasing wildlife photos. I decided to set up some lighting in the basement and do some macro (close-up) photography, but I was struggling to come up with a subject. During previous winters I had photographed a violin and completed a project on board games. But nothing grabbed my attention. So I gave up and grabbed some yogurt for lunch.
I opened a drawer to get a spoon and — eureka! — I had my subject: kitchen utensils.
I spent the remainder of the day photographing knifes and forks.
Reflective objects like kitchen utensils are tricky to photograph. It’s like photographing odd-shaped mirrors. Lighting had to be positioned in a way to show details without glare. And I had to be careful with the camera position to avoid showing the camera — and the photographer — in the reflection.
But it made for a fun afternoon.
I worked on high-key shots (light-toned objects against a bright white background) and low-key shots (backlit objects against a black background, emphasizing shadows). This forced me to spend time on lighting setups, positioning the combination of four lights and various reflectors in ways to create either shadowless high-key images or to cast interesting shadows in low-key images.
It’s a project that kept me busy for a day until the weather improved.
Credits:
All photos and text © Copyright - Pat D. Hemlepp. All rights reserved.