My Still-Life Photography Adventure
Everyone has photographed still life images during one time or another. It’s customarily one of those bland images that catches a eye such as a object resplendent by colored potion bottles on a window sill, uninformed flowers in a vase or a smoke-stack of aged books on an antique table. Photographers are captivated to beautiful, engaging or usually pointless things, and usually naturally wish to constraint those images. we have finished my share of pointless still-life shots, and generally suffer sharpened collections such as colored pencils in a quarrel or aged collection in a barn. But we had never total a still-life theatre from blemish with a idea of revelation a story in a unaccompanied frame. This routine is most some-more involved, requiring solemnly selecting a items, fixation and lighting them in a visually appealing way.
Last Sep my Dutch photographer crony Klaas outpost Huizen asked me to join his still-life photography project. The devise was that we would fire usually still-life images, yet of any thesis we liked, theatre any on a black background, and any name 8 to 10 of them for an vaunt in a Netherlands in Jan 2012. we am a bustling photographer here in a US and was during initial demure to take on another project. And whatever gangling time we did have was spent building my general photography workshops to launch this tumble in Paris. My picture was flattering full, yet we usually couldn’t conflict a challenge. The devise was too engaging to pass adult and we was assured that 3 months was copiousness of time to do it. Besides, we work improved underneath pressure, so we jumped in!
As we said, this was my initial time building from blemish still-life images to photograph, and was a genuine exam to my “working good underneath pressure!” we was totally confused for how time immoderate a artistic routine of envisioning, entertainment and component a objects for any shot, and a innumerable of sum involved. At initial we thought, “I’ll usually find a day here and there in my bustling schedule, and usually fire something.” Was we ever wrong! Sure, we had good days and bad days, yet we mostly had to comprehend that a artistic routine can't be forced or scheduled. It has to upsurge naturally and on a possess time.
So where does one start with staged still-life photography? For me it started with a find of trigger objects, an object that desirous me, and afterwards I’d start component a thesis or a environment about it in my head. Friends helped me locate specialty equipment such as an aged typewriter or ballet shoes. we chose to use mostly window light and reflectors instead of studio lights. we shortly schooled that over meditative a combination of a shot was removing in a approach of a natural, pristine image. It was utterly absolute to comprehend that once we followed my heart and my intuition, we was formulating improved images.
This still-life building practice exposes a photographer’s unaccompanied celebrity and life experience. No dual photographers select, place or light their objects in a same way. However, dual photographers’ work, such as Klaas’ and mine, can enrich one another, even yet we were operative on dual opposite continents.
The devise was finished within a deadline. we flew to a Netherlands in Jan for a vaunt opening during FOTOexpo202 in Amersfoort. While a particular work was unaccompanied and singular, a total sets of images complimented one another really well. we am unapproachable to contend that a vaunt was a good success overall, and we am now looking brazen to experimenting with some-more still life compositions to uncover in other venues.
Staging and photographing your possess still-life is really a challenge, yet if we change inner artistic routine with a techniques of a craft, we will emanate your possess unaccompanied images to conclude for a prolonged time, maybe even immortalize some cherished family heirlooms. Just be certain we are not underneath a parsimonious deadline and can suffer a lessen and upsurge of a artistic process!
‘George’ ~ A tighten relations of cave upheld divided while we was operative on a project. we collected some of his personal equipment to emanate a still life picture in his memory.
Adding suit to a still-life image, going opposite a rules?
1950 Leica
Writer’s Block