Picture day :D (part 1)

Hi everyone! Christie and I have not disappeared, no worries, we’ve just both been absolutely swamped. Christie is in the middle of exams, and I have been working long hours trying to organize the logistics of a large project at work, fun fun.

For this weeks Picture Tuesday, I wanted to do a little something different. The result is a photo, but the challenge for me was to add a new step to my photo taking process. When I photograph food, I tend to just set something up quickly as far as my lighting is concerned, and then begin to make my adjustments as I go, with no real idea of composition or lighting/setup before I start. This kind of leads to hit and miss scenarios, where the lighting is good in one photo, but the composition is off, or vice versa, not to mention the random little things that come up like “honey…. The plate fits into my frame but that jar that you really want in there doesn’t”. It’s a real pain to carefully style a plate, and then realize that the lighting you just set up is actually cut off by that glass, or napkin, not to mention how things like forks and knives reflect light in ways which can throw a photo right off and create unwanted hot spots.

I needed a plan, not a set of instructions that I would make, but a starting point that I could make adjustments to, and provide me with an overall starting point. For this purpose I decided to use MS Paint, yes, I didn’t make a typing mistake there, I am actually using that bit of software listed under Windows “Accessories” that seems to just sit there. I could have used a bit of paper and a pen/pencil, but this way I can keep a digital record of my “set-ups” in case I would like to refer to one in the future.

This past weekend, my brother and his girlfriend paid me a whirlwind visit from Ottawa, and one of the things that I found in my fridge afterwards was a container of fresh strawberries. Now, to most this would be pretty exciting no? Not for me, I am actually allergic to strawberries, and trust me, I have heard all the lines, and received all of the sympathetic pats on the shoulder I can handle about this allergy. Worst of all, it is the only allergy I have, hooray for me.

I did not want to simply throw the fresh strawberries out, as that’s just wasteful, but its not like I am going to eat them, and Christie cant either as we are both just so busy she is not going to put her studying on hold to come and get some strawberries. Photo time!
Last night I entered my apartment after a really long day of work, and had the whole setup planned out to take a Red on White picture, using the fresh strawberries on a white background. The thought was there, but I ended up falling asleep on the couch shortly after getting in and missed out on taking this dangerous picture. So to make up for it, I am putting up the little plan I have for this photo, and when I get in tonight I will take the picture, post it and include any changes I made to the scheme :D Till tonight everyone!

**Updated** Just a quick note, I got the idea to take a Red on white image from Junglefrog's photostream on Flickr. I found a White on White image of a glass Jug full of Milk and thought about how challenging that picture must have been to take. Take a look at her photostream, its really inspiring :D