Sometimes you need to step outside of yourself. Do something a little different. Try something you haven't tried before. So ... I took a bunch of photos of a bunch of pumpkins.
Now I admit I did have in mind to do the Charles Jones type thing and/or the Edward Weston pepper type thing. But I just couldn't do it. Admittedly the fact that I was shooting in my kitchen, using natural light, shooting in colour, and had a white sheet as back drop probably didn't help but ...
I think I've learnt that I like quite clean shots really. I'm not a big one for creating moody lighting, you know deep shadows bright highlights etc., a la Edward Weston. No doubt some of you will probably try to argue that my night photography (what's the point of having a website if you can't link to it every now and then?!!) is moody. But I don't light them, I just shoot them as is - you know natural light.
That's not to say that I don't want mood in my shots. I think my best work is that which conveys a sense of emotion for the viewer, but emotion and moody lighting aren't one and the same. Some, i.e. me, would say that moody lighting is similar to canned laughter on a comedy show.
But in saying all this the shot above is pretty average really. It's clean. It's got good colour. It's unexciting. It's dull. It's crap. It's the worst photo I've ever taken. It's the worst photo ever taken by anyone ever. (Um ... feel free to disagree. Please!!)
It makes me wonder if I'm ever going to get around to cooking those pumpkins.
7 comments:
Hey, they are not that bad, really, in a post modern sense anyway. At least it wasn't the common "rude food" sort of thing....
It doesn't make me want to cook up some pumpkins but it does make me appreciate the shapes & details so it must be more on the Ed Weston vibe - apart from the colour & the digital camera & the lack of shadowy bits.
Why don't you do a canned moodiness one as well to compare & contrast with?!
restless night creature i'll have you know that it is kodak 160vc shot on 4x5. none of that digital crap round here thank you.
sharyn i'll have you know that the teeth were a flatbed scan (so not really a photograph) and intentionally un-photographic.
i was stepping out beyond current fashions in food photography - and failing miserably.
but as wise men (or failures) say, only by failing can we expect to succeed. or some crap.
The only failures are lessons not learned, or some such esoteric statement
what i love, is that as soon as you take a 'crap photo' everyone wants to comment! : )
By the way, I love the teeth one! But yeah, I think this is crap.
: )
yep you wait years for everyone to tell you how great you are, when clearly all people want to do is tell you how crap you are.
thanks guys.
anyway i still like it in a post-modern german school kind of way.
(...to be read out loud in the voice of a seven year old wondering what all the grown ups are talking about and whether they actually think they sound sophisticated...)
it makes me hungry
Post a Comment