Although there is quite a lot to do around here with the studio what with with admin, marketing and keeping the website up-to-date and not forgetting all the applications for funding and commissions I've been kept busy. However, I do feel I need to keep my hand in at what we're all about - creating visual imagery! So, as a little side project I decided to work on a still life.
Taking inspiration from some of the products used for portrait shots: lipsticks; creams; safety pins; and wipes, that were lying around I decided to create a still life that tells a story about getting ready for a shoot.
The main aim was to create a composition from the items using the shapes, so I decided after so thought to take an overhead. I shot this on a white perspex with light from below. This gave me silhouettes to play with, but also allowed the texture of the tissue to show through.
It might seem that this is a photo that needs to be shot in colour, but again I was concentrating on the form and decided to keep it monotone for this very reason, although it did look interesting in colour. After some playing around with the items I finally came up with the composition you see here. I like the way the sides of the lipstick is lit up from below, and the safety pin fills the empty space in the bottom corner. If I did have one thing I'd like to correct it would be the darkness of the cream in the middle of the image. However, I ran out of time - it being constricted - but am happy with the overall result.
What I do find, even if it needs some adjustments to make it perfect, it helps me practice my still life skills for when I may need them for commissioned shoot.
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