Last week’s theme of “Books” was way easier than triangles. Whew! Books I have, and books my housemates have, so first I played around with the piles of books in the den. Some are mine, but most are theirs, although it’s hard to sort by owner since we all love traveling and the book titles show it.
I played around with color saturation, trying to get the book in the middle, Biological Exuberance, to be the center of attention but I had too many other blue-hued books to make it work very well. I thought it would be a subtle acknowledgement of living in the time of coronavirus chaos.
I got up early on Saturday to play with light and a more formal studio look for the challenge. I had just finished watching Yosef’s 52 Frames course modules on lighting and so I played around with my trailer’s interior lights (LED spotlights, mostly) and a flashlight with a wide lens as a single lighting element.
I liked the idea, but the cushion in the background detracted from the theme, so I kept moving things around and trying different angles and heights. As the sky lightened outside, the camera picked up the bushes on the other side of the window and I worked that into the shot.
For this image, I exposed for the Kindle light in camera, used the flashlight to bring light to the book titles (which are messages of their own, go read them..), and then did the black and white treatment and some dodging and burning in Lightroom.
I did learn something new this week: how to work with lighting to create a mood in an image. Now to read all those books…
Like all collectors, I exist in a perpetual state of want that bears no reasonable relationship to the quantity of unread books mounting up on my shelves.
Pamela Paul
Hey are those Ghirardelli squares in that one shot? It brings back memories.I did a lot of work with the San Leandro company. It’s been about 2-1/2 years since I have been inside their manufacturing facility. Great photos Annie. Reading your blog is a highlight of my week.
Hi Annie. Amazing how objects we pass every day in various settings can become ART. Great job. I liked how in your narrative you offered explanation and exploration with different light. Natural light as well as other light sources. I myself would have had ALL shadows with little visual content.
Enjoy your reading and page turning activities.
Perfect! I love hearing about and seeing your process. No, I haven’t started shooting yet, but starting inside with a pile of books or those stacks of photos that Gregg is going through makes it that much easier to envision.