Still Life

We met with our 4H Photography group today.  We had a small group of six photographers but it worked well for our small set up on the dining room table at my house!

We talked about keeping early attempts at still life photography to simple compositions.  The main goal is to focus on lighting, angles, and simplicity.  We worked with candles a lot!  I think everyone had a candle shot, except Katie who was determined to get a nice still life with her boots and star.  She also wanted to try to incorporate the theme for this year's 4H photo contest....Texan holidays.  I think she has several nice photos to make a good pick.

We also discussed reflection, which often goes along with still life photography.  I showed the trick of adding water to a large shallow glass dish to place an object to reflect.  We also discussed the dew drop pictures that have an image (flower, face, etc) reflected inside it.  Brooke had done this and showed an awesome picture of a colorful swirl reflected in a dew drop.  We will need to play around with this concept and see if the boys and I can duplicate that effect as well!

The main thing I showed the group was the easy way to set up a still life 'studio' with tri-fold boards purchased at a local craft store (various colors to choose from) and an overhead light.  We used my dining room light but a lamp, flash light or natural lighting can be used as well.  The other thing is to avoid outside light creating shadows or excess light in the picture.  This can ruin a good shot.  We were able to close all the shutters and lights in the other areas so we could focus the light as needed.

I really let the 4Hers take over and play with the concept or composing a shot and determining the needed light.  I could compose photos fro them but I like to see their creativity.  I look forward to seeing what the group has learned and what they bring out in their holiday pictures over the rest of the month.

Not sure what we will do in January but it sounds like a lot of interest in special effects and story boards so we will see what comes of those two ideas.

There are no projects for the remainder of the year..so hard to believe I will not be posting again until January.  I hope I do not get of the routine of posting on the blog in the next month.  See you in 2013 as we will find new ways "to make the best better!"