Now that we’re in the throes of winter, I’ve come up with all sorts of crazy photography projects I can do in the comfort (and warmth) of my own home. As I gathered colorful objects to photograph, Peter’s first question was “is a 5 year old coming to visit?”. Needless to say he ended up in charge of figuring out dinner that night.
My first subject was a box of crayons. They are colorful and sculptural in an odd sort of way. This was a great exercise in practicing angles, lighting and macro techniques. For this shot I played with both black and white backgrounds using construction paper and decided to put a lens cap under one side of the box to tilt it up and create a more interesting angle. I then created side lighting using a desk lamp with a flexible gooseneck arm. It was a great activity for practicing my macro focusing skills, especially since the subject didn’t move. My last step was processing. I cleaned up the specks of paper that were all over the crayons, used Topaz Labs Simplify filter, and then used Alien Skin’s Snap art to create a black and white line version that I melded into the color version to create more contrast.
pamphotography 