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Apple inspiration
The other day I was peeling apples and their shapes and colours caught my attention. I brought my apron (that I like but rarely use), picked a few leaves of lemon balm that grew in a pot on my window sill and played with my camera for a while. This is the photo that I liked most: I played also when processing the photo and liked the following darker, less saturated version. It’s tricky to try and change colours of fruit and herbs… The following photo presents the same settings but quite shallow depth of field which makes the eye return to that focused part again and again. There is…
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Colours and shapes
The first month of Kim’s new Be Still course is focused on still life images shot top down. Top-down, looking-down, from-above, flat-lay, they have many names but just one perspective. They may look easy but they are not that easy. Firstly it’s the thing with arranging the right props in the right way with the right background but that’s nothing new in still life imaginary. Secondly, there are a few technical problems. The height from which you can shoot is usually limited, so you need to use such a lens that will include the whole arrangement into your image. The bigger your props the wider angle of the lens needed.…
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Autumnal apple inspiration
Apples belong to every season, perhaps with partial exception of spring, but I have them connected especially with autumn. Many of their varieties turn ripe at this time of year or need to be picked and stored. I’ve learnt quite recently that winter varieties need to be picked in autumn but can’t be eaten until some time of their storage passes, even two or three months, it surprised me. When we moved into our house in the village, there were several apple trees in the garden but all the apples could be eaten at the time of picking and I hadn’t known it could be different until we wanted to…
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Butter and eggs
I’m way behind with my Be-still-52 assignments but just before we went on holiday, I managed to fulfil an assignment asking us to create an image based on the prompt of “butter and eggs” and I took a series of photos. Before throwing myself into processing our holiday photos I wanted to complete that unfinished work and here I am with two final images I liked best. They are a bit different in several regards but as you can see, I used the same fried egg for creating them. Only one egg actually, it dawned on me much later that there were “eggs” in the prompt so one must do…
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Four props to be composed
Another one from Kim Klassen’s assignments in the Be still 52 project was to take the following four things and make a photo with them: a loaf of bread * linen * twine * scissors Any necessary additional props could have been used. I decided to keep it simple and added just a chopping board and a piece of paper to wind the twine onto in some photos. I decided to match the colour of the scissors I had chosen with the colour of the dish towel to limit the number of colours in the image and simplify the scene. As many times before with this kind of photos, I…
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Organic
Kim Klassen asked us in one of her Be still 52 lessons what we think of when we hear the word “organic” and I thought of opening an English dictionary to find out the exact interpretation as the Czech and English meaning might not have been the same… When I read the following definition… organic – (of food, farming methods, etc.) produced or practised without using artificial chemicals organic cheese/vegetables/wine, etc. an organic farmer/gardener organic farming/horticulture …I knew right away I’d love to shoot cheese. I’ve chosen Gouda with herbs which we buy in a specialised shop from time to time. It’s a bit more expensive but truly delicious. You…
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Milk and cookies
How much fun do you think you would have shooting milk and cookies? When I read that assignment in the Be still 52 course I’m participating in and saw the images Kim created, I felt eager to give it a try. So many possibilities… I decided to arrange my props outside, as the morning light was so nice, and also I decided to add lilacs into the background as they were in full bloom all around and were complementing nicely the cookies I bought for this occasion. I tried different depth of field, different perspectives, cookies whole and partly eaten… and eventually also a different format of the final images.…
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Apples in a basket
Playing with apples, side light, angles, depth of field and post-processing, I’ve created another image I’m not used to creating. I quite like it but expect more. Moving on… has become a motto of this project of mine.
