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February 12, 2007

Food? Food. Food$%$(@!>?$)*&#

Or, A Lesson in (Learning) from My Mistakes
My third assignment was to photograph food. At first I was excited about the assignment. But as the week progressed and my photographs went from bad to worse I started to worry. And obsess. About photographing food. It was an interesting week.

Since the course is titled "Photographing the Everyday" and since we've discussed using natural light at length, well, I felt like I should try to take everyday shots of food using natural light. I stayed away from artsy shots of fruit and vegetables (which I may still take for myself). I stayed away from using the lights on the lightbox. I tried to answer the assignment as I believed it was intended to be answered. I ended up taking a lot of lousy shots of food.


K. liked this shot of spicy shrimp stew. I didn't like the fact that the shrimp were still raw. I think the cast of the photo is too warm/red and although I've played with the settings several times I can't get it to look any better.


Bo-ring! The angle was supposed to add interest. Uh, not so much. Perhaps I should have been a little closer? I have no idea. I think this shot was doomed from the start.


Clams. I love them. Not these clams in particular. These clams were as bad to eat as they were to photograph. I overcooked them and I should have shot the photos against a contrasting background. I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to make clams interesting. Turns out to be hard. They were so pretty sitting on the ice in their little net bag...


I do not hate this shot of the baby bok choy. But after I took it it felt a little forced. I was going for whimsical, but I don't find this all that whimsical. Or interesting. It was shot in our homemade lightbox using natural light. An interesting experiment that didn't work all that well.


Here is a quick lesson in being cognizant of your surroundings. I hate the placemats. I can't get past them--they ruin the shot. A shot that wasn't all that good to begin with, but which is totally blown out the window by the placemats.


Submitted. Too bad the whole fish is gone. This shot is ok. I should have angled it a bit more to focus on his eye, and try to make it look like he was looking at me. Or something. I do like the texture of the coating, the scales, and the lettuce. It's very texture-y. Perhaps too texture-y? I also like the little beads of condensation near his mouth. It looks a bit like he is breathing. (Which is kind of sad and morbid, come to think of it.)


Submitted. This shot is ok too. It's a pretty posed shot. But is it interesting? No. That was the problem with every single shot in the end. It was so difficult to make the food interesting or engaging. I had some ideas for different kinds of shots--the farmer's market or the fish shop or something like that, something more action-y. But it's winter. And it's cold. And I ran out of time. And I'm tired. Those shots did not happen last week.

It was an excellent lesson on composition and making your photographs more interesting and dynamic. I loved the lesson. The assignment made me think (hard) and challenged me and made me take a lot of photos. Which I assume means that the lesson was successful, even if I did not end up with any shots of which I am proud.

Amber is taking names for her next class. If you are somewhat familiar with your camera and you'd like to learn how to take shots of the everyday, and if you are interested in portraiture in particular, I'd encourage you to think about this class. It's got me thinking! (I'm not as much interested in portraiture as many of my classmates, but I have found all of the lessons relevant to my interests as well.) See Amber's blog for more information.

If you'd like to comment on individual photos (I love feedback. Love it! Especially constructive criticism.) check out the photos from this course on Flickr.

Posted by grrlTravels at February 12, 2007 12:04 PM

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Comments

I love your pictures....especially the fish!!

Posted by: Stacey at February 12, 2007 1:21 PM

The photo with the placemats - I like the contrast between the rather adult oriented meal and the artifacts of children. I think it's rather clever that they say Veggie Tales and there's veggies on one plate.

I like the light in the baby bok choy photo. You wrote you wanted whimsical, and now I'm imagining them in a chorus line.

I think the fish would have been interesting if you did close in on the face with the body blurred in the background. It has an interesting face, lumpy and bumpy but somewhat peaceful.

I like the contrasts of textures in the noodle bowl photograph.

Loved to read about how this assignment made you think.

Posted by: Jen at February 12, 2007 7:08 PM