Project 62; Researching an event

Lunchtime.

I have decided that I will pick a very simple event to try this process out on. Lunchtime is something that happens every day and as we live in France it is sacrosanct.

Although it is a very simple subject, I am overflowing with ideas. The story goes something like this;

Bread; Very important here and bought fresh every day from la boulangerie. I am seeing shots of the bread cut on a bread board, macro shots of the nice fresh crust in warm sunlit kitchen.

Omelette; Eggs, Breaking eggs, eggs shells, shots of the other ingredients.

Salad; Nice macro shot of the heathy green leaves of lettuce. Shot of Vicky at the sink in kitchen either taken from outside in(need a stepladder) or inside out with a view of the mountains.

Table; a nice shot of the table, set with nice place mats and utensils. Close up of a chilled bottle of wine with beads of moisture on it. Wine glasses.

Sitting down to eat.

Afterwards; Empty glasses, empty plates, scrunched up napkins. empty coffee cups.

I think I will google lunchtime images and food photography as research.

As I said above, here are some of the links that I checked out.

The Ten Tastiest Food Photography Tips | Photojojo

Food Photography Techniques and Tips

Food Photography – An Introduction

Food Photography Portfolio : Food Photography Blog : Food ...

Putting the subject first.

So onto the final section of the course, narrative and illustration. On reading the introduction I think I am inclined to pay more attention to the graphic element of my pictures than the subject matter. I tend to put the subject first like this example;

When I am looking for pictures I tend to examine the graphic elements, I am very heavily influenced by lines, curves, shapes, colour. I understand the picture making process much better now.

Here is a badly taken photo taken by me from a friends wedding. I find the process of telling a story or narrative through photography very difficult. Actually a wedding is a very good example of a subject that is perfect for a narrative. Other examples I can think of now would be a national day of celebration, a parade or daily life. lunchtime seems like a very good subject for me because it is something that happens every day and close to home. Its nice a simple and the only limit to it is my imagination.

I tried this process a couple of days ago working from the point of view that it was easy and I didn't need to really read the notes on it! On reflection I think this is because that is the way I learn. I need to do and make mistakes to learn something. I think the step that I missed out was plotting the story. The second stage is the research, say for lunchtime I could put the term into a search engine like google and see what images it comes up with.

Strobist

Using speed lites has opened up a world of new possibilities for me. The possibilities are endless. The amount of information available on the internet is also endless.

I have become a big fan of the blog strobist http://strobist.blogspot.com. I find it a fantastic learning resource, full of tips and hint from everything concerned with lighting set ups to making homemade lighting gear.

I took Davids recommendations on some books and have bought these two The Moment it Clicks and The Hot Shoe Diaries both by Joe Mc Nally who has a blog here Joe McNally's Blog. He has a channel on youtube here YouTube - joemcnallyphoto's Channel. Speaking of youtube there are so many good videos to be found there like; Strobist Preliminaries, YouTube - PhotoGavin's Channel and so on. Also worth looking at are the videos by Zach Arias.

I am currently thinking of buying some more kit. At present I have two canon speedlites, one 580 EX and a 580 EX mark 2. I found a great blog here My Blog , with a great post on budget kit hereStrobist Startup Kit — Budget vs Premium.