Bali Bouquet
I participate in a photography challenge every week called Project 52, every week a new subject is selected and I have to make a photograph to meet the challenge. Like the subject here, Still Life, this challenge pushes me to photograph in different ways and wholly different subjects than I would have ever thought of prior. Unlike any other photograph I would post here I am showing a “Behind the Scenes” look at what I did in my room the other night here in Ubud, Bali!
After dinner I went around with a plastic bag and picked blooms off several Frangipani trees on the main road in Ubud, took them back to my villa and with a glass of water, a bowl taken from the side of the bathtub, all my flower blooms, and the lamp from the night stand I created a still life photograph for the first time! I laid the lamp on its side to illuminate my subject and used my finger to drip water onto a few of the petals. It took several times arranging the flowers to how I liked them and then several shots, reviewing each shot closely and then adjusting again. The process took about two hours and afterwards I adjusted in Lightroom. I was able to make the floorboard disappear with the vignette slider, as it was still slightly visible since I had lit the front edge of the bowl. The back of the image dropped off fast since I shot it at f2.8, which gave me a very shallow depth of field. This bowl is only about six inches round. Definitely one of the most fun photographs I have ever made and for my first attempt at “Still Life” I am really pleased!
The "Behind the scenes" work in progress!
Finished still life photograph