click photo to enlargeIntermittent rain stopped play today - if wielding a sledge hammer and a crow bar to break up a sheet of concrete can be characterised as such. However, it wasn't sufficiently wet that I couldn't finish the final piece, and move on to marking out the replacement hard area and the adjoining beds for shrubs and flowers. Six mornings of hard labour combined with carting away the debris has broken the back of the work. Fortunately my back hasn't quite broken and I survive intact and ready for the next steps in our landscaping project.
Anyway, by way of a change I decided to have a go at photographing some chrysanthemums that are sitting in a vase on a table in our living room. I usually move flowers around to photograph them, often placing them on a different surface, in strongly directional natural light, and putting a "photographic" background behind them - in my case it's usually a large sheet of card or vinyl. However, this time I thought I'd leave them in situ since the colours seemed to be working well together.
The composition is my usual one - the vase of flowers just off centre with a couple of blooms on the surface nearby, an old painters' trick that adds a little asymmetry and visual interest. One day I mean to really work at a composition involving a vase of flowers, and add a collection of interesting objects to the shot in the manner of the seventeenth century Dutch painters. But, for now, my work is focused elsewhere, so domestic shots and fairly basic still-life images are likely to dominate the blog for the next week or two.
photograph & text (c) T. Boughen
Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 35mm macro, (70mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/8
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: Off
