Mundane photographic subjects

click photo to enlarge
Some of my best photographs feature the most mundane subjects. This comes as no surprise to me because, having an interest in art and painting, I long ago observed that the same is true of many works that I like. What it does mean, however, is that it isn't especially easy to find such subjects because you don't usually plan for them in the way that you might for a landscape, portrait, architecture or other branches of photography. What often happens is that during the course of doing something entirely unrelated to photography, you notice a composition or item that looks like it might make a shot and you point your camera at it. Such an approach relies on you having a camera with you at the time and that's where a pocketable compact camera is so valuable.

Today's photograph was taken while we were gathering blackcurrants at the house of some friends. Many people in rural communities swap and share garden produce when they have a glut that is beyond their capacity to eat, store, preserve or freeze. It's a sociable and sensible thing to do. Having filled a couple of containers we were sitting at a textured glass table below a green parasol enjoying a soft drink when this composition caught my eye. Glasses and bottles have been the stock in trade of painters of still life for centuries, and the simple qualities of form, colour, shape, reflection and transparency that these objects presented to me had something of a painting about them. Perhaps it was the way the tinted, textured, opaque glass of the table top looked like it was composed of brush strokes. Or maybe it was the way the same surface turned the clouds into what looked like painted representations of clouds rather than reflections. Whatever the reason, I took my shot and I'm happy to say its modest, unaffected qualities please me more than most of the images I've posted on the blog in recent months.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 21.5mm (58mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/250
ISO: 125
Exposure Compensation:  -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

No cost photographic lighting

click photo to enlarge
I sometimes think I'm a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to lighting. I've looked at photographic lights, reflectors, backgrounds, desktop studios and the like, and invariably my response has been, "I'm not paying that!" It may be that the items I reject are reasonably priced for what they are, though I think that's frequently not the case. However, it isn't the absolute price that I'm considering when I decide to reject the manufacturers' offerings, and the calculation that goes on in my mind has three components. Firstly the kind of use to which I'm likely to put fixed lighting and backdrops, secondly the price being asked, and thirdly the output that I'm already achieving with my no-cost DIY lighting. When I factor those together I always end up carrying on with what I've already got.

Most of my lit photography is still life shots, close-ups and macros. Often there is a semi-abstract angle to the latter two approaches. If I were doing "product" style photography, portraits, etc then my thinking might be different. But, shooting what I do, I'm fairly happy with natural light, a single flashgun, sheets of black and white vinyl for backdrops and reflectors, and for fixed lighting, ordinary domestic light bulbs.

Today's photograph is an example of my minimalist approach to the fixed-light photography of a semi-abstract subject. It shows a macro view into an empty, green glass, apple juice bottle. The "studio" set up was to place it on a sheet of white A4 paper on my desk. This was pulled out of one of the two printers that sit there. Then I adjusted my anglepoise light so that it illuminated the side of the bottle. Finally, I hand-held the LX3, set to macro, at the mouth of the bottle and composed a few shots into the emptiness. It's not the greatest photograph I've ever taken, but it is the one I wanted, having shallow depth of field but with the writing at the bottom sharp, concentric circles with the focal point off centre, areas of dark and light, and a light source that is obviously to one side.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f2
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On