Photo of the Day – Tumbling Strawberries
Today’s photo of the day is another addition to my food photography portfolio. This time, it’s some strawberries tumbling through the air.
This shot is one of the better ones that resulted from a number of tosses of the bowl into the air. Things could have gotten a lot more messy if it weren’t for some padding underneath covered in garbage bags. That kept the strawberries from getting smashed every time they were thrown (and kept the bowl intact too.
Click the thumbnail to see it larger:
Lighting info: One sb-800 towards the back left, an sb-600 adding some fill from the left side and the main light was an sb-800 to the right and above. All of them on a fairly low power to be able to stop the motion.
Photo of the Day – Teacup Splash
Last week, I posted a shot of some water drops after I was inspired by this strobist post on how to photograph water drops. I liked my results, but I was pretty sure I could do a bit more with it.
So, in the interest of pushing myself, I thought, “No, I don’t have to just drop water…”
Here’s my favourite shot. Click to see it larger:
I stuck with a liquid theme, but rather than just dropping some liquid, how about a container for liquid? And rather than just have said container simply ricochet off its landing surface (a piece of black perspex, in this case), how about it lands on the saucer that would normally accompany it? Smashing.
On reflection, I could have dropped the cup and saucer together, but I had a couple reasons for dropping the cup onto the saucer. First, it made a good target – I could line the saucer up in camera and be sure that if I hit it with the cup, it would be in the frame. Second, I was working by myself and had to both trigger the camera (with a little remote button) and drop the cup. Adding a saucer into that equation might have made things a bit too cumbersome for me.
I like both the overall composition and the details of this shot: the off-centre cup, the sexy splash coming out the left side, the surreal splash rising upward that looks like it was being poured, the large shard on the left that is rising just off the surface, the pulverized mess beneath the cup, the random little fragment escaping in the top right…
I ended up doing about eight to 10 of these shots in one morning. Each smash lasted a fraction of a second. If only the cleanup lasted that amount of time.
Lighting info: One sb-800 on 1/16th power below the set and aimed at the background. Another at camera right and above on a very low power (I think it may have been right down to 1/128th). A bounce card at left of the teacup to fill.
Photo of the Day – Water Drop
Inspired by this strobist post, I decided to have a go at capturing some water drops. Actually, I mostly saw the post title and said to myself, “Okay, I’ve never done that before. Let’s give it a try,” And failed to actually read the article. I went ahead and set up my shot, took it, processed it and only later did I check out the handy tips in the post! I think I might give it another shot sometime soon armed with the added knowledge there.
So, here’s my first attempt at shooting wee water drops:
Given my fondness for elements of randomness and chance in photos, I’m surprised I haven’t played around with this before. I have no excuse now that I know a bit more about how to do it.
Lighting info: One speedlight on the background. That’s it! Mr. Strobist has already told you what you need to know.
Darby Sawchuk is a Canadian-born photographer who currently resides in Manchester, England. He has travelled to over 40 countries and is always adding more to the list. He creates stock for multiple agencies and is available for assignments.
+44 0790 992 8932
