I have been trying to work on my photography skills this week. I spent most of today and all of Monday shooting images for Mary Ellen Salmon. I love her pottery. Rich red sandy clay, full of texture. Very different from the porcelaineous clay we use. Her textures are a joy to shoot because the light plays off all the nooks and crannies so well! To that end, here is a preview of Mary Ellen Salmon's latest works.
When I say I have been working on photo skills, I really do mean it. Try as I might, this camera is still showing me tricks and pitfalls I never knew or understood. This week's lessons have centered around light. How to get shadows to fall exactly where you want them? How do you get light to bend around little corners, just enough to give you an edge to a form? Oy veh!
I spent a good chunk of time looking at the photo shooting setup of John Tilton's on his blog : Contemporary Art Porcelain. I am continually blown away by the richness of his images and the contrast between background and foreground. John was kind enough to show us all how he does it. (see this blog posting) I may be slow, but it took me over a week to finally figure out that he was basically shooting into a tunnel. Then the light in my head went on. Ah hah! So today's fun has been trying to figure out a way to do something similar on our end.... but minus his strobes and bouncing stuff off the ceiling, etc. Working with the lights we have.... here's what I was able to pull off. Thank you John Tilton. You not only opened my eyes to a new way of seeing shadow and light... you also gave me warm washup water! That aquarium heater idea has made me one VERY happy man.
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