The Rejects

I bet you all will be so very proud of me.  Indecisive me and I managed to choose ONE favorite fruit on white image for my first Food Photography Challenge project!  I did it.  I had several to choose from and I was able to choose just one!!!  That being said, I still wanted to share my 'rejects'.  My favorite of the rejects is the cantaloupe.  (The Little Lady calls antelopes 'cantaloupes'.  I do not know what I'll do when she stops, but I let out a chuckle every single time I hear the word cantaloupe because of it.  "Da lions are chasing da cantaloupes!!! Da lions are chasing da cantaloupes).

The kids LOVED that I did this project.  They were on a fruit high all week from eating all this yumminess!

I figured that strawberries would be the 'go-to' fruit of this project.  I guessed wrong.  Apparently it was pomegranates!  I found it very difficult to place these in an interesting way.  I suppose that is where the fine art of food styling comes into play.  Got a little ways to go there.

Again, the kiwi were so much harder than I expected.  First, my lovely mid-winter Tennessee kiwi were lackluster green.  Second, placing them -- styling them.  It looks so easy, until you have to do it.  I wish I'd thought to cut them differently as some of the other ladies had.  Now that I think about it, a wedge would have been awesome, too.

Now I have to share my first run attempts.  I asked the other ladies how on earth I was supposed to achieve this 'white' background and they enlightened me:  Foamboard.  We were having pico de gallo that night for dinner.  (Have I told you just how much pico de gallo is my favorite?  I tried to photograph it last summer and failed  MISERABLY.  I'll try again soon. )  So I had produce on hand.  Well, the onion, the two week old Walmart jalapenos, Walmart's pitiful excuse for tomatoes, and the best ingredient on the planet: Cilantro!!!.  I had foam board lying around.  So an impromptu photo session.

I excitedly share my results with our group and one of the ladies says "well, a tomato is technically a fruit."  Um, what????

Perhaps I should have actually verified the prompt before beginning to shoot.  Because the prompt wasn't 'produce on white'.  It wasn't 'various produce on white'.  It was 'fruit on white.'  Oops. I was so intimidated by the 'on white' that I didn't even pay attention to what I was supposed to shoot!

Nevertheless, I wanted to share them!

I shot these with my
D90


Sigma 30mm f1.4

FOOD CHALLENGE | January | Fruit on White

I met Laurie Vengoechea through the 10 on 10 project that I do.  She's on my circle.  We are on the Bloom forum together, but I was fairly new when the 10 started up. With tons of new faces and names, I had a hard time keeping track of who was who.  It wasn't until the 10 on 10 progressed that I got to know Laurie.  We quickly discovered we have a lot in common:  Jesus, Photography, Food, and cooking.  Very unfortunately we do not have location in common, since she lives in beautiful California and I live in Tennessee.  Hooray for technology.

When Laurie posted on the Bloom forum about a food photography challenge group for the new year, I jumped.  Soooooo very much up my alley!!!  But I hesitated.  I was nervous to commit to ANOTHER project.  But this project is so me.  How could I pass it up?  Eventually I officially caved and I'm part.  I'm sure it will become challening to fit all of this in as the year moves on, but I will be giving it a good go!  I'm joining a large group of photographers for this challenge and we'll be doing a circle for this project, just like my 10 on 10, but on the 20th of each month, so make sure you head over and check out their interpretation of this month's theme, too!

January's theme was Fruit on a White Background.  No Props.  Just the simplicity of the fruit.

I was scared silly of the prompt. I didn't know how on earth I was going to do this!  But the other ladies got me started, and I must say, I enjoyed this SO much.  Food photography and food styling is so very, very, very much harder than it looks!!!  But it has been very rewarding to see these images that I never imagined that I would take!  I shot tomatoes (technically they are a fruit!), kiwi, cantaloupes, strawberries, and my featured raspberries.  I bought red grapes, green grapes. navel oranges, and apples as well, but never got around to shooting those.

Without further ado, here are raspberries.

Next in our group is the lovely Kay Pickens Columbia MO photographer.  I've e-known Kay online for a few years now and I am so thrilled that she's joined in our group.

The next post shows my second place photos for this fruit on white challenge  So check out  my rejects!

P.S.  I've always hated raspberries.  I love almost every food, but I really don't care for raspberries.  Or so I thought.  I tried these when Shawn so lovingly pointed out, in front of the kids, how good it was to eat things we didn't like because they were good for us.  And I liked it! I really, really liked it!

I shot these with my
D90
Sigma 30mm f1.4

Project 26 | Post 2 | Theme: Faceless Portrait

Two weeks later and it is time for post 2 of my Project 26.  The theme for this post was Faceless Portrait.  Each of the 13 photographers in the group was responsible for a theme idea and this one was Celeste Jones'.  Might as well start it off with a bang, right?  Whew.  This intimidated me.   While I take shots all the time that don't include a face, I was stumped at what makes an image a portrait and what just makes it just an image.  Portrait has this stuffy, posed, stoic, traditional connotation in my mind that I can't seem to shake.   I asked my fellow projecteers for help in interpreting, and Celeste answered.  "A portrait is a reflection of that person's character, in a sense. "

That helped tremendously.  I'm trying to capture my subject's essence.  Communicate through the image who the person is.

About two days later, what I needed to shoot hit me like a ton of bricks.  The Little Lady's curls (which I may or may not have an obsession with.....).

Curly hair.  It's unpredictable.  Unbending.  Goes its own way.  Follows its own path.  It isn't influenced - it is what it is.  Springs right back into shape.

This is my Lady.  Her curls are her.  She has been blessed with the most wonderful curly hair upon which she refuses all adornment, always.  No bows, no clips, no hairbands, no ribbons, no nothing!  "Just down.  Curly."

She is fiery.  Feisty.  Spirited.  Independent.  Unruly.  Unpredictable.  Adamant.  Perseverant. Quirky.  Beautiful.  Yet Tender.  Soft.  Beckoning.  She needs no adornment.  She is captivating all on her own, just as her hair must remain only itself.  Every facet of her curls demonstrates her essence, and I'm so thankful for who she is.

Faceless Portrait

Please visit the next artist in the project circle, Lora Swinson, Shawnee, OK Photographer, and view her take on the Faceless Portrait.


I shot these with my
D90
Sigma 30mm f1.4