Bam. Suddenly neo-baroque went white out!

I don't know what happened.  One minute I was thinking Caravaggio and then, it was snow white.

In fact, the petunias insisted on white.  It was white or nothing.

Next the monochromes came.  It was out of control.

Pears are Cezanne too

I read that Cezanne took so long to paint a still life that the fruit was rotting by the time he finished.  Who knows: maybe that's how he invented the multiple angled cubism that Picasso speaks of.  The fruit turned as Cezanne painted it! LOL.  But Cezanne could paint peaches.  His colours just sing.

Here is my idea of singing, sensual peaches. I used strong soft box side light to create lots of darks and I left the colours saturated from the Fujifilm X Pro 1 file, just as they came out of the camer in jpeg on the "S" setting.  I softened it a bit in LightRoom 4.

So as the bones dry, we have more mangoes

I set the bones aside for the moment and decided to shoot some still lives inspired by Cezanne; that is to say, on a tilted table top.

Cezanne made a habit of covering a table in a floral rug, jugs, bowls and fruit, and taking a high perspective.  It resulted in a kind of abstract design in which table edges sometimes misaligned and rules of perspective were distorted just north of Cubism.

It's amazing what a difference looking from eye level versus from above can make.

Mangoes part 5

I'm not sure if this one works.  I wanted to lighten the composition with the white of the small mugs.

Mangoes part 4

The bone adventure continues.  They have proved slight recalcitrant. The only way I could get these bones is au naturel (Custom butcher shop) and it's proving to be a visceral experience.  Let's put it this way:  I'm getting a lot of help from three hungry ravens in my back yard.  Georgia O'Keefe could just wander around and pick hers like berries.

In the meantime, I've seen two more mango images which I have realized.  One called blue mangoes,  is above for your delectation.

It's the frog blog!

Sorry about the blog heading title.  I couldn't resist.

As regular readers of this cyberspace know, I like to get inanimate objects into my studio and set the big soft box on them; particularly, objects that are totally out of context.  I like the visual surprise.

When we were in Charleston South Carolina USA last year, we purchased a frog sculpture for the garden.

Here he is in a guest appearance as art object.

Blue elegance meets the pedestrian

This still life intrigues me.  It is a combination of fine porcelain with some loosely hand-painted pots and bottles: elegant design versus pedestrian.  The antique blue coffee pot couldn't be any different from the modern coffee pot with the sloppy blue paint.

Yet the composition works.

Fifty roses.....2

This is the second rose still life.  Some might think it looks frightfully like the first.

Well it does and it doesn't.  The challenge with series is to push them along; to see how many variations on a theme work.  Painters often paint variations on a theme and over the years, they are seen to stand on their own as distinct ideas.  So time will tell.

The idea in Roses 1 was the memento mori, mostly:  Living and dead roses, the straight razor, my old friend death in the form of the skull.

The idea here in Roses 2 is also life and death: The fact that we pass this way once, so make the most of it.

When I recall the idea of mortality, one of my first profound experiences of the idea was through Shakespeare's sonnets.  He devoted an enormous amount of ink to the idea of "cheating" death by living a full life:  for him, one could create children, write, and have faith.  Those were three ways of creating a kind of immortality.  You still didn't get out of it alive, but you left a legacy.

So my second rose still life is a homage to Shakespeare, hence the complete works;  the eyeglasses (symbols of knowledge), the prickly rose stem (it doesn't always come easy) and the dead roses say it doesn't last forever.

Fifty roses....1

Here is the first attempt in the fifty roses project.  As you may recall,  I foolishly decided to attempt fifty roses photos that are different from any done before.  Good luck.

The first was supposed to be simple.  I figured my best hope was to portray absolutely simple images.

It started simple, but then a tin cake plate got into it for dull spectral highlights; then a nice white plate, which just screamed for Death, who wormed his way in with the white plate as a halo.  The dead petals were added with the plate, randomly dumped.  I needed some balance, hence the dried white roses.  My grandfather's chipped straight razor was added to echo the shape of the coffee pot and direct the eye up (and maybe just a smidgen of memento mori).......

And before you know it........anyway.

Fifty ways to see your Roses.... part 3

I've been thinking about the challenge of flower photograpahy: that it is over done.  When I was in Amsterdam recently, I was reminded of the power of the original baroque still life painters; their ability to convey the luxury of ordinary things for an emerging, wealthy bourgeoisie.  It was a break from religious painting.  It was self centred in a way.

It was the Protestant declaration that we are here.  We are rich.  We are going to tame the material world.

The Dutch understood the American dream way before the Americans did.  What will the Chinese version look like?

But I digress.  The old Dutch masters inspired me to try and photograph a rose in fifty ways that haven't been seen before.

It starts tomorrow.

Love hate part two

I was having a bit of trouble with the strobe settings earlier in the first round so I shot time exposures on a tripod.  I got the settings sorted.

This set is with the beauty light and the strobe.  I'm liking it.  There is a sense of colour and substance here that is rich and deep.  It is a feeling I strive for and a look that I want in my work.

Tulip in colour...part 14

Here are two more tulips in colour: one on seamless grey and one backlit. I was trying to get a ghosty effect with the backlit so I popped the skull into the frame for a lark

Tulips series....the even dozen...twelve

I picked another trio of tulips later today and shot the tulips for the twelfth time.  They had different character entirely.  I also tried seamless white and some light spill on seamless grey.  My costume skull is pulling his/her weight.  I have some lovely monochromes from silver efex pro also.

The point of the skull photo above is that beauty defeats death: is that too obvious?

Variation on a Rembrandt light scheme...part 2

Here are two more variations on the idea of the black and white stark contrast as portrait device.  I think this works best in this series as a device that startles the eye and at the same time draws attention to the subject's face.

So a little dodging and burning the white lines is useful to lead they eye up to the face.

Gorgeous tulips age admirably....part 6

What can I say?  I'm into decay?

I loved that flower with my eyes, nose

when it was fresh, young. 

but when used, experienced;
I love it with my soul.