Mojo ignited! Soul food

 Normally I start each year with some new photography plans, involving what I would like to learn over the course of the next year, any challenges I would like to try and genres I fancy attempting to learn or improve in. However, for the last six months or so I have been feeling very lost with my photography, I have not known what direction I wanted to move in. Its not that I lost my mojo or motivation, it was more a lack of direction and it has taken a lot of soul searching, exploring and discussion with peers before I finally felt good about my journey forward.

 Over the last 3 months I have been honing my skills in macro, more specifically with focus stacking, which I have enjoyed to a point, but the whole process has been very rigid and precise, which stifled my creativity a little. Taking up to 200 photos for one image, coupled with the lengthy set up procedures and the nightmare of constantly running out of storage space plus my computer repeatedly complaining at the ridiculous processes demanded of it lead to me feeling less than satisfied. This was a far cry from the " losing myself in the moment" type of photography that I love, taking me away from the therapeutic, mindfulness side of creating. Don't get me wrong, I am happy with some of the images I've produced, but the process was not feeding my soul. One decision I have made is to still follow this path with macro, but to mix it up with my other plans so that my computer doesn't pack its bag and leave home 😄 and so my brain can still enjoy a bit of escapism with other ideas. Which means 2023 will involve more focus stacking and macro stereo 3D images, but not week in and week out.

Being a member of a couple of very friendly and supportive Facebook photography groups has had its benefits during this process. I opened up about how I was feeling and received a wealth of bolstering, encouraging posts full of suggestions, some of which I decided to take on board. During the same week there was a post advertising a free online mini course all about food photography as a business. Food photography was at the top of my radar for starting to learn about, so I jumped right in. Health restrictions meant I was unable to fully participate in taking the photos on the specified days - I tried but struggled just to poach an egg, never mind set up the shot and take it. Instead I concentrated on learning what I could day by day. Even though it only involved a couple of hours watching and learning each day, I was completely exhausted with all the extra mental activity, its astounding just how much M.E affects cognitive abilities as well as physical. I made notes for myself  and was able to catch up with the last videos a bit later. The information included covered many areas, as we were encouraged to ask questions, received critiques and feedback, as well as guest speakers. The business, marketing and website advice was eye opening, having changed so much over the years, certainly something I need to brush up on if I want to earn from photography. All in all it was a brilliant week and I'm very grateful to Emma Dunham for running the course, highly recommended. Do check out her website and food academy. 

 As a result of the course, coupled with my attempts to produce some food photography images for a competition, and discussion with peers I have found my motivation has soared. I feel inspired again and know which directions I want to pursue on my journey  over the next year or so. You guessed it, food photography is most definitely one of those choices, but I need to find ways to make it  possible, because I am still unable to manage energy demanding activities, which means adapting, learning new ways that I can do this. Planning is going to be the key thing here, I have already learned that I need to write everything down, broken down into steps, because I forget and get muddled too easily. I have already made so many mistakes in my first attempts as my brain became too muddled. Michael had the brain wave of breaking everything down into steps, written down. On top of this I need to plan how to approach food photography over a few days, as I have discovered that doing it all in one go is too much for me, having a knock on effect of making my symptoms worse for several days. So I can plan one day, set up back drop/set top/lights one day, organise props one day, prep what food I can another day ( some foods can be prepared a day before as many food are made to appear fresh by using various tricks) This will leave my energy to get creative on the day that I shoot. But I won't do food photography too frequently unless I can get creative easily, because I don't want to end up feeling the way that I have, I need the type of photography where I lose myself in the moment. I'm going to mix it up with a bit of still life too.

 That is two areas I will be concentrating on, two projects as such. The next is one that was suggested by several members of the wonderful SheClicks group, I have joined 52frames this week, it involves taking a photograph based upon a theme each week and should get me trying new things. This week just happens to be food, next week is details. I have joined a SheClicks subgroup which I didn't know existed - SheClicks 52frames, which I'm sure will be friendly, helpful and inspiring.

Others things I am considering looking into this year include exploring the idea of producing a book, looking into doing a webinar and possibly being involved with some youtube videos.  I want to do short online presentations but due to cognitive and memory difficulties which can occur after even short conversations I do not currently feel comfortable or confident in this approach, so I think that a pre recorded  webinar which I can break down in sections could be a way forward, but I need to get to grips with how to do the video and slide presentation - I have tried but for some reason my brain has struggled with some of this, but I'm determined to find a way to do it, even if I need a bit of help to get started. 

Now that may sound a lot to be going on with,  I will be taking my time with my projects, there is no rush, I have all the time in the world to learn. The food photography and focus stacking are long term journeys, the 52frames can be anything from a quick phone snap to something planned in minute details, depending on time, opportunity and energy, though I intend to try to use this as a chance to immerse myself in creative ideas once a week. As a future challenge I may even try to produce a couple of images to enter into Pink lady food photographer competition next year, that will give me plenty of time to come up with ideas and execute them to the best of my ability. I already have one idea where I need to learn a few techniques in order to produce my vision.

 The other ideas I can dip into as time goes by, plus I will be creating through painting and drawing at times too, so I have plenty to keep me occupied. On top of that there is someone who I would like to help with their photographic journey.

 I'm feeling very motivated, inspired and curious about my photography adventure

Continuing on with Still life - plus IGPOTY award

  ( Written October 2020 - just forgot to publish)

One of my goals last year and this year was to get an image awarded in International Garden Photographer of the year (IGPOTY) - Last year I managed to get some shortlisted but none awarded. This year I have managed to get one Highly commended in the Still life category which I am so thrilled about after trying so hard to learn and improve in this genre. This is the commended image below. I will be entering another category this month, so fingers crossed with this too. 

I had been looking  forward to using autumnal items in still life and have certainly utilised found and foraged nature alongside bought food, plants and some bargain items from charity shops/ebay. I think I may have gone over board in making the most of having pumpkins, winter squash, Chinese lanterns and berries etc Ive had my winter squash and pumpkins around a month now and they have kept well, stored in a cool place. 

I have been trying light painting with a small book light and another small led light. It is a little trial and error but I feel like I am getting to grips with it slowly. The 3 images below were light painted - anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds seems to work nicely so far.

Another theme that seemed a natural progression for me, given the pumpkins, autumn theme and my pagan interests is a bit of a Halloween / witchy theme so I produced some along this idea. Candles worked well to light some of  these.

Below are a couple of my favourite autumnal still life images taken in the last month, just using standard studio lighting.

I have tried to concentrate on better composition and tried to keep them reasonably simple

I have tried a few with side lighting which does appeal to me.

Another approach I have played around with is flat lay, both in still life and touching on food photography. Ive mostly used the same items to experiment.  The flat lays are easily set up on a table or floor and photographed with a tripod over head. I have used studio light pointed at the set, then bounced off the ceiling and sunlight coming in from the side as you can see in the first two images of pretty much the same set - the different lighting makes a big difference. Whilst the first image has the down side of looking too busy in my opinion due to the shadows - I also find it more appealing because of the shadows. The seemingly well lit image underneath feels flat in comparison.

This image was the result of sunlight streaming through our blinds, onto a flat lay that I had set up. Whilst its quite bust and composition was not set up for images taken from this angle, I do like the lighting and feel it makes it warm and inviting.

For my flat lays I have used a combination of story telling in some and composition for others. I think I need to get both in one image and also find the lighting style that works best for me. Its amazing how many different images you can create from one basic set up, just swapping a few items. I do like introducing the human element - ie hands holding a drink and intend to try more like this - pouring drinks, cutting bread/food, stirring etc.

These are really amongst my first proper attempts at food photography in flat lay.

I do feel like I am learning and getting somewhere, but still there is so much to learn - especially with food photography. I will stick mostly to still life as I dont have the energy and stamina to be making meals to photograph them, but it is interesting to dabble in.

Still life and food photography

I have often looked at still life or food photography and admired the lighting/atmosphere, or how the image invites the viewer in, or how they can provoke an emotive reaction ( "Oooh I want to eat that"). I have dabbled in some feeble attempts by trying to produce images of food I have at home and flowers from my garden, or still life objects that I felt showed a little of my personality, but they all lack something to me - they lack feeling - the emotional connection.

I decided in July to produce more images in both genres but even after playing around for hours this month I have little that really "works" for me, nothing that I am proud of. So back to the drawing board. I started by gathering collections of images in both genres and looking at what I like about them. I attempted reproducing some but adding my own touches - this still did nothing for me.  Next I reached out to other photographers for advice and was offered a few suggestions of tutorials. I have already watched about 5 tutorials on food photography in the last month, mostly on lighting and partly on food styling tips, I learned a little and was able to improve on some lighting set ups, but the more I do the more I realise I have to learn. From simple things such as what to do about reflections in cutlery and glass objects to really planning how I want to draw the viewer in.

So I have started watching more tutorials, I started with some from Gavin Hoey who demonstrated some excellent lighting techniques, following by   looking at his wife Sams website which involves a tonne of food photography.

 After this I enjoyed several youtube tutorials by "The Bite shot", on lighting, composition and also making backdrops. I had started creating backdrops a month or so back ready for this project after watching another tutorial,  but The Bite shot has some great tips for producing wonderful textured backgrounds/surfaces. So I feel like I am getting somewhere with having a small range of backdrops to use and a few props that I created out of air dry clay and polymer clay ( I am quite sure more will be made). I am trying to keep this low budget and use what I have, so backdrops and props have mostly been created from products that I or my partner have had, plus I have managed to get some  donations of paints to use on my backdrops. My backdrops are not waterproof or wipeable though, so I need to apply layers of matte transparent paint rather than risk ruining them with wet foods or spillages. I will try to get this done in the next few weeks - its a necessary cost.

What I feel like I have learned most from up to now is "The Bite shot"s composition tutorials which I now need to put into practice. I will look for other tutorials on composition in these genres and my next blog will hopefully contain images which are better composed.

All the images in this blog were taken in the last month or so, lets see if I can improve on these :) 

Many of these were kind of about telling a story such as above I wanted to depict collecting plants to use for healing and below I was gathering items to do with nature, magic, healing in a different way. I still feel that they do not provoke a reaction even though the elements are there - I just have not got my story telling right yet :) 

With the image below I feel that I managed to find "balance" between the items, so in some way it works but it still does not invite me in.

Below is another sort of still life set that I built up, just trying something different.

From there I went on to create the next two images, lead more by the frogs movements that anything :) 

So you can see where I'm at now, lets see where this little creative journey takes me. Below is the only still life that I feel has worked for me in the last month.