The Longest Winter Ever…..

Here in the Poconos, the winter just does not seem to want to let go this year.  We have had record low temperatures, record high snow fall amounts and not much sunshine.  But all that changed on Friday, we had sunshine and temps in the upper 70s and yesterday it was 82 (I was actually wearing shorts).  I set up my porch furniture and enjoyed a glass of wine with the hubby - it felt like a warm summer evening.  We even had a visit from one of the local bats (which of course sent me screaming inside).  Then…….I get up this morning and the temperature has dropped to 39, it is cold, raw and rainy out and according to the weather forecast it is not likely to get out of the 50s for at least the next two weeks.  What’s a girl to do?

Since I am relegated back to the indoors I decided to work on a still life story.  I mentioned in my last post that I am taking a Still Life Story Class from Denise Love (2 lil owls studio).  One of the challenges in the class is to come up with a tea or coffee story.  I have this cute little burlap bag with a coffee ad stamped on the front that I had found in an antique shop awhile back.  I had no idea how I was going to use it but simply could not resist getting it.  Anyone who photographs still life or food can relate to that I am sure.  Last Christmas someone gave my husband a basket of coffee items and one of the items in the basket was a bag of coffee beans (which I promptly confiscated) - so, I had my coffee burlap bag and a bag of coffee beans tucked away on my shelf.  While I know I could have just used those two items I really wanted to find an antique coffee grinder for the image I had in mind.  As luck would have it I found the perfect one while on one of my antique jaunts.  The second part of the challenge is to create a series of images that relate to one another and help support the story.  The collage below is a set of 5 images that came out of this session.

Even though it is cloudy and rainy, I still had some lovely soft natural light coming in through the french doors. I tried a grungy background at first - it is actually a large floor tile, (you can see it in the image in the upper left hand corner) however, I did not really like the way that background photographed, so I ended up using the crate idea as a background, I printed out a vintage coffee sign and taped that to the inside of the crate.  I had a piece of old cotton fabric that I used as a cloth and an old pottery mug that seemed to fit into the feel of the scene I had created. These images were all shot with my 50mm lens at f/4.5.  I also made sure to post process these images in the same way to maintain the series feeling.  I made my initial adjustments in lightroom and used a lightroom preset from 2 lil owls that came with the class.  I then took the images into photoshop where I added a texture I had purchased from Kim Klassen and a grungy framed edging that I had purchased from French Kiss.

So, even though I had no idea how I was going to use my little burlap bag, I ended up with a whole series of images that developed (pun intended) around a simple prop I found.  I will certainly continue to work this story with perhaps a different table top, background, mug and cloth and see if I can evoke a completely different feeling.   That is one of the benefits of collecting unusual props, you can create so many still life images from them.  Since I like to create vintage classic still life images I scour antique shops for props whenever I have the opportunity.  If I find an item that catches my eye and it is reasonable, I will buy it and let it percolate (haha) until an idea comes up that I can use it in.

I was hoping this post would be about a Spring photo series……however, flowers - lots of flowers, are needed.  I have heard a rumor that Spring IS coming……until then I guess I will just have to settle for my warm cozy studio and work with the props I have.

Wishing you all sunshine and warm days!