Week 24 (June 11th - June 17th) | Picture 38

I've been uninspired for several weeks now, so it was time for a good picture. The type of picture that makes all the money that I put into this expensive hobby worth every bit of it, and then some. There are weeks that I want to skip out. But when I took that stupid lens cap picture the first week of January, I knew this would be a challenge. I am so glad I am sticking with it.

And weeks like this, kick ass.

I think I've mentioned this before, I do a lot of searching around on Flickr for inspiration. If I duplicate someone else's idea, I will always give credit. I'm trying to learn techniques and test my own ability and understanding of concepts, and sometimes that involves trying to recreate something to see if I can do it. I always try to put my own twist on it, and sometimes that works out better than others.

Before I show you my inspiration image, I will tell you that it is not unique. The one I am going to link here is the one I found. But then I googled and found many many more that looks just like this. So, I'm not really sure who deserves credit, but this is the one that inspired me.

But I wanted to change it up. The raining sugar is from long camera exposure, and while I could do that - I'm really wanting to test my OCF capabilities. And as we all know, flash freezes motion. I couldn't light the strawberry from the front, it would hit my black background. I tried lighting from the side, and it was dull - there wasn't any real pop to the strawberry or the sugar. And then I decided to backlight it. Uh.may.zing!!!! The sugar lit up like crystals. The front of the strawberry was a little too dark, so I popped a white piece of foam core in front for a reflector and did a little happy dance.

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!



Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: 105mm f/2.8 macro
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/250
ISO: 200
Flash: SB-800 off camera, manual, 1/16th power
Exposure: manual

Everything about it makes me happy. (Or maybe it's just the sugar high I'm on from eating one too many berries and sugar.) Setup, per my usual, is very easy to accomplish with what you have at home. Spoon was secured to some file boxes. Sugar was caught by some tupperware (elevated on other pieces of tupperware). Background is black poster board taped to my desk door. Flash resting on the top of my desk aiming down at the strawberry. White foam core up front for a reflector. (Setup image here if you can't picture it.)

This can be the most therapeutic hobby in the world. This picture is what I needed this week. :)