There were some very creative examples of still life and table top photography at last night’s challenge aftermath. With 68 images to view and discuss, this made for a very relaxed and enjoyable evening. Since England were playing Belgium in the World Cup, attendance was not great, but we made up for it in enthusiasm and the Blue Club provided sandwiches for our supper!
Gavin opted for using forced perspective… using locations that he had visited, taking a small moped model with him to put on a surface with a view behind. He also used wallpaper samples from a famous store near you as backgrounds for some of his indoor shots. Eddie also plumped for forced perspective, using models of cars and a lorry, which he distressed and placed in scenes which he had built from scratch then, in some cases, he took the scene outside, literally into a field, to photograph it against a real background…Andrea had enjoyed her first foray into high speed flash photography with satisfying results. Christine’s were a mixture of traditional and modern advertising-style still life arrangements, some with texture overlays, and Karen also favoured overlays for her flower pictures. Ron used a variety of subjects, as did Frank. Andy took advantage of a D-I-Y opportunity whilst tiling a wall, while John noticed that a spider had made a web on the patio table, so used that as inspiration.
The evening demonstrated how varied subject matter can be in still life and table top photography and how creative ideas can produce some very satisfying results. This is a subject that is accessible to everyone and the results maybe for competition entry or wall art.
Sample of the images that were shown
Andy 
Karen 
Frank 
Andrea 
Eddie 
Gavin 
Christine
Forced perspective
Forced perspective is a technique that is used to create an illusion of scale and is used in film making, such as the Hobbit, where figures or objects need to be scaled in a background. Eddie’s answer was to build his own sets in miniature then, inn some cases, taking them outside, literally into a field, to photograph them against a real background.
Links to forced perspective examples and articles
How forced perspective works.
Felix Hernandez Rodriquez – Photographs Small Toys With Big Imagination