Kathy's Kitchen

As all my Facebook friends know, I spent some time this month at my dear sister's house in Edmonton. Kathy and her husband Dale are always very kind, generous and gracious hosts, and I love staying there. I am able to get the rest I need, and without the pressure of day-to-day duties, I have the time to do some experiementation with my camera. Still Life is not a genre I have worked in very much, but with a recent new thread on one of my favourite photography sites, I was willing to give it a try. (http://www.digital-photography-school.com/)

Kathy loves her kitchen. It is a beautiful, with burnished hardwood cabinets, gleaming appliances and a marble floor. Even more than that, it is a place where Kathy happily spends her time with her great collection of kitchen gadgets and small appliances. It is a place of love that is imbued with the ideals of "family".
Kathy's array of cooking utensils is particularly impressive, having been collected during her world travels in her role as a highly respected doctor, university professor and lecturer. She and Dale have also collected a variety of wine glasses and other beautiful items. All of these became potential subjects as I turned my attention to arranging some of these interesting items for a Still Life composition.

I spent many happy hours in selecting items to photograph, and finding ways to arrange them. I had no "seamless" for backgrounds, just a narrow length of cloth. I had to be very creative in my locations in order to make use of the natural light from the windows, and controlling the light was a real challenge.

In the end, I was able to come up with quite a few shots that I was pleased with. The experience alone was worth the many hours I spent on the project, and I learned a lot that I can continue to apply when I get more opportunity to delve into the field of Still Life.

I had a lot of fun with this shot - which took me about five hours to accomplish! I call it "Marching Kumquats". I hope you like it!