Day 308 of 365

"Wilted and Frostbitten"

Today's image took longer than I had hoped. With that said, I'm pretty happy with it. A few years, I got into molecular gastronomy, and the book I purchased had several images of deconstructed food ideas. It has now been done a hundred times over, but this was my first attempt. Now, there are videos online of people who have constructed devices which toss or drop all the ingredients at one time, allowing for one or two exposures to be taken. I was not that ambitious.....and I was also too lazy (and cheap) to invest in several burgers. So, how was it done? I actually took a photograph of the set up, and will post it later. Anyway, I placed two light stands side-by-side, with a piece of monofilament tied to both. Actually, it was a left over piece of plastic wire from a weed whacker.....desperate times call for desperate measures. Once I had this string in place, I made sure to sand bag both stands and my tripod. The advantage to this arrangement was that once everything was locked down, each element (ingredient) could be photographed from the same perspective, without having to fake it in post. With the camera positioned a little low (I wanted to be looking up to the underside of the top bun), I placed the bun on to the monofilament. It immediately began to slide off, and I knew I had encountered my first issue. I got a pocket knife, and cut slashes into it, creating a little friction. Now my food does not slide. Yay! After shooting the bun ( softboxes at four o'clock and eight o'clock), I lowered the string a few inches, estimating where the pickles might reside. That process was very scientific. After shooting each element, I would hold my finger on my camera's LCD screen, then shoot the next ingredient, making sure it was below my finger. I had a third strobe making the spotlight on the background paper. With this locked-down system, each element was in it's true spatial location, and I was not forced to fake anything in post. As for the mustard and ketchup (catsup) squirts...that was a different matter. Once the food stuffs had been shot, I left all the lighting in place, then squirted the condiments in the dark, taking exposures after each squirt. I had some great shots of high-velocity ketchup and mustard, but ended not using them. How did I capture them, you ask? Well, I filled my mouth with ketchup, and spit!! I even have outtakes....which I will not reveal here. Anywho, thanks for driving through!!

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