Best Still Lifes of 2015

Antique Glass

I was rather lazy about still lifes in 2015. Or it was that I was satisfied with the ones presented to me by stores or homes or plants. Other than adding water drops I did very little physical arranging of my still life subjects in the past year. At least before the photograph was taken. I did a lot of manipulation of colors on the computer. The exceptions to that being the banana leaf and Thicke.

Birth of a Banana Leaf

Thicke arranged a few. I have raised a ham of a cat. If I point the camera inside the house he will inject himself. This was suppose to be a photograph of my basin and counter with makeup. He turned it into a pet photograph but then posed so well and so still he won the day.

Thicke in French Basin

My other form of arrangement was to post process. It is a rearrangement of color and light.

Ghost dancer

Spirit of New Mexico

The truth of the two photographs above hangs somewhere between the two, with image one being closer. The goal of that post process adventure was to make the corner vanish and the deer head to hang in space.

Broken Black Pot

The Broken Black Pot is entirely an exercise in rearrangement of colors. The pot is no longer black except in the title of the piece. I like that irony. 

Still Life with Silk Flowers

And in the Still Life with Silk Flowers I rearranged me. I duck walked around the railing, bench and pot until I got just the right juxtaposition of the three with the corner of the wall behind. Then I twisted the pot a bit and swept the flowers into the sun. The black and white version shows the strong lines of the composition.

Bird on a branch

I encourage the reader to go to the blog before this one - Week Three of 2016 - and see the difference in the two approaches to still life photography in my work.