Ice Photos and Other Productions

In our busy lives, it is too easy to forget to include time for creative play. Fortunately, the opportunities sometimes find us, and the results surprise and rejuvenate.

I had the pleasure of participating in a photography workshop put on by photographer Matthew Wheeler in September, titled Breaking the Rules - Letting Chance Happen. 

Wheeler's gallery show The Glacial Lens is the result of years of photography using ice as a filter, one that allows the photographer to follow the ever-changing image as the ice melts. Every image is different and unexpected, as each piece of ice melts in its own idiosyncratic way. Wheeler's results are quite wonderful.

For the workshop, Wheeler set up an array of items for us to experiment with - ice, of course, mirrors, kaleidoscopes, coloured see-through paper (which I'm sure has its own correct term!), cd's as frame,  mirrored balls and disks, and all manner of things to fold, scrunch, and twirl.

We were let loose to wander, invent, and experiment for close to three hours and then present our show for the other participants to see. The results were astonishing and dramatic..

Since switching fully to digital, I have become used to playing around with Photoshop, having fun with post-production. The workshop was all pre-production, and reminded me very much of what I liked about film photography.

Here are some of my favourite images from the over 100 I made:

coloured plastic disks under ice

ceiling/skylight reflection in red see-through paper

ice chunk on gold foil paper

"found" image on concrete post outside - no filters

At the end of the session, I walked outside into the bright sunlight and had quite an intense feeling that I was re-surfacing, re-entering the ordinary world from someplace else where I had been totally and creatively engaged. Note to self : Do this more often!

Tasty Soil Granules, Acrylic, and Glue

We intuitively know the power of images- one picture is worth a thousand words. Poets know the power of images - they create visual impressions with language. Advertisers know the power of images - they invoke desire for products through pictures.

Food images can actually make us salivate.  Interesting, then, that what we salivate over and crave is often not real food, but effective stand-ins that look better on camera than the real thing and stand up to the hot lights.

Images can make us desire food, and it's humbling to know that what creates that desire is not only often unpalatable, but also often dangerously inedible.

How cooling does that image of a glass of iced tea look on a hot summer's day or that icy, slushy margarita? Mmmm. How about a glass sprayed with dulling spray, some tasty acrylic ice cubes, and corn syrup droplets on the outside? The iced tea is probably not really iced tea because brewed coffee diluted with water photographs better. That beautiful, green slushy margarita may well be an inviting glass of Soil Granules and colouring.

Ice cream is difficult for photographers to work with - hot lights don't mix well with anything that melts. No problem. A nice mixture based on instant mashed potatoes or shortening with food colouring works well. Maybe some purchased icing with lots of confectioner's sugar added. Well, that doesn't sound so bad, but then they go and spoil it with Elmer's Glue-All to simulate those nice melty drops!

Dying for a piece of that mile-high cake with fluffy, thick icing? The icing may be icing, but the cake may be mile-high Styrofoam. Maybe the cake is actually cake, but watch out for the cardboard separating the layers; it's not so tasty.

Not all food in photographs is fake; in fact, in advertising, the actual product must be shown. The fake food is food in a supporting role in the ad or in editorials and other food shots.

So the ice cream featured for sale is ice cream, but the ice cream underneath the topping (the actual item for sale) is most likely fake. The fast food hamburger is really the item, although it may well be browner from a combination of hoisin sauce and Angostura Bitters.

Spritzed with oil, dribbled with glue, food in photographs looks yummy, refreshing, satisfying, tasty. But it's no wonder that the real fast food burger never looks as good as the one in the ad. The ad is all about the image, and that poor old burger is just a burger.




My source is a book by Linda Bellingham - Food Styling for Photographers

Food photos are for interest and not to demonstrate fake food.
(iced tea photo - Arbor Teas)
(cake photo - Epicurious)

A New Photo Project

I'm resurrecting an old blog as a place for a 365-day photo project. I've been thinking about it for awhile and have finally decided to jump in.

Have a look, if you wish:


Dixi - comments on pretty much anything

Window Dressing

In the last two or three years, I have been captivated by displays of dresses in store windows. They are visually interesting and add something pleasing to the streetscape.

Victoria St., Kamloops BC is the home of Lady Divine Bridal and Formal Collections, and over two years, it was the source of some lovely dress /window photos. Victoria Street, the main shopping/eating street in Kamloops - the main "people" street - is a great place to walk along and browse, stop for a meal or cup of tea.

In 2007, I was caught by the black and white window theme and the view of the street reflected in the window.

In retrospect, I wish I had gone in and tried one or two of these on; they are so beautiful. But that's what happens when I get caught up in taking photos!

That retrospection only happened much later, because in 2008, I walked by again. And, again got totally caught up in taking the pictures.

The window in 2008 was dressed in equally stunning black and yellow.

Frequent readers of At My Soiree will recognize my blog's "signature" white dress from this window display.

The shading, the draping, the slight ruching of this dress - all in dappled sunlight/shade - show it in the most elegant, but natural light.

Although I initially wanted an LBD as the signature for At My Soiree, this beautiful white dress stole my visual heart.

This year, on a trip to Calgary to see the Dalai Lama, I didn't take my camera. Of course, I found some beautiful dresses in a shop window. Thanks to my husband's Blackberry, I have a 2009 version of window dressing. 

                I wonder where I will find next year's dresses in windows.                    

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Reading Freeman Patterson for the Joy of It

In 1975, I bought my first 35mm SLR camera.  In 1977, after a few courses, much trial and error, and a few good photos, I bought Freeman Patterson's book Photography for the Joy of It and found something special beyond the usual discussion of technique. I still have the book and re-visit it often.

Thirty years later, I switched (finally) to a digital SLR camera and have just found that Patterson's book was revised in 2007 to include digital photography. Being in much the same learning stage with digital as I was with film those many years ago, I have ordered the new version.

Photography and the Art of Seeing was published in 1979 and, as did the Joy book, changed my thinking about photography further; I still have and re-visit it as well. What a nice surprise to find that it has reen revised also -  in 2004. I have ordered it too!

Freeman Patterson is an awesome photographer, and his advice for artists/photographers is the most helpful I have ever found. He lives in New Brunswick, Canada, teaching, writing, photographing.

I would like to invite Freeman Patterson to my soiree.

Sartor Realistus

I love The Sartorialist and the pictures of real people wearing cool clothes. This blog began because of the disconnect between what the fashion industry offers and what people actually wear.

Fashion magazines are fun to look at, but many of the clothes shown don't offer much inspiration for real life. The ostrich-feather mini teamed with the cheeky flower-pot hat and faux gold-leaf satchel may be artistic, but the concept doesn't translate easily (at all) into anything I can or want to wear.

Hats (of any variety) off to The Sartorialist.

I would like to invite Scott Schuman to my soiree.