December 2011 - THIS week's PICTURE

Pancake Breakfast with the Armellini: Joiner photograph by Malcolm Aslett

Most of the table area is taken from above while the figures are taken from a more horizontal position. The quality of the images wasn't particularly good as it was hand held and I wanted natural light. Result: blurred or shaky elements. This isn't a disastrous problem in a picture of this nature. Firstly, the size means you don't notice the problem as much as you otherwise would as the attritional nature means you are 'adding detail' with each image. It helps that the central image of the fruit is with flash and the contrast of bright and sharp with the rest of the work is a bit like the centre of an explosion.

I am in the process of doing other versions using the same images. This one is an 'oval' version. The next one will be a tighter image. I haven't worked hard in this one to knit things together or conclude shapes, as is evidenced in the ends of the table with their incomplete transitions. I'd like to tackle one major issue in this type of image: which side up? You could point this one in three different ways and get away with it. I want to see if there is a single direction I can work out. Or an alternative to that, even.

Note to self: when only one character is looking at the lens this one becomes a focus point. The three looking at their plates become static points. The one looking off to the side, a balance point. Someone somewhere must have worked out rules for these things.

 

 

 

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