Hi Marc! This is very nice - perfect contrast, I'd say. Looks like you are adding the tonic to a G&T. Or perhaps not - after a few takes, one would tend to, um, lose focus...
Beautiful composition and very intriguing; love your color treatment here. (Not sure it's as simplistic as most would interpret it, but it's a killer image regardless!!) Missed you & your wonderful imagery.
Marc,
This is a great image. I was thinking of doing a single flower in a vase because it would be aesthetically pleasing and demonstrate "simplicity" but I was afraid it could be a little bit boring. You have managed to take that single flower in a vase idea and add movement, interest, and water. Technically the photo in perfect, and I love how the lighting created a very harsh contrast in the water revealing some interesting shapes in the "pour" part.
It it a simply amazing shot :-P
-Cristobal
Cristobal, No, I meant what you were saying about "adding movement" and
so on was done pretty intuitively. No big strategy of deconstructing vase and
flower shots. So, nothing to apologize about!
Thanks! There're two lights in here, one for the vase, the other for the flower.
The one for the vase was a softbox (you can use any kind of large light, the
simplest being a white wall illuminated by a desk lamp). This light just about
filled the viewfinder, so that left and right from it there was no light. This causes
the dark edges of the vase and the water. Moving the vase (or any other
glass object) forth (towards camera) and back makes these edges stronger
or weaker, respectively. Just take a few shots and see. The flower was lit from
the left, with some fill-in reflection over a white card from the right. I also shielded
it off a bit so that the light wouldn't hit the vase. Well, as simple as that
Chad, Thanks! I'm not worried about it not fitting the theme. It's not necessarily
a simple pic, but simplicity is contained conceptually, eg. in the simple shape
of the vase, the simple nature of water, the simple beauty of a flower, or even
the simple fact that a flower needs water. Technically there's some simplicity
in the organization of colour. Well, that's all pretty subjective of course.
Wonderful shot, Marc, my friend! It certainly seems to fit the WA as far as I'm concerned. My only itsy bitsy complaint might be that the tiny specks at the bottom on the left are a tad distracting. Bravo, though! And - welcome back. You've been missed!
Endre, That's too nice of you! I missed you too. The specks are
little water droplets. I agree they look a bit distracting. Likewise some
on the vase towards the top. They are more identifiable (and thus less
distracting) in a larger version, so I left them in. Bit undecided about
it. Thanks for pointing that out. Always appreciated!
What a great setup Marc - I do like your composition and lighting. And thanks for the lighting explanation - another piece of useful information to file away in the memory for future use..
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And - welcome back. You've been missed!