Temptation

It’s been a great summer for the fruit growers. The apple trees round here are groaning with fruit. Time to get a few photographs them before they’re picked.

But … hang on … photographs of apples ain’t all that interesting.

No they’re not.

So if you’re going to photograph the mundane, try to get a different angle on it.

I photograph apples on trees because there’s a market for such images. Not a huge one, admittedly, but magazines, brochures, books and guides sometimes want them. And the buyers are always on the lookout for fresh angles.

So I’ve been trying to oblige. I found a photogenically curved and laden branch, fitted a wide angle lens and got down for a low viewpoint. I also angled my camera slightly to get the branch swooping into the image, and include a little bit of the rest of the orchard in the background to give context …


Another approach is to make a story out of the image. Here it’s my hand in the picture. I had the camera on a tripod, reached up to pick the apple and fired the shutter with a remote release. And, no, the sky hasn’t been ‘Photoshopped’. I used a polarizing filter to make a deeper blue ...


Further technical note – Both photographs were made in bright sunlight. But that’s a very harsh light source. So I used on-camera flash in both images to fill in the shadows.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Very much enjoying your post and the photos as I eat - go figure - an apple. Well done, especially on the first photo.

Cheers!

John
http://mannerofspeaking.wordpress.com/

Alistair Scott said...

Bon appetit!

Carol Brown said...

Inspiring apple branch!

I especially love the painterly sky that supports the diagonal of the branch, yet slows that visual movement down with a convenient puddle of blue sky. This is a moment not noticeable to one merely passing the apple trees.

Nifty tip on using flash to fill harsh shadows. I noticed the change in light direction, but the colors and composition were strong enough that my eye was willing to allow it as part of the artistic interpretation.

Enjoying your posts!

Alistair Scott said...

Thanks Carol. Much appreciated.