Chow Challenge Results (Challenge #1)

After a lovely lazy holiday, I've finally settled into the hole of the futon to crank out the Chow Challenge results.  Enjoy.

Challenge: Using Food Photo Blog advice, practice food photography techniques on thanksgiving dinner.


 Results:
 
I shot everything with my only prime lens - a 35mm.  I set it to Aperture mode, and decided to start out taking advantage of the beautiful natural light that seeps in through my mom's kitchen window.  Then the story-teller in me kind of took over...




I dabbled in slowing the shutter settings to show the quick movement of my mother and sister as they dressed the turkey.


Different and a little spooky, right?










There's some nice natural light that comes through the dining room window, but since it was about 4pm, it was disappearing fast, and I'm afraid I was desperately trying to avoid using fill flash.


One of the blogs said to "get low," so I practiced with a table setting I found on Pinterest.



Winning over aperture without sacrificing shutterspeed so much I would need a tripod become a challenge as the sun continued to steal away with my light.




A little too backlit, perhaps...




Aperture is too low here, and I lost the detail in the croissant and sweet potatoes in the back. 


One of the rules was to "avoid the bird's eye view," but I wanted to show the fun swirl in the drink, so sacrifices were made.

Conclusion: I don't exactly consider this challenge won.  I could have done better if I had afforded myself the time to invest in a fill or bounce flash. Overall, I believe I'm a journalist through and through. My patience is challenged with "studio work." I prefer subjects that are less ... stable, if you will. Still, I obviously should spend a little more time on lighting and composition of static subjects. After all, practice is practice, and everything will improve the eye for more exciting work in the future, right? ... Right... Maybe I can find a sports event somewhere to shoot...