Capturing C

I usually take my ABC photos on Sunday since I have the whole day free and I have an idea ready. This week, with a cold kicking my butt and zapping my motivation to do anything more than lay on the couch, it took a few days to find my inspiration. I went to bed on Monday night running through all sorts of C words in my head, discarding ideas as quickly as I thought of them. Eventually I returned to what brought me to blogging and photography in the first place-cooking.

Rather than just take a snapshot of something cooking-related, I wanted to create an image. Something that fit the letter theme, but also had an artistic element to it. Remembering the huge bar of dark chocolate sitting in my pantry, waiting to be used, I planned out a close up of the chocolate, chopped up, with a knife in the background. I took that picture, but couldn't get the composition the way I wanted with the knife, so I removed it from my set up and played around with the light some more. I am really proud of this picture; I love the side lighting illuminating the chopped chocolate, with the rest of the bar more in the shadows. I really like the texture the chopped chocolate provides, as well as the texture in the side of the chocolate where the knife cut through.

This is an image I would print, frame, and hang in my kitchen.



Not content to settle for just one subject, I pulled out the cayenne pepper and played around with the composition. I tried a few different set ups, but ultimately went for something simple. Again, I am really proud of this image. I feel like it looks so simple and accidental, which is exactly what I wanted. It evokes the way I cook, spilling things every where and leaving a mess behind me. But to me, it also shows how far I've come. A year or two ago, heck even 6 months ago, this photo would have been merely a snapshot of some underexposed spoons on a granite counter, carefully arranged cayenne trying to look carelessly spilled, all the mess of the countertop in the background.