ASSIGNMENT 8:
STILL LIFE
REFLECTION
I chose to do my still life as a tribute to my cat, Sonny, who passed away about two years ago. Below are the items I chose to include and an explanation of why they are significant to Sonny.
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Pawprint- This was Sonny's pawprint, taken after his unexpected death.
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Ashes- The wooden box contains Sonny's ashes. We chose to cremate him since we move around a lot and didn't want to bury him in what could, in the future, be someone else's backyard.
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Stone cat- I got this figurine some time after Sonny died, but it reminds me of him.
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Tuna- This was Sonny's favorite treat.
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Shoestring- This was Sonny's favorite "toy."
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Toys- These are the only actual toys that Sonny played with, when he didn't feel like playing with boxes, string, hair ties, etc.
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Photos- These are treasured photos of Sonny, which show his personality.
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Temptations Treats- These treats, scattered across the frame, were something Sonny ate every day.
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For lighting, I used the natural light from a window on the right, and a tin foil reflector on the left. I used a diffused lantern pointed at the front of the objects as the key light. Finally, I chose to use my phone's flashlight to cast light down from above, symbolic of light shining down from heaven. This light, while not diffused, also wasn't a direct beam. I think it looked like the sun does when it shines down through the clouds. That top light also gave me the little flare on the silver frame, which I thought was a nice touch.
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As expected, most of the time spent on this assignment went into the setup. At first I had a setup on a small desk by the window, but quickly found that I wouldn't be able to fit all of my items in that space. I had to construct a fake table out of laundry baskets and storage totes, covered in black pillow cases. I then used a room divider with black poster board taped to it for the background. I tried a few different lighting scenarios before settling on the top light. I tried using my flashlight pointed sideways from the left and then the right, which looked too harsh for the subject. I also tried having a different, softer flashlight as a backlight, but that didn't seem to have an effect at all. In the end, the top light not only represented something symbolically, but it also looked the best.
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