Assignment 1 - Applications of Photography: Still Life

Still life photography is described as "the depiction of inanimate subject matter, most typically a small grouping of objects." A main advantage of this type of photography is that photographers often have more freedom as they can place the objects as they wish, not having to work with unchangeable subjects such as landscapes, and as a result of this they can often be more creative. Below are some examples of this type of photography.

This photograph is by a photographer called Gordana AM. I like this photograph as the red of the pomegranate is vibrant and contrasts brilliantly the dark background. This picture is very sharp in the foreground, but quite blurred in the background. This, as well as the light and colours, gives the photograph a warm, autumn feel.

I also like this piece by Gordana AM. I like the light in the picture and the focus on the leaves in the foreground, and how their colours stand out. The foreground of this picture, as well as the last, is very sharp. The background is slightly blurred giving a nice effect and making the forground stand out even more.

This is a piece by Steve Stanger. I like the use of light in this photograph. The bottles are on a windowsill or table with natural light behind them and as they are all different colours, they all illuminate the light differently, which gives the sense of a bright, warm day.

This photograph was taken by a photographer named Mike Narciso. I think that this photograph is interesting due to the amount of detail visible. Also, I like the bronze colour that the picture has. It makes the picture more intriguing and enhances the old feel of the watches in the photograph.

This is by a photographer called Shoayb Khattab. I like this picture as it captures the water droplets in detail, which I find interesting. I also like the contrast of the bright yellow of the lemon against the black background. It makes the subject stand out and it adds more drama to the water droplets. The aperture used for this shot (shown right, along with other statistics for this photograph) was 16, which allowed enough light in to catch the falling lemon in such detail.

This "Autumnal Still Life" photograph was taken by David Blackwell. The colours in this picture are warming due to the lighting, which also adds depth and creates different layers of the photograph. The wall, particularly, has a tactile feel which carries on throughout the other elements of the photo. All these things, together with the composition of the elements, makes an interesting example of still life photography.