Today I’m revealing the painted background for Part III of my “Truth Behind the Still Life” series. Here are Part I and Part II if you missed them.

I’ve been talking about this darn thing forever! and it’s really no biggy … but it is a biggy … for me it’s the difference between getting a shot, and not getting a shot.

It goes way back to a post I wrote in February “Photography Backgrounds and Light” and how I love the colour of the walls in our condo, but I don’t love them for my photography. I finally decided it was time to follow up on a suggestion from Cristina Colli on painting a custom background.

Ta da! ( I know, it looks blue, but I’ll get to that) …
I dragged the hubs to Home Depot where we purchased a piece of 4′ x 4′ plywood. However, when we got to the car, we couldn’t fit it in … argh … so we had to go back and have them cut 4″ off one side. I would have preferred not to have had to cut it, but there was no other option. It’s still large enough to serve as a faux wall, and I cannot tell you how much easier this piece of wood has made my life!

It’s the old “go big or go home!”

So I now have no problem shooting a complete vignette with no distractions in the background. And yes, the background looks blue but after applying one of Kim Klassen’s LR presets, then desaturating the blue tones, it works very well:

kk_Lilly by Kim Klassen

I used an ordinary, everyday, white acrylic paint and slapped it on … then added another coat with the grey tint …… leaving one side white …
It also works beautifully for top-down shots:
So there you have it; one big piece of plywood, acrylic paint (white, and grey), and a little magic in Lightroom.

Here’s a screen grab of the Color Panel. What’s great about desaturating only the blues is that most of the time there are no blues in my flowers or props that are affected.

So there you have it, the complete behind-the-scenes of my still life photography in Arizona. I hope you find it helpful and inspiring.

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Yesterday I was on a bit of a rant about how I store my still life props here in Arizona. Well, to the person who asked … this is how:
and this … The answer is “most of my props are part of the decor.” Granted they are not always looking so perfect, but whose home always looks perfect?

Early mornings as I have coffee, I enjoy these sunny vignettes:But who wants to see door knobs in a still life? I tend to try to keep mine out ;)Most of my props are part of my daily life. I live with them. Some are hidden behind closed doors (looking all tidy.) But that chair I just picked up for $15.00? We use it. It’s not only stunningly beautiful, it’s sturdy.Much of our furniture is rustic and doubles as backgrounds:Alright. Truth: workhorses such as extra backgrounds, vases, tins, rocks, and branches are stored out of sight.

I have two shoe boxes on a shelf in the laundry above the washer and dryer. I have a plastic tub in a closet in the spare room, and I store vases in a cupboard in the garage.

We do have a lot of extra space around here (which could enabling hoarding.)

The garage storage doesn’t look bad … and this is 4 years of collecting. I have a thing for vases and containers of any kind for holding flowers and branches.

So, no. I haven’t conquered my obsession of gathering and acquiring props for still life. But my choices have changed. I can tell you I’ve been in Winners and Home Goods and Marshalls many times since the end of February, and I’ve purchased only a fraction of what I used to. I’m not saying people shouldn’t shop at these stores – it’s simply a choice I made and this blog is keeping me accountable.

As I said in my first post, it’s the garage sale items, the cast-offs, and the Goodwill goodies that I’ve become addicted to. That is not the problem since it’s a fantastic form of recycling. The problem is #1 where do I store the stuff, and #2 how much energy do I want to spend on acquiring, storing, and organizing. Right now I’m enjoying myself, so why did that person’s comment put me in such a defensive mode?

I’m slowly coming to the conclusion that guilt is part of this hobby, and maybe I should simply accept it.

Alrighty then!

I will allow myself to feel the guilt when I hand over a dollar for an old rusty tin. Then I will feel the guilt when I bring it home and stick it in a cupboard.

Guilt, my constant companion, you are welcome.

I hope you’ll join me next time when I talk about my fabulous painted background that makes door knobs and other unsavoury items disappear ;)

Read Part III

I may be on a bit of a rant this morning because I feel a bit miffed.

miff (mif) n. 1. petulant displeasure; a petty quarell. 2. to give offense to; offend.
miffed (mift) adj. put into an irritable mood, esp. by unoffending incident.
#firstworldproblems

Someone recently asked me how I store my still life props, did I have a special room just for them. The question sounds innocuous but body language told a whole other story … take my word for it. Plus it hit a sore spot, especially since I’ve announced to the world on several occasions that I need to slow down on the collecting of stuff. I even recorded a video about it with Kim Klassen.Well the truth is that I have slowed down on the collecting of certain things. Things like the fake tin at Home Goods for $15.00 that I really really wanted … I felt it was the perfect container for my yellow ranunculus. And don’t even get me started on all the baskets and blankets and pillows that were swirling around me, calling, taunting, beckoning.

Truth: I had a few things in my basket, but after cruising around the store for 1/2 hour I put everything back and walked out. Whew! what a relief.

But what has happened is that I’ve become more addicted to the junque. The garage sale items. The castoffs. The Goodwill goodies.

Enter this little coffee can I found last Saturday (for $1.00.) which could not have been a more perfect fit for my rannies …Oh, and those sweet scissors were part of a pile of scissors a guy practically gave to me a few months ago … he had no idea … (I felt like a thief.)So anyway, I have a lot more to say about this, but I decided to break it up into several blog posts. I want to show you how I’m storing my props here in AZ, plus I want to show you my setup for shooting.

For now I have to go … I just know there has to be a garage sale somewhere, waiting for me …

Read Part II