A nice pair, er, pear

(Click on the photo for a larger view, then click again)

I spotted this pear pair in the shop and they were begging to be photographed 🙂 .

Apart from the camera and tripod everything used to make this photo was a common household item: two lamps, two pieces of paper, and two or three books.

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Information for the photographically inclined:

• one piece of paper made an infinity curve (the background)
• one piece of baking paper diffused the main desk lamp on the right (this is a fire hazard)
• a second desk lamp on the left partially filled the shadows. This lamp was more distant than the other in order to make it weaker than the main lamp
• the books raised everything to a comfortable height above the table top
• the main lamp was halogen and the secondary was conventional incandescent, but a custom white balance fixed that. If either lamp is moved closer or farther away another white balance should be done
• the shot was done at night with all other lights off so that I had total control of the lighting
• obviously the two second self timer should be used if you don’t have a cable release

A bee in a bind

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You may be thinking “Why take a photo of a bee in a cobweb?” Well, why not? It’s hard to make a photo of a dead bee that doesn’t bore people to death, but this scene caught my eye due to the wonderful framing given by the tube. I also like the way that the bee is dangling in a pathetic manner that portrays his plight (the photo has not been rotated). I tweaked the exposure, cropped, and added a background, but otherwise the photo is as shot.

I like to take photos with a subtle touch of the unusual, and I think that I’ve succeeded here 🙂

Thank you to those observant people who have pointed out that this is in fact a wasp. In this case I’ve chosen to exercise poetic licence.