Learning from mistakes, right?

So, after our creative inspiration retreat, I decided to see what I could do at home and making use of some new flash gear. Since I’m not lucky enough to have any studio space, and it’s pouring rain and windy outside, I set everything up in the kitchen. There are challenges! Low ceilings. A cat that wants to help. A dog that wants to help keep the cat away.

And there are good things – like a lovely big window beside the table with sheer white curtains on it. Plus, the Mother’s Day flowers that my friend Hetty and her family gave me are still in excellent shape, and I have a number of different vases, bowls, plates etc. to play with.

So, here’s the setup. I have a large octagon reflecting umbrella into which I put my Godox A100 flash, triggered remotely from my camera. Stuff on the table, dog ready to supervise – all good.

I took a LOT of shots. I need to spend more time with Michelle and Sylvie on developing “table scapes” but it was a decent start. And, the results?

Not magnificent by any means, but it was a lot of fun learning about power settings on the flash unit, what would work in terms of depth of field, colours and so on. The only way to really learn is to just DO something and allow yourself to make mistakes.

One benefit of using food (I made chocolate banana bran muffins this morning) as a prop is that you get to eat them after!