Anyone who knows me knows I collect some odd things. Since I have a macro lens and a flash, the odd things I collect involve icecube moulds and the one I use most frequently is the heart shaped mould. Rest assured I also own Space Invaders and Fish shaped moulds. I bought a bunch of new ones in IKEA yesterday that are drying out.
In the past, I have also made ice cubes with added food colouring, and featured them in work that centred on the glass work they were in. Today, inspired by some of the things I noticed while shooting the melting ice last year, I decided to shoot something for the day that was in it. That is to say, when I went to get fresh strawberries for breakfast this morning, Tesco was still flogging red coloured cards.
I don’t get Saint Valentine’s Day very much. Maybe I am overly romantic at heart – some would say probably over cynical – but it always struck me as somewhat of an excuse to make a formulaic effort. You don’t have to wait until 14 February to do something romantic and to be honest, some of the most memorably sweet things that men have done for me in the past have been at other times in the year. It used to be that finding the perfect rose in February was hard, hence it was such an expression of love – look I wasted all this effort just to prove how much I love you – whereas now…you can get them at the garage. Yesterday I noted some of my friends pointed out that they appreciated much more things that they really loved – such as – in one special case – crochet books – little luxuries that people want but can’t quite justify. Special efforts that are unusual. This things, these thoughts past the simple, reinforce the worth of friendship and special friends much more than the diamonds that Jared were advertising to me yesterday.
Anyway, that’s all by way of an aside. This morning I was appalled to see I didn’t have too many frozen hearts in the freezer this morning, plus they were buried under a packet of potato waffles. On the plus side although it wasn’t working on ETTL, at least the recalcitrant flash was working. In addition to the icecube moulds of the fish and stars and stuff yesterday I also bought some fake flower petals from IKEA and I still own a bottle of red food colouring and a copy of Photoshop.
What fascinates me sometimes is what you can do when you give yourself some raw material and try to create something from it.
This, for example:
Focussing on an ice cube which is a) melting b) 1.5cm high and c) on a white reflective surface is to the order of difficult on a 2.8 aperture. But I wanted the depth of field (which I sort of didn’t really get) and the colours (which I did).
This is for the ones who dumped me.
And this is for the one who won’t. At some stage 
.
Couple of links for today:
Tommie – for my love of Robert Doisneau’s photography.
Richard – I may have linked this one before – I can’t remember but I loved it at the time and still do
Randall Munro – yes I know it’s not photography but seriously.
And I rather liked this little story. It reminds me a bit of the “I love Louth” ad from the Ask Not What Your County Can Do For You GAA ads from a few years back.
Next time I swear I’ll play with the little ickle space invader ice cubes.
Recent Comments