March 20, 2013

The festival of the spring equinox speaks of freshness and youth, of excitement and endless possibilities. Nature begins to quicken and early flowers open to the warmth of the strengthening sun, bringing the colours of lemon and yellow into our lives on the wings of a March wind.  – Carole Carlton

Focus:  Still Life

Before you say or even think it – yes, I do realize that it is possible to balance an egg on any day of the year and not just on the spring equinox.  But I still like to do this every March 20th.  Sure, this may be a silly ‘rite of spring’ tradition, but aren’t most traditions rather silly anyways?  Besides, balancing an egg takes patience – a virtue that I will forever try to master.

A classic Photography 101 lesson is to photograph an egg (typically a white egg on a white back drop).  This very simple exercise teaches so much about light, shadow, form and shape.  The smooth form of an egg allows you to see the gradual transition of detail across its form, and how light falls off the further you get from the light source.  The lessons learned from photographing an egg are especially useful when applied to photographing the human face; you can use light and shadow as a tool to highlight or conceal features, so that your subject is presented in the most flattering way.  After all, everyone is photogenic; sometimes it just takes the right photographer for others to see that for themselves.