What Does the Mushroom Say + One Light + A Grey Salt Collective Challenge

I started a food photography group this month, for the very specific purpose of continuing to work on our crafts via monthly themed projects.

Sometimes, an ‘assignment’ is just the thing needed to move us along, kick us out of our comfort zone, and give us an excuse to create with intention.

Are you interested in joining in? GO HERE.

Our first challenge up this month, was ‘mushrooms.’
We all had our choice as to how we would interpret, what specific area of photography we could work on, if it would be one powerful image, a handful, or a full up narrative.

My youngest, Sophia, is all about Asian cuisine these days, and I spied these dried Shiitake mushrooms in her ‘stash’ of ingredients.
They became my inspiration.
Their patterns and textures were pretty cool. I think they look like a collection of miniature turtle shells.
I  ended up choosing to make a Frittata a la mushrooms, kale, asparagus, red onion, and fennel.

There were two specific areas that I intended to work on within this shoot. The big one was working with ‘lights.’ Not the kind that comes in through the window all nice and natural, and of which I am 100,000% comfortable using, but instead, the kind you stick on a stand and plug in.
I have utterly avoided them. I have been completely biased, and, perhaps, a bit of a snob about the whole thing.
As ‘working on your craft’ means just that, I thought I’d start off working on the big one, and get over it.

There are interesting ‘areas’ all over the warehouse that my studio is in.
I had eyed this corner for the color/texture of the wall, and with no natural light from anywhere, it would be perfect.

The space was super tight, and where my intended set was, which meant that my light could only come from one side, I could only move inside of two positions, and I could not move as freely around my set, as I’m used to. I was plugged in, tethered up, and on a tripod. I was not able to interpret, within these constraints, what I wanted. I was not only not feeling inspired, I was beyond frustrated. After rearranging my light and modifiers multiple times, I was incredibly tempted to move my whole set back into my studio – which was filled with all kinds of beautiful, soft light.

I stuck it out, and this is what I learned:

• This light was just an unruly, intense, direct, beam of harsh sunlight that needed to be bounced, and diffused.
• The quality of light produced much more dramatic imagery than my usual ‘soft’ dark & moody work, and miles more contrast than anything I’ve created to date.
• Something I noticed right away, was that the intensity of this light allowed for increased saturation, which I really loved, and played up.
• I liked the deep, rich shadows and other than opening up some of those areas in post, I did little else other than a bit of color correcting.
• I felt very constrained, as I work more organically.
• All in all, it was interesting and incredibly stressful at the same time.

*I shot everything in this space, except for the still life’s of the dried mushrooms, of which I photographed at home using indirect window light and nothing else.

Another area I purposely worked on was composition & styling, specifically using many more elements than I normally work with.
I included elements that echoed the fragility of the paint peeled walls – the onions skins and the tulip remains – and played up the textures of essentially everything, using side light. With introducing so many more elements, I was careful to keep my color pallet tight.
It was good to explore.

In the end, I am happy with the images that I made, and though I am only at the beginning of my artificial light journey, I am a little less intimidated.and Most of all, I’m happy to have taken some time to work on my craft by kicking myself out of my comfort zone.

So, what does the mushroom say?
It says, put me in a frittata and eat me all up.  #weeatthefoodsistyleandphotograph #greysaltcollective