I fell further down the rabbit hole this week. It’s amazing how one idea, or even one image, can send you spiraling down a new path. It requires courage to take the first step, persistence to continue the journey, and an open mind to what comes next. You think you are heading in one direction, and suddenly you find yourself staring at something else.
Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been diving into food photography. Last week it was all about guacamole. This week it was onions. Who knows what will capture my imagination next.
As I began playing around with food photography, I quickly became captivated by the way the earthy colors and textured skins of onions resolve in a photograph. I’ve fell hard for them and their cousins, and keep dreaming up new ways to take their picture. I’ve been photographing them alone and together. In a jar and in a bin. From above, below and in between. I’ve been having a blast coming up with new ways to shoot them. My mind is spinning with the possibilities.
But I didn’t start out to make pictures of onions. It wasn’t until I was busy creating my guaca-graph that their papery skins even caught my eye. The avocados were supposed to be the star of that show, but the onions kept crowding them off the stage. I began playing around and pairing the onions with other things. Eventually I conceived the photograph at the top of this post. I usually start shooting without much of a plan just to see what develops. But this time I cast serendipity aside and tried to pre-visualize the image I wanted to shoot. I grabbed an old wooden cheese wheel box and carefully filled it with a variety of onions, shallots and garlic, then placed it on the beat-up sheet pan I’ve been (over)using recently, and shot it from above. I was pretty happy (and a bit surprised) that I was actually able to create the image I had seen in my mind.
What I find fascinating about my fascination with alliums is why I suddenly found them so interesting. As I thought on that topic, I realized that the onions were reminding me of another series of images I’ve been working on recently, of fallen leaves photographed on the ground. The color palette and textures were similar, and I was subconsciously using the same capture and post-processing techniques to photograph both. Most were shot with a macro lens from above, the camera mounted on a boom extending out over the subject. Whether on an overcast day in the forest or next to a shaded window at my house, the images were lit with natural diffused light; often with a gold or white reflector opposite to bounce light into and soften the shadows. And most of my post-processing adjustments were designed to lower contrast, increase texture, and bring out the warm autumn glow of the subject. Now that I see that, I am really looking forward to dragging a bag of onions into the forest this fall to see what happens.
It’s all about connections. If I hadn’t pushed myself to try to photograph a recipe, I would never have put an onion in front of the lens. If I hadn’t been exploring fallen leaves, I might not have been attuned to their textures when I did. Whenever we start something new, we open ourselves up to the possibility of discovery. But it requires the journey. While it may seem like a sudden insight (Aha! Onions!), the reality is that the new understanding is the product of everything we experienced before. There are no shortcuts.
So this week, try out a new path of your own. What inspires you? What have you been thinking about trying next? What do you wish you could learn how to do? Take the first step. Read a book, watch a youtube video, find a blog, ask a friend. Try to do it. Embrace failure. Be curious. Keep your mind open to the possibility of the unexpected. You never know what will grab your attention, or what you will find yourself doing next.
As for me, I plan to continue having fun with fruits and vegetables. And whatever else catches my eye.
Dead flower casserole, anyone?