The Maple leaf is synonymous with Canada as is maple syrup. This bottle of syrup was a present given to me by some of my relatives who have lived in Canada all their lives. I had never met them until this year when they came to the UK to visit family and friends. I don't know if there is a shelf life for the syrup, but I am unlikely to use it as it makes the bottle look a lot better than if empty. I chose this for my still life and used my gold reflector for the background. I used just a lamp and a long (5 second) shutter speed to get the background effect, the forks were just to give a little more interest, I had thought of putting some pancakes in the image as well, but decided that might make it too cluttered. The reflection was achieved by using a black polished tile.
“ Army ” I am a veteran who left the Army over 30 years ago, but have never forgotten how much my service meant to me. Today, I am still very active in the veterans community here in the UK and it is still a major part of my life. Had I not joined the Army, I would never have travelled as much as I have, and would never have met my wife of 38 years in Belize. Lady luck was shining on me back in those days. Today, I am blessed to still have a gorgeous wife who I love dearly, and with whom I share my life in Canterbury where we are just getting into the festive season.
“ Monsters in the smoke ” I think this is the first time I have used the same idea as the introductory image for a challenge, but as it is something I have never tried, I thought I would give it a go. I naively thought it was going to be pretty easy, but was wrong there, it took a while to get the focus right, then I had to get the lighting both right and where I wanted it, without any spill on the background, and then I had to get the smoke doing what I wanted. I never realised my home was so draughty until tonight! Once I got the image I wanted, I cleaned it up a bit in Lightroom, then copied it over to Photoshop, where I made a second copy and flipped it joining both together. It seems I got a monster at the bottom, and a worried face at the top. This is something I am going to use more in the future.
