The Kitchen Photo Project

We are looking for a picture for our kitchen. The main idea is to add a dash of red color to the kitchen for better feng shui. And also as kitchen deco, close-up photograph of some red vegetables or fruits would be an ideal subject for the picture. It's more personal if the photograph was self shot.

We were privileged to have a lot of help from YC from TwentyOne-Fifty Photography (see their wedding photography portfolio here / YC's personal portfolio here). He came over to the apartment on a Sunday and we attempted to shoot macro-photography of some strawberries and bell peppers.

YC contributed a lot in the lighting department. Without his light/soft box and his guidance with light play, the photos wouldn't have come out nice. Although I was doing most of the shooting, my 50mm prime lens proved to be inadequate for macro photography. The focal length was insufficient. Even with YC's macro extension attached to my lens, it was still hard to focus perfectly. Hence the session was a bit harder and time consuming because of the inadequacy in the lens department.

Strawberries were a lot of fun to shoot. Their rich vibrant color and textured skin provided a lot of details in the photographs. The outcome looked impressive, I couldn't believe that it was shot right on my kitchen cabinet top. We also made an attempt with some bell peppers.

Bell peppers were tricky. Despite having a rich color and nice shape, we could not capture the right feel. We even attempt using a different background, like shooting on a piece of my floor laminate. The wood texture looks nice so we tried shooting other subjects on it.

Out of the many shots taken, those that made the shortlist had to fulfill our criteria and have the right feel for our kitchen wall. After rounds of review and post-processing, we found our winning shot...