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Photo of the Day – 31 October 2016: Spices

Posted on 17th November 2016 by Admin under Location, Photograph, Technique

The Dorchester Curiosity Centre, tucked out of the way on an industrial estate, is well named.  Essentially it is a large, very large, shed full of half forgotten items from the past.  The stock is always changing, so each time I go there it is different.  It is a fascinating place for anyone to visit and it often requires willpower to leave without making a purchase.  To a photographer, it is a cornucopia of possibilities.  Albeit one which is a visual overload.  For me, it is a source of found still lifes, such as this set of storage jars for spices.  Once, articles such as these would have been a common sight in our homes.  Today they are a novelty.

The challenge is isolating items amongst the jumble of things.  Not only is everything close together, but many of the objects have price labels on them.  For obvious reasons, many are in visible positions and it is not easy to remove them.  Not that anyone should try.  The best that can be done is to move them out of the way, although that is not always possible.

It is one of those locations which looks as though it should be a veritable mine of photographs, yet it is more difficult than it looks initially.  I tackled it by using a telephoto zoom shot wide open to throw backgrounds out of focus.  Naturally that approach also caused some depth of field issues.  Trying and failing is half the fun, though, which makes those images which do work all the more satisfying.

Jars for spices

Spices
(Click on the image for a larger version.)

 


This post is part of my occasional “Photo of the Day” series when I publish any shots which I think might be of interest and tell the story behind them.  They might not necessarily be portfolio standard images, nor the final version, but still be of sufficient interest for inclusion in my blog.  If I do not show a shot on any given day, it does not mean that I did not take any photographs, just that I did not get anything worthwhile.  For me, that is part of the fun of photography, not knowing what you will find on a shoot when nothing is planned.

 

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