I have been admiring all the wonderful pear images that came along in the Start to Finish photography group over the last couple of weeks. (I am doing a still life photography course). What a lot of loveliness :) Most of you used the pears really well to make moody earthy images. I absolutely love that look, but right now I am after some light and airy photos to use in a new WordPress theme that we will be releasing soon. So I took up the challenge to try to take some light pear photos.

We have many types of pears here at our local market in town, most homegrown and sold by the people who picked them. The ones I like best are the gorgeous yellow pears with the red pinkish blush. I suspected they would be shy and might not like having their picture taken. So I asked them and they said they wouldn’t mind but they could not guarantee that they would be able to keep a straight face. So here they are, all rosy-cheeked and girlish.

During most of the shoot the sun was behind the clouds, but at some point the sun started to come out which gave the pears a golden glow. I am trying to shoot images that are quite wide so I can include them as banner images with my themes, but the composition is a real challenge for me! Easier to crop smaller squares out of images, which is what I did with the other image. The banner image fades to pure white on the right. I guess that isn’t how it should be (?), but for what I intend to use the image for (as a banner on a white background) it might still work well.

For the two first images in this post I used a texture for the very first time :) Hello Texture Tuesday:) I used Kim’s tuesday texture, soft light at 68% & 70% and brushed the texture of the pear. It made the image even lighter.

How do you start your shoots? Do you have an image in your mind that you are trying to create, a feel or a look and then just start experimenting and shooting? Does the image then become what you had in mind or do you find something else, something better?