I was very excited about this assignment. For days I searched my house to find objects that would photograph dramatically and make a strong visual statement. I began to group different items, but the combinations didn't resonate with me. I love flowers, and I constantly find myself gravitating to them as subjects. That's when I decided to take my favorite vases and photograph them with different flower arrangements. When I buy flowers, I make my selections based on what is available and which vase I am going to arrange them in, adding whatever extra greenery or filler that I will need to create a beautiful arrangement. Each of the vases in these photographs is one of my favorites and I remember vividly where each vase came from. The Van Briggle Pottery vase was a great find at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, I got it for a steal! The antique silver basket was a gift from my best friend, and the vertical glass vase, which came with a floral arrangement, may seem very ordinary but I love how the crinkled wire keeps the flowers vertical and I use it all of the time. During one of our first assignments, the most fun I had was photographing a vase of flowers on my back porch.
For this still life assignment, I wanted to challenge myself to work with artificial light and experiment with creating a single source of light that would be pleasing and at the same time, not distracting.  I have a set of 'light rings" with diffusers on them and they have articulated arms. Each light comes with three different temperature settings. I grouped these three different lights together and ended up using a gold flexible reflector to kick light onto the vases. I wanted the photographs to look like the sun was coming in from a high window and bathing them with light. That was when I discovered that I was going to need a reflector to kick some light onto the vase. One of the most interesting things I discovered during this assignment was that the f/stop, aperture, and shutter speed were all almost the same for all three photographs. The glass vase shot had a shutter speed that was .7 seconds faster and I attribute this to the reflectiveness of the glass. I found that working with artificial light is incredibly challenging and that a little bit goes a long way! I really think the best light is natural light, but I am glad that I challenged myself to experiment.