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One of the new directions I am going in with my photography is Still Life – in fact I have signed up for two classes with Kim Klassen and I am really looking forward to learning new tips. So far I have found out an excellent cost effective way of making a replacement tabletop/background for around $100 that is double sided – surprisingly all the components I needed were available, in fact we have a saw mill in the city that makes the boards so I was able to get them custom cut.
My spare bedroom which is currently empty (not for long sadly) gets good morning light so I decided to put my first lessons into practice. A key thing with still life is to plan your layout and think about where the light was coming from. Really good advice and I changed the angle I was shooting at to take better advantage of the window light.
Summer fruits and berries are at their peak right now so I picked the best plumpest raspberries, due to hail the cherries were a bit battered and bruised, and freshly picked red currants out of my garden!
All images processed in with some of Kim’s still life presets to finish off. All shot with my Canon 7D mk ii and 100mm F2.8 IS L lens on a tripod. Side light from a window and a reflector on the other side.
Can you recommend any still life tips or tricks you use? Any good websites or books? I am particularly interested in the styling concepts and tools.
Learning to See Light 
Excellent. I am also interested in this. Love the raspberries in particular.
Oh good, I shall post more, tho I have just started the still life courses and my plan to build the backdrop is taking longer than anticipated, issues with glue…..
Excellent (not about the glue). I’m looking into some backgrounds too.
Beautiful work – love your raspberries. I haven’t done much serious macro still lifes – one area I want to do more of and some stage.
My macro lens has gathered dust for the last two years, since i bought it. Being stuck at home recovering from surgery was a good opportunity to give it some use and discovering the still life style I like has inspired me 🙂