Capturing Still Life Photography by Lizzie Shepard

Still life photography is a unique method of capturing images. It typically involves photographing inanimate objects, spanning commonplace man made items you find around the home, or even natural objects like plants, rocks or seashells.

This style of photography causes the photographer to look at these items in a different light. By experimenting with compositions, lighting and style, you can take ordinary everyday items and turn them into images that are anything but ordinary.

 

Where to start?

If you’re looking to get into still life photography, it’s as simple as taking a closer look at items around you. Fotospeed ambassador, Lizzie Shepherd explains how she herself experimented with still life photography.

As a landscape photographer, Lizzie typically captures powerful and emotive scenes within nature, but with the lockdowns of the past two years causing a halt in her ability to travel, she instead opted to take simple, natural items and challenge perceptions through clever composition.

‘’A few days before the UK went into lockdown in an attempt to slow the spread of Covid-19, I bought a bunch of tulips, suspecting it might be my last chance to buy cut flowers for some time. I started photographing these the morning of March 23rd, when they were still at their elegant and voluptuous best.’’ Lizzie explains.

   

Thinking outside the box.

However, Lizzie didn’t just want to capture her tulips at their most typically beautiful and lively state, as is often seen in still life photography. Instead, she looked for ways to take her images further out of the ordinary. "As someone who seeks the most out of my cut flowers, I kept them in their vase as they wilted and deteriorated; carefully guarding them against my husband’s attempts to throw them in the bin.’’

As a result, Lizzie was duly rewarded with some beautifully faded tulips. "Many had lost their petals and some of their leaves, but a few of them hung on, their texture and hues changing daily, wonderfully translucent against the natural light streaming in through the window.’’

Through the power and simplicity of still life photography, Lizzie was able to take a decaying flower and breathe a new lease of life into it, that will now be immortalised through her photographs and prints.

Which paper?

Both the Fotospeed Platinum Etching and the NST Bright White would be prefect for Lizzie Tulips. 

    

 

Lizzie Shepherd is a Fotospeed ambassador and landscape photographer. She typically prints her images on archival grade art paper and fine art papers. Read more about Lizzie here. Also have a look at Lizzie's Ambassador page on the Fotospeed website here. 

 

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