Vanitas Cygnus
Apr, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
Taken at my apartment in the dining room.Time
This foto was taken on 12/09/2014 at 23:00. My wife helped my with the bubbles, I had to take over 50 shots to get them right.Lighting
Lightboxes has been camouflaged with gaffer tape to imitate window lights (you can see it in reflection on bubble).Equipment
Canon 5D Mk III, 24-70mm lens, two softboxes, soapy water for the bubbles.Inspiration
The main inspiration for this photo was the Vanitas genre - an allegorical still life of the Baroque era, whose compositional center is traditionally a human skull. Such paintings, an early stage in the development of still life, were intended to remind of the transience of life, the futility of pleasures and the inevitability of death.Editing
Mostly contrast and brightness. Light balance was left as shot without changes, because I have neutral light bulbs in my softboxes.In my camera bag
I have 24-70 mm lens for general use, 85 mm for portraits, 100 mm macro lens for small objects.Feedback
Preparation is the key. I had to do an extensive research on the vanitas genre to get all elements of this photo right. Each detail, each object has it's meaning and symbolism. For example aside from the obvious skull, bubble is a symbol of brevity of life and suddenness of death; reference to the old expression "homo bulla" - "a man is a soap bubble".
