52 Week Challenge: Week 6

This week's challenge was an artistic shot, with the theme of "candy/something sweet." The challenge creator suggested trying out macro photography, which I was all too happy to do. I first tried using a tube extender I had, but frankly the quality was poor and I just wasn't feeling it. So I took that as a sign to pull the trigger on two lenses I've had my eye on for a while: The Sigma Contemporary 17-70mm f/2.8-4 Macro OS HSM, and the Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro.

I bought the Sigma to be my new walkabout lens, and the main lens I take to Europe later this year. The Tamron is my first telephoto lens, and I am in love with its macro work. While the Sigma does have macro functions, I found the Sigma to be just a bit more of what I was looking for. All three of the photos below were taken with the Tamron.



That's my main image for the challenge. I used my favorite candy — a dark chocolate bar with freeze-dried raspberries in it — and some fresh berries to add a pop of color and texture. I'm not 100% on this image, either, but it's possibly the best from the two separate shoots I did.



That was from my first shoot. I got some feedback from other challenge members on it and used their suggestions to style my second portrait. Mainly it was about removing those crumbs (which I actually liked, womp womp) and adding the raspberries. I might still like this photo more. What do you guys think?



And just for funsies, here's my setup. I made my own light tent by cutting out the sides of a box and taping tissue paper over the holes. Then I set up my two flashes on their stands and put them in slave mode so they'd fire when my on-camera flash went off. (The on-camera flash had little to no effect on the image itself, thanks to the camera's distance from the subject and the brightness of the off-body flashes.) The backdrop is just two pieces of computer paper that I layered inside the box. Viola! Easy-peasy.