The Pursuit of Pumpkins

Tuesday has swept in with a flurry of raindrops and fog. As usual, I worked the morning shift today. It was quiet and uncomplicated, and I was able to get away on time, just after one. In the cold, murky gloom, both town and countryside were decidedly unappealing photographic prospects. I drove home in the dark through the traffic and was glad to snuggle in once I arrived.

Given the limited options outside, I inevitably turned to another still-life for my blip today. A miniature pumpkin on the kitchen windowsill, serving as a Halloween decoration, was pressed into action as the main subject; I chose a dark sheet of card for the base of the set, and for a spooky backdrop, used a photograph I’d taken of the aurora in the summer. I lit the pumpkin from the side with an LED panel set to a warm orange glow and added a rough, rocky texture to the foreground with generative fill in Photoshop. There followed a lot of fiddling around with masking, fine-tuning edges, and the aspect ratio of the whole image before I was happy with the result…