My Light Control class just finished up at PCNW. For my final project I decided to try something a little different – mirrors. I found a smallish piece of mirror in my workroom, stopped at the grocery store for a bag of fruit, and went into the studio not really sure what I was going to do with it all.

My approach was to set a piece of fruit on the mirror, arranging large pieces of white foamboard around the perimeter so they would create a solid white reflection in the mirror. I began lighting with two Mole Richardson tungsten spots, bouncing off the foamboard for fill light. The mirror was small enough that I had to frame carefully, but I loved the surreal quality of the resulting images.

After a while I got tired of the spotlights, and wanted something less hard for lighting the very shiny Granny Smith apple I had brought. I put away the tungstens and brought out a single strobe with a large softbox, placing it very close to my subject. This produced less interesting texture on the pears but a smoother background, as well as good light on the apple. It was also good for macro shots, although not particularly dramatic.

This was a fun project to play around with. I’m hoping to do more with this idea once I have some lights at home and can use a larger mirror. What subjects do you think would be fun to shoot this way?