The Cutting Edge

I had a little gig last week for Tempus Knives, a range of professional butchers knives. The brief was to get some close-ups of the cutting edges for the graphic design company to create some graphic elements from, as well as getting a few wider shots of the sharpening accessories.



Since it was a warm spring day, I decided to set up out on my deck and use the natural light and my new 80cm cube light tent.



The light tent gives you nice soft even light all around your subject should you need it and you can also insert coloured backdrops. As you can see, I improvised and used one of my microphone stands for holding the knives. I find mic stands nice and steady supports for lights as well, and mine have boom arms which make them doubly useful. It was so nice out there I really went to town, trying to come up with shots that would give the designers lots of creative options to depict the blades in their artwork. I love this kind of creative collaboration.

     

There are hazards with this kind of work. As usaual, you get so focused on what's in the viewfinder, you can easily forget that there's something very sharp placed in the perfect position to perforate your eyeball or slice your cheek open. Luckily I got away without any major wounds, but while I was revelling in the nice strong (and free) light all afternoon, I did forget that the back of my skin neck was exposed to the UV. That's one advantage of strobes or studio lights.



I just heard from one of the graphics lads that he's very happy with what I brought to the brief so happy client, happy photog and as usual, valuable lessons learned.

Note for next photography shopping list: sunscreen.