Image captured hand-held 11/16/10, 1:50pm • Canon 5D, Canon EF28-200 f/3.5-5.6 USM • 135mm, f/16, 1/3, ISO 500 • used a hand-made light box with shoe-mount flash • adjustments made in Adobe Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4

The challenge for our November photo club meeting was food. Although I heard a lot of grumbles in the group about this one, I was secretly excited. I've been doing so much outdoor photography lately, I was ready for a good indoor challenge with controlled light.

I had made a light box out of an old cardboard box by cutting a hole in the top, covering it with parchment paper. I draped the backside of wrapping paper down the back of the box to create a nice seamless white sweep for my subject. Once I set my camera on a tripod and a simple shoe-mounted flash above the parchment paper window, I was all set.

Now for a subject...the fun part! Since we were running low on groceries, my options were limited, but I knew I wanted something that would pop with color off of the white background. I decided on cooking up this bright green edamame and dressed up the scene with a couple opened pods in the white dish.

I had a good time with this shoot actually, experimenting with different angles, amounts of light, bounced light, framing, camera settings and arrangement of the subject.

The featured image above was my favorite (out of nearly 100 shots). I like the way the colors pop and the negative white space is activated with the pods pointing back into the frame. I can see this image being used on a menu or an ad somewhere. I love the very fresh feel it has—makes you want to pluck a bean right from the bowl and eat it. And, I tied for second place with this photo as an 8x10 at photo club! Sort of exciting - my first time placing. :)