The assignment was simple: photograph herbs in the studio for a story on drying your own herbs. We used fresh herbs for the photo. We had an idea to create a wreath of the herbs...


but this approach could create problems for the designer, of possibly having the wrong proportions. So I photographed each herb individually on a white sheet. Still, it wasn't quite right.. there was no texture to the herbs, and I wanted to create a sort of translucence. I remembered a photog at the Deseret News photographing autumn leaves on a light table, so I relocated, spread the herbs out and hit the light. (Mostly untouched) studio photos on the left/top, light table photos on the right/bottom. I think a few of these are destined to hang on my kitchen walls..


The light shone through the cut edge of the chives, giving more texture and translucence, where the studio photo is a little flat.



Basil looks like just another leaf in the studio, but the light table brought out the layers.


Placing the dill on the light table made the difference in color between the two more obvious, and the lack of shadow beneath the leaves made it seem more like an illustration than a photograph.



A few more of my favorites...