Bath Mat

A few days ago, while doing the weekly grocery shop, we stopped to look at bath mats. I know, such a glamorous life. While normal people would think in terms of which one would provide the best grip or even which one would best match the decor not me – I immediately go to that part of my brain that assesses photographic possibilities and then goes on to obsess over them.

My wife, Meg, is used to this approach and is extremely understanding so we walked out of our local Target with a very over the top blueish/aqua transparent and semi transparent thing that is meant to resemble pebbles under water (I think).

I spent two hours positioning, lighting and taking photos of this bath mat. I have over three hundred photographs of it – most of them being  basically garbage and will never see the light of day. Here are a few that I thought were OK and worth showing. This intense focus on one subject is a great way to train the brain and the eye to really see. A don’t think that I’ve ever known a good photographer who wasn’t at least somewhat obsessive.

As a bonus Meg really likes the mat due to it being very soft on the feet – unlike our last one which was hard, spiky and obviously designed and bought to market by people who didn’t like other people very much. The mat is available from Target for around thirteen dollars and comes in clear vinyl as well as the blue/aqua version that you see here.

On a completely different note I got to see a feature about my photography that appeared in the 31st August issue of UK print and digital magazine The Amateur Photographer. The article is entitled, ‘It’s the Little Things’. So if you subscribe to that particular publication and keep your back copies let me know what you think. I think that it is a really nice feature and all credit to Debbi Allen, the author.

Macro

High contrast monochrome close up.

Softened close up of a sucker

Macro high contrast and rotated 90 degrees

Narrow depth of field effect added in post production

Rolled up. Low key shot

This one looks almost organic to me. Looks like cells.

High Key through the tube.

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