I like the idea of taking a product and putting it in a natural looking setting. This week I wanted to try to photograph a watch with a loose theme of it being lost on the forest floor as the sun is rising behind it. I love the look of moss and the little ecosystems that exist around and in little patches that grow around my yard. Maybe its from my time as a kid playing and building G.I. Joe forts in the dirt and grass.
This “set” was one shovel of ground from my back yard. It only took a moment to collect, but I spent quite a bit of time preening it and picking out little dead twigs and brown pieces of grass with tweezers.
The lighting setup was pretty straight forward. I used four lights: one with a CTO gel behind the watch to act as golden sun light and the other three to light little areas of the watch face and wrist band. I used a half dome of diffusion plastic around the watch which was open at the back to let the direct light from the background light through.
I started by taking a shot that showed more ground with the hope that it would better tell the story I was going for. In the end I moved whole setup to get a lower angle looking up at the watch and a much tighter composition.
I like the end result, but I think it is a theme I will continue to work on in the future and develop a little further.