This weeks photo theme song: Egg and Soldiers by Cosmo Sheldrake.

I learned only recently (thanks wholly to this song) that Egg and Soldiers are what the British call “Egg in an Egg Cup.” I find that many people are not often even clear on what Egg in an Egg Cup is. I myself learned from Ashley’s family about these breakfast delicacies, which are soft boiled eggs with most of their shells still on, and then plopped into a kind of small cup. Using a piece of toast, you can dip into the yolk, and once you’ve finished that, you can spoon out the rest of the egg and eat it.

I’m going to make one with an ostrich egg.

This turned out to be the biggest challenge. I wasn’t 100% sure what would be the easiest way to get a hold of an ostrich egg. I knew of an ostrich farm on the way to Tucson, and after an awkward phone call to Whole Foods that yielded no ostrich egg, I decided that the farm would be my best option.

Ashley and I decided to make the trip despite some rough traffic and we managed to obtain two large ostrich eggs for the low, low price of $40 each.

This has already become my most expensive photo project so far. I’m going to have to make it count, and I’m going to have to be careful with my cooking, which could easily result in the waste of 40 bucks, if I’m not being attentive. Luckily, the brits have us beat on cooking odd eggs, and have provided me with a number of resources for dealing with the challenge.

Here’s some of my inspiration for this project:

Imogen Cunningham is apparently quite well known for her ability to deal with detail, and Susan Bright even emphasizes the skill that Cunningham uses to be able to show the detail in these eggs. A side quest for me is going to be trying to get better lighting than I was able to last week with my jello.

More Cunningham detail shots.

There’s not much particularly interesting out there in the realm of ostrich egg photography, so I’m relying mostly on other resources for the time being.

I like the set up of this image by Jo Ann Callis, and think that I may be able to do something similar with the angles and perspectives. I don’t have a round table, but some of the other elements may be easy to replicate.

As for last week’s challenge, I have to say that I was not thrilled with my own performance. I had to spend quite a bit of time waiting for jello, and kept messing it up anyway. A much better version of the jello (clearer, more well-designed) was destroyed on my attempt to remove it from its tin, so I used an earlier construction with had disappointed me.

I think the color of the image, and the hand work well. I also like the dish ware and think that the design of the table cloth is pleasant and joyful, but I’m not pleased with the clarity of the jello itself, which I had immense difficulty lighting. Ultimately, I think my error had to do with how far the scene was from a wall. With my two light set up, I was reliant on bounced light, which I didn’t have.

The real thing that saves this image (if anything) is the reflection in the cake cutter. I think that adds some visual interest using repetition that was not there in the original examples.

There’s a part of me that feels compelled to attack the jello again to try to conquer it, but for the time being I’m happy to move on. Particularly because it tasted disgusting.

Here’s to future photos!