Eggs-Ray

The first question I get when people see this image is “How in the heck did you cut the egg open that way?”  Well, I cheated.  This isn’t a real egg, it is an alabaster egg from the town of Volterra, Italy.  Yes, this is the town of Twilight fame.  Before that it was known as (and still is) a hotbed of alabaster sculptures.  You can find these eggs in every size all over the town.

This image was done with a 30 second  exposure while painting the back of the egg with a small penlight.  It took several tries to get the right lighting.  I shot it with my Nikon D300 tethered to my MacBook.  That way I was able to review my images as soon as I took them and improve my light painting skills from shot to shot.  I was able to decide how much to light each area and angles to shine the light.  Fun little project.

This image took second place in a 2011 Northern Virginia Photography Club monthly competition.