The first contrast that I chose was many and few. My inspiration for this came from a local artist that visited my work a year or so ago and produced an installation piece in our atrium. He created a vast cityscape out of large staples, which I thought looked fantastic and I planned to replicate this on a much smaller scale to use as ‘many’. A single staple would represent ‘few’.

I produced a couple of test shots on my desktop to see how the ‘city’ would look through the lens. 

My original plan was to shoot using a light tent. However this proved too unstable to stack the staples. I tried using the iPhone as a flat black surface, but it was not large enough to be viable. 

Eventually I realised that the base of my lamp would actually form an ideal reflective surface, and it also had the benefit of allowing me to control the angle of the light and how it reflected off of the surface of the staples. 

Actually setting up the staples proved quite tricky and I had to resort to tweezers to make any adjustment. 

My intention was to make a skyline that was evocative of Manhattan, using the reflective properties of the stand to imply water. I then positioned the light source fairly low and angled to side to cause shadows on some of the ‘buildings’ and imply a sunrise rather then lighting straight on or overhead as the light would be at midday. This was done to encourage shadow and give greater depth to the image. Finally I positioned a piece of plain blue card in scene to use as a background.

The shot itself was taken with a fairly shallow depth of field in order to try and work with the shadows and create the illusion of greater depth. 

I like the image that was produced, and if I could change anything about it, it would be the actual size of the staple city itself. I used all the available space, but I’d like to see a shot with a city four or five times larger on the horizontal. 

As a rendition of many, I think it provides a good contrast to the single staple of ‘few’. Here we have the literal in using a great deal more staples, so ‘many’; but also have the metaphor of the city which brings to mind busyness and overcrowding and another interpretation of ‘many’. 

The contrast of course is few. Any here using the same field of view and the same stand and background, I placed a single staple. Reflected in the stand this produces a single square. Again we have the literal – there is one staple. But also the implied metaphor of just a single item on a barren landscape. 

Technically this was a great deal harder to shoot than the cityscape. Using a macro lens, adjustments of just a millimetre or so was all that I could make, with the depth of field being very narrow indeed.  Unlike the cityscape, I shot with the light positioned high above as I wanted to bring out the reflection of the staple as much as possible. I was particularly please with being able to potion the top edge of the staple against the horizon as this took quite minute adjustments with the tripod when framing. 

I am pleased with this pair of shots as they turned out as I invisaged them when I first thought of the idea. Of the two I think ‘few’ is my favourite as I like the strong lines of the horizon and the single square brought into sharp focus.