The Blue Table and The Animals

I've had a few emails asking how I get the colour in my still life/butterfly photos, and so thought I'd share with anyone that may be wondering yet too shy to ask.  The secret - it's the blue kitchen table.  Last summer we inherited a gorgeous wood table and chairs, and decided to paint it pale blue to match a darling little chair of Annabel's from Provincial Living.  We painted the chairs white.  By winter we were a bit over it being blue, so had plans to paint it white this summer.  Never got round to it, and I am so glad, as it has provided the perfect tones for my Butterflies, and I think now it will remain forever blue - the Butterflies are so dear to me and the table is as much a part of them as is the polaroid they were captured on.

So yesterday I decided to finally work on a series I've had ideas about for Otis's room...Annabel and all the girls have The Butterflies, but what about the boys?  Knowing I wanted a similar background colour (always a bit tricky as Polaroid is so light sensitive, as you can see in the difference in the Zoo animals, and often the blue table can look more green than blue), and without being able to photograph from above like I did with The Butterflies, I tipped the table on it's side.  Call me crazy I know, it was heavy, I nearly dropped it, nearly woke the kids with it scraping on the floor, but I managed to get it into position in the afternoon sun, put the Provincial Living chair in front of it, positioned the animals, waited for the sun to break through the clouds, and there you have it....

Otis's "The Animals" polaroid series. For the boys.