Fishy

I don't do much still life work, but last weekend I took a fit of inspiration at the Sainsbury's fish counter. Their fresh whole sea bass looked so pretty. And they're delicious too.

So I picked out the three most appealing ones and added them to my basket of nutritious and stylish foodstuffs.

I tried photographing them first on a simple grey linen cloth.

I quite liked this, and I got a few nice instagram shots with my phone at this point. But, to put it politely, there was an element of seeping onto the cloth that wasn't quite so pretty, and I was also concerned about their eyes. No offence, Sainsbury's, but I think that one of the signs of a very lovely fresh fish is that it has clear, bright eyes. These poor ladies were looking rather dull and sunken round the eyes. I have every sympathy with that myself, but I thought that something more sparkly might look more attractive.

So in another stroke of inspiration (unusual to get two in as many days) I got out my extensive vintage button and chose some substitute eyes. These were my favourites.

They also looked quite cool in sunglasses.

And then I started to pose them in different combinations.

An enjoyable morning's surreality, all in all. I'm still pondering what the meaning of fish with vintage button eyes might be, but I suspect I'm just not deep enough to work it out.