A couple years ago, I started a project that I could easily start, stop and pick up whenever needed. It was simply referenced as the “Tool Project”, and I wanted the imagery to be able to be printed for framing and/or give the option to be licensed if the need ever came up. I had set specific parameters for the project to maintain constancy throughout, regardless of the tool being photographed. All the tools used for the project needed to be tools that were used and/or in use, the lighting needed to be consistent throughout (dark and moody), the background would be the same and the layout / composition would be at it most direct and simplest form… flat and straight on.

While they have become somewhat popular over the past few years, I don’t typically do lay flat images. I like to have a little depth to my images. However, for this project, it worked really well… and for most of the images, they can be displayed in landscape (horizontal) or portrait (vertical) orientations, which was part of the intended goal with doing the lay flat style.

Even though this can continue to be an ongoing project, there are current plans to start a new tool project. And while there may be similarities between the two in regards to the subjects, lighting and overall mood, the style will be somewhat different… so stay tuned!