Lovely light - thank you for the explanation of how you show it.

Thanks for the info! I'll have to give it a try. I don't have the off camera flash, so I might have to drag out the husband-with-a-lamp equipment.

I just love these. I am going to try and do one myself this week... Good or bad I will do it and post. Hmmm should I get a manicure first??? Anyway, I am making a committment to do it ( Hope I remember....)

very nice, great lighting, and use of shadows.

I like this very much. The lighting is quite good.

very well done ! such a creative idea for dailies and you could do it daily too :)) thanks for the explanation !

You do this so well. Keep it up, and thanks for the tips!

Fellows, your comments keep me going. thank you. Andrea is asking some questions, here are some tips to create this shot (or similar I guess).
1. The background is more or less important as long as it is a smooth, uncluttered surface. In this case, I just used a black card board.
2. The light is an off camera flash, left side from below. I use Nikon speedlight and set to i-TTL using a small snoot on the flash. It creates a focus lighting area.
3. Find a concept, this time I though picking rice and letting it drop would be nice!
4. Set camera on a tripod and practice the shot.
5. Once your are happy, shoot the final image with all the props, do the post processing. Nothing fancy since the off-camera image is almost there anyway.

I love these shots because it stops to make me think about the lighting every time--something I need to do more of. Very nicely done.

Love this