I knew it'd come in handy

You find the strangest things while out taking photographs.  I mean, I've stumbled what looked like a murder scene when discovering a single shoe under a tree trunk, and another yet more sinister child's solitary sandal on a mountainside.

But when I found a sheep's skull near our Paradise, I just had to bring it home.  Wouldn't you?

Having got it home though and after getting over my family's disgust at the bony find, I just put it in the garden until I could think of something to do with it.

And then, just the other day, I was browsing some Irving Penn still-life images on the internet (yes, I am that boring) and had this eureka moment!

Fujifilm GFX50R, Fujinon GF 32-64mm f4 @ 50mm
1.2 seconds @ f16, ISO 100
tripod, self-timer release

I dug out an old gardening book, opened it to an interesting looking page and then carefully (honest!) arranged the skull, bottle and pine cones.  I deliberately placed the skull and the bottle facing out of the image as this creates tension, and added the pine cones to just gently catch the natural light from the nearby window.  A black bed sheet as a backdrop and voila!

Whadyathink?

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Watch a video about the making of this image right here.  Well, jut below…