I absolutely love taking pictures in cafes! A just delivered cappuccino inviting your first sip… of course, the sip has to wait a few minutes 😉 But when there’s light streaming through a window, shapes cast by tabletop plants in their pots, cutlery, salt pots, water jugs and napkins to nudge into charming position…

With a shot like this I’ll have my f-stop all the way open to f1.8 for the background blur – I always love how every situation will bear different results depending on light and positioning. I over-exposed as it was quite dark, but then brought the exposure down in VSCO. I only took three shots in total as I didn’t want to take too much time on it! Looking back I probably should have brought the exposure down in camera! Having said that, I don’t think the background lit blur would have worked out so creamy!

I also took time to make sure focus point had really locked onto the chocolate covered foam. Always give your prime lenses a little time to focus by half pressing a few times over!

But overall it’s the composition I like most about this picture. The newspaper required a bit of shuffling to get the right amount of words into shot! The cup and two glasses works great unevenly numbered – for styling an odd number can be more aesthetically pleasing than an even. And I love the blurry shapes of the leaves.

Shot on the Olympus Pen E-PL9  with Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm f1.8 lens… (use STYLO20 for 20% off!)

ISO 320 / Shutter speed 1/10 | F1.8 / Ev 1.7