Red Pepper 1, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

I photographed this red pepper on a black velvet background using a single focused spotlight bounced against the ceiling—and my sweet, old-fashioned manual 85mm macro lens (exposure data below). It seems like I am channeling Edward Weston—I’ve just finished re-reading his Daybooks, see the related story about radishes.

Exposure data: Nikon D300, 85mm perspective-correcting macro, five combined exposures at times between thirty seconds and 3 minutes, each exposure at f/51 (the lens stops down to f/48, but the effective f-stop is adjusted for the magnification factor) and ISO 100, tripod mounted.