Project Quarantine Trash!!

I landed in Singapore on October 30th 2020 and spent two weeks in quarantine at the Shangri-la hotel. During quarantine I had all my meals brought to me, the food was great!! But..

Photo Art created from trash!I generated a lot of rubbish during two weeks in quarantine at the end of October.

Run down of all the packaging that my quarantine generated:

1. 42 plastic food trays and 42 plastic lids.

2. 14 small foil dessert dishes.

3. 28 small white paper bags (that contained pastries and fruit).

4. 28 plastic water bottles.

5. 14 small milk cartons with straw in a plastic wrapper.

5. 14 small fruit drink cartons with straws in a plastic wrapper.

6. 84 tiny paper sachets of salt and pepper.

7. 28 butter and jam individual portions. Plastic with a foil lid.

8. 42 plastic carrier bags that contained the meals.

9. 14 individually wrapped cheese crackers.

This was the hotel generated packaging and I also had 20 cans of beer & 67 tea bags.

I assume it all one to trash island? I'm not joking..

Photo Art created from trash!I generated a lot of rubbish during two weeks in quarantine at the end of October.

During the second week of quarantine I started washing, collecting the black plastic food trays (below) and keeping water bottles, milk and juice cartons.

Plastic meal trays.Edited and cropped onto a white background.

Below, started life as a pile of beige/brown dried tea bags!

Photo Art created from trash!I generated a lot of rubbish during two weeks in quarantine at the end of October.

I had my tripod and shutter release cable with me so it was fairly easy to set up piles or flat lay groups of containers and packets and then take photos. 

Photo Art created from trash!I generated a lot of rubbish during two weeks in quarantine at the end of October.

I collected the photos together & started to play around with edits. The image above started as a collection of water bottles arranged on the back of a shower mat (you can see the suction pads on the mat). The red 'egg' further into this blog started as the same original image...scroll down and you'll see the bottle label is red and 'embossed').

Photo Art created from trash!I generated a lot of rubbish during two weeks in quarantine at the end of October.

Most of the photographs I edited in Photoshop, all in the same way:

1. Filter, Distort, Spherize.

2. Fade Spherize, Difference.

3. Spherical marquee tool then Select, Transform Selection to crop out a sphere (or whatever shape you want).

4. Copy and paste the selected area (an egg shape in this project) and paste them onto a white background.

5. Some of the 'eggs' I went on to edit further by using, Image, Adjustments, Invert and some I even did another spherize and/or more saturation.

Knowing when to STOP editing is crucial!!

Photo Art created from trash!I generated a lot of rubbish during two weeks in quarantine at the end of October.

Water bottle collection, below. Not just any water, 'oxygenated water'?!

Photo Art created from trash!I generated a lot of rubbish during two weeks in quarantine at the end of October.

All the meals were served on plastic trays and all the condiments, butter, salt, pepper etc; came in individually wrapped portions. The salt and pepper was imported from Germany. Why?

Photo Art created from trash!I generated a lot of rubbish during two weeks in quarantine at the end of October.

Juice and milk cartons laid side bay side and end on, with the straw side up this time. I 'spherized' this image once, you can see it's got a slightly flatter look that some of the other edits that I spherized twice or even three times.

Photo Art created from trash!I generated a lot of rubbish during two weeks in quarantine at the end of October.

Tea bags (above) started as the same photo as the pink spherized tea bag image but in this orange edit I have used, Filter, Distort and Twirl. You can still just about make out the edges of the tea bags in the middle of the spiral.

Photo Art created from trash!I generated a lot of rubbish during two weeks in quarantine at the end of October.

Photo Art created from trash!I generated a lot of rubbish during two weeks in quarantine at the end of October.

The edit above started as a flat lay of black plastic meal trays laid out on the floor (photo near the top of the blog). This edited I used spherize twice to get a more pronounced curved edge. I inverted the image and then enhanced saturation to get away from the original black plastic.

Photo Art created from trash!I generated a lot of rubbish during two weeks in quarantine at the end of October.

I've added a red/orange colour gradient to the embossed, spherized edit above. Knowing when to stop is really important, I could have gone & on, it's quite addictive!

Photo Art created from trash!I generated a lot of rubbish during two weeks in quarantine at the end of October.

Salt & pepper sachets, milk and juice cartons layer out flat on the floor (above).

Photo Art created from trash!I generated a lot of rubbish during two weeks in quarantine at the end of October.

Above and below, same image to start with, juice cartons laid out on the floor (with the straws not visible). 

Photo Art created from trash!I generated a lot of rubbish during two weeks in quarantine at the end of October.

This 'Emboss' edit of a spherized juice carton photo is one of my favourites!

Thanks for reading my blog. I hope it's given you a few project and editing ideas to play around with. Particularly if you find yourself in quarantine surrounded by rubbish...and you have a camera with you.

Ruth XX

Ruth is an Art teacher, photographer and Associate of the Royal Photopgraphic Society, currently living in Singapore.

Associate of the Royal Photographic Society.Ruth E Morris

I had soooooo many edits from this project and I'm STILL trying things out. It's been a good year for this kind of project though. 

An un-cropped version of the tea bag, 'twirl' photo. Yorkshire Tea obviously!!

Tea Bag Twirl