The three tiny pumpkins I picked up at the market the other day were setting on the kitchen counter when the sun rose over the neighbor’s rooftop and sent its blinding morning greeting into my kitchen. Before I closed the shutters, I glanced behind me and saw that the squash trio was lit up and reflecting onto the granite underneath as the background dissolved into darkness. I didn’t even have to move the pumpkins; they were perfectly placed. I grabbed my Nikon Z8 and the 105mm Macro, set the aperture to f/22 and handheld at 1/30 second shutter speed. I did bump the ISO to 400 because I don’t think I could hand hold a shutter speed much slower than that. I had to shoot from the side so that my shadow didn’t appear in the image, although one of the slats from the shutter does show on the frontmost pumpkin. I tried Photoshop’s Generative Fill to remove the shadow but three attempts and nine results did not remove the shadow so I left it in.