Indonesian Hot Jasmine Tea - Still Life Food Photography Assignment

If I were still a student, I would've been punished so many times for not doing my homework. Opps. I've joined an online still life food photography club for a while, and I've missed quite a few assignments. Opps opps. This time, I managed to submit something.
Yay~!
Did you guys notice how low my expectation was?
Submitting something = a huge achievement (for me) ^_^'

I love brilliant ideas behind photographs. But most of the time, I have no idea, not even a stupid one, forget about brilliant ones.

When I do have some ideas, I mostly fail to execute them the way I wish they would turn out.
This assignment is a classic example.


I thought of using old, classic Indonesian sayings/jokes as ideas.

For the above picture, the idea came from an old Indonesian saying "Habis manis sepah dibuang" = when the sweetness is gone, the remnants get thrown out, which more or less means that once I've gotten everything I wanted out of you, I'd abandon you.

My idea was to show a used teabag in an almost empty glass of hot sweetened tea. Emphasis on "used". I wanted to desaturate the colors a little to make it less vibrant than my usual pictures. Darker, gloomier.
I've probably taken things too literally eh?

Anyway, I was happy with the idea, but look at my execution. Blah! I am not sure why, but blah.

Moving on to my next "idea"...

The idea for the above photo came from an old Indonesian joke I heard when I was young (and rather dumb).

Question: How do you know if a glass of tea is sweetened just by sight?
Answer: *thinking very hard* you can see the sugar (no, all stirred), it looks thicker, nicer, sweeter (ya ya, try identifying that by sight)...then how?
Correct answer: The sweet one has a spoon in it. HA HA HA
Answer : Grrrr (not funny!)

It's probably not funny, but that exactly how tea is served in Indonesia ^_^

So I wanted to show two glasses of hot tea (hot tea is often served in glasses, not in cups), one with a teaspoon in it, one without. Nice and simple.

But look at my execution! I forgot to stir the sugar, which pretty much ruined the joke...and since it's a happy joke, I should not have done the same desaturated, gloomy approach. A brighter, lighter, happier tones would probably be better ^_^'

Meh~ there's always another challenge, another homework...
...and I shall continue to learn.

Thank you for listening/reading my crap ^_^