I was recently asked to participate in a photography contest that involved several categories including: still life. What immediately comes to mind when I think of still life is a bowl of fruit yet when I research the subject more carefully, I see definitions such as the following:
"Still life photography is a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects. It is the application of photography to the still life artistic style. An example is food photography."
Wikipedia.
So I can photograph some cut flowers in a vase but can I photograph live flowers in a flower bed? What about a macro shot of a dandelion? Does it matter whether the dandelion has been picked?