jars and twine

Another week and Kim has got me to get my camera out again.  This time she was suggesting using a jar and some twine.  as much as I love her photos,  all pale and dreamy, I am more of a colour person, and I never have twine. But I do have ribbons and fabric scraps and little nests of threads that have most likely been frayed off some piece or other so I thought why not make this prompt my own.  With a nod always to Kim Klassen .  

I took some photos.    Once again I was looking at photos that were taken in haste .. wall  sockets behind the main subject, or major folds in my linen just at the wrong place for it to look artful.. I had to laugh.  I don't know how many times  this has happened... sigh....  THIS time though I looked, discarded most then in the evening light I took some more... , heavens... Unusual and this time discovered tape that I used to hold the linen up...  Honestly!!!

  Next morning the light in my basement room was shining so I tried again... wow this is true dedication!  I got a couple of Ok ones.  And photoshopping a couple of the others I found I could get some interesting things ..  Which do you like better?  Not sure I have any favourites. But the main thing learned this time was  Pay Attention...  take time  and most of all if I really have the energy revisit  the task and make improve meants... (misspelled on purpose.  That old poet brain!)   I always have trouble doing things twice.   Three times is unheard of ... grin but perhaps this is a break through!!!! BIg GRIN 

peonies

Been shooting some more still  life, composed , or staged shots recently.  I  stopped for a while as I wasn't getting anything I really enjoyed then Kim Klassen dropped the "celebration" prompt, and suggested juxtaposing peonies, their wonderful softness, against concrete.  For some reason I thought .... I can do that?   I have lots of concrete and at the time had a few of my beautiful white peonies.  I leave you to decide whether the exercise was accomplished... But I like them... grin. 

 Then I had to break the pattern , grin, and try the rocks... and?  I'm thinking it is hard to pick a favourite!  And now the peonies are done... I still have them to look at!  A bonus don't you think?

mar22

I been playing the last few days layering photos over photos of my paintings with photo shop.  Wow what a lot of "Photo" words... grin... Not sure what I'm going to do with them yet but there are lots of ideas percolating. What do you think?

castle + swirl painting.jpg

still life 2

I wrote last time about my fondness for creating still life photos with photoshop.

This time ,perhaps just because I said I didn't, and yet I can and do.... I include some still life studies that actually were composed.

Props are usually the hard part and yet I have lots of things I collect so I have something artistic for my mantel.  I have trouble throwing out beautifully shaped bottles. These tall slim ones were California vinegar bottles, but one can only take so many photos of clear glass. In one of my crafting enthusiasms  I decided to use some alcohol inks to colour these two and I love the mottled look especially when the sun catches them.  Ah me... sun, glass and ???  Always on the lookout for a good shot!

Then I had to try the bottle in the grass...  it was still so green...

Do you have a favourite? I'm not sure which one I like best.

After sitting with these photos for a day, because I didn't really feel they were that good...  (You know the critic is always the first voice one hears.)  I  was still on the lookout for a better shot.  I had prepared some vegetables for supper and was just waiting until it was time to cook.... and suddenly I saw the perfect still life.  I'm not sure this counts as a composed shot ... it truly was an accident at least to start with but in the end, I think, a happy one. 

A still life, life stilled, life waiting to become...  something else. 

still life

I keep wondering why it is that I prefer the natural still life,  the photos of actually stilled life rather than composed items.  Perhaps it is not that I prefer the natural things but that they are instantly there where I find them.  I don't have to collect the raw materials and compose them.

 That makes me lazy I suspect! 

  Yet, often I would like to spend the time collecting and positioning pieces then shooting them but my fixed lens camera does not give me the thrill of a good composed capture like I think it does when I shoot in real light and have found something that I hadn't considered photogenic before.

 That said,  I enjoy working with the idea of composed pieces within photoshop.  I often have photos that are not quite right for photography, there is not enough exposure or I have shot the same background many times before and I would like it to be different.  This is where the fun of filters and textures and overlays comes into play and I can literally spend hours manufacturing a photo and loving it.  The photo I give you today is just one of those.  I have played with this photo many times and have never managed to get it just right. There are things I wish were there, like a little more detail in the flowers in the middle of the bouquet and maybe I'll spend some more time trying to draw those in but I really like that it is closer to being  something other than a ho hum photo.  Perfection always escapes me and that suits me, for I am really here to  play and try and experiment. 

monochromatic

This was the biweekly prompt for Kim Klassens studio class this week.  Instead of taking some new shots I thought I would play with some of my nature shots.  Kim has given us  some of her Lightroom presets and up until now I have been having a hard time using them.  I'm wondering if that is because I don't shoot in RAW but am still shooting jpgs.  

 But I tried some of them on these monochromatic shots and like the results. This first photo used her On Air preset.

on air ps (1 of 1).jpg

This one was a gorgeous butterfly captured on an equally gorgeous tulip tree blossom a few years back in England. This one used her summer sun preset.