Dec 4

the last of the garden flowers

little people stuff

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.

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.

and from Arizona...

From the cool waters of NZ to the HOT desert of Arizona. 

everyday things

 When thinking about taking photos of something that I do just because it's summer.  I  automatically got out my hats.  Being a faded red head,with milky white skin I have learned that I must wear a hat when outdoors.  I used to rebel at this.  I used to hate hats but I have decided that it is better to find hats that I love then I will wear them without resentment. Here are my two favourite Italian hats!

a new class, for april

This week I joined Kim Klassen's new class offering called 'The Studio". It is a class that you visit when you wish and there is lots of sharing in both the content and process of photography. 

I have taken many of her other classes and the thing I like best is that I am not simply inspired to take new photos, of things I might not shoot, but she is always ready to share her processing and tools with you so you can play around and grow better photographs and a knowledge base of  just how the images can be different than straight-out of the camera; IF that is a look you want. 

 If you have watched the construction of this site you know already I often struggle with how things are done on the computer.  I am sure that is because I don't think the way programmers do and the language that seems straight forward to them  means something completely different to me.  Kim shares computing tips and how to use the  photo processing programs one has and thanks to her... I have learned a whole lot in the last three years.

The studio is also dedicated to still life photography which is a great way to experiment and wow some of the things that come are great.  This week we were challenged to use some music as inspiration for a photo. One of the selections was simply peaceful and being a wonderfully warm spring day, I took my camera outside and shot some life stilled.  As my garden spring clean up has not yet begun due to the ever possibility of more snow and frost,I found some lovely shots of new shoots with all the twisted stems of last season in the background. my camera also found some tiny shoots I had never seen before. One is the straight and tall stalk.  The other one has a snake-like quality that I find rather unnerving but it is a cool photo. Not sure whether it will become something else yet.   

I also took some of my beautiful apricot tree which is just bursting into bloom and surprisingly there are bees who have found it already!

and leap ahead to March

This photo was taken on one of my trips to England.  I had it as my computer wallpaper for almost a year to REMEMBER the quote.  It is just as important today as I try to keep up with posting and developing this place where I share my dreams and projects with all of you.

dec 2

So this week I was working on an advent calendar for my grandson and came up with the idea of doing tiny colour books. He really isn't in to pretty flowers but I got carried away and started making  storyboards of just one colour. The first one is of course what I think of as the colour of December.