Beauty in what remains
Christmas Cactus
What to photograph on a gloomy, gray, drizzly day? Macros of bright Christmas cactus blooms!
Both images are edited with textures from Florabella. The top also has an oil paint filter added from within Photoshop.
Christmas Details
I held off posting this today, because we were supposed to get 3-5 inches of snow last night and today- a perfect photo opportunity. Unfortunately, all we’ve had is rain.
So here are some Christmas details- pinecones on a chair, a tree ornament, and. . . two photos of one of two little ceramic birds on a beautiful ceramic plate/tray, made by the talented Debbie!
A Chair by the Door
The latest assignment in BeStill 52 was to shoot a backlit image of a chair in front of a window. I was stymied at first, because our windows are all tinted here to protect us from the Arizona sun, creating a difficult lighting situation for photography. Then I remembered the frosted front door window, which has un-frosted portions, letting in a bit of natural light.
Both images are textured with Kim Klassen’s anna texture for Texture Tuesday.
Acker Night
Friday night was Acker Night in Prescott, when most of the downtown businesses- restaurants, bars, shops, banks etc.- host musical acts to benefit music programs in town. It went on for blocks, and I have never seen such huge crowds downtown. We only managed to see a few blocks worth of entertainment during our walk around town with our friends, Debbie and Dale, but it made for a fun evening. Below are a few of the acts we enjoyed.
The group below was probably the most fun performance, and this photo is the only one I have of these guys not looking straight into the camera. I discovered that, in a small space, it is just about impossible to be unobtrusive with a camera- even though I was surrounded by iPhoneographers. I only brought my 50mm lens, which was a mistake. I chose it because of its sharpness and low-light capabilities, but found that the focal length on my crop sensor camera made it difficult in tight quarters (next year, I’ll use my 35mm).
I couldn’t resist taking a shot of Dale in his hat- it really suits him!
I loved this old truck we saw along the way.
And eventually it was time to say good-bye to the lights of downtown Prescott and head home.
Editing notes for the curious:
The layout of 4 photos in the beginning were all editing experiments in Lightroom using the Fader plug-in I downloaded a month or so ago and promptly forgot about. If you have a lot of presets like I do, you might enjoy this handy little plug-in. Basically, when you want to use a preset, you choose it from within the Fader and then have the ability to reduce the opacity of the effect, like you would in Photoshop. I normally tweak presets myself, but this gives me the ability to dial it up or down while looking at the results- very cool. What I don’t like about it is FINDING the plug-in in the menu in Lightroom- it’s not hidden, just inconvenient. I wish Lightroom gave you the option to assign keystrokes to an item on the menu- or does it?
The photo of the country band was edited using my trial version of Topaz Impression (which unfortunately expired yesterday)- textures added in Photoshop. The photos of Dale and the truck with the Santa hat also have added textures. The textures were from Kerstin Frank, Shadowhouse Creations, and Kim Klassen.
Out to Lunch Potpourri
On our way out to lunch yesterday, I snapped a few photos along the street- some classic cars which were parked near ours and a window display which featured paper cranes.
And inside the restaurant? There was a Christmas tree, of course!
Thumb Butte at Sunset
I love the view of our Thumb Butte from downtown. There was a beautiful, fleeting moment of color at sunset the other night while I was downtown photographing the Christmas lights. I think my favorite image is this (intentionally) out of focus one with traffic coming toward me (yikes!).
Bright Lights, Little City
Prescott (AKA Arizona’s Christmas City, as well as Everyone’s Hometown) held its annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the courthouse square last weekend. This year they lit up a record 109 trees in the square, and it seemed as if everyone in town was there. It was all dark, except for the lights on the courthouse itself, and then all of a sudden, all the lights went on- amazing! I had to hold my camera way over my head in order to see over the crowd.
We were downtown again Monday night, so I took the opportunity to take some more photos without the crowds.
December Still Life
I’m finding I feel a lot more like doing still life photography now that I have a space dedicated to it- even if it is in the cold garage! Here are some odds and ends I put together over the weekend.
All are textured with Kim Klassen’s reentry texture for Texture Tuesday.
Me and Google
A year ago last summer, when we were looking for houses to buy, my friend, Debbie, noticed a listing on the internet for the perfect house (which we did end up buying), but the Google map for the neighborhood was confusing- there were two consecutive streets with the same name. Which street was the one with the house for sale? From time to time, I noticed that Google glitch on the map- and last week decided to let them know their map was wrong.
I guess it’s not an uncommon thing for Google to make mistakes, because there is actually a form to fill out when you spot an error. I compared their map with the satellite image and discovered that several little streets off the thru street were labelled incorrectly. The error started when they misidentified a driveway as a street- and then got off for the next four streets ending up with an extra street, which they named the same as ours. I filled out the form, and they responded that they would look into it.
Less than a week later, they wrote me an email saying “You were right!”, and that they had corrected the problem. I checked the map and discovered that they had now correctly named the street before ours with its correct name- but had left that name on the street before that one and continued the incorrect sequence (including labeling the driveway as a street). Aaack!
So, on Saturday I walked the neighborhood taking photos of houses, streets, and signs to make sure I was accurate- and wrote them again. I haven’t heard anything back yet.
I took my husband’s new Canon Powershot SX50 with me on the walk. I’m trying to learn it, because its zoom has a fantastic reach (and it shoots RAW!), and I plan to use it for wildlife photography. I’ve already customized 3 buttons on it with my settings, so I won’t interfere with his AUTO settings. All of today’s photos were taken with this nifty camera. For me, the most difficult part is controlling the zoom- so I need to practice on some backyard birds.
Still Life with Spoons
Linking up with Friday Finds
Old Recipes
Because my grandparents lived with us at the time of my grandmother’s death, I have inherited a collection of old books, recipe books, photos and other memorabilia valuable to me, if not to the rest of the world. Mimi was a wonderful cook, something she learned when she went to finishing school In Boston (she also learned etiquette, French, and Italian, among other things). This still life for Be Still 52 includes Mimi’s Fannie Farmer Cookbook and little notebook of her favorite recipes written out with her Parker pen in her signature turquoise ink. I didn’t grow up baking, so the recipe card is from one of my first recipes for Christmas treats- Seven Layer Cookies (no baking!).I’m enjoying working in my garage “studio”- even on a drizzly day with the garage door open!
Edited with Kim Klassen’s chill and one of the magic textures.
More Still Life Views
Here are some more views of one of the basic layouts I used in the second top-down photo from yesterday. But today they do not meet the square, top-down, and two sides requirement.
Square, Top Down, 2 Sides
This was fun- and trickier than I thought! The BeStill52 challenge was to create a square, top-down composition where subjects were arranged on two sides of the square, leaving some negative space. Now, I am a big fan of negative space- but somehow these compositions were hard for me. I struggle with top-down photography anyway. I’m short, so getting the bird’s eye view involves standing on a chair or ladder. The second photo was easier for me, because I deliberately used small objects and shot it standing on the floor- yippee!
The photo below is of two old photo albums- my grandmother’s and my father’s. I didn’t see either of them until after my parents were gone, so wasn’t able to ask questions about them. I’m so curious about the open album on top- look how the photos are cut and arranged artistically! My father graduated from high school in Wolf Point, Montana about 1919 (!), and these photos appear to be of him and his high school friends. Was my father really a scrapbooker? I wonder if one of his girlfriends put the albums together for him. Anyway- it is VERY cute! My grandmother’s album features family photos from the 1920’s, often involving camping trips and excursions to the beach. The photo of the three children is my mother (left) with her brother and sister- taken around 1915.
And here is the photo of smaller objects- much easier to photograph!
Both photos are textured with Kim Klassen’s breakfree texture for Texture Tuesday.
melinda anderson photography 