Kim’s Pears

This morning I went to Michael’s to buy some gray and some brown paper to use as backgrounds for still life photos and to Albertson’s to buy some pears to photograph.  When I got home, there was a new BeStill 52 lesson up- featuring PEARS!  We have a choice of photographing a bowl and some (or just one) pear or having an editing play with her pear photo.  I have full intentions of photographing my pears, but had fun playing with her photo as well.

So- this is KIM’s photo- edited two ways. The first is with a warm black and white preset I made a long time ago which has become one of my favorites.  I added a couple layers of Kim’s chill texture (a new favorite) in Photoshop.

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I added some yellow tones to the highlights and purple to the shadows and increased contrast a bit in this image.  In Photoshop I added Kim’s painterly texture.kim_klassen_pearsbypainting-EditWell, that was fun!  Next I will do my OWN pear photos- stay tuned!

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Four Things

I’ve been on a roll with my still life lessons- this is for Lesson 21.  We were challenged to create a still life using four things: bread, twine, linen, and scissors.  I added some leaves and a pumpkin, because it is almost Halloween.  I used my new tea towels from my daughter- and the other items were purchased for the assignment- some cool bonsai shears, some twine (no longer an essential household item- at least for us), and a loaf of sourdough bread (my husband was so happy). I also used my new white beadboard for the backdrop- thank you, Barb Brookbank for the idea!

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Apples on a Tea Towel

After doing travel photography for a couple weeks, it feels great to get back into still life photography! I’m catching up on lessons for Be Still 52 (and Texture Tuesday), and today’s photo is for the most recent assignment, where we were challenged to take a photo based on a painting. It was helpful to be provided with a link to a Pinterest board of stilllife paintings, and I chose one of three lemons on a striped tea towel.

I am currently lemon-less, so used apples from my friend, Debbie, who had to rid her kitchen of perishables in preparation for traveling to Nashville.  I do have some wonderful new tea towels, however- a gift from my daughter!

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My image has darker lighting than the painting from which I drew my inspiration, but is lit from the left, as was the original image.  I textured it with Kim Klassen’s monday and chill textures.

 

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Up at Sunrise

After a day of acclimating to being home from our road trip, I began to look at some of the lessons I’d missed in BeStill 52.  One jumped out at me right away, because it featured photos of cows. Cows! It turned out that the lesson challenged us to change things up, to do something different.  For Kim Klassen, this meant cows; for me it means traditional landscape photography.

I am pretty intimidated by the kind of photography that involves neutral density filters, polarizers, higher f-stop numbers (deep depth of field), tripods, composing a landscape shot, and, especially, getting up early to find the perfect light.  This is the kind of photography that the people in my camera club are good at. Upon reading the lesson, I realized that I had been dabbling in that on our vacation, well, actually on most of our vacations.  I always excuse my mediocre results by explaining that I never get up early enough to get the perfect light.  Well, this time I did.

I didn’t have to get up especially early, get in the car, drive to the scenic spot I had scouted out the day before, hike in,  and then set up among other photographers all with better equipment than I have.  All I had to do was roll out of bed, grab my camera, and walk out the door of our hotel room in Moab- because this is what was outside:

20141021-DSC_6030_melinda_anderson 20141021-DSC_6013_melinda_anderson 20141021-DSC_6003_melinda_anderson-Edit-EditThis is the same scene that I photographed in the sunset shots I posted Friday.  What a view!

I didn’t use any filters (although my ND ones would have been useful if I’d brought them!), but did bracket my shots just in case.  So. . . I think this foray into early morning landscape photography qualifies as changing things up.  Next time, maybe I will actually drive somewhere!

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Heartland

As we drove west across Kansas, heading to Colorado after visiting my husband’s father, I found myself entranced by the minimalism of the flat horizon, unbroken except for occasional barn or silo. I think I could spend days exploring that landscape.  All the photos were taken with my iPhone and edited in Snapseed.  The last image was taken using the Slow Shutter app.

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Sunset Shadow and Reflection

The last stop on our 11 day journey was a beautiful lodge along the Colorado River outside Moab, Utah.  Watching the ever changing reflections and shadows of the red cliffs at sunset is an experience we’ll never forget.

20141020-DSC_5962_melinda_anderson 20141020-DSC_5946_melinda_anderson20141020-DSC_5989_melinda_andersonLinking up with Friday Finds today- because this view (and this part of Utah!) was the best find I’ve had in a long time!

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11 Days, 7 States

20141020-DSC_5733_melinda_anderson-Edit-2We have just returned from our 11 day road trip, during which we managed to drive through 7 states: Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Utah.  Another relevant stat: we have only been home 5 days in October so far.  I am pretty tired, even though I did none of the driving.

I didn’t think that I would do a ton of photography this trip, except for some family photos in Kansas and some shots of the fall foliage in Vail- and random shots along the way. Although I was very busy and actually had two days where the camera was not brought out (almost unheard of in my life), I had some fantastic photo ops- including during an unplanned brief sojourn in Utah!  I have lots of photos to cull and edit, and you will be seeing many of them over the next week or so.

That’s Arches National Park in the photo- and no, that’s not our car. 🙂

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Vail!

I’ve been taking a lot of photos- but we’re having so much fun that it’s hard to find time to post photos.  Here’s a couple from beautiful Vail, where we’ve been living it up and, unfortunately, getting used to a luxurious lifestyle.  Back to reality as we head home!

Here are a couple shots of Vail Village, where you feel like you are in the alps:

View from one of at least two covered bridges crossing Gore Creek in the village.

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The village in the golden hour

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Trunk

My friend, Debbie, has so much cool stuff at her house! Last week I photographed some of her art work and managed to sneak in a few shots of some of her garage sale treasures. So far. there has been not much time for photography during our Kansas trip, so here are three I took last week of Debbie’s antique trunk..

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La Ventana Natural Arch

On our way to Kansas, we made a point to stop at Grants, New Mexico to see La Ventana Natural Arch, the second largest in New Mexico.  After a scenic 18 mile drive off the main highway, we came upon the arch and took a short walk to get as close to it as we could. Rain threatened most of the drive there, but the sun stayed out long enough for us to see the arch and some of the beautiful views of the sandstone cliffs and El Malpais Lava Field.

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Such a Fine Sight to See

We are on a road trip to visit with my husband’s father in Kansas and then on to Vail, Colorado to attend the wedding of the son of a dear friend. Lots of driving- and we will end up in a beautiful place with close friends!

Being Eagles fans (their Hell Freezes Over concert was one of my favorite concerts ever!), we HAD to stop at Winslow, Arizona to stand on the famous corner featured in Take It Easy.  It cracked me up that, when I posted an iPhone shot of the corner on Facebook and Instagram, most of the comments consisted of quotes from the song lyrics!

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