It’s been awhile since I did a Macro Monday- so here we go!
Books, Shells, and Keys- and the Mystery of Room 217
This week I can honestly say I thoroughly enjoyed doing my still lifes for Kim Klassen’s Start to Finish class. I am slowly getting into my groove, and I think it’s because I’ve been photographing some of my old books, which I dearly love. And for a little twist, I’ve added keys and shells into the mix of props. As I’ve taken my photographs over the course of the week, I found myself imagining they were book covers for books I want to read, which made it even more fun. One of the keys (which my friend, Debbie found at a garage sale) appeared to be a hotel key- for Room 217. My imagination went wild with various ideas of what the story would be that featured that key on the cover.
All except for the last photo were textured using rue, retreat, or teddy from Kim Klassen. I think my favorite shots are the last two.
I’m linking up with Kim’s Friday Finds today. What did I find? A still life subject I’m comfortable with- and a bit of confidence!
This and That
My camera has been out a lot the last week; here are a few photos that didn’t make the blog.
A couple Blue Ridge cups
A macro of a leaf, snapped while watering
And from Chalk It, Prescott’s chalk art festival last weekend
Have a Happy Thursday!
Happy With Apps
I’ve become a mad collector of photo apps for my iPhone- it’s amazing how many there are! I think I need to stop until I fully understand the ones I have.
I took a shot of this starfish on my bathroom counter. In Snapseed (my go-to app that I mostly DO understand), I cropped it to a square, sharpened it a bit, converted it to black and white and added a vintage filter, which added some warm tones. I then added a texture in Mextures and the text in Phonto. Pretty simple!
I’m linking up with Barb’s App- Happy Wednesday!
Morning Tea
The sun streaming in the window this morning made it easy for me to decide where to set up my shot today. I actually photographed my Texture Tuesday photo on Texture Tuesday- just like I did in the years I was doing my Project 365, when the photo posted each day had to be taken on that day. No such self-imposed pressure now, but I just somehow never got to it until this morning. This was one of my grandmother’ teacups and one of my mother’s old books. The key is one I borrowed from my friend, Debbie. The textures are Auineau, anna, and celebrate. Have a great day!
We’re off to see the lizard . . .
Our walk at Willow Lake was for exercise, but of course I brought along my camera. I always like watching the ducks and other birds that hang out at the lake, but I had not thought about photographing the lizards. The lizards around our house started to emerge around the same time our grandkids were here, so they had fun catching (gently, as taught by their daddy) and releasing them. But in the last week with the hot weather, they have really come into their own- holy cow! Welcome to Arizona! I appreciate that lizards are part of our ecosystem and are actually kinda, sorta cute, but I am not particularly fond of them. So, of course, I am leading up to my lizard photo. . .
My husband spotted him first from afar as he posed atop a high rock, and we debated about whether it was really a lizard. But then I got closer and zoomed in- and yes, it was a lizard! He was pretty big by my standards, and was definitely basking in the sun. This is cropped- I was not that close.
We also watched the ducks and a great heron, who was stalking slowly through the waters, concentrating intently on the water. I wasn’t sure if he was a heron or crane until he took flight. Cranes fly with their necks straight out. That is one of the two or three facts I know about birds. As usual, one of my more learned friends is welcome correct me on my bird fact!
All in all- a successful photography outing!
We were just seventeen . . .
When my husband and I got to Chico on Monday, we checked into our hotel and then headed over to Peet’s Coffee, my husband’s favorite coffee place in any town that has a Peet’s (we don’t have it in Arizona). When I saw the Beatles mural on the wall down the street, I was ECSTATIC knowing that my friend, Carol was coming to town the next day. We were pretty much Beatles fanatics during the sixties- so what better photo op could there possibly be than a Beatles mural (unless it was Paul or Ringo in the flesh!)?
As I was standing between two parked cars to snap these photos, the owner of one of the cars came along and offered to take a photo of both of us with the Fab Four. We couldn’t resist!
Linking up with Kim Klassen’s Friday Finds- we found the Beatles!
Remembering
We were in Chico, my hometown, this week, because of business my husband had nearby. It was a very brief and bittersweet visit, because I knew I might not have occasion to return, now that we live in Arizona. My college roommate, Carol drove up from Sacramento to keep me company; I have some fun photos from that visit to share with you tomorrow!
On the way out of town yesterday, we stopped at the cemetery, where the ashes of my mother and three grandparents are located. On my other visits, I didn’t take time to really notice how beautiful the grounds are- or maybe it wasn’t at the same time of year. This time I took time to soak it all in.
Beautiful oaks shade the lawn.
The artificial flowers we put in the vases by their vaults have disappeared. My mother would have disliked them anyway; she was a lady with impeccable taste!
Road Trip
On road trips my husband does all the driving- and I read, play Words with Friends, and take photos out the window with my phone. Now that I have more apps than ever before, I have a lot of fun editing the photos. The last two were taken through the car window at 60+ miles per hour; I found that adding textures (in Snapseed or Mextures) helped disguise any reflections in the glass.
I’m linking up today with “app happy” Wednesday on Barb’s Keeping with the Times.
Photo 1: The Starbucks we finally found after searching for 45 minutes (painted in Waterlogue)
Photo 2: Power Lines in the Sun (edited in Mextures and blended back with the original in Image Blender)
Photo 3: The Road Ahead (textured – can’t remember which app- sorry- then painted in Waterlogue and blended with original)
Still and more still
I have a few more images to share from my still life marathon in the bathroom studio. Each photo is edited with Kim Klassen’s textures, different ones on each photo.
Negative
My friend and fellow photographer, Carol (infocusdaily.com), and I have been talking about the use of negative space in our images. In looking through some still-life photos I took Saturday, I found one that definitely has negative space- more than I usually use in my photos. This was taken in my current home studio- the hall bathroom- that’s a shower curtain in the background!
In search of my still life mojo. . .
In the hopes of finding my still life photography mojo, I’ve taken on two of Kim Klassen’s photo classes- Start to Finish and Be Still. Both emphasize still life photography, a genre where I often feel awkward and uninspired. After two years of doing a Project 365 and another year and a half of regular photography blogging, I have taken photos of almost everything in my house- actually two houses! Time for some new inspiration!
My intentions for this class are to learn some new skills and to create some photo art that is truly my own expression.
I am just beginning to gather my props and was delighted yesterday when a package arrived in the mail that contained the family history items that my husband had gathered from his father’s home during last week’s visit to Kansas. Yay- props! You might notice a Mason jar in the background- it’s new! I had asked my husband to look in his dad’s house for some jars; when he mentioned it to his sister, Kathy, she gave him one of hers to give to me. How awesome!
This photo is edited using some of Kim Klassen’s older textures- soft grunge, archives, abstract, and scratchedmagicjuly.
I’m linking up with Friday Finds as well as my Start to Finish classmates.
Moment of Stillness
I braved 50mph wind gusts on Earth Day to take this photo (among others), capturing this lavender in a brief moment of stillness.
App Happy!
I took this shot with my iPhone of one of the birdhouses in our backyard (left by the previous owner). It is perched on a piece of driftwood, and is very low to the ground. I haven’t seen any birds going in it, but I might be missing something. Do the quail or roadrunners fly up into it??? Seems like the opening is too small. My bird-knowledgeable friends need to help me out here.
Several apps were used as part of my process for this image. I forgot that I could take the shot in square mode, thus eliminating cropping it to a square afterward- so I needed to crop it in one of the apps. I used PicTapGo for this and also added a bit of warmth. I found myself really disliking the right side of the photo (rocks and an out-of-focus branch), so I then opened the photo in Snapseed and used the Tilt-Shift effect to blur out the unwanted parts of the image. Next, I added a texture in Mextures and a watercolor filter in Waterlogue. I finished it off by adding the word, Home, in Phonto. Five apps for one photo? Seems a bit extreme, but it worked for me this time.
As part of my quest to learn more about iPhoneography, I am linking up today with Barb’s new App-Happy Wednesday on Keeping With the Times. I’m eager to see what the other iPhoneographers have done- I’m such a newbie at all of this!
Note to my friends who take photos with their phones and are intimidated by the whole DSLR photography and editing thing:
This is seriously FUN! It is easy to edit your photos and make them look like little pieces of art. Most of the apps are free- and the ones that aren’t are inexpensive. Try it! You can figure out all of this in an afternoon. Join me on instagram. I’m #melindaroo.
Create
Simple is this week’s Texture Tuesday theme. I tried not to overthink it, so decided on a simple composition, a few textures, and a black and white conversion.
textures: bamboo, sophia, and canvasback by Kim Klasse
melinda anderson photography 