Beyond Beyond 15

The theme for this week’s lesson was I Collect. Kim Klassen showed some of her collections of photos, books, and memorabilia dropped artfully on the floor. I chose to instead quickly drag out some of my family memorabilia that I have acquired over the years and arrange them on top of the old dental cabinet where they normally reside inside drawers.  During the two years that I did a Project 365, almost every item pictured here was featured on my blog.  I am an avid family genealogist and lover of all things antique and am now, in my later years, trying to figure out what I really want to keep (everything in this photo, for sure).

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The other part of the lesson was to ponder our STYLE in photography. I’ve seen this topic bandied about on the Clickin Moms forum; I think it is probably more of a big deal when you are a pro. For me, I know I like bright colors AND black and white photography AND strong compositional elements.  I rarely like haze and matte processing in my own images, except in some of my lighter floral photos- but I like it in the work of others.  I love landscapes- but don’t feel particularly competent in achieving the look I admire in the work of other photographers.  I’m not too worried about finding my style, but hope it is evolving as I learn.

Photo processing notes: Although I didn’t do anything special photographing the little scene above (tripod, door open for light), I did try something new in processing after doing my basic edit. I used a free “hand-tinting” preset from OnOne software (I have their Perfect Effects 4). What it did was convert the photo to black and white, but bring back anything that was colored brown (by desaturating blues, greens, etc). I chose this preset, because I didn’t like the blue color of the writing on the Hopalong Cassidy mug in the cabinet amid the brown tones of the image. So basically, almost everything was left in the brown tones except the mug-  easier than using an adjustment brush.  In Photoshop, I stretched the canvas as we learned in a previous lesson and added a texture to just the bottom section.

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Noticing

Using my macro lens with a purposely shallow depth of field, I took a few shots of my asparagus fern the other day.  When I brought them into Lightroom, I noticed bumps on the surface of the tiny leaves.  I thought the leaves were dirty, so went back outside and looked at the plant more carefully- no dirt that I could see.  I reshot the images and took them into Lightroom.  There was still a rough, bumpy texture. I actually reshot the photos the next day as well- same results.  I’m fascinated with what you can see with a macro lens!  I ended up liking this photo best in monochrome.

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Speaking of noticing, the shadows of my shutters in the morning light caught my eye this morning.

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Framed

I’m kind of on a roll at my kitchen table these days right- so many of my photos have been taken here lately (most not posted).  I discovered the afternoon light from the window a while ago- and more recently I’ve been entranced with the curve of my very ordinary kitchen chairs.  This photo was NOT taken in lovely light and really posed a challenge in terms of exposure.  I finally went with blowing out the background- maybe in afternoon light I could get a better background.

I shot this photo is response to a theme from my daily challenge group on Flickr- FRAMED.  And what better frame than a kitchen chair?

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I used simplistic, one of Kim Klassen’s lovely textures (2 layers- one at soft light, one multiply, reduced opacity) and am using this image for my Texture Tuesday link-up.  Check out more images created with Kim’s textures by following the link at the bottom of the page.

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In the kitchen . . .

It’s a humble pastry brush.

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I joined the Clickin Moms’ Monthly Macro group and was challenged this month to take photos of ordinary kitchen utensils, such as spoons and forks.  Having photographed spoons several times (and being totally intimidated by the gorgeous fork and knife photos posted by the group so far. . .), I moved on to wooden spoons and . . .the pastry brush.

My favorite of the three images is the top left- I like the abstract quality of the lines and shadows.  I originally edited it in black and white, but I ended up adding tones to both the shadows and highlights for this layout (and copied the processing to the other photos).

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Magic Carpet

One of the themes of my Flickr group this week is How Low Can You Go?  I was inspired to get down on my stomach (a pretty sight for sure) to photograph the “oriental rug,” as my mother called it, that was always in our front hall while I was growing up.  I believe it may actually be a prayer rug, but, as a child, I pretended it was a magic carpet.  When my parents moved out of our childhood home, I claimed the rug as my own and it graced the walls of several of the homes we lived in during the first ten years of our marriage.  When we moved into our current home, it became a rug again- one you probably don’t notice in its somewhat dulled and frayed condition, but it’s there.

RUG layout

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Day 361- Scattered

Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the house. . .

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The topic today is scattered.  I didn’t have to look too far to respond to this topic- next to my BRAIN, the most scattered area is our post-Christmas living room.

I processed this with one of Matt Kloskowski’s free presets- wedding fairytale (or fairytale wedding?), a preset I downloaded and thought I’d never use. It basically desaturated the image and then added a light vignette (the opposite of my usual vignetting).  I tweaked it a LOT, removing some of the vignetting and bringing back the saturation a bit, especially on the pig.  Kind of a fun look- would be good for a newborn, maybe.

I got a few photography related gifts for Christmas!  The biggest one was a reflector stand (to hold the reflector when you don’t have someone to do it for you, which is most of the time for me).  I am still trying to master it- putting things together is not my strong point. I also got a small diffuser for the flash- like a miniature Gary Fong.  It really cuts down on the flash, so I need to work with it to figure out the right settings- very cool! My daughter gave me a wonderful photography book I’ve been wanting called Extraordinary Everyday Photography by Brenda Tharp and Jed Manwaring.  It has great tips and inspiration for taking photographs without traveling to Kathmandu or Antarctica.  I also got lens pens (yes, you’re supposed to clean those lenses!), a rain cover for my camera (could have used this a few days ago), a little viewer thingie to look at your LCD screen through on a sun-glare-y day,  a new rocket blaster for my camera bag and a fast SD card!  I’m set!

BTW- only five more days in my 366 for 2012!  I will still be blogging- maybe every day, probably less.

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Day 350- Golden

When our Golden Retriever, Murphy was alive, we collected many Christmas ornaments depicting goldens.  We still hang them on the tree and experience fleeting feelings of Murphy’s presence.  We are happy that we still have two goldens in our lives- Cooper and Callie, our granddogs.

Here is a shot of a reindeer golden.

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Day 342- Aged

Oh happy day! The topic is aged, and I have no need to leave the house- I am surrounded by family heirlooms.

I guess this one isn’t a family heirloom yet, but it was my cereal dish and pitcher for milk when I was a very little girl. It says Italy on the bottom of the bowl, and I have no idea where my parents got it, since they never traveled to Europe.  It hasn’t been used in years, because of the fear of lead in the paint- but I am sentimental about it.

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Texture: Patina by Florabella

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Day 310- Words

If you come to my house and sit at my desk, you might notice the mishmash of magnet words, quotes, and images I have placed on the file cabinet at my side.  I fiddle with it from time to time as I seek inspiration.  At the moment health is a focus, so I placed strong and health near the top, where my eye tends to go.

The word of the day should be patience, because what should have been a quick shot ended up being a 45 minute process because of Photoshop- and possibly, no probably, my Wacom tablet.  I wanted to add a texture to this image- a 5 minute edit at most- but Photoshop kept crashing and taking Lightroom with it. This is something that has only happened since I got my tablet.   I took a month break from it and had no problems.  I started using it again a few days ago, and the problem has returned.  Sigh.  So now I need to get to the bottom of this. . .

Florabella textures- Vintage and Sugar and Spice.

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Day 302- Three

I have three mini pumpkins set in front of the TV, so I took a few shots and moved them to a table to try some more.  I then played around with processing three of them- one into a black and white, one with a texture, and one with minimal processing.  I decided just to post my first shot, the one with minimal processing.  There is something about the orange pumpkin against the black background.

Orange and black? Halloween you say? I say-  GIANTS!!!

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Day 301- The Power of Intention

A couple years ago, the minister of our church dressed up as Professor Dumbledore of the Harry Potter books and presented a wonderful sermon on the power of aligning our intention with Spirit/our higher self/God to transform things in our lives to greater goodness.  The next week, some of the wonderful people in our church community made “intention wands” and sold them at services.  Of course, I bought one- and often look at it to remind myself that I have the power to make changes.

The theme in our Flickr group is magic today, and I know that the power of intention is indeed magical.

No texture used today- that texture in the foreground is the worn top of my father’s dental cabinet!

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