The Merry Month of May!

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It’s May! When I was teaching, May was a big CRUNCH month: testing, Open House, Authors’ Party, Mother’s Day presents to make, field trip, parent helper gifts, student gifts, end of the year party, report cards, room pack-up, etc. etc.  It makes me tired just to think of it! Now, May is SPRING, for sure, and summer isn’t far behind. And in Arizona, I know monsoon season is only 6 weeks or so away!

Our latest lesson for BeStill 52 asked us to find an unique vessel for flowers or whatever to use in our stills- so I thought of this new teapot I bought this week to replace the cracked one, which didn’t make the cut when we moved.  Turquoise is becoming one of the colors I love to use in our Arizona house, although my husband thinks it doesn’t match our multicolored walls.  So far, I’ve acquired Mason jars, a bowl, a lantern, and now this teapot in shades of turquiose.  I just really love the color and am so glad that it’s popular again!

Teapot1 Teapot2In my life, a teapot isn’t an unusual vessel for flowers, but I do have an idea for another take on this challenge. Stay tuned!

Linking up with Kim’s Friday Finds today.

Melinda7 Comments

Tumbling

One of the new experiences we’ve had since we’ve moved to Arizona is tumbleweeds in our yard.  Last week we discovered a new one, and before my husband could capture it for yard waste, I picked it up with gloved hands to take into my garage studio for some macro and still life shots.

tumble_duoThe first photo above was edited with Kim Klassen’s kk_moody-ish preset; the second just converted to a high contrast black and white.

The photos below (showing how sharp and prickly these guys are!) were taken with the Lensbaby Sweet 35 with macro converters.  All have Kim’s kk_organic preset applied.

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Melinda2 Comments

Where Ideas Come From

20150420-MMA_3344_melinda_anderson-EditThe above image is the latest of my still life photos for The Studio- a continuation of the One Thing theme.  This time, my one thing is not the subject of my composition, but the background – my walls.   I thought it might be interesting to explain the evolution of the idea and execution of this image.  I’ve read that photographers find their inspiration everywhere- from nature, from music, from paintings, from the color palette in an advertisement- ANYWHERE.

In this case, my idea came from a movie.  We went to see The Woman in Gold with our friends, Debbie and Dale the other night. The movie was a fascinating true story of a woman (played by Helen Mirren) who sued the Austrian government to have them return her family’s paintings (by Gustav Klimt!) which had been stolen by the Nazis and were now “owned” by the Austrian government. No, this photo was not inspired by the Klimt paintings.

In one scene, as I remember, there was, in the background, a painting or photograph of a still life composed of a dry arrangement (wheat?) in front of a two-tone wall. I somehow noted it and then dreamed about trying to recreate that image, using my colorful Arizona walls. That was the beginning of the photograph above.  I took quite a few shots of these dried weeds and flowers in front of my bright walls, gradually moving away from the traditional still life I was envisioning to a textured black and white closeup image which is my favorite. All the photos were taken with my Lensbaby, which I’ve been practicing with every single day for the last 3 weeks.

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Melinda5 Comments

One Thing Again . . .

I think I might be finished with the One Thing challenge for BeStill52 and The Studio, but no promises. . .

A couple Lensbaby shots:

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Top down with my 35mm 1.8:

20150413-MMA_3216_melinda_andersonAlso with my 35mm 1.8, softened with a couple of Kim Klassen textures (linking up with Texture Tuesday today):

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Melinda6 Comments

One Thing

We were challenged to photograph one thing, shot different ways, different days, with different props in both BeStill and the Studio.  I decided to use my blue lantern, which my son gave me for Christmas.  I’ve done a couple different photo shoots and plan on doing more this week. All of these were taken with my Lensbaby and Sweet 35.  The top one has a couple textures added.

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Melinda2 Comments

Flower Fields

When we were in California, we stopped at a beautiful flower farm, where there were acres of ranunculus blooms.  Of course I took dozens of photos, but somehow they never made it into the blog.  Here are a couple of my favorite images; expect to see more soon!

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Melinda2 Comments

Saw this. . .

One of my favorite things about photography is how much I NOTICE now! And it’s contagious- even my husband notices more.  As much as I enjoy creating a still life, the most exciting part of photography for me is when I happen to catch a glimpse of beauty in the every day. Then the challenge is to somehow capture what I saw.  The other day, it was this reflection of a tiny bowl on the black surface of my dad’s dental cabinet.  The Edge 80 was on the camera, so that’s what I used.

20150407-MMA_3002_melinda_andersonI edited the photo in Lightroom, and then I took it into onOne’s Perfect Effects 8 for a couple finishing touches.  I realized recently that I have never really MASTERED this great program (and now there’s a newer version!), so I’ve been playing with it more lately.  I’ve even used it to add textures (you can import them from your hard drive or use the ones within the program).  For this image, I adjusted the color, added a bit of glow to emphasize the reflection, and then added a vignette.

 

Melinda1 Comment

Macro Magic

I bought a Clickin Moms Lensbaby tutorial series back when I only had my Lensbaby Mobile for the iPhone, (no Composer Pro, no optics), because I was so eager to learn how to use these cool lenses.  One of the tips I learned was that the Edge 80 with macro converters does a great job capturing sun rays, especially when taking photos under leafy trees.  I only have one tree at this point that has enough leaves to provide a canopy for the sun to just peek through, so I spent 10 or 15 minutes the other day crouched uncomfortably beneath the plum tree looking up at the sun. I thought I didn’t get anything much until I played with a few images in Lightroom and discovered that I did get some interesting effects from the sun- including sun rays. Fun!

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The image below is the same as the last photo in the collage at the top of the post, except it has some Florabella textures added.

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Melinda2 Comments

Raspberry Macros

I’ve been keeping to my word about practicing with my Lensbaby every day.  I thought a major part of my practice would involve getting the Edge 80 off the Composer (so tight for these weak hands!), but so far, so good! Maybe it’s loosening up- or I’m getting stronger! I hadn’t done much with macro using the Edge 80 until recently, and I’m having fun with it. Raspberries were on my breakfast menu on Easter, so I took a few moments to take some macro shots.  I’m finding the Edge 80 to be nice and sharp- similar to my 85mm macro.

Edits:
1- edited in onOne Perfect Effects (tonal contrast)- and then Photoshop, adding kk_chill to soften what I did in Perfect Effects!
2- kk_lettherebelight preset
3- kk_eve preset

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Edits:
1- onOne’s Perfect Effects
2- my basic edit
3- kk_lightairypastel preset

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Getting back in the groove and linking up with Texture Tuesday today!

Melinda8 Comments

Crated

One of our recent assignments in Bestill52, was to create a still life in or on a crate.  I have had two pepsi crates since our early married days.  One is for individual bottles; the other is for 6 packs, I think.  Because this was before the days of shabby chic, we stained the crates to make them darker (and to go with our antiques).  They hung on our walls in each of the places we lived, until we moved to our Arizona house. I haven’t quite decided what to do with them here, but they work well for still life props.

crateAll 3 images were taken with the Lensbaby and Edge 80 optic.

Melinda3 Comments

Backyard Blur

My photography goal for April is to practice with my Lensbaby every day.  We’ve been out in the backyard the last couple days, so the Lensbaby came out with me yesterday.

The fountain is up and running again.  Is it just me, or does this look like a lady juggling?

20150331-MMA_2349_melinda_andersonHere is a macro of photinia leaves- with some added texture.

20150330-MMA_2285_melinda_anderson-EditAnd here is the same basic shot, edited with a black and white preset.  Notice how the lensbaby blur shows up in the black and white- interesting!

20150330-MMA_2285_melinda_andersonThese were all taken with the Sweet 50 optic, macro converters added in the last two.

Melinda1 Comment