My New Find

 

 

Mason JarI’m ridiculously excited about this!  When my photoblogging friends were here on Wednesday, Terri started talking about her Mason jars and how you can date them by looking at the way Ball is written on the glass- fascinating! After lunch, we strolled through a few antique stores, and I bought my first old Ball Mason jar (and yes, I bought a Blue Ridge saucer as well)!  I can tell by the loop at the end of the word Ball (called a triple L) that this jar was from 1896-1910.

I’m sure you will be seeing this jar again in more photos.  I took it out on the porch to photograph, but today’s light isn’t the best (so far it’s cloudy and gray).  I brought my white backdrop and tablecloth out to lighten things up and added a sprig of heath- but I couldn’t do anything about the lack of morning light. Another day. . .

Something tells me this won’t be the last Mason jar I buy!

Linking up with Friday Finds today.

Editing Notes:

I am so behind in my 2B (Beyond Beyond) lessons! A few weeks ago, I discovered that the lessons had started up again (evidently quite awhile ago).  My notifications weren’t coming to me for some reason (probably in my spam folder). It wasn’t until this week that I started looking at what I’ve missed, and now it’s almost over.  😦  Thankfully, the lessons will stay up, and I will have a lot of fun catching up- will probably do some marathon sessions.  I actually used what I gleaned from Lesson 50 to edit this still life.  Kim provided us with a set of workflow presets she uses to edit her photos= awesome! I already had many presets I’ve created or downloaded- they simplify my life so much when I want to edit quickly. For example, I had created some for different types of vignettes, for clarity, for midtone brightening, adding warmth, etc.  But I had never thought to organize them into a folder- and put them in the order I would use them.  They are all just randomly in a favorites folder along with other favorites I use all the time.  Big head smack! I am so inspired to get in there and organize my presets!  So today, I used Kim’s workflow- and it worked great!  After taking the image through her presets, I popped it into Photoshop, added the anna texture, and I was done!

 

Melinda13 Comments

From Above

Alas- this may be the last appearance of these beautiful tulips from Aryn and Jason’s wedding reception.  I shot this photo looking down at the bouquet, in keeping with this week’s Texture Tuesday theme, from above.

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Textured with Kim Klassen’s “simple” texture.

Melinda11 Comments

Yup- more of those same flowers!

baby's breath layoutIt’s Texture Tuesday, so here’s a collection of photos I took last week of my baby’s breath bouquet (which is still going strong). I used Kim Klassen’s anna texture to edit each image.

I am so attracted to out of focus and ICM (intentional camera movement) images; I’ve done quite a bit, but haven’t put many on the blog. So- just for fun- I took this deliberately out of focus shot of the same bouquet, applied one of the artistic filters in Photoshop, and added a grunged up version of Kim’s dollard texture.

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Melinda12 Comments

Playing With Shadows

I think this just might be the last post with my dried up flowers. . . On the third day of my quest to find good light, I noticed the shadows cast on the wall by the bottle and dried flowers in my living room.  As I focused on the shadows, the camera also focused on the texture of the wall- which I didn’t want it to do.  I never completely solved this problem, but did add some texture to the image of the single bottle- which diminished the problem somewhat.

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Melinda1 Comment

Yet again . . .

I spent three days with my tripod set up in my living room (actually, it’s still there) and pointed at my tiny arrangement of dried flowers. Warning- there will probably be one more post with these flowers.

Here is a macro, converted to black and white with a bit of split toning for warmth.

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Melinda1 Comment

Dried

The formerly pink flowers on one of our shrubs outside have dried in an attractive way, so I’ve been making little arrangements of them. I converted this shot to black and white to eliminate the green wall behind- and added a texture at very low opacity.  Last night I dreamed that I was photographing carbonated water in front of newly painted white walls in our living room, but that people kept drinking the water. Psychoanalyze THAT!

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Melinda2 Comments

Beyond Beyond 38- Triangle Composition

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I used more of my finds from my walk last weekend to create this still life, using a triangle composition, which was part of this week’s Beyond Beyond lesson. I then textured it with magicfilm, one of Kim Kassen’s magic textures from her Cloth and Paper collection.

Another part of the lesson was on using the Wacom tablet, which inspired me to hook mine up again.  I normally use it a lot, but I had not really arranged my desk the way I like it since I moved in- and the tablet wasn’t being used regularly.  I have carpal tunnel and other hand issues, so using a mouse isn’t a good idea for me.  My desk is now clean and organized, and my Wacom is back where it belongs.

Linking up today with Texture Tuesday

Melinda10 Comments

Hello, 2014!

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It all begins today- another chance to get it right this time.  Actually that happens at every moment, but the coming of the new year reminds us of our opportunities to start over or improve our lives.  I have no resolutions yet for this year.  There is an internet thing, at least among some creative folks, to choose one word to focus on for the year.  This didn’t work for me last year- I forgot what it was!  Maybe it was move!  Move would be a good one for this year too, in the sense of exercising more.  I’ve thought of health, commitment, create, do.  I can’t seem to make up my mind.  Kim Klassen also asked us to list 14 things we want to happen in 2014.  Maybe that one will get done (can you see why commitment might just have to be my word?).  I’m still pondering my list- but health and commitment are right up there.

Today’s photo was taken last month at my friend, Carol’s house (she will be surprised to see it here!).  It is textured with bamboo from Kim Klassen.

Much joy and happiness to you all in 2014!

Melinda2 Comments