Nature

We arrived home last night- so much to do! Laundry, groceries, miscellaneous to-do’s that can only be done from home- and catching up on my photography editing, posting, backing-up, blog visiting, and my still life classes.  I am missing my little Yellowstone munchkins terribly; our 16 hour drive home only reinforced how far apart we are!

I’m posting some photos of new, green aspen leaves I shot on a drive the first week we were there. The snow had finally stopped and Spring arrived at the same time we did! I love the aspens in Fall, and this was the first time I had photographed their leaves in Spring.  These were shot somewhere on Dunraven Pass.

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The above photo is textured with two layers of Kim Klassen’s sybil, using color burn blend mode.  The second photo is of the same branch, but I crouched down to get a blown out sky in the background- no textures.

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Melinda10 Comments

New Growth

We are on the second week of our visit to our daughter’s family in Yellowstone National Park. A few days ago, we took our traditional drive through the park with our son-in-law as tour guide.  This time we drove up to Dunraven Pass, where we enjoyed beautiful views of the spring meadows and hills, the snow capped mountains, and, of course, bison and elk.

As we got higher and higher, part of the burn area from the 1988 fire was clearly visible ahead. But as we drew closer, we could see the small green trees that have grown up between the skeletal burned pines, as the forest renews itself.

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A small dried weed from last summer poked its way up through the snow.

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All photos are textured with Kim Klassen’s canvasback and 2110.

Linking up with Texture Tuesday.

 

Melinda6 Comments

a rose is a rose is a rose

This might be the last view of these beauties.  In Lightroom, I  did a black and white conversion (to go with the black and white theme for this week’s Texture Tuesday), and some split toning to add a hint of pink. In Photoshop, I applied three textures at very low opacity (jacob, lovely lavender, and patina) and called it done.

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Melinda9 Comments

Yellow Tulip

I haven’t totally abandoned old books as props; here’s a “basic reader” from 1931 with a tulip from my Mother’s Day bouquet (thank you, Matt!) as bookmark.  As a former first grade teacher, I have a small collection of old primers and readers that I bought at garage sales or somehow acquired over the years.  The theme for this week’s Texture Tuesday is yellow, so I added the yellow tulip. This image is textured with teatime by Kim Klassen. I’m also including another shot in black and white.

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Melinda12 Comments

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.

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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!

 

Melinda15 Comments

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!

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Melinda8 Comments

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!

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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.

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Melinda14 Comments

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.

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textures: bamboo, sophia, and canvasback by Kim Klasse

Melinda7 Comments

Wabi-Sabi

I learned a new term last week on Kim Klassen’s blog- wabi-sabi.  As I understand it, wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic embracing the imperfect, the incomplete- the natural, the simple and unaffected- the moment just as it is.  The perfectly imperfect.  The now. A philosophy for art, living, relationships- I could go on. I love it!

I used that new (to me) term in completing Day 52 of Beyond Beyond.  This lesson gave us a new template for Lightroom and Photoshop and challenged us to print a photo- and use that photo in another photo.  A picture in a picture- which reminds me of the opening of each episode of Modern Family, a show I’ve only discovered in the last few months.  Kim’s example was a picture in a picture in a picture, so I did this too.  I’d like to use this technique again with people- perhaps my favorite models, Miles and Henry.

I chose a Mason jar to photograph, this time with flowers, because of its wabi-sabi-ness! It is imperfect, utilitarian, and simple, and I love it.

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2B_wabisabi_ pic_in_picYou might have noticed that my blog has a new look. It’s been well over a year since I’ve made any changes, so it seems like time for an update.  I went back to my original layout with a new header, and made some corrections on my “about” page (it still said it was 2013 and that I live in the San Francisco Bay Area- oooops!). The slideshow is gone, and I have my sidebar back. There are other little changes I want to make as well- after I figure out how to do them.  So what do you think?

Melinda11 Comments

Hippity Hop

Look who I found hopping around my front yard!

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This was taken while sitting at my desk looking out through the window.  She (I always think it’s a she) visits pretty regularly and hops from bush to bush, where she hides from the hawks and coyotes. I’m hoping to see babies!

HAPPY EASTER!

Textured with Kim Klassen’s waterfront 21. Linking up with Friday Finds.

Melinda7 Comments

Perfectly Imperfect

A few years ago I attended a knitting workshop. I was knitting along and noticed I had made a tiny mistake quite a way back in my project.  Upon noticing my dismay, the instructor launched into a speech saying that it is the tiny imperfections that show the difference between handmade and machine-made. Handmade is made by a real person with skill and care; machine-made means, well, made by a machine! I’ve always thought of that when I look at the hand-painted designs on the pieces in my Blue Ridge pottery collection.  Each plate, cup, saucer, bowl etc. was painted by hand, making no two pieces alike, even those with the same pattern.  Perfectly imperfect (which just happens to be the theme for this week’s Texture Tuesday) !

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Although I have almost an 8 piece set of one pattern, Sun Bouquet, I usually mix up my table settings and include pieces from several patterns.  Most of the patterns I look for are in primary colors, so they blend well together.  And there’s my newest Mason jar (yes, I now have two) in the middle- it’s perfectly imperfect as well!

Edited with two of Kim’s textures, 1301 and sybil.  Linking up with Texture Tuesday today.

Melinda12 Comments

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

Live and In Person!!!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet Barbara of Barbara Hurst Photography,  Barb of Keeping Up With the Times, and Terri of Focusing on Life for a photo shoot right here in town.  It was a bit surreal (dislike that overused word, but I can’t think of a better one right now) to meet these photobloggers in person in MY house. I’ve learned all my photography skills online and have a bunch of online contacts, but this is the first time I’ve met any in person.  What fun we had sharing tips and comparing notes as we wandered around downtown Prescott.! They are all so knowledgeable and much more savvy in the whole photoblogging world than I am- I learned a lot.

Here’s a shot of the courthouse, edited with textures from Florabella and Kim Klassen.

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I would like to live in the turret on this house (Florabella textures)!

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Let’s do this again, ladies!!!

Melinda5 Comments