Tea for Me

I was in the mood for still life yesterday, but wasn’t inspired by the current prompt (music). Ideas were swirling around in my head, but just swirling, not yet in focus. I decided to look to my Flickr Daily Challenge group (which is becoming a monthly challenge for me these days. . .) for ideas, and found that one of the topics is Tea Time- a perfect still life topic.  I have many tea cups inherited from my grandmother which I am aways intending to photograph, and I had a single rose- so the still life easily came together.

Here are two of the images- I’ll probably post a couple more later in the week. The top photo was edited with one of Kim Klassen’s Lightroom presets (kk_today), and the second was without a preset.

20150427-MMA_4398_melinda_anderson 20150427-MMA_4422_melinda_anderson-EditThe teacup is Royal Chelsea (made in England), the sugar and creamer say Venice on the bottom, and the little dish with the teabag and rose on it is Limoges.

Linking up today with Texture Tuesday.

Melinda11 Comments

Elusive Butterfly

20150421-MMA_3408_melinda_anderson-EditWhen we visited Butterfly Wonderfland, we were immediately captivated by the big beautiful blue butterflies that flew all around us, seeming to never land- except for on the sidewalk! We would come upon one here and there lying motionless on the walkway, seeming to soak up the warmth before speeding away.  The sidewalk didn’t appeal to me as a very natural background, but I did finally snap a few photos of them this way.  As I took the 800 plus photos of the thousands of butterflies among the flowers and leaves, I was so frustrated because of not being able to find any blue ones on the leaves and flowers.  I tried to capture them in flight, and all I was able to get were little blue blurs in my photos.

20150421-MMA_3380_melinda_andersonAmong the butterflies I photographed was this beauty above with its richly patterned wings.  I mostly saw them feeding on fruit set out in dishes on the ground. It took almost an hour before I realized that these were the blue butterflies I had been looking for; their wings are blue on top and brown below! Named Blue Morpho, their contrasting wing colors make them seem to appear and disappear as they fly, confusing predators (and photographers!).

20150421-MMA_4111_melinda_andersonLinking up with Friday Finds today.

Melinda7 Comments

D A R K

20150421-MMA_3981_melinda_anderson-EditI had fun changing things up, editing this butterfly in a black and white grunge style.  It actually was a whitish, monochromatic butterfly (don’t ask me what kind!) to begin with, and I just took it from there!

Melinda5 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.

20150420-MMA_3339_melinda_anderson-Edit 20150420-MMA_3336_melinda_anderson-Edit20150420-MMA_3348_melinda_andersonwall

Melinda5 Comments

SHORT walk

Yesterday’s late afternoon walk at Willow Lake turned out to be a very short one due to the HUGE quantity of gnats, no-seeums- whatever they were. We are accustomed to being annoyed by a swarm or two of these creatures on part of the trail, but on this day, at this time, it was ridiculous.  Someone on the trail said they always seem to come out more around 4:00- back to morning walks!

We were happy to see wildflowers and blossoms on the part of the trail that we did- so here are a few (all taken with the Lensbaby and Sweet35).

walk walk2

Melinda2 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:

20150413-MMA_3199_melinda_anderson 20150413-MMA_3187_melinda_anderson

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):

20150413-MMA_3213_melinda_anderson-Edit

Melinda6 Comments

Stacked Up

While in La Jolla, we stayed at a tiny little rental cottage with cute things all around. I was inspired by all the great props to create a still life one morning; I hoped to get a few more done as well, but the beach was calling.

stacked-EditThis diptych was created in response to the “Stacked Up” prompt for The Studio Online.

Melinda1 Comment

Spoons and Presets

I belong to a little photo group in AAUW (Association of American University Women), which is composed of photographers of all levels.  Each month, one or two members research a topic and prepare a presentation on a photography topic of interest to the group.  There is also a photo sharing time, which usually relates to the presentation from the time before.  This month, we are all to bring in a photo or photos of a toy or beloved object.  Because I’m also doing the presentation this month (on posing groups of people), I almost forgot about photographing a beloved object.  However, I’ve been intending to again photograph spoons from my grandmother’s collection of souvenir coffee spoons (which are indeed among my most beloved possessions), so I took some time to take a couple still life shots to print for our meeting.

The spoons are mostly from the 1890’s and early 1900’s, when my grandmother, Mimi, was just a girl (she was born in 1888).  I believe some of the older spoons may have belonged to her mother.  Mimi was born and raised in Chicago, so several of the spoons are from Chicago World Fairs.

I was in the mood to use some of Kim’s presets when editing, so here are three images, each edited with a different preset.

20150217-DSC_2800_melinda_andersonedited with kk_chocolate preset (71%)

 

20150217-DSC_2797_melinda_andersonedited with kk_daysofold preset

20150217-DSC_2800_melinda_anderson-2

edited with kk_darkdays preset 

 

 

 

Melinda4 Comments

The Chair

It was almost a week ago when I got a text from my friend, Debbie with a picture of a cute, cute chair and the question “Do you want it?”  She had found it in a shop that re-paints and finishes furniture and other items, giving them a new shabby chic look. Debbie knew I was looking for a cheap, vintage looking chair for my still life photography- and I fell in love with it immediately.  Although my husband was just out of the hospital, he drove me down to the little shop, and I made my purchase.  I was originally planning to put it on the front porch, but I’m enjoying having it in my living room. I’m thinking now it will winter indoors and summer on the porch.

The Chair

20150212-DSC_2432_melinda_anderson-EditYou might have noticed my new chair earlier in the week  as a backdrop for daisies and roses. Today I’ve gotten on the Valentine bandwagon and have added hearts to my chair still life.

heartchairLinking up with Friday Finds.

Melinda8 Comments