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.
This diptych was created in response to the “Stacked Up” prompt for The Studio Online.
I found myself playing with my Lensbaby Mobile recently. Although it really is a cool little lens for the iPhone, I hadn’t been using it much after I got my Composer Pro and optics for my Nikon. As I’ve mentioned before, Nik Snapseed is my usual first stop when editing my iPhone photos, and this time, it was my ONLY stop. It has a cool little set of filters within the app called retrolux, which give a desaturated, vintage look (actually 12 looks) with lots of options for adding or removing scatches, light leaks, vignettes etc.
The photo on the left has been edited with Snapseed only, and the one on the right has several Kim Klassen textures added in Photoshop on top of what was done with the retrolux filter. It’s hard to spot the differences- just a little more texture, a little less haze and a slightly darker flower.
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.
edited with kk_chocolate preset (71%)
edited with kk_daysofold preset
edited with kk_darkdays preset
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.
You 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.
Linking up with Friday Finds.
Our assignment this week in The Studio was photographing flowers- from above. The weather was so beautiful this weekend that I took my photos out on the back patio- perfect for this assignment.
melinda anderson photography 