My Classes – Thoughts from the Desktop

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Thoughts from the Desktop · 9 Comments

Light and Dark – The Studio Edition

Prompts for 16th March were for shadow play, I know this isn’t quite what Kim planned for me to do but hey, I went with the flow and this is what I came up with…Both photos were taken with my iPhone 5s.

Taken late afternoon when the shadows were lengthening, giving the image a vintage look.

Processed in Lightroom, preset Softness of Time. Taken into Photoshop and a chalkboard texture added from FrenchKiss. I then added an overlay from Anna Aspnes AASPN_Capture.

A lighter image taken in full sun earlier in the day.

Frame by Anna Aspnes. brush by me….

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Thoughts from the Desktop · 16 Comments

Friday a Miscellany

mis·cel·la·ny

“A collection of various items, parts, or ingredients.”

Family finds

In this set of photographs I am wearing many hats. A Be Still Class, a prompt from The Studio. The subjects of this series are part of the family history.

The violin was owned by Mark’s great uncle Will Dermott. Will signed up to go to war when he was only 18.

He was killed in action shortly afterwards. so as you can see this instrument is precious.

-Pte AW Dermott bac of his photo in uniformwill dermott

The music books belonged to Mark’s mother and father, they loved music and had a piano in the music room where Pat played and Richard sang. Sometimes at Christmas when the children were little we all stood and sang carols together. We have quite a collection of originals.

We have bought some black material as a backdrop I love it, so now I can be as organic and moody as I like. Also to add to our photography equipment we have bought a little Manfrotto monopod, I can see we will be fighting over it !!!

Have a great weekend…..

PS apologies for the layout of the blog , WordPress is being very awkward !!!

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Thoughts from the Desktop · 15 Comments

Be Still 52 – Week 36 Magazine Inspiration

This week I discovered photos I haven’t looked at for years. The top one is an example taken in Malta nearly 3 years ago and ‘gathering dust’ in the archives. Back then I didn’t have Lightroom. so wow – what I can now do to these photos. I hope Kim doesn’t mind as this was a piece of ‘homework’ from Be Still. I actually used an idea from a good few years ago now that Kim posted in one of her classes about creating a colour board.

Her prompt made me think of warm sunny days in hot places, sitting in the shade with a cold drink, wandering through little narrow lanes never really knowing where you would end up. I created a colour board which made me think of a magazine layout before publication.

Medina, Malta, June 2012

The plants above the models prompted me to look through my archives and find this image of wild roses past their best but still beautiful…

Taunton October 2014

logo3

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Thoughts from the Desktop · 22 Comments

Editorial-ish

Using this image as a prompt from the wonderful Free People Blog ( thanks Kim).

I created this ….

That was fun. I found a new place to use to take photographs it’s not pretty but it’s great. I do have to use a tripod though…

Finally a layout.

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Thoughts from the Desktop · 15 Comments

Friday Finds – Rediscover

What I’m listening to…. The James Riley Band check them out HERE

This week thanks to my lovely husband and my birthday gift, I have rediscovered my love of playing with layers and digital scrapping. I have been feeling a bit meugh recently about my scrapping. I feel as if I haven’t progressed in learning new techniques. But with a larger and more beautiful screen I’m feeling enthusiastic again…. This was a page I created whilst thinking about Kim’s post in The Studio about photographing from above…

Supplies Anna Aspnes

Some typography.

my own design

Finally some Gerbera gorgeousness….

Supplies by Cathy Zielske and Kim K…

Have a great weekend….

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Thoughts from the Desktop · 7 Comments

Studio – Roses are Red

Photographing from above, Kim’s prompt for February 2nd. Processing in Lightroom using a selection of presets mostly on the moody side.

Posted on January 29, 2015 by Thoughts from the Desktop · 13 Comments

Be Still Week 34

Spoons and music sheets, light and airy…

A slightly more dramatic image

Posted on January 29, 2015 by Thoughts from the Desktop · 3 Comments

Be Still 52 week 33

More still life playing with props

Week 33 – Citrus, I decided to do a digital layout of the prompt.

anna aspnes supplies

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Thoughts from the Desktop · 12 Comments

Be Still Week 30

I’m WAY behind so I’ve have skipped many weeks. Full of good intentions I went to the local flower seller who sells on our local high street . But to my horror NO FLOWERS TODAY…. I wasn’t prepared to walk to the supermarket as I had to catch the bus home. Instead I picked some evergreens from the garden and had a play. Instead of going soft and floaty which I had planned I went for over saturation and gritty. I’m quite pleased with the outcome although my camera was struggling with the light. I have downsized to a compact Lumix and it is fabulous but, mmm it doesn’t compare with grown up cameras.