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Friday a Miscellany

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“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.
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The violin was owned by Mark’s great uncle Will Dermott. Will signed up to go to war when he was only 18.
-Pte AW Dermottwill dermott
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.
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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 !!!
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 Have a great weekend…..
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 PS apologies for the layout of the blog , WordPress is being very awkward !!!
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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.

 

 

 

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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…

 

 

 

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 Taunton October 2014

 

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Be Still weeks 27, 28 and 29

It’s catch up time. For weeks 27, 28 and 29 I used the same chair with different props.

 

 

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Using black foam core, Kim’s texture ‘magic film’ and a preset that I created called, ‘green bottle’. I had to use a tripod the light was very poor but I’m pleased with the outcome…

Weeks 28 and 29, 3 things a chair and side light.

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A little felt heart I made, with a card from Liz Lamoreux and a pretty plaster heart I picked up on my travels. I used a preset I made called ‘chalk’ then into PS for a texture or two.

 

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The light is coming from the right and I love the tiny bit of shadow on the cap. Again same preset and Kim’s texture ‘aurora’ a particular favourite.

 

 

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Finally a sweet little jug, a pink heart and a little hanging bag that I made. Can you guess I love hearts !!!!

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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.

 

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Hopefully the flower seller will be back soon….

 

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Friday Finds – distraction

This week has been a week of distraction. I’m still not happy with my blog, it’s not WordPress I love WordPress but I want more control. I want to choose my own fonts, colours and plugins. Also I love tweaking and playing. So Mark and I are embarking on the challenge of developing our own website using WordPress.org. I hope to document my adventure in blogging my way.

 

First research, Mark and I were pleasantly surprised to see a good number of new books in the library.

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The Blogging for Creatives is my own copy and I do like it.

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I have had a major think about my camera. Because of my Fibromyalgia I find carrying a largish, heavy camera painful. So I made the decision to buy a super zoom camera that is also so compact. I can shoot in RAW, it has a brilliant zoom and so light and easy to carry. One of the new features is that I can transfer images wirelessly from camera to iPad. Check it out HERE I used it in London and was very pleased with the results. I can still use the Nikon for still like on a tripod but the compact is pretty good at that too.

 

 

 

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” ― Albert Camus

A photo shoot inspired by Kim’s BeStill class. The prompt was organic. A lot of my images tend towards the earthy, organic look and I had a lot of fun . My wooden background, linen napkin and some crunchy leaves. I think my little camera did well.

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Using Kim’s texture on the frame, waterfront1. Template by Anna Aspnes – FotoInspiredFrames no2 and brush Autumnal

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Hope your weekend is full of crisp mornings and blue skies……

Kim Klassen {dot com}
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TEXTURE TUESDAY – BACK TO SCHOOL

 

Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.

– ‘You’ve Got Mail’

 

Hello September, goodbye August. I love this time of year, crisp mornings, blue skies the sun getting low earlier, which makes for some great photography. Here at Little Orchard I’ve been playing with the print module in Lightroom and creating pictures of a still real life.

 

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Light is a problem in the house, we do have a unheated sunroom which I use when it is warm but I’m scratching my head when it comes to the colder months. I may do a series called catching the light .

 

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Do you have problems with light ? If so do you have tips ? I would love to hear them….

Linking up today with Kim Klassen for Texture Tuesday

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FRIDAY FINDS – A SUCCESSFUL STILL LIFE

 

 

A selection of my photography this week

After taking many, many shots I finally was happy with this edit.  Adjusted in Lightroom using Kim’s lovely new LR preset ‘bare.  ‘ Some light texturing in PS and one of my photographs from printed.com

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 I’ve always liked photographs of bottles with flowers in them and I created this using my painted wine box on a coffee table to give height.

 

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Copying a still life in THIS magazine

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I played around with type and created my own brush….

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And finally two layouts, the first one showing my beautiful blue vase that my good blogging friend Helen gave me. She hosts a linky called weekend walk check it out HERE

 

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Supplies by Anna Aspnes and Katie Pertiet

And continuing with my Be Still work….

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Supplies by Anna Aspnes

Have a great weekend……

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Kim Klassen dot Com

 

 

 

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