Popping in today to link up with Barb for her app happy Wednesday. I used this yesterday in my Texture Tuesday post, but I so love the effect I created in PicTapGo it reminds me of a 60’s type album sleeve by someone like the ‘Lovin Spoonful’
Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn’t it a pity?
Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city
I added some text I had created in Photoshop then imported into Letter Glow….
Are you joining in ?
The warm sunny days need to be stored in my memory capsule to take out and look at on cold, rainy days.
Taken on a Saturday afternoon in a pretty garden of a tearoom in Wedmore Somerset. We had driven there to meet a blogging friend and family …. Happy Day
Textures by Kim Klassen
Linking with The WordPress weekly photo challenge
My friend Sarah at PaisleyRainBoots has been pondering recently about personal photography , a connection to the place, person or occasion. I had a bit of an epiphany yesterday as I was strolling through the grounds at Stourhead in Wiltshire. Stourhead is a magnificent stately home and the grounds are a work of art. The property is often used in film and television . A picture postcard place.
The Pantheon
But when I came home and looked through the photographs I was underwhelmed, don’t get me wrong it is a remarkable place, but I felt a decided lack of connection.
The photographs that spoke to me were a set I took at the Pantheon which is going through intense renovation.
Showing the work behind the beauty, the skill of the stonemason is a real connection for me.
And of course there had to be a selfie in a mirror in the wonderful shop.
I will continue to explore what I’m calling ‘heartwork’ how about you ?
I love Spotify have you tried it ?
Some great ideas here at Mollie Makes magazine
Design Seeds never lets me down.
Music I love at the moment the wonderful Richard Thompson HERE
And finally I love the retro look of this shot I created in PicTapGo moved into PS and added the Poloroid look
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Have a sunny weekend…..
As part of my continuing search for the heart in photography I am trying to be more thoughtful in my process, though it is a balancing act between getting it just right and over thinking. I still want to keep the spontaneity but rein it in a bit. Playing with my new purpose built backdrop (which I have now painted the other side a very subtle white with a hint of green). I used it as a base with an old coffee sack as the backdrop. I had to do a lot of tweaking as the colour of the sack really overwhelmed the image. In LR I used 2 of Kim’s presets ‘dark mood’ and ‘within’ then in PS I added kk_chase and kk_pinit11.
Onto the next edit, I decided that the texture of the sack was almost too textured, so using a painted wine box as a backdrop I did this…. In LR I added my own dramatic workflow then tweaked to soften it in PS using kk_chase again.
Much better.
Finally a dramatic version which I love using Kim’s new preset ‘within’ and kk_chase and kk_pinit 11.
Have a glorious Tuesday 
It’s not very often you see the Statue of Liberty in Somerset ( in fact never). But Wells Reclamation Yard has everything including many kitchen sinks , and a tank and a rocket launcher !
Mark and I visited this dream of a place last week to buy old wood to make a backdrop for me to use in my Be Still class. We were spoilt for choice, so many treasures to explore.
The quirky up against the valuable this family run business is an Aladdin’s cave.
We will definitely return there are some wooden block letters I have my eye on and some wooden crates as well.
Some help ….
As you can see Mark entered into the challenge, the wood was very old taken out of a Romanian brewery we believe.
The backdrop is so heavy we have decided to go back for more to make a smaller one , well who could resist…..
Scrapbook supplies , Anna Aspnes and my own…
Linking with Friday Finds…
The summer is racing by and I have to take as many outdoor/flower shots as possible.
I couldn’t resist though this seed pod, still hanging on in there in a flower pot..
Texture sonnetmagic
Happy Tuesday…
I have lost the fluffy, the soft, all I want to do at the moment is the strong and crisp, but with a little fluffy…..
I did some backlighting but I strayed toward the dramatic rather than the soft. I think it’s the flowers I don’t think they are good subjects for fluffy the peonies are over and everything is a bit megh ….
Texture by Kim from The Waterfront Collection.
Here is a digital layout. Not my garden I hasten to add…
Supplies by Anna Aspnes..
Thought for the week, thanks to Cheryl Crotty for posting this wonderful quote on Facebook..
Some Lightroom play…..
Chalk magic
Texture by Kim …..
Linking up with Kim for Friday Finds…….
This is from the archives from August 2002. I was using my Fuji point and shoot. Thanks to the wonder of Photoshop and Lightroom I am able to play I really brought up the clarity and split toning and added kk_canvasbackmagic.
And a photo from Jo who is now in Queenstown New Zealand. It’s ski season there and so so beautiful….. I used kk_canvasmagic this time….
Perhaps the steepest learning curve in photography is learning to see as the camera sees.
~ David duChemin
I’m still in search of the elusive ‘style’, just when I think I have it I ‘discover’ a new idea or perspective and off I go again doubting and wondering. I currently am looking at two books on the soul of photography, ‘Photographically Speaking, (a deeper look at creating stronger images) by David duChemin, and Shooting with Soul by Alessandra Cave. Both of them look at how to communicate your vision through your photographs, I am finding this concept fascinating and of course this ties up beautifully with Kim’s BeStill52 class….
My take on one of Kim’s prompts…
Practising focus and depth of field with the Nikon still struggling…
I like this one, using Kim’s preset ‘breeze’ and ‘simple’ texture…Just when I think that I’m not ‘getting’ the soft look Lightroom proves me wrong…..
And I love the deep and rich as well. I love the colours and the sharp almost alien look of this cornflower seedpod.
Finally a few weeks ago Taunton had a mini festival and I took a series of photos of the Punch and Judy Man he was a very willing subject..
I think I’m just going to go with the flow and enjoy the process and the creativity….
Have a wonderful July 4th my U.S. friends……
