Finding Studio Space aka Cleaning the Basement

Up until now, most of my still life photography has been done in the kitchen with a board over the sink.  It's been working fine, but we have a large unused basement, being wasted.  Being a hoader collector of too much fine junk and too many "I might use that someday"s, it is time to clean the basement.  New storage has been added and the new philosphy is that if it doesn't fit in the cupboards, it goes.  After many hours and trips to Goodwill, I now have a space in front of the windows to set up for still life photography.

This baking centre belonged to my husband's grandmother.  His father gave it to us a while ago and even though he had stored it outside for many years, it's still in great shape.

I've placed it in front of the south facing windows.  A strong light in the winter, but I think I can get around that.  Yes, the concrete floor really was painted teal at one time, but that's another story.

During the clean up. I can across a few lenghts of white plastic pipe.  I think they may have been used in the past for the plumbing for a fish tank. I knew I needed a way to filter or block the light from the south so I thought a rack made from the white pipe would work.  Off to Home Depot and $14.00 later (including tax), a few fittings.  The white pipe was then cut for the uprights, cross piece and feet.

Here's the rack assembled.  Nothing is glued, just stuck together. Lightweight, easy to move to either side of the bake centre and comes apart easily for storage. The curtains can also be closed to filter the light.  I also found a piece of white painted plywood that can be placed on top of the bake centre for a different table surface.

A trip to Micheal's to visit the half price bins and I am ready.

Here's my first photo using the new table.  This was shot into the south facing windows with the light being filtered with the above set up. The texture kk_cherish was added in Photoshop then the preset kk_litely added in Lightroom.

Thank you for visiting and I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

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A Cuppa Chocolate Cake

The challenge word was "Cuppa".  So many pictures taken I had a hard time paring it down to these six.

Happy New Year 2015

Happy New Year to all.  I hope that 2015 is a year filled with creativity, beauty and inner peacefulness.

Mums for a mom.

Lately I've been in a photographic slump.  It was a long winter and a cold April and spring seemed to be taking forever to come.  The grass was brown and the trees were brown.  The weather warmed up a few weeks ago and it was so beautiful outside but no flowers or leaves on the trees.  I would use my camera daily but not happy with anything I was shooting.  Too little color, bad composition or just bad.  On Mother's Day, my son and his wife gave me a beautiful pot of white Chrysanthemum's.  I'm not sure he if knew it or just got lucky but this winter white flowers have been my favorite to photograph.

Yesterday morning I woke up and with the soft morning light streaming in on the pot of flowers my photographic light bulb went off.  While I should have been getting ready for work, I grabbed my camera and started taking a few shots.  Since I carpool with my husband I knew he'd tell me when it was time to leave.

Today the sun in shinning, the trees have come out with their new green leaves and everything looks just as it should in the spring.  I'm not sure if my son knew it when he picked up this pot of white Mums that it would bring color back into the world for me.

I hope your day is filled with light and beautiful color, even if it's white.

Texture Tuesday - Whites

This weeks challenge at Kim Klassen's was to focus on the color white.  White is a color I love to photograph, but, I've never used a texture with white flowers and was pleasantly surprised with the results.  If you mouse over each photo you should be able to see the before and after. Both photos use a layer of kk_providence with a blend mode of multiply to provide a little color and a unsaturated layer of kk_stainedlinen with a blend mode of multiply at 50% to provide a little texture. In both photos the textures were softened with a brush at 50%.

Texture Tuesday - Happiness

Since Kim Klassen issued the challenge, happiness, for this week's Texture Tuesday I've been thinking about happiness and what truly makes me happy.  As I looked at a bouquet of flowers given to me by two wonderful friends I noticed a little daisy, a little older than the rest of the bunch and starting to show it's age.  This little daisy was close to the other bunch, but a little bit off by itself. It reminded me of growing older and sometimes not being part of the younger world that surrounds us.  Looking at the daisies, my mind started to think about plucking the petals off and saying he loves me, he loves me not, then I thought about my husband of 36 years and I realized he is my happiness because he loves me, he loves me.  It doesn't really matter how old I get, how tattered I look or how droopy my petals are, he still loves me.

This photo has two layers of Kim Klassen's Canvasback applied to it.  If you hover over it with the mouse you should see the before and after.  Happy Valentine's Day to you all and I hope everyone finds someone or something that brings you true happiness.

White Mums

The little bundle of white mums is still going strong. At Micheal's I found a little heart shaped vase that is perfect for February.



Also at Micheal's I picked up some white clay to make little hearts. Easy to work with, just roll, shape and bake.



A little bit of red food coloring can make dramatic changes.

Texture Tuesday

This weeks challenge at Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday is open.  Easy enough, just apply at least one layer of any of her texture's.  I've been playing with a bundle of white mum's I bought at the supermarket for the past week and finding they are a very versatile flower.  Kind of like one of those foods without a lot of taste, they seem to take on the flavor of the accessories and processing.  Here's the final version.

And here's the original, SOOC view I started with

I first applied a lay of Subtlyyours with a blend mode of overly at 54%

Then a layer of Sweettart with a blend mode of multiply at 60%. I used a brush at 50% to erase some of the texture from the hearts and flower.

Did a little work in Color Efex with a high key and vintage film filters.

Back into photoshop and added a duplicate layer of Sweettart.

A small adjustment with a curves layer was done to add a little contrast and finished.

Texture Tuesday

This weeks challenge at Kim Klassen's is to use her new texture Simplicity. I think I picked the wrong photo for the texture and settled on using it in the background only using the brush to erase it off the flower petals.  After the texture was applied I did some lighting of the flower centers with curves in photoshop.   It really has reinforced for me the that not all photos go with all textures, they should be carefully matched.  If you hover the mouse over the photo you'll see the before and after.