Still Life week 8

I am working with this self 'instructed' class to better some of my photography skills.  I was not an avid fan of Still Life before but I am finding that I enjoy it now.

I am constantly trying to come up with something interesting without getting too heavily invested in things like a light box [although I may build one myself] and other fancy studio things.

Most of the images I try to 'make' or shoot are simply done on the living room floor and with things I find around the house.

Last week I used a rug for a backround and draped it over a board. I wanted a soft white textured backround for the shot.  

This wasn't what I considered a keeper.  It was however interesting to work with the light since it was heavily overcast that day and I didn't have to deal with harsh sunlight coming through the window behind me.

I took out pages from my grandmother's old diaries and set them up with some beads, coffee and my old glasses. 

Somehow, this shot looked much nicer in black and white.  The pretty colors on the cup seemed to clash with the different colored inks in the pages.

Eventually I tossed everything on two wooden boards I'd gotten at a flea market along with my father's wedding ring.  After several hits and misses, I ended up deciding that this was the photo of the week.
I was very satisfied with it. I simply edited it with a white vignette around the edges and left it be.

I took this shot below while I was at it and loved all the patterns, but needed to mute the bright red carnations and ... well, it was almost too busy with textures.

This one in color:

This one in muted black and white:

Better but still too busy. And my assignment was for backlighting anyway so I had to go back to the drawing board.

I had to wait for some sunlight and finally we had some.  This shot was an accident.
I edited it and added a textured backround to it.

It didn't have all of the elements in it that the assignment suggested so I tried some other things.

This ended up being colorful and soft, more like what the assignment had been.


In the 8th week we are to review what we have done so far. 
Apparently I should be able to decide what sort of items work best for me and decide what I need more work on.

However I am still seeking that perfect way to take photos in the living room using available light.

I also need to mention here that I have an assistant who seems to have to inspect everything I do.

Next, I'm going to do some 'dark' work. I really like black and trying to figure out how to use simple black matte cardboard, some glass and figurines to make something interesting.

Sometimes it is more the challenge than anything else.
Thus ends week 8.  And no, I haven't found my 'niche' nor have I figured out what works best for me.

I am still experimenting because light and dark fascinate me to no end.

Just a short one today

I'll get back to my hiking adventures, but I did a bit of indoor fun today.

A Tea Party:

And some dear Memories from my Grandmother's journal she kept:

This is fun and totally different for me.  For the above shot I used a silky dark scarf, coffee cup, old carnation, old glasses, and a black t-short for a backdrop.
The notes are actually from my Grandmother's journals from years ago, it is fun to read them and recall how diligent she was to make daily weather observations amongst other things.

Playing Around, Still Life

I'm working on week six now for the Still Life class.  This week's lesson is more on lighting, natural lighting, and props.

I realized that while putting my knickknacks away last spring in prep for the remodeling, that I put some of my favorite 'props' away also.

I wonder if I should dig them out and just use them and then stick them back in what ever big tub I stored them in? Or go find something else?

I have some ideas that are not all coffee cups, textures, and flowers.  I do like using these items, but I don't want to do the same thing over and over.

I want to try some other things.  

Toys, crayons, old curtains, a doily, and a little bird ... I don't know.  This is one I like better only because it is cheerful and reminds me of children.

I have a shot I really need to do over again.  Props are my old glasses, pages of my grandmother's journal, and a horse blanket.

Here was the "idea" but I just really did not like how it turned out.

And another idea...

Well, this one will be a do-over also.
I just haven't figured out how to get the elements I want in this shot.

Perhaps just a bit, spurs, and the carousel horse?

I'd really love to go riding Siera instead but we are in the terrible slippery mud season. 
Perhaps I need to clear my head and take Morris on a mud run.

Then I can come back and toss around some more ideas.

Lighting and Still Life.

I explored some side lighting this week for week four of my Still Life studies. The above shot was a test shot with my Olympus OMD M5 to see if I could make it work in a still life situation.

The answer is yes.

I shot these on a plastic tub with a white sheet thrown on top of it.  The tub is full of things that we are temporarily storing due to the upcoming remodel of our house.  I layered a photo of cracked paint over it and the lettering.

Here is a shot with my Nikon D5200.

Original

I like the harsh shadows created in this shot and the coffee cup handle.  I'm pretty sure that I won't do a white sheet again as this one has nice wrinkles in it but the lines show up in a disturbing way.
So I decided to try some layering.

Icky!  This layer just makes the sheet look dirty and cast a yellowish shadow over everything.

So onward.  

Better but the sheet still takes away from this shot.

One more edit to take the eyes away from that?

Better, but I should have changed things up for this shot.  I say "DO over!"

While studying light and side lighting, we were to try diffused lighting also. So I set my little .10 cent birdy up on the dresser near the window and dropped a gauzy shower curtain over the window.

I went for the black backround and bottom.  I used a black poster board and curved it so the subject sat with total black around it.

I took a few shots [Nikon D5200].  And I really like this.  It doesn't follow the rule of thirds nor is there a limited depth of focus, but I wanted everything to be in focus this week.  

Bucking the lesson, so to speak.

Yes!  I like this!

I saw no reason to change a thing.  I like the diffused light, I like the white on black, I like the subtle shades of pink, the reflection in the glass dish, and the starkness of the image.

For me? Perfect!

Still Life Week 3

Be Still 52, Still Life Photography Class, week #3. 

Kim Klassen's class on Still Life this year is a self paced class.  

I am taking it as a challenge because Still Life has never ever been something I was terribly interested in, so I find this challenging and pretty exciting too.

The shot above is more often what I like in Still Life.  Or if you want to call it, "Skull Life" that is okay too.

I used a black t-shirt as a back drop and a black poster board to arrange the skulls on.
I used a dresser as my 'table top'.  I wanted an all black back-round to go with the skulls.

The skull in the back is a doe skull.  The ones on each side of the painted skull are ground hog skulls.  The painted one is a raccoon skull.
What can I say?  Animals fascinate me.

So to go from that to this:

Is pretty challenging!

Here was my 'studio' set up.

Note the camera assistant inspecting the items on the floor in front of his crate.
Also note, the house is currently getting prepared for a major remodel so we have throw rugs on the area where we took out bricks [sigh, they would have made an interesting back drop!].

During the series of shots with ambient light coming through the window, I had a hedgehog toy come flying into the foam board and knock it over. 
I'm sure Morris was just trying to see what would happen if we didn't bounce a bit of light.

He assisted by hitting the cup and bouncing beads all over. I call it 'dog art'. It ended up being a nice random pattern so I left it that way.

Materials used.  Old white rug.  White foam board. Nikon D5200. Tripod.
50mm Nikkor lens [great lens, fast!]  Plastic beads in multi colors, fake pearl necklaces, a pair of earrings, and old coffee cup, and a Thank You card from my oldest son's wife.  I had no idea why I kept it, but it really served a purpose here.

I took many shots, including one with a silk scarf that I really liked.

But then I had to see how it would look in Black and White.

Eh...so so... but I liked it.
Then I tried using black and white but adding a yellow tinted filter with CorelAfterShotPro.

Better, but it needs a crop at the top like I did with the color version.

Yet I wanted to try some other ideas.  I wanted to do High Key!

Well that did not work!

Onward, how about another angle?

For some reason I really like the color in this.  The cup has a rather neat pattern that lends itself to this shot.  The rug adds just enough texture to be interesting, I think.

But, it still wasn't quite what I was looking for.

I settled on the first shot as my final.

Today I may head down to a junk shop and browse for some more interesting things for more still life photos.

As I fell asleep last night I had a few ideas that included a couple of toys.
Hmmm.

Still Life on the Cheap

I just started a class in Still Life and this is week two.  At first I thought I was an idiot for trying something out of my comfort zone.

I like hiking, I like nature, I like outdoors so that is usually what my subjects are. I learned something from my father, as long as you had some light coming in from the outside, you could take photos on the inside of the house.

So I decided I'd go ahead and try 'Still Life'.  What could it hurt?  I could learn something and it is never bad to learn something new.

First here is my really expensive set up for my 'table top' shot I wanted to do last week.

Please note the helper in the photo.  Hedgehogs are common missiles when I am sometimes working this close to the floor.

However it was an overcast day and I was trying to make the best use of the light. I set up a white foam board behind the basket, which Morris promptly nosed down.
But eventually we worked it out and I came up with this.

I used an old lace curtain on top of a box.  I tossed in some carnations along with a card someone had given me. I put some coffee in the coffee cup and gave Morris a very stern look.  I set the camera to manual and used a tripod and remote to get the shot.  
I did use Topaz Glow to pretty it up a bit.

Not satisfied with just that as a shot, I set some other things up.  Barbed wire, a rusted clip and some brass bells on a ribbon.

I used more of a limited color in this shot and a narrow depth of focus.

Week two asks that we shoot a photo with negative space and the rule of thirds.

Here is how I set this week's shots up.  

Yes, a dresser, a white sheet, and a white board next to a window.

And I decided to go with a Valentine's Day theme so I added candy.

Oh darn.  That funny stuffed donkey just wouldn't leave my thoughts.  So I decided to photograph it too.

However the donkey turned out okay but the photo really seemed quite lacking. I wasn't that impressed at all, even if the idea was fun.
Well, simply put.  It had too much empty space!

Exactly what it was supposed to have.
So I changed it like this:

It sort of has a vintage feel to it yet doesn't feel so empty.

I stopped right here.  Too much messing around would probably ruin this.

So you can do some pretty impressive Still Life work without a whole lot of investment.
I just did and found out that I really enjoyed it.

Just make sure your photography assistant isn't going to grab your toy Donkey and run off with it.  Or decide that tossing a hedgehog into the works would make it look so much better.


I used AfterShotPro by Corel for the RAW files, I used Topaz Adjust for making the donkey look 'vintage', and PSPX7 [PaintShopPro] for the editing. CS2 for any additional work.

Texture added to the first shot from mercurycode at deviantart.

Still Life B&W

So I enjoyed my recent experiment with still life and am looking forward to week two.
But the day was gloomy and with chores done, I decided to stay in the house and do a little editing on those shots from last week that I didn't use.

I thought, maybe these would look much better in black and white.

For the 'table' I used a wicker chair.  I took an old pillow case that had a design on it and tossed in the dried up flower, the putty knife and some crinkled wall paper.  I couldn't find my large paint brush so I used a very small one.
After all, I will be repainting after the house remodel.

I overlayed a photo of rose wall paper and used some 'grunge' brushes in CS 2.  I also used a nifty little filter called AAAFotoFrame, which I can't seem to find anywhere on the internet.

Here is the wicker chair with a whiteboard as backing.  The same pieces are in this shot.  I again used a texture from Mercurycode at deviantart.  I used Overlay to blend it and then took out what I didn't need.

I took some more shots today and will start lesson #2 this week. I had to take advantage of having no one else around while I messed with objects and textures.

This was fun and a great inside distraction when the weather is not so great outside.
Even an old chair can be used to arrange still life.

Today though I had Morris's help, he kept nudging things with his nose and getting in my way.
I finally took the hint and took him for a nice little hike.

Be Still Week One

I did something I didn't think I'd ever do at all...

Take a photography course.
Something about Kim Klassen's work has always had me intrigued.  I have followed her blog for quite some time now.  She used to make textures and I used to admire her beautiful still life work and the textures she used.

So, I signed up for a class.  Be Still 52.
And yes I am going to work at it.  Still Life has never been anything that interested me so I figured, why not?

Why not reach out of my photography comfort zone and ... do something different?

And so I begin.

Be Still And Be...

or with the words added...not sure if I like the words added.

I picked this shot today because of what we are going through and have gone through in the past year.
Everything was put on hold last year due to Rich's diagnosis with Throat Cancer and we are now forging through with a house remodel.

Patience is something I am learning.  I am pulling wall paper with a vengeance and it is a messy awful job.
When the job is finished I imagine we'll have taken a sow's ear and made into something lovely.

I took a series of shots.  My makeshift studio included a white foam board, a south facing window, an old chair, an old white sheet, coffee cup, shredded wall paper, beads, chain, and of course the scraper.

The day was overcast so the light was very subdued and I tried to go for the high key sort of look.

The second shot I liked was with a carnation bud, a dried up amaryllis flower that I'd kept for some reason, the white sheet, cup and well, there it is.

I took time just looking and from my first week's lesson.
Breathing. Pausing. Relaxing.

I practiced a some Tai Chi and then got to work on this thing I was certain I could not pull off.

Old and New

I have one very similar to this shot that doesn't cut off the petals on the top of the flower.  I need to look it over a few more times to decide which of the three shots I like the best.

That is it for now.  I'm looking forward to working with this.

Be Still.

It is something I often do in the woods, to hear the nature around me and to appreciate the sounds of the forest.

Now I can practice this in a different sense.