Works in progress.

Shooting macro and shooting feathers of all things!!!

In my mind I can hear the song 'It's a Small World after All' in the back of my mind.

I learned about doing reflective water droplets by watching another tutorial. I decided to try a pigeon feather and use that red piece of wrapping paper with snowflakes on it for this project.

I was pretty excited to see the snowflakes of the paper show up in the droplets. You should see the little happy dance I did! The process sounded much more difficult but really it wasn't. 

Table. Camera on Tripod. Xmas paper behind feather that I sprayed with a mister or a spray bottle. Set up a flashlight taped to a cup aimed at the paper.

Focus. Bingo. 

These were my very first tries and I was excited about them. I decided to try it again but with a Christmas card behind the feather. I found some nicer feathers and used the face mister to add the droplets. I used Playdoh to hold the feather upright on the table. 

I used a Christmas card to bounce light off from and then grabbed some of those multicolor curly cue ribbons in that I have and dropped them behind the feather. Apparently this can be done with a cell phone or any camera that you have.

I think I found a new love for creating abstracts and color in the small size.

What I started with. The colors in the background are curly ribbons reflecting light.

This is where the 'magic' happened. It looks pretty lame right???

Two shots I ended up with.

Ribbons behind the feather.

Christmas Card behind the feather.

Oh just smack me now. I can't wait to do more!

I always thought that photos like this needed fancy equipment and an art studio. Funny what can happen with a lot of experimentation and play.

A couple of more...

 

Really, it wasn't done in a studio or even in a special place. I shoved my Christmas Lego Village to the side and set this up on my work/display table with the living room brightly lit by the Christmas Chair and the lights behind the Village.

I am so enthralled by the abstract beauty that I found in my lens that I kept saying .... to no one...

OHHHHH AHHH

Look at that!

Oh MY word!

But if I don't reply or stop by your blogs this week it is because I have been summoned for Jury duty on a 4 day trial. If I am picked, I won't have access to the internet or my cell phone for most of the time.

I do not mind serving, I've done it before and found it quite interesting to do. If I am passed by, I'll see you all tomorrow!!!

Christmas Chair???

Back this year.

The Christmas Chair.

In the photos below you see most of the living room and the back side of my husband sitting in his folding chair to watch TV.

Here is the opposite end of the huge West Wing.

The nesting boxes will be decorated too. I can't put the tree in the corner like years past. 

The 'new' concentrator can't be crowded and needs plenty of room for the heat to dissipate from its backside. I liked the old concentrator better. We had a place where it could sit out of the way and still get plenty of ventilation. 

Grrr....oh... well.

So things are still under construction, so to speak. I fiddle with everything more than once or twice. I'll probably even move little things around several more times.

The Chair/Tree combo after I just put it up....

Yes, it looks a bit lopsided and a bit off from this angle. But I look at it in a different way.

I look at it in bits and pieces of tiny things I want displayed. How do I want light to be reflected? How do I want to see individual ornaments?

On the chair is a red necklace that was worn by my MIL. It shows off one of my horse ornaments nicely.

Over the next month or so, the items on the chair will change.

Draped onto the tree are some other necklaces MIL used to wear. I don't wear that type of jewelry, but I though it was a nice way to 'have' her with us in some sort of way this year.

The nesting box looks much nicer after it has been decorated and lit up.

It too will change over the next month. 

Gnomes and toys will end up moving around the house....

Because oh...how I do love toys!

Things I am learning about Still Life Photography

I really thought I disliked Still Life photography.
In fact I knew that I did not like it.
I would be terrible at it. I'd suck at it.
I wouldn't know what to do with it.
I didn't have the patience for it.
I didn't have the cameras for it.
I liked the outdoors, I was a nature person...

However. When the bleak November skies are dreary. Sometimes a bit of indoor photography is a good alternative.

I don't know what I'll do with some of these shots, but they were fun to 'make'.

I set white painted boards down, and tossed some scrap clothes along with beads, fake jewelry, and a doily that I picked up at the Flea Market. I used a page from my grandmother's daily diary and an old photo of my father in law and his family taken...well, when he was little.

Elliott's book keeps finding its way into my photos. I find the entries pretty interesting.

Then of course, I have to do a bit of silliness.

An old wooden crate, some toy soldiers my youngest son left years ago, and toy dinosaurs.

The real challenge would have been to get them all in focus with some focus stacking.

Then I went back to a favorite of mine that had been packed away for nearly a year. The salt and pepper shaker donkey.

I used a bit of High Key style editing and was pleased.

There is a strange side effect to doing Still Life. You find yourself looking at a scrape of ribbon or cloth and wondering if it would look good in a shot. So you save it.
You find a coffee cup at the flea market with chips and cracks and think, "Wow, this would look neat if I..." and you purchase it with other pieces of "junk".

Slowly your collection of stuff accumulates.
An old lace table cloth.
Ribbons.
Toys.
Cups not fit for drinking out of, and some that are.
Glass bits.
Fake jewelry.
White boards.
Crates. Wood chunks.

Your husband wanders by and watches you set up a tea party with stuffed animals and shakes his head as he walks by.
He is sure that you are certifiably nuts.

And perhaps you are.
Nuts over Still Life.