A stitch in time...

After a short break - I now realise how tricky this is gonna be to keep this up on a very regular basis - there are always lots of other things that I can do with my time - not all of them productive.  However, I am managing to keep up my 365 photo a day with Flickr and they will continue to form a stream at the bottom of my blogger page. 

So what have I been up to besides taking pics!  Well, reorganising the house with Col, walking and even a touch of sewing with my mates Julie and Celia.

So anyway, we are turning the house upside down and the lounge is now the office and the office is now the snug!  All still work in progress but below are a couple of shots to show how it is looking so far.

I think that it is gonna be great when it is done.  I would have taken shots of the snug but it is a mess atm cos the kids are in there watching the box!

As for the sewing, the collage below I put together from the afternoon shots - thanks Julie and the final shot of my finished piece of work - a door stop for the office!  I was very proud.

Images form Julie's wonderful workshop

The finished article

So after a busy weekend it is back to sorting, clearing and organising.  Not a bad life that I am leading!

Backlighting pictures

Long time no see - kinda been busy with relatives and decorating!

So today I thought I would try something new, taking a picture using back lit screen.  I had read about it in twitter yesterday - using a light behind a screen to bring out more detail in flowers.  However, not sure that I totally achieved that as I had no flowers to let the light shine through but it was fun trying.

Below is the equipment set up taken with my iPhone.

As can be seen - the equipment is very basic - a roll of wall paper as the screen drapped over the back of the chair and secured with a school book, the back light is an angle light under the chair and pointed upwards, the camera is at least set up on the tripod and therefore enabling me to shoot using different aperture and speed settings.  There was quite a difference between the shots that were backlit and those not.  However there was also the effects of depth of focus which came into play today.  Below are a few of the images that I took.  Some have been altered in Picasa to create a better finish.

This is one not back lit before shooting.  The details are f/22 for 1/2 sec

This is the same picture played with in Picasa - highlighted in sepia tones

This work is backlit which gives more warmth to the image.  The details are f/4.5 for 1/40 sec.

This is slightly altered again in Picasa giving a different tone to the image.


The images below of a different seedhead show the effect of the aperture setting very clearly.

This image is taken using a higher aperture setting f/20 for 1/2 sec.  All of the image is in focus.

This image taken with the aperture set at f/3.2 for 1/125 sec.  As can be seen only the foreground is in focus.


I like the effect of back light in photographs, I use it outside in particular when the sun is shining I endeavour to capture images with the suns light shining through.  Hope that you enjoyed reading this very basic information blog.

Testing, testing

This is a new post just to test the email notification - did it work?

Frosty morning shots

Today was so beautiful, fresh and bright so I was drawn to get out and about with the camera to try and capture the magic of early morning frost.  Not quite as easy as it should be!  It was very bright so I was struggling to see the shots on the back of the camera.  Also, it is really hard to get the sharp focus on ice-crystals as they deflect the it so many were manually focussed.  Then the camera got cold and that appeared to have an effect on the setting - they weren't reacting as quickly as normal.  I have just been reading up about cold weather and cameras - it is usually the battery that gets affected by the cold weather.  Tip of the day then is to always carry a spare battery when shooting in the cold!  I am currently recharging for tomorrow...  However, it wasn't all bad news and I did get some pics that I am well pleased with - when it works it does look lovely:)

                                                                      Frozen berries

                                                                    Frozen wasteland

                                                                       Winter white

                                                                       Golden parsley

                                                                       Mono parsley

                                                                       Frozen fingers

                                                                           Rising mist

                                                                    Frozen blossom

Well, that is it for the day.  If you have any questions please use the comment box and I will get back to you.  I will be busy for a couple of days so may not be here but shall return shortly.  In the meantime get out and capture the frost!

Seashells

Today I took photographs of seashells that I picked up from the beach in Thailand in the summer.  They caught my eye first thing this morning so I decided that they would be what I photographed today for my shot number 13 of the 366 challenge.  I tried several angles and shutter speeds before I came up with a shot I was happy with.  The camera was set up on the tripod and I had the zoom lens attached.  I started with an aperture setting of f/5.6 and 1/10 sec shutter speed.  This produced an image that was only clear on the focal point.  I decided that actually I wanted to capture all of the shells textures clearly so I increase the aperture setting to f/32 and decreased the shutter speed to 2 sec.  The image below is the end result - I hope you like it.

The image below is one that I altered to black and white on Picasa - wasn't sure which I liked best but then the warm colours of the shells won over.  However, I like this too!

Today is the day

Hi - my name is Rose and I am just beginning this route down bloggers lane. My aim here is to display my pics and to think through the process of taking photographs.  I will explain how I took the pic, what I had to consider, what the properties of the photos are.  I am currently challenging myself to complete the 366 project on Flickr - hopefully choosing the best one of the day.  Some days I will have a lot to choose from, other days I hope to capture that image really quickly!

I believe that my best photographs are my close-up shots and in particular flowers!!!  I adore my macro lens which gets right inside the flower head but am happy to taken single flower shots with both my basic 18 - 55 mm lens and my zoom 55 - 250 mm lens.  My camera is a Canon 450D.  I have owned it for about two and a half years.  However, I have always loved taking photographs and before the digital age had hundreds of albums - and that was before the kids!  They won't be appearing on here, nor will my husband - I am banned from putting them up in public arenas without their permission:)

Back to the 366 challenge  I will not be taking the easy option and finding a new flower to photograph every day.  I will have to stretch myself to include a wide range of shots and also improving my photo processing skills over the year.  I also hope to create a good collection that I can  sell as artwork or cards.  Lots to do then!

Today I was taking shots of our cats - thing I learned today - fast shutter speed and bigger aperture setting so that I get the whole cat in focus...

Welcome - I hope you enjoy it!

On the prowl...

Enjoying the sun