Tulips & Textures

  I have finally had some time to play with an image using textures, I love my 2LO textures, they are my go to textures out of the thousands I have collected.  I also am finding that I really like the square crop, I think since I started following Instagram I have been drawn to that format.  I never really paid much attention to tulips when I was younger but the last few years I have fallen in love with them, I think because they represent new beginnings and fresh hope.

Life will change but her heart will always be filled with Jesus

  My dear, dear friend Agnes has been diagnosed with cancer.  I can not begin the describe what she has brought to my life and my walk with Christ. The simplest way is to say she is like seeing Jesus with skin, she just loves people to Him and serves like he served the world.  That is what makes this so hard for her as she will be quarantined from large groups for up to 9 months and she is such a social being.  We got to spend the last few days together, laughing, crying and worshipping God at a women's conference.  She has complete peace and trust but knows her life will be changing and that makes her sad but she knows that Jesus will see her through every step of the way.

Props and Repurpose

  Our assignment was props and repurpose and with all the things I have been collecting for my still life work my image was pretty lame.  I have been out of town but was determined to participate and complete the assignment.  My back drop is repurposed wooden pallets, the vase an old found jar.  I have had the figurine for years and the tea cup is one from Dan's grandmother.
 

Dominic

  Normally I don't take very many pictures of people but we were at Dominic's basketball tournament and I decided to take my camera to the last game.  I noticed a couple of the other players tossing the basketballs in front of him as he was waiting for his turn to run a route during warm ups.  I was lucky in my timing and captured him framed between two of them. I felt it would lend itself well to b&w, I then added a radial blur, grunge texture and vignette.

Flat Lay Stil Life

It seems that the new style is flat lay still life's and so I wanted to give it a try.  It was not quite as simple as it looked but definitely is a style I want to work on.  Getting the composition right while looking straight down on it was more of a challenge than I thought it would be.

 

Spring Tulips

The flowers from Trader Joe's are such a great bargain and are always very fresh and last a long time so when I was there the other day they had some really gorgeous tulips and they made it in my cart and home with me.  I really like the top down photo shots and was practicing that angle with my nifty fifty lens.  I still just am not in love with that lens but do think it is because I am on a crop sensor camera.  All my edits are in lightroom and I am loving the dehaze slider and split toning.

Light Box Photography

 Our technique this week was light box photography.  You light your subject from below with a light source, I used alight box made for viewing slides. You then take several (I took 7) images starting with one being properly exposed to over exposing the next images by half stop increments until you have over exposed completely to the right, on a Canon or left I believe on Nikon.  You then bring all the images into photo shop blending pieces of each layer into one composite, this what gives it an almost translucent look.  I needed to have a light source from above also and will try that the next time.