Be Still 52_Unique Vessels

Week 47 of Be Still 52... Unique vessels.

Mine is my great-grandmother's hair receiver. I only put petals in it rather than use it for a 'vase'.

This is what wikipedia had to say about antique hair receivers...

A hair receiver is a small pot, with a hole in the lid, kept on the dressing table in the Victorian era to store hair removed from brushes and combs. The hair was recycled in a number of ways—notably for stuffing small bags, about 8–10 centimetres (3–4 in) across, called ratts, used to bulk out women's hairstyles. Human hair was also used for stuffing pincushions and small furnishing cushions.

It was often paired with a matching trinket box or a powder jar or as part of a dressing table set, made mainly from porcelain, though glass, metal, and celluloid were also used.

kk_lightandairypastel

kk_moodswing

I badly wanted to texture this one for a change. kk_waterfront14 and kk_avery texture.

kk_Still

kk_moodswing

My own preset aptly called Faded Peonies.

Lensbaby Velvet 56

Here's one from earlier, still on the plant. I meant to count the flowers this year. They gave and gave. The last three are withering in the vase right now.

I have the pleasure of doing a guest post for Focusing on Life today. Won't you join me over there? I give some photography examples of 'shooting through'.

Linking up with Kim for Texture Tuesday.

On Being Still

Stillness can be a hard thing for me. I struggle with the conflict in my mind of it being mistaken as laziness. Performance has apparently been an issue in my childhood and I'm sure many of you have had that monkey placed on your back also. Hubby deals with it too so it's been hard to rid that animal from my life. 

So in all fairness I'll just say I flunked that part of the course.... well maybe I'll give myself a C-. I have gotten better and sure don't feel guilty about taking time for myself these days. I just don't let anyone catch me at it.

I'm referring to Kim's Be Still 52 year long course on finding stillness in life and photography and still life shots. It's been a great and amazing ride. We were asked to review our photos and choose a favorite. I've been quite drawn to my darker, moodier images.

This one is actually on canvas and hanging at work. (Actually the previous one is too, I just forgot!)

But I'll have to say that this is my favorite from last year. Sunflower could be my middle name and right now I'm thinking of going back and using some of Kim's new presets on last year's sunflower photos. (My brain is spinning...)

Be Still Week 39

Subject: Glass
I'm not much the pink frilly girly roses type. But when I recently rediscovered these two pink pieces, one at work and the other in my china cabinet, I decided to try and pull something together with them.

kk_gentle was used on the first two. It is one of my favorites.

kk_bare

kk_hazey, gentle and chocolate (starting at the left)

KK_bare on these three.

I had more fun that day. First I played in the dining room on the chair, then took everything into my 'studio'. I thought I was finished after I started pulling out the doilies but then I grabbed some books, ditched the glass and you'll have to wait until later to see those.

Be Still 52 Week 36

Today's assignment: Open to Interpretation.
I did a self portrait photo shoot last fall and this shot came to mind when I saw the prompt. I really think the still life shots in the book were what Kim had in mind, but hey!

Have a blessed Sunday! And if you are still getting snow….. I'm sorry. But go take a few unusual photos.

The Lime Shoot

In our Be Still 52 class we were to shoot citrus and in The Studio Online class, the prompt was fruit or vegetables. I've been a bit busy with taxes and 'the folks' taxes so this will do for both. (Sorry about no movie Art Monday yesterday, I will be posting it later.) I took quite a few I liked on my Canon and a few on my iPhone, but here are a few faves.
The sun was just up and coming through the kitchen window. I have an island with barely enough room to walk around let alone shoot. I placed a black matt board on a chair for the backdrop as I shot toward the north and the ones to the south just ended up with a blurry background because I was too lazy to move it.

kk_gentle preset with kk_thursday texture.

No preset, just a few tweaks.

kk_chocolate preset, with a little noise reduction.

I really liked this angle. kk_within preset.

Shooting south, kk_gentle.

I preferred all the shots to be somewhat desaturated. I think it worked good with the dark moodiness of the early morning light.

It's Texture Tuesday at Kim's! Come over and check out what everyone's been up to!

Texture Tuesday Jan 27

Today would have been my Mom's 78 birthday. I made this to honor her.

Captivated Visions, Artified template. Painted art, mine.

In fact today I decided to wear one of her sweaters and a piece of costume jewelry that was hers. Can't believe she's been gone more than 30 years now. 

It's Texture Tuesday at Kim's...

Kim's preset kk_barelycolor with some added haze. I've really gotten on the haze bandwagon lately. I spent the past 48 hours processing photos from a family shoot this weekend and decided to play catch up from December's family photos too. I did quite a few with haze and I LOVE them. (More about that later.)

Two layers of kk_epic texture, linear burn and soft light both at 68% opacity. Word Art mine. (Words of Love in store) Can you relate to this one?

Texture Tuesday Jan 20

I managed to do more than just watch my lesson on BeStill52 last week.

A little background play in effect here. My first shot was using black matt board. Edited with kk_dreamlike preset. Textured with kk_simple2 magic texture, 2 layers, one rotated with Color burn, reduced opacity, the other screen 100%. 

Word art is mine and available at ESS with a current sale deal on. Buy this kit, get this one free. BUT WAIT! I'm offering the free kit to my blog readers for a limited time. Click here for a download. (Please don't share this link.)

This is my favorite. I do wish I had made the first linen layer straighter, yes it bugs me just a bit but not too much to not use the photo. kk_chocolate preset.

kk_barely color preset. Now that I'm seeing this set up… I believe a larger bowl would be better at least in this shot.

Another with kk_chocolate preset. White foam core and cheese cloth. This would look better textured. I think it just looks too much like white foam core even tho I like the 'clean' look of it.

Perhaps like this… textured with kk_epic.

And one shot from above. kk_chocolate.

Linking up with Kim for Texture Tuesday.

Texture Tuesday Dec 2

I want to thank everyone that's offer support and encouraging words while I was in such an emotional funk the past couple weeks. I don't usually reply to comments because you wouldn't receive a notice that I had replied. So this is it. A heartfelt thank you. I'm firmly back in the rat race of life forging ahead.

It's Texture Tuesday at Kim's blog. Processed in Stackables then taken into Superimpose and added 3 of Kim's textures I have stored on my iPad.

My life has been filled with crazy goodness this past week.

The clothes washer broke down and after realizing it was 10 years old, we went shopping on Thanksgiving at 6:30. (I can't believe stores were opening then but I was tremendously glad for the huge discounts. Now it couldn't get delivered until the following Thursday. Remodel time.

As I began painting, I secretly prayed for a floor too. You see this is not the time of year to even be buying a washer and dryer let alone get a new floor. Our business is seasonal and December is usually slim-pickin's. Well…. I'd posted our fiasco on FB as it unfolded, and when I put up this photo I included these words. "Broken washer leads to redecorating. Wish we had time to replace the floor before Thursday's delivery. I think I'll believe for a miracle."

Sure enough hubby saw it and figured yes, we should just do it. Yippieeeee!!!!!
I already knew what I wanted. Unfortuately it will take 2 weeks before it will be in stock and installed.
Now I can agonize over what color to paint.
I had decided on a light soft amber-y yellow. Then I decided to just paint it all white. Now after seeing the sample of that luscious floor…. I'm back to yellow again or not so yellow but different. Time is on my side no matter how many colors I try. 

No turning back now. It feels good to do a little demolition. (Although my back and legs are darn sore.)

Christmas decorating will just get done when I get around to it. (my 2 1/2 year old grand daughter willingly helped decorate the lower portion of the tree yesterday. She blew me away. She started singing Jingle Bells when she found one that jingled and recognized a Santa Claus ornament right away and called him by name.

In the mean time, for December I'll be posting some of my favorite mobile edits of 2014.

Linking up with Kim.

Texture Tuesday Oct 21

August archives. Not real sure why I pulled from there. I really wanted to use Kim's grungy Monday texture and delicate flowers were not what I had in mind. But I made it work and then decided to add the border at the last minute. I have volunteer basil growing with the phlox. Their fragrance mixes quite nicely. I need to get the basil drying soon so I can make spaghetti sauce.

Dark mood preset.

And random editing.

Linking up with Kim for Texture Tuesday.

Friday Finds October 17

I babysat at my Daughter-in-law's house on Monday and played in her 'box of goodies' she had pulled out to redecorate the living room. I found a great watering can and some old books whose covers will be found in some iPhoneography collages I'm working on. She had a nice collection of antique framed art and a cool old chair and small white table.
Black and White (Snapseed)

Then I used that black and white version in Stackables to add a touch of texture and some color tones.

Come on over to Kim's blog today and see what kind of great goodies everyone has found/discovered this week.

iColorama Edit

A super simple iPhone edit using iColorama.

Open iColorama, At the top left corner, load a photo from your camera roll.

Choose Style for the top menu.
Sketch from the secondary menu.
Down at the bottom right corner are presets. Choose the last one. 6/6 to get this first version. Let's play more! BUT you can save this first step by clicking save in the top right corner. Now you may continue editing, saving each version as you go if you like.

Click Apply at the top right.
Choose Sketch again.
This time choose the 3/6 preset.
Feel free to adjust the opacity to your liking.

My original:

Check out our 30 Day Scrap With Apps Challenge going on over at the E-ScapeandScrap Blog.