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.

Peonies, the Dark Edition

While this (elegant-ish) is not my typical style I thought I would stretch myself a bit.

I had fun playing with Kim's Preset Collection.

kk_Melodic

kk_Gentle with an increase in saturation.

kk_Dreamlike

kk_Dreamlike

kk_Dreamlike

kk_Dreamlike

kk_Tangled

kk_LaLightly

I'll be back to white edits the rest of this week. I have so many to share. In the mean time I'm trying to decide which photo to print and put in the 'old' frame in the first photo. 

Linking up with Kim for Texture Tuesday.

Also linking up with Sue.

Mobile Art Monday No 19

I almost always shoot a few still life shots with my phone while doing some serious and nonserious still life set ups. In fact some days I get real carried away and start shooting with Hipstamatic too and some time I get on a roll with the phone and get so side tracked I forget to pick the camera back up. This was one of those days....

I used VSCOcam app to edit several of these on my iPad. I made an amazing discovery too (It was actually a 'duh' moment.) So I'll share in case you didn't know either.

I've always just clicked through the presets until I found one I liked, then I got curious and clicked this icon in the lower left corner.

When you do, this window pops up. Now why didn't I know that before? Perhaps it was in the last update. That will be my excuse.... Scroll to see your photo previewed and pick the one you want. click the same icon to take you back. Don't click the one in the lower right, that undoes your edit.

VSCOcam has an great tutorial (although its a couple years old) explaining the incredible features of this app. It has some great ‘matte finish’ filters and portrait filters. Among it’s editing tools are three that are rarely included in most apps. The infamous fade which is very popular right now, the ability to lighten shadows and restore highlights.  It comes with some freebies to get you started but also has in-app purchases. It has free presets in the store that you can download. One new trick I learned in the above tutorial is that I can rearrange my presets so my favorites ones are at the front of the list. Even the tool kit can be re-arranged. (Thumbs up!)

VSCOcam reminds me a lot of Kim Klassen's Lightroom presets. Now my iPhone photos can look like I did them in Lightroom. 

Preset T1

Preset T1

Preset T1

Preset T1 

A pleasant surprise shot that caught my eye as I was 'cleaning up'.

Preset T1 This is a favorite and I decided I wanted all these to look similar with the next being an exception.

Preset T2

Now for a few Hipstamatic shots.

My all time favorite for dark pink or red flowers. Jane lens and BlancoC16 film.

My favorite black and white sharp combo is Jane lens and BlackKeys Extra fine. It doesn't work good on very dark pink or red. These were just light enough.

And you can't skip Dream canvas and BettieXL when it comes to pink peonies.

And a Hipsta version on a variation of my first shot using Jane and BlancoC16.

Here's to a great start to your week!

Peony Diptych

I've found several blog posts still in draft form so I'll be playing catch up. It's supposed to be August Break, take a break from blogging. But for some reason I feel like I could post everyday. Somehow I've forgotten that this is a bit of a journal, recording what I've created or what I've been pondering. So I'm rethinking this blog and definitely plan to update it a bit so it may look different every time until I settle on something.

This is some homework for Be Still 52. I remember it involved diptych templates which I customized for my purposes. Actually I think the diptych came from the Start to Finish Class. Other than that my memory fails me. I have many dried peonies for future work.

While scrolling through Lightroom to find my edit setting I found tons of peony photos that haven't even been key worded, processed or let alone even looked at. I think the poppies had distracted me. In fact I just saw soooo many goodies there. Perhaps they will be next Friday's Find.

Edited in Lightroom using Pretty Presets Clean and Creative Workflow. A Quick Clean, Vintage Warm, Sharpening and a few other tweaks.

Here's another. I used Kim's preset Dark Day.

Texture Tuesday June 3

It's Texture Tuesday over at Kim's blog today. The theme is …. Nature!

Come on over and check out what everyone's been texturing.

My poppies are blooming in all their glory. I took my lens baby out to see what I could do.

kk_100 Multipy and an old film frame by 2lilOwls.

The daisies are particularly fond of posing for the lensbaby.

This was a bit interesting.

This was shot with the soft focus optic.

I have made some interesting discoveries this week about red flowers and Lightroom. I'll try to post about that later this week.

There is a learning curve with the Lensbaby but I am determined to conquer it.

Friday Finds May 30

Come on over to Kim's blog and see what kind of great goodies everyone has found/discovered this week.
I found the black and white peony photo that I'd meant to texture for Texture Tuesday last week. Oh well, here it is in all it's glory. I thought it was more moody in black and white than color. Edited in Lightroom.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Texture Tuesday May 27

It's the free and easy edition today, over at Kim's Texture Tuesday. Something I've been waiting for! So guess what? You are getting more peonies and a text tip.
This first one is textured with kk_0405 and kk_simple2. Layers shot below.

Here's a tip….After you've finished your quote…

1. Merge the text layers together.
2. Make a selection by Command(Control) clicking the thumbnail of that layer.
3. Click on the eyeball to turn off the visibility of the text layer.
4. In the Adjustment panel (or Menu) add a Levels adjustment layer. Your selection will disappear and look like nothing has happened. 
5. Now adjust the levels slider by pulling the left slider to the right to darken and reveal your text.

I posted this yesterday but just had to show it again. I'm trying to work through the Start2Finish class a second time around and make improvements. A collage from the above shoot with my peonies starting to dry up.

Come on over and check out what everyone's been texturing.