Natural Light: Week 4

Well this is a bittersweet moment...week 4...gulp... Before I post my last images I must say a big thanks to Sarah and Brooke. This has been a wonderful class and I have enjoyed every moment of it! Thank you!

For this assignment, I chose to shoot outdoors. The weather has been questionable, cloudy and grey skies...but I wanted to give it my best. Here are a couple of silhouettes which I have fun doing. Now I must qualify that these were shot around mid-day (4 pm-ish) so I didn't capture the setting or rising sun but there was a break in the thick cloud cover so I took my chances!

Here is the original shot with an auto white balance.

And here it is again with my white balance as tungsten (I believe?)

And yes I made my daughter jump a third time to shoot with a white balance of kelvin! (The things I do to capture the shot!)

I really hope I captured the essence of the assignment - thanks again Sarah and Brooke for 4 fabulous weeks of shooting and learning!

Natural Light: Week 3

Wow, the Natural Light course from Brooke Snow is almost over - it is hard for me to believe as I am really loving the exercises. Now I am not saying they are easy but each assignment has made me stop and pause before I press the button...so that is a good thing.

This week we were challenged to capture an image using contrasting light that draws attention to the subject. I was rather fascinated by the discussion on sun bursts and wanted to give that a try. Did I succeed? I don't know. The image below is close to what I wanted but not quite...and I had not a clue on how to edit it so left it as is other than resizing it for the web. Any tips you can give me to edit such image would be greatly appreciated!

So here is the image and I know it is a big no-no to post 2 images but here is my reasoning. Compositionally, I like this image better from a compositional point of view...and I like the drama of the sky but I like the spiky sun rays of the second image better!

While I love the spikey sun rays of this image better, I do not like the sun to be in the dead centre of my image and I could see the power pole in the back. Yes I was trying to be careful about composing my shot but if truth be told I felt myself going blind by shooting directly into the sun even though I was pushing some button that limits the light into my lens! And, I suppose I could have cropped the image but then I wondered if the image was too dark so I found myself in a bit of a conundrum! 

Anyways I am keen to hear your feedback this week as I wasn't very happy with my results this week...and Sarah, I am deeply sorry for your loss...you are in my thoughts and prayers.

Natural Light: Week 2

Hello Brooke and Sarah! Below are my submissions for Week 2. If we are speaking truths now, I must say I messed up the assignment.

When you asked for a hazy photo, I know you wanted a photo with something like this...but when I was here capturing the time and location of my shot, I had not a cute subject nearby! Consequently, I am left with this...

Now the bigger questions is whether I can capture this gorgeous light again but with a subject in the image, yes? I love this light but I missed the sunset light by about 15 minutes as the sun is setting quite early now...my apologies...

Then I thought, could my other images be considered hazy??? The answer was no. Actually I blew out the image as I over exposed the image :-(

Now for a sharp backlit image...(psst...I know I am supposed to only post 2 but my rellies from abroad like to read my blog from time to time so I hope you will excuse my indiscretion!)

 

I look forward to hearing my review this week - thanks! Don't read any further because I am going to post my mistaken assignment part now! Thanks Brooke and Sarah!

For everyone else, I misread the assignment and thought I was to shoot a silhouette - oops! I did however surprise myself as I did not think it would be possible to shoot a silhouette with a deeply setting sun at 6:30 ish in the evening...ah the joys of the impending winter...

 

Watch for my subsequent post this week!

Natural Light: Week 1

Welcome back to my blog - it has been 2 months since I have posted anything, yikes! Gosh, life has been busy!!!

Let me start with some photos from Brooke Snow's Natural Light class. I love Brooke and her teaching style. After watching her videos, I am so inspired to practice and practice and practice.

Our assignment this week was Catch Lights and Even Light. Up until a week ago, I "thought" I understood how to capture catch lights. When I looked back at images I recently shot, it looked like there were catch lights in the eyes...but then it got me thinking...did I "really" know how to capture catch lights or did I just get lucky???

So all week long I was practicing the study elements and struggled to shoot with catch lights! What gives??? Eeek! In a last ditch attempt, here are my images from today, shot with a cloudy sky and sinking sun. I so love the glow of the setting sun though :-)

Here is the catch lights...(I hope!)...and yes, this is not a stellar smile on her face!

And no catch lights ...

I look forward to hearing from you!

Got Sketch Express 3: Sketch 8

Valerie Salmon has created fabulous sketch classes - if you haven't tried one, you should definitely give it a go! Her sketches are so versatile and easy to use. For myself, I find I save her sketches and use them over and over again. When all the layouts are in my albums, no one will ever know the sketches have been re-used!

Here is my interpretation of Sketch 8 from her recent Got Sketch Express class. Don't you love the dancing circles on the bottom of the layout? I adore it! And in my Idea Book, I will repeat the sketch again but substitute the bubbles for waves and even flowers - see what I mean about versatile???

Supplies:  Bazzill (cardstock); Echo Park (pattern paper, die cut stitckers); American Crafts (alphas); Kaisercraft (large butterfly); Maya Road (chipboard alphas); Tattered Angels (glimmer mist); Spellbinders (circle dies); Queen & Co (pearls)

Here is a close-up of the bubble border!

Thanks for dropping by!

Laugh

I wanted to share an uber quick layout with two 4x6 photos...of my daughter's birthday sleepover party.  The papers are from a very old BasicGrey collection, Lickety (something? sorry I can't remember) ... the papers were perfect for the festive mood of the party and the colours!

As you all know, I adore vivid colours with bold papers. It is sometimes a challenge to use the papers side by side without the layout looking cluttered or overwhelming. One technique I use often to give the eye a rest is to mat the adjoining pattern papers with a basic coloured cardstock such as white, black or cream. My layout below demonstrates this oh so easy technique.

Supplies:  BasicGrey (pattern paper, cardstock borders, cardstock accents, alphas); stitching; EK Success (border punch); Queen & Co (gems)

Thank you so much for dropping by!

Grown with Love!

Sorry I have not posted in awhile...we have been away, vacationing in France and England! It has been a trip of a lifetime and one that I am glad to have shared with my family. Stay tuned for layouts with my gajillion pictures! Now onto the layout I am sharing!

My youngest has a green thumb. She has always been an outdoorsy type of girl and loves any activity that provides her with that opportunity. Gardening is something she has fun with but needs my help...of course! This layout documents the rewards of her efforts...and I think she is pretty darn cute too!

Supplies:  BasicGrey (laser cut paper, pattern paper, chipboard accents, chipboard borders, alphas); American Crafts (border punch)

Here is a close-up of the arrow! I struggle with arrows but this funky chipboard arrow was perfect for my layout. As you also know I love pop dots and use them alot to create dimension on my project. Below is a close-up of the area on the my layout!

Thanks for dropping by!