Daisy, daisy....

I adore the simplicity of daisies.  I always think it's a shame when my son cuts the grass as the daisies get cut too.  But I know that they'll be back in a few days.  And I often pop out into the garden to take some photos before they get cut !

 This is the original image, straight out of the camera.  I laid on the grass to get this low viewpoint and selectively focussed on the closest petals so that everything else was out of focus.  I like the hint of yellow peeping out from behind the petals, so that you are left in no doubt what flower it is.  I also like that the background is green, so that the main flash of colour is the brilliant white of the petals.

This is the same image after I played around with the Florabella actions on it.  I used a layer of pearl at 72% over the background layer and boosted the vignette slightly.  I feel it has a kind of ethereal, dreamy quality to it this way.

Before I got the Florabella actions, you may have noticed that I did very little in the way of editting or post-processing.  I like to get the shot right in-camera, and having begun my photography when I was very young ( I used my dad's camera from the age of about 8, maybe even earlier) it was, of course, all film, so you HAD to know what you were doing or the whole, expensive, film was wasted. To say nothing of the cost of the processing too ! And the wait while the film you posted off was processed before being posted back to you !  But with these new actions I am enjoying seeing what things do and how the images can be altered to give a different "feel".  I am always aware that these looks are "on-trend" at the moment and will be replaced by different looks and needs at some stage in the future.  So it's important to get the image you set out to shoot correct in-camera. 

Sx

I've got a new toy.....

...well it's not a new toy as such, but I bought a collection of actions from http://www.florabellacollection.com/ and I've been playing with them. 

Before - pretty much straight out of the camera

Using a bit of the Florabella black and white blush action.  I lowered the opacity of the b&w layer to allow a hint of the original colour to come through.

Before with no processing

Using Florabella teatime action at full opacity.  I adore the vintage feel to this, which is something I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to do so far.

Again with no processing, taken in the winter.

This was using Florabella's black and white blush action but with a love action over it at a reduced opacity.  The hint of colour I just love !

Straight out of the camera, this is another in the series I shot at the end of December.

This is the teatime action again with a layer of swoon over the top at a reduced opacity.  I was interested to see how the actions would work on my flower photos.  I like this effect a lot.

I still have lots of playing and learning to do - I only got this last night after all !  I'm loving the effects so far, and seeing which ones work with what subjects.  I still have to learn how to do the fine tuning, as I'm working with PS Elements rather than a full PS package. 

I'm having fun :-)

Sx

Christmas is over.....

...and we all seem to have/have had colds.  I currently have a very sore throat but it doesn't seem to stop me eating chocolate or drinking wine !

The snow has all but gone now, we have had a big thaw and everywhere is slushy and wet.  So I am glad I got out when I did to take the snowy, frosty photos.

My 365 project is almost complete now too - only 1 more day to go. It has taken a lot of discipline to make sure I take a photo each day, and some of the photos are a bit....erm.... random!  But at least I have (nearly) completed the project.  I do hope I remember to take tomorrow's photo !

Today, for the project, I photographed a tulip from a bunch I have in the house at the moment.  I have said before that flower photography is my favourite type of photography to do, and I did enjoy myself for half an hour or so today while shooting it. 

This is one of my favourites.  I started off using a black card for the background, but there wasn't really enough light to shoot hand-held using natural light, even though I was shooting in the morning.  So, rather than get the tripod out or bump the ISO up really high, I used a lighter coloured background card, which I had forgotten I had, to bounce some of the window light back.  It also fitted in beautifully with trying to shoot flowers against a similar coloured background, as I have mentioned before. 

Hope you all had a lovely, relaxing and peaceful Christmas time - see you in the New Year

Sx

Busy, busy, busy

Hi

Not had much time to get anything done recently really.  Just busy generally.  Think it must be "that" time of year, not that I've done much preparation for Christmas yet.  My older son was 16 the other week, and that signals the start of a long line of family and friend birthdays which carries on to February.  And of course Christmas is in there too.  And there's school exams to get the kids ready for, the cold weather and darker evenings to deal with, general coughs and colds and sniffles to sort out... 

So today, while I was at Tesco, I treated myself to a cheap bunch of flowers, to try and lift the mood a bit.  Lovely, white chrysanthemums.  Plain and simple in their beauty.  Now, as a child, I never particularly cared for chrysanths, even though my Nanna used to grow and show them, but now I adore their simple daisy-like form. 

When photographing flowers, I used always to put them against a contrasting background, but I was flipping through a flower photography book some time ago, and the photographer used backgrounds almost identical in colour to the flower, and I adored the effect.  This is something which I now try and do, the effect is so relaxing to the eye.

In this one I tried lighting the white background to enhance the whiteness, but the effect was too "glary", so I reverted to natural light for the whole image.  I rather like it, I hope you do too.

Sx

My favourite kind of photography.....

.....has got to be flower photography. 

I love the different colours - remember "nature never clashes" - the shapes, the perfection in all the detail.  And if they are cut flowers, once you've photographed them, you get to fill your house with them !

This is one I took today.  I bought the roses yesterday, and it was a mixed bouquet with this colour and paler pink roses.  This is pretty much straight out of the camera, apart from cropping.  I shot on fully manual so that I could adjust the exposure to get a more true representation of the deep pink.

Sx