Be Still 52...

Still-life shooting is like meditation with a camera… you can be totally in the moment, you don't have to think of anyone or anything else, just what's in front of you. 

I found these sweet little pots at the charity shop at our local animal rescue centre, they were 20p each! I didn't know what I'd use them for but I knew they'd come in handy, and things came together when my sister gave me a bag of scarves including the lacy number here, and Hinckley Fashion Outlet gave me some rather nice artificial flowers.  All I then had to do was shoot with window light and some bounced fill-in flash, followed by some LR magic, including Kim Klassen's 'Breeze' LR preset (which I tweaked).

Be Still 52...

This week it's all about props.  I've become an avid collector of all manner of odd bits and bobs since starting to shoot still-life.  My only problem now is where to put it all!

I  used Kim's new LR preset 'Darkmood' on this…

Last three edited with Kim's Melancholy LR preset (with slight tweaking).

Texture Tuesday...

Am on a bit of a Chinese New Year kick at the moment as you might have guessed if you've read this week's challenge that I posted yesterday…

Be Still 52...

I'm so enjoying this year-long exploration of still-life with Kim Klassen, it's so relaxing to just 'play' with pretty things and my camera!  This week it's all about side light.  I shot these on the kitchen work surface with light from the window, and used some large black card on the opposite side to darken the shadows further and create more contrast.  A bit different to the light and airy shots I normally go for - still-life from the dark side. :-)

… and one more.  I couldn't resist these heart-shaped crumpets in ASDA, they just made me laugh.  The crumpets of lurve!

Texture Tuesday...

Still being influenced by the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi: the art of imperfection.

A Quick How To...

So how do you use the numbers on the back of your camera to get a good exposure?

A quick run-down of what the back of your camera is telling you:

M = Manual Mode

1/1600 = Shutter speed is 1/1600 of a second

F1.4 = The F Stop or Aperture. The lower the number the wider the aperture is open. F1.4 is the widest aperture on the 35mm lens I was using.  I wanted a shallow depth of field (i.e. all of the background out of focus).

ISO400 = This is the sensitivity of you sensor to light.  The higher the number the more sensitive to available light your sensor is.

That row of numbers from -3 to +3 is your exposure. What you're aiming for is to get the little moving arrow in approximately the centre (this is a little simplistic but it's what we'll go with for now).

Like this:  Here I've changed the ISO to 200, the shutter speed to 1/200 and the aperture stays at f1.4. 

A quick change of settings: Aperture stays the same but the ISO is 400 and the shutter speed is 1/320. Note how the arrow is slightly to the right.  I've slightly over exposed this because I didn't think the whites were bright enough. 

Inspire me Monday...

This week I've mainly be inspired by still-life photography (with the odd cat photo-bombing its way in). I'm really enjoying Kim Klassen's Be-Still 52 class and am finding all sorts of bits and pieces are making their way into my photos because of it.

 Spot the odd one out…

(I was actually trying to take

a photo of some garlic!)