Au Revoir...

I've decided to stop posting to this blog and start afresh, it's just become complicated to separate general blog stuff from my photography business.  Thanks to everyone who has followed and commented over the years.  For those of you who would like to still see what I (and the cats) are up to you can find me at https://thehappypumpkin.wordpress.com.  This will be my general blog for cats, crafts, musings etc.  My official web page is www.barbarajacksonphotography.co.uk which has my business info on it, and linked to that is my official photography blog at http://bee.proimageblogs.com which will mainly be for photoshoots etc. xx

Mrs P...

Such a sad day yesterday.  I had to say goodbye to my dearest, sweetest girl Mrs P.  We had eighteen years of friendship (she was at least 20 years old), but she was struggling so much the last week or two that I thought it only fair to let her go whilst she still had some quality of life and dignity.  She loved everybody and was quietly confident (ok, she was insistent) that the affection was returned, which it always was.  She accepted all other cats on friendly terms although never allowed them to take liberties with her food or blanket.  She liked to chat to people, wriggling her paws at them at the same time, and always had an opinion on everything.  She was always there for me and I miss her so much.

A Home Alone Day...

Today was about having the house to myself (the mogs were in but asleep - no change there).  I was going to be a sloth but then got distracted by actually doing stuff - the best laid plans etc.  I started with 30 minutes of yoga, then my campaign to eat more healthily continued with me making Moroccan style sweet potato and chick peas (the smell of the garlic and spices was delicious), with cauliflower rice.  I was rather sceptical about the cauliflower rice, but not being a fan of actual rice decided to give it a go.  I loved it! For those of you who haven't come across it, the instructions I followed are here. Amazing!  Will definitely be using it again.

Later I decided to try some still-life shots although failed to get any with the bunting that I made, I just can't figure out how to combine it with other elements so it looks as if its meant to be there rather than just happened to be in the way.  I will not be beaten by the bunting though and my search for the elusive capture continues.

Garlic…

If only all food were this photogenic.

The healthy lunch…

The buntingless still-life.

And Breathe...

Am just stopping to catch my breath after a very busy few weeks.  I can't believe that it's over a month since I last posted.  What have I been doing? Photo shoots, yoga, trying to eat more healthily, trying to get the garden back to some semblance of order after the winter, work, getting a new camera, more photo shoots…

Anyway, enough of the excuses, here are some images from the last month or so.  I'll post more images from each of the shoots over the next few weeks.

Be Still 52...

Some people have been… hard-going this week. At times like this I'd like to grab my camera, books, cats, and iMAC and head for the nearest island to escape from everyone (I know I'm on an island but it's a big one so it doesn't count).  Foregoing that, I just grab my camera and enjoy a few moment of stillness.

This week it's all about backlighting - not too different to many other weeks for me as it's one of my favourite kinds of lighting.  I used bounced fill-in flash on these from an on-camera speedlite.

 

Texture Tuesday...

I came across these sweet plates in a charity shop and fell in love with the colours and design. They're from the Empire Pottery Staffordshire and date from December 1955 judging by the manufacturer's mark on the back.  I really only wanted one but ended up with a set of about twelve for £2. The prop shelves are groaning… I don't often do overhead shots because a) I find them difficult to lay out to my liking and b) it hurts my back to shoot them! The little plates seemed to demand it though.  It was a relief to get back to a normal pov and shoot clementines :-)

First image edited in LR with Kim Klassen's Breeze preset (tweaked), then in Elements with Kim's Touch texture.

The other images were just edited in LR with Breeze preset (tweaked).

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.