Wordless Wednesday...

I bought a few peonies at the weekend and have been playing around with them for some still life pictures.  At the moment I prefer dark toned still life shots to anything light and 'pretty'.  

These were all taken with side light which I love as it emphasises texture and shape and gives a wonderfully three dimensional feel to objects.  If you normally shoot in 'flat' light do give side light a go.  I took these on a table with light from our patio doors coming from camera left.  I diffused it with some voile to make it softer, and in some cases I closed the curtains to let only a thin strip of light fall on the objects.  It's all about controlling the light to give the effect that you want.

Linking with Wordless Wednesday at Image-in-ing.  and

Texture Tuesday...

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

ABC Wednesday - G is for...

Golden...

As in the Golden Glow of late summer sunflowers proving very attractive to Gatherers of pollen...

For more participants click here.

Wordless Wednesday...

I have a new toy to play with!  It's actually an early birthday present from David and is a fisheye filter with detachable macro.  As soon as I got home from work I was out in the garden with it taking photos of, well, weeds and stuff.

This is pretty much SOoC - the light leak was an accident!

Note that sneaky bug trying to get into the picture.

This is not a weed - but I don't know what it is.
(I added a selective zoom to the petals in PicMonkey)

I'll be experimenting with the fisheye next to see what it can do.  Watch this space!

Thursday Challenge - Soft...

Soft Focus Rose...

Mrs Pod looking soft and cuddly...

Mrs P is asleep on a blanket on a dining room chair under the table here...

I was actually crawling around on my hands on knees

 with my camera to get this - what larks!

(10 points to those who spot the literary allusion there :O))

David bought me some flowers (I think he realised that saying that the cats and I were boring was something of a faux pas... you especially don't want to be getting on the wrong side of the cats... if Charlie is annoyed it's likely he'll either rip your throat out whilst you're asleep, or vomit in your shoe - it's a technique for showing displeasure that I may have to try myself at some point).  They're so beautiful that I got slightly obsessed with taking photos of them - these are a little more in focus :O)