Inside outside

Well at last I am up to date with Kim Klassen's new 2B course, day 4 Kim asked us to take a photo of something from inside outside. I am so used to bringing the outside in so this took me a little longer to think of what to shoot. It is more difficult at the moment as most of the contents of our house is still in boxes! Anyway this was fun and I can see me doing more of this, I already have a few ideas...........................I just need to find my "prop box"!

Until next time............................................

Focus

Day 3 of 2B was last week, and this week Kim talked about ISO and exposure compensation and then about focus and metering, as mentioned in my last 2B post these were not new to me, but it is wonderful to go back to basics once in a while as I know I for one often forget, especially where exposure compensation is concerned!

This day Kim said that she would love to see us experiment specifically with different focal points. "Set up a shot...of course it can be a still life, a portrait, a nature shot....whatever you want to shoot. Focus on different areas in the scene. Select a collection of your favs (at least 3) and put it together in a lovely layout." Well I played and I played some more, I just LOVE using a shallow depth of field and then use different focal points to change the way a photo looks.
Here is a collage of three of the photos I took

Ooh Kim mentioned that she is going to share how she organises textures, I am looking forward to this, I have so many now that I have collected that this is something I really need to look at.

Until next time............................

Out of auto

Well day 2 of 2B (Beyond Beyond) and the challenge was to get out of auto mode on the camera. Kim asked us to experiment with our cameras and to set up a shot or pick a still subject, stand in one spot, switch over to Aperture Priority or AV, set your f/stop down to the lowest it will go, take a series of photos, bumping the f/stop...one stop at a time..... Move in a little closer and go through the series again. Download the images and view the DOF differences as you increased the f/stop settings and adjusted your distance... Having participated in an OU course (T189) several years ago now, I have been shooting out of auto for a while and just love the flexibility and creativity it allows, I shot the above photo about a year ago of the underside of a flower, but just adored the way the petals flowed, it reminded me of a ballerina. I do have a preference for the softness of a shallow DoF so tend to shoot mostly with a very low f-stop (1.4 to 2.8).

I would usually have taken a new shot, but my studio (my conservatory, where the light is just fantastic) is out of action at the moment as it is storing a lot of our furniture whilst we re decorate. As Kim then invited us to edit and make it our own her lovely pine cone image, I decided to have a go at this instead. I had great fun playing with this, I love the white on white, it opens up so many possibilities. My edit is below and if you rollover the image Kim's shot can be seen.

My goals for 2013 is that I hope that I continue with my creative journey and become a lot more confident and find my own style artitstically. I SO need to step outside my comfort zone as well and continue to learn. I did start last year to learn how to use my flash off camera, but this year I want to become more confident in doing so. I have quite a few people asking me to do shoots for them (friends of friends), but I lack the confidence to shoot strangers. I have no problem at all when it is friends so it frustrates me no end feeling this way, especially as I know I would do a good job. 2013 I hope to change this, so watch this space.

Well until next time..........................................

Different perspectives

Kim Klassen's Beyond Beyond class started January 23rd I was a little late joining as I was debating whether I should join in considering I am still so far behind with Beyond Layers, as you can tell I took the plunge and decided to go for it.

Our first challenge was to spend some time shooting a still life, we were to allow ourselves at least 30 minutes for the task and then to post our favorite or favorite images. I was pleased to see that the ones that I would usually automatically delete from the camera prior to uploading to the computer I also felt the same about when I downloaded them and I swiftly deleted them on my first run through of the downloaded photos in Lightroom (which I LOVE by the way).  My favorite from the exercise is above and it was when I looked in the viewfinder on the camera too. As I liked several others too I decided to make a collage out of them.  We weren’t supposed to move the objects instead we were to move around them shooting from various angles. For me, it was a wonderful reminder to keep shooting beyond the obvious first shot I envisage. I did find it difficult finding the time the week though as we were in the process of moving back house after having some major work done, so I will probably do this again when I am more relaxed and have a better subject to shoot as I loved it.

Until next time...............................

Fresh start for 2013

I'm a student in Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers II class but I haven't really participated for several months now, life just seemed to get in the way.  I have though read all the e-mails, but that is about it. Before I knew it several months had passed by and to be honest I just gave up! I know, I know practice is the only way to improve, hence this fresh start.

I think half the problem last year was I had tried to do too many projects at once, the main one which I did keep up with and so glad I did was Digital Project Life, where I took daily shots of my everyday life and have made up weekly scrapbooks. I am addicted to this and have started the same again for this year.

2013 will be my year of creative learning and I took the plunge and signed up for the next version of Kim's class which is called Beyond Beyond  or 2B as I have decided it is now time to actually DO something and learn how to edit the vast quantity of photos I take daily in a more artistic way. I also plan to catch up with Beyond Layers this year and post my thoughts and journey with both in this my NEW blog. Yes this is another thing I did not stick with, I had a Wordpress Blog which I started last year, I posted daily for several months, but as work and homelife became more hectic something had to give and the Blog became more of a chore, so I gave up on it. Hence this new start here on Blogger.