The Wild Side of Tulips

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN FLOWERS DON'T COOPERATE?

Well, there's not much you can do except go with the flow!

These flowers weren't from my garden - they were from Wal-Mart and I bought a bunch because that is how they were sold.

When I got home and put them in a vase, they flopped all over the place. It was quite plain it wasn't going to be a dignified photo shoot of stately tulips in a vase.

Anyway I shot these tulips against a really white background.

Then when I started to work with the image in Paint Shop Pro, I selected a rather wild background image I had previously created.

I then worked with the "arithmetic" portion of Paint Shop Pro and finally got the tulips to be what I call "toned down wild."

I'm not sure, but I rather think that tulips are not the easiest flower to photograph in a floral still life.

Oh, well.....


Challenge for today:

See if you can have any luck with tulips!!!!!

Iron Fence and Hat

WOULDN'T YOU LIKE THIS TO BE IN YOUR YARD?

Unfortunately, this fence was in a park about 7 miles from my house and in an area which was trying to reproduce a garden in the 1800's.

The bad thing about photography is that many times you have to deal with not so ideal settings. Sure the fence and the vine looked great.......but there was no good way to get a clear shot of the fence. At the edge of the fence where I hung a hat there was a clearing which didn't go with the fence. And the vine itself!!!!!! There were enough gaps in the vine that exposed the ugly gray pavement on the other side of the fence.

So, I did what I normally don't do. I cloned a lot.

Then after I cloned it I went into a different software and did an antique look.

But I liked the results! And really the picture looks better because I did change it.

Challenge for today:

Take some second looks at fences and photograph some.

Tulips in a Glass Basket

KEEPING MY MOTHER'S MEMORY ALIVE!

The above glass basket belonged to my mother and I had never photographed it before. So when I decided to give it a try I chose a bunch of tulips I bought at a local grocery store.

The background I chose was beige, but I made a mistake when I tried to put another background of my making as a layer onto the original image.

The purple tulips merged in A LITTLE TOO WELL WITH THE BACKGROUND! (The eyes can discern the slightest color change but printers can have a hard time printing out those slight color tones.)

But in the end it worked out all right.

But it showed me that I have to be careful in the color of the foreground and the colors of the background. When I want the colors to match I need to make sure I can tell where one ends and the other begins.

Challenge for today:

Have fun!!!!!!!!

Blue Morning Glories and Picture

THERE IT IS! MY FAVORITE BACKGROUND IMAGE IN A FRAME!

There really isn't anything special done with this image, but I had one object:

......... to frame my favorite background image and then choose a flower which would go well with the colors in the framed image.

When I stepped outside and saw my blue morning glories I thought, "that's just the color I need!"

However there were three difficulties in this photo:

..... morning glories only stay open during the morning

..... the flowers tear really easily

..... I had to make sure the frame was straight in the picture

Once I got past those 3 troublesome spots, I just shot enough images and chose one I liked. There was no smudging nor layering done. This was just an image incorporating my favorite background image in a frame.

Challenge for today:

Photograph one of your images!

Flowering Quince with a Different Look

YES, THIS IS THE VERY SAME BACKGROUND/FLOWER AS YESTERDAY!

It is kinda good when you are able to have different versions of the same image. But then when you run into a situation like this - how do You decide which image you like?

I'll tell you what I do sometimes when I have that "problem" - I create a document in CorelDraw and call it "unsure....." then I copy the images onto that document. Then depending on what mood I'm in I'll have a choice later on.

Now, the difference between yesterday's image and today's image is that the "wilder" image was toned down. You can do this by various ways: I'll share one.

You take the original image, then you take the "wilder" image and make a copy of that. You paste the "wilder" copy and paste it on top of the original image. You have now created a "layer."

Then by working on the "wilder" copy you adjust what degree of opacity you want. In other words - you decide how much of the "wilder" copy you want to be seen. Then you merge the layer down. You have created a new image and then don't forget - SAVE THIS AS A NEW IMAGE.

Challenge for today:

None. Just have your own fun day photographing - just keep in mind what you later might want to do with the images you take today.

Flowering Quince

GO AHEAD AND REUSE THOSE BACKGROUNDS!

The background I used for the Lily-of-the-Valley image posted on April 21 is the same background as today's image.

The colors of the background are toned down in the flowering quince photo, but I have several different versions of this image. That's the problem, sometimes I like a kinda wild and bold image of flowers and sometimes I like a kinda milder version.

For photographing purposes I placed the flowering quince on a white background. That is the best thing to do when you know ahead of time you are going to use the arithmetic portion of Paint Shop Pro.

Because the beauty of the flowering quince is bold and glossy, I felt I could be boldly daring with the background colors.

So you can see what a difference the background can make in an image, I will either tomorrow or the next day post what I call a "toned down" version of the same image.

Challenge for today:

Since it is spring plant some flowers you can photograph later!

My Wedding Hydrangeas

A PHOTOGRAPHER'S DREAM WEDDING

Well, we are coming up to the summer months when many men and women will get married. I was one of them a few years ago.

And in the month of May I will be sharing some of my photographing stories leading up to my engagement, etc.

With that thought in mind, I am kinda jumping the gun.

But here it goes....

The above image shows some of my wedding hydrangeas. The evening before my marriage I went with a good friend to another good friend's house to pick the hydrangeas out of the garden. The little card you see at the left of the flowers is the thank you card I created.

I used two things in the background - a bedspread and MY WEDDING DRESS!

And for all of you who are planning marriage ceremonies, I will give you a challenge - if you are going to have a very small marriage - why not create your own invitation card?

I will explain this all later during the month of May.


Challenge for today:

If you are planning your wedding, look hard at what you could do to incorporate your own photography. If you are married now, why not create a still life photographic memory of your special day.

Fresh Zinnias and Old Books

ANOTHER USE FOR OLD BOOKS!

I love to read. I inherited that love from my mother and I later got my father to love it also. When I was growing up we used to go to a city that had a fabulous old bookstore. That was a time when you could buy good old books at a cheap price.

Anyway, now I'm dependent upon purchasing old books at flea markets, thrift stores, garage sales, etc. But you can still get them.

Well, I love placing old books in an image.

The vase in the above image was purchased very cheaply at an antique store. Though it is crooked, it is simple and I like the lines around it.

I chose the zinnias because I like the colors of the flowers.

I photographed the image against a very plain and light material.

Then when I got the image into the computer I used a textured yellow background which I had created and then a different created background to give the image more color. But I thought the yellow would look good with the red.

It is a simple image - but I do like it.


Challenge for today:

Take stock of your old books for picture purposes

Roses in a Glass

CREATE A MOOD WITH FILTERS!

There is something about roses which creates a special mood about any image. Perhaps our mind creates a mood, but a lot of filters are created to create a mood.

The softness of the above image was made by using a pastel filter, using soft white material for the complete background/foreground and smudging the image with my favorite smudge tool.

Challenge for Today:

If you have a camera which will accept filters, think about purchasing one.

Lily-of-the-Valley

BE DARING IN COLORS AND HAVE FUN!

There is nothing unusual about this image. It is just another example of using the "arithmetic" part of Corel Paint Shop Pro.

I took two images of the same size - one of just pure color and the other image was a photograph of lily-of-the valley blooms. I chose the software to give me a new image using the average of the 2 photographs.

I got a mass of color which I like and it is kinda abstract. Perhaps that is why it like it -it doesn't look like the average photograph.

Anyway, that is it with the image. Nothing else was done.


Challenge for the day:

Have fun with colors!

Oranges, Cosmos and Glasses

LEARN TO WORK WITH YOUR BACKGROUND!

Believe it or not....sometimes I actually do little computer work with an image after I photograph it! And this is an example here.

I composed the above image with one view in mind: making a still life image around an 12" x 18" image I had done earlier.

If you would go back to my posting of Problems of Having too Little - on March 24, you would recognize the background image.

All that I did with the foreground part of the above image was just use colors in the foreground which worked well with the background and I used a different green glass to offset the green bottle in the background.

So to sum it all up - this whole new image was to incorporate an older photograph into a newer image.

Challenge for today:

Think, think of your older images. What could you reuse????

Only Roses

IT MATTERS NOT THE TIME OF YEAR FOR ROSES!

There is nothing much about the above image - just 1 rose in full bloom and a bud in the background.

BUT.......the rose is resting on the same background as the background I used on the image I posted yesterday.

(Once you get a background you like, you can use it for many things!!!!!!!)

The yellows in the background go well with the cream color in the roses.

I didn't do very much after I took this image except I used my favorite smudge tool.

Challenge for today:

It is still spring and flowers are beginning to bloom - now is the time to get that special background ready that you can use for the rest of the year.

What Are Yellow Daffodils Doing in a Shoe?

I DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING WITH THE SHOE SITTING ON THE SHELF!

Though it is the time of daffodils, I decided to post an image I did about 4 years ago. (I've already posted 2 images of daffodils I've done this year.)

The background I used for this image is one I created. It basically is an "arithmetic" one I did by using Corel's Paint Shop Pro.

After I got this image by using 2 of mine, I smudged it a lot.

I then printed it out as an 12" x 18" inch image. I use it a lot because the colors are soft and works well with flowers.

Anyway, I just wanted to showcase the ceramic shoe which belonged to my mother. However, I was off in my decision to photograph the shoe because all my daffodils were pretty well done for. (Some flowers still can look pretty when they're dried - daffodils aren't on that list.)

I chose to use the color yellow because it went well with the gold lines on the shoe and also yellow complements lavender.

When I got out my 12" by 18" background, I halfway stood it up so the shoe could completely sit on the background. And that was it.

Basically, I really don't think this is a good image, but I use it to stress two things: you can create some of your own backgrounds AND you can create still life images of items that mean a lot.

Challenge for the day:

Work at getting your own background images ready for future photographic sessions.

Nothing Like the Bright-eyed Black Eye Susan

NOTHING LIKE HAVING FUN WITH PHOTOGRAPHING FLOWERS AND OTHER THINGS!

If you work with computers with manipulating images, you really should check out Corel's Paint Shop Pro software. There are some really neat tools, but I usually use the "arithmetic" part of their program.

First thing you take 2 images which are exactly the same size. Then you let the software do the "arithmetic" version of the 2 images you chose. The "arithmetic" choices are: 1. an average of the 2 images - 2. the lightest of the 2 images - and 3. the darkest of the 2 images.

Broken down - this means you get a completely new image based upon which one of the 3 choices you choose.

Now for the example.

I had 2 images - 1 image was of some old wood with a emblem and some pealing paint and the other image was of 2 black-eyed susans on a small blue plate.

Since I did this image about 4 years ago, I don't remember which choice I made, but I think it was an average of the 2. (Remember, I THINK it was that choice.)

Notice you can see some of the wood underneath the lighter portion of the plate. Also, you can see some of the wood underneath the flowers. This all gives the image a rather "unique" look.

Now that I've worked through this example, I firmly believe I used the "average of the two images." I couldn't have gotten the results I achieved if I had used either of the other two choices.

Challenge for today:

Seriously think about purchasing Corel Paint Shop Pro.

Chicory Flowers Are Wild Flowers and Beautiful in a Bunch

WHEN YOU THINK OF COFFEE SUBSTITUTE DO YOU EVER THINK OF CHICORY?

Yeah, those tall, small blossomed blue flowers which are in abundance beside many roads in the summer and fall were a substitute for coffee during World War II.

Each blossom blooms for only a half of a day (they don't like the heat of the day), but there are many blossoms on a plant.

For photographing purposes they create their own problems: They have one large upright stem and many smaller branches which reach out to the sides. So they aren't really pretty to put in a vase and the individual blossoms don't really have much of a stem.

But the flowers look beautiful in a mass, they spread as plants, and you don't have to worry about them!

Now, enough about the plant.

Because not many people ever think of beautifying chicory flowers in still life images, I thought of taking up the challenge. And I thought the flowers had enough of a delicate blue coloring they would be pretty once the image was done. I picked a few blossoms and since their leaves are small and rather unsightly, I picked a few leaves of something else.

I placed the completely dry items on top of one of my background images and photographed away.

After I got done, I got out my favorite smudge tool and did some smudging.

And the image was done.

Challenge for the day:

Work on getting one background which will be suitable for photographing flowers on later.

Peonies in a Vase and Sometimes Be Daring

On a personal note before information about the image:

Yesterday despite the wet grass, I went out and weeded some. There is so much to do, but I let our 7 hens out to eat the grass in their penned in areas. The only rooster we have flew over his fence and joined me in the garden.

The rooster really likes people. Nothing satisfies him more than to sit in a swing on your lap. So after I worked a while I sat down on with the cat and rooster. I finally left them to go inside and get a few gardening books and a coke. When I came outside, the rooster and cat were waiting for me on the porch. (The swing is in the yard.)

Anyway, when my husband came home from a visit to the church, I had the neighbor's dog, the rooster, and the cat all sitting with me on the porch. We were all pretty content. I was reading gardening tips and I don't know what the animals were thinking.

NOW ABOUT THE IMAGE

YES, SOMETIMES BE DARING!

A co-worker gave me freedom to come over anytime to photograph the flowers in her yard. And I will be eternally grateful for her kindness to me.

Anyway, my co-worker had a next door neighbor who had rows and rows of peonies in bloom.

Though the neighbor knew me just by acquaintance, one day I just couldn't take it any longer. I walked up to her door and asked her if I could pick some peonies and turn them into still life images. I was even daring enough to ask if there was something she would like me to photograph with the peonies. She brought out her grandmother's Bible. She allowed me to take the Bible home and some peonies. I carefully photographed the Bible and because I had lots of peonies, I had lots of fun photographing the flowers in various vases.

When I returned the Bible, the neighbor received a 5 x 7 image the Bible and peonies.

Though the image above is not the one with the Bible, it is of some of the peonies from that neighbor. (I will post the Bible and peonies image at a later date.)

Challenge for the day:

Check with friends. They might be thrilled if you photographed their flowers. Just be careful and don't disturb anything! Be sure NOT to pick anything. And be sure to give the kind friend copies of what you did.

White Hydrangeas as if they were in a dream

MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL - WHICH IMAGE SHOULD I CHOOSE?

I have so many versions of this one image! I cannot decide which one to choose.

A friend of mine had some hydrangeas on the north side of her house. I photographed some of them up close.

Then much later I decided to do some fun things with the image.

I got a flower image which had some ribbon and lace in it.

Then I did an arithmetic thing with it using Corel Draw's Paint Shop Pro where you use 2 images to make 1 new image.

After a while I got this version of the image.

Of course if you want to try utilizing "arithmetic" in Paint Shop Pro you HAVE to have 2 images of the same size.

As I have said previously, "Never crop your images until you are finally through and only after you have made a copy of your work right before you decide to crop."

You always want to have copies of your work as it progresses.

And I never send to the trash unwanted versions. You never can tell, you may want to use those versions later. (I keep 1 file for each image I am working on. This is my white hydrangea. I have a file called "Hydrangea." If this image had been taken by my digital camera, I would have called the file folder whatever the digital file number would have been.)

Anyway, I like the image because it is soft and unusual.


Challenge for today:

Combine some flowers with some lace and ribbons. See what you get.

White Wild Roses (I Think)

I KNOW IT DOESN'T MATTER NOW....BUT.....

I think these are wild roses. I didn't plant them - somehow these blossoms appeared amidst my red wegilia bush. And boy! The flowers sure had a lot of thorns!

I cannot stress enough the wisdom of creating some of your own backgrounds for still life images. I have 2 backgrounds which I keep reusing. This is one of those two.

This image has a lot of blues and pinks in it and I just arrange the flowers accordingly.

In order to get some of a painting look, I smudged the image with my smudge tool and then I placed a layer I had worked up in Microsoft PhotoDraw. I adjusted the layer's opacity.

I think the resulting image kinda looks like an old fashioned picture.

Challenge for today:

Photograph a few blossoms against one of your own images.

Just Field Flowers

BUT WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABOUT FIELD FLOWERS?

Field flowers are SPECIAL because people overlook them.

I got at a thrift store a bottle that had been painted.

When I did this photo, I placed the 7 inch tall bottle in front of a gold colored serving tray.

I put the field flowers in the bottle and some in front of the bottle.

I liked the idea of the flowers AND the bottle being reflected in the serving tray. (I did work hard in getting the bottle situated just right for the reflection of the flowers and bottle.)

In the computer I used the smudging tool to smudge a portion of the serving tray.

When I entered this image in competition at a size of 13 x 17 it was chosen for exhibition purposes and then retained to go on loan.

Challenge for today:

Look at the loveliness of things which are SO common and try and make them uncommon.

MORNING GLORY BOWL

IF A FRIEND GIVES YOU A GIFT, PHOTOGRAPH THE GIFT!

Actually I didn't photograph the gift. I ate it.

But I did photograph the bowl with morning glories in it and THEN returned the bowl back to her with a 5 x 7 image of my result.

The above image is another example of photographing the image on very light material and also having a very light background.

Then after I got the image into my computer, I got one of my digital files which I had worked up earlier in Microsoft PhotoDraw.

After a mixture of using the arithmetic tool in Paint Shop Pro, various degrees of layers and using the soften focus adjustment, I came up with the above photo.


Challenge for today:

Tomorrow is Easter. If you get a gift, perhaps you can photograph it and give the result back to the giver.

PLAYING WITH WORDS AND FLOWERS

DO YOU YOU SEE THE PLAY ON WORDS IN THIS IMAGE?

I had an idea of a photo I wanted, but I had to wait.

I had an old fashioned lilac bush which took 7 years to bloom. (Perhaps that is why it is called old fashioned.) Anyway, my mother died before the lilac ever bloomed.

I also have some old books.

I liked the idea of photographing the book "Under the Lilacs" by Louisa May Alcott while the book WAS under some lilacs.

And that is what I did here along with a couple of other books to give it some balance.

I used yellow material because yellow goes well with lavender.

I also placed a textured layer of my own making over the image to give it more of a "painting" look.

So, I now have the "Under the Lilacs" book REALLY under some lilacs!

Challenge for today:

Play around with books and flowers.

STRESS SIMPLE VASES

BUT THE VASE IS SO SIMPLE!

Yes, the vase is simple, but that is what is needed.

Do you want to see mostly the flowers or do you want to see mostly the vase?

Something has GOT to be the main feature in the photo!

The vase complements the flowers but the vase doesn't compete with the flowers.

I photographed this image against a plain light colored wall.

After I shot the digital image, I then manipulated it in the computer.

I used my favorite smudge tool and then I placed textured layer which I designed onto the image.

Then I adjusted the opacity of the pasted in layer.

Challenge for the day:

Take a look at your vases. What vases could be candidates of later being used in an image?

THE FLOWERS AND THE BACKGROUND JUST SEEMED TO GO TOGETHER!

So, after I allowed the flowers to completely dry, I placed them on a 13 x 19 image abstract image I had worked up earlier.

The colors went SO WELL TOGETHER!

I then scanned the image into my computer.

And after getting out my favorite smudge tool, I set to work smudging the image.

I loved the resulting image.

Challenge for today:

Photograph something you can use later as the background in a new image.

CREATING A FEELING

MAKE OTHERS FEEL LIKE THEY ARE ALMOST IN THE PHOTO!

It was just an old chair.

The blossoms were taken from some wild shrubs.

The green clippers seemed to create the feeling that the owner was still close at hand.

The red plastic pail added extra color to the image.

After I took the image and scanned it into the computer, I cloned out the unsightly door lock.

I, also, darkened the area behind the chair to hide the background.

I smudged both the door and the concrete floor.

The image isn't great, but I like the feeling.


Challenge for today:

Create a scene with some feeling.

GETTING FRAMED

LOOK FOR THE OBVIOUS IN LINES TO GETTING GREAT FRAMING

This flower looks like it is sitting in front of a window.

Actually it is sitting outdoors on a table on a type of small curio shelf piece that can hang on the wall. The "curtain" is just some cloth I placed behind as background to hide the grass.

After I photographed the image, I went back in and used the "smudged" tool to give it some extra "texture."


Challenge for today:

See how you can "frame" something today.

KEEPSAKE MEMORIES

FRAME THOSE MEMORY KEEPSAKES!

We all have keepsakes passed down through the family.

The shame is that keepsakes ARE keepsakes AND only 1 individual can be in possession of a keepsake.

BUT IF YOU COULD PHOTOGRAPH A KEEPSAKE THEN YOU COULD AT LEAST PASS THAT MEMORY ON TO OTHERS.

The above image is very important to me.

The above dog's name is Pedro. He was a fun thing my father "won" at a carnival when he was on a date with my mother. My mother never got rid of it - it was something precious to her even after my parents were married.

The piece of paper in the image was a letter my aunt found after my mother died. In the letter mother mentions that as a toddler I had been walking, but I had briefly quit after I had come down sick.

I decided to photograph these items together and I used the smudged tool to wipe out any mentioning of my name to a copy of the image later on.

Through the result of this photograph, Pedro is not now confined to my house. He can now "dwell" in the house of other family members. And if he should break beyond repair or if the letter gets lost, the image will still be there.


Challenge for Today:

Create an image of a keepsake and pass that image to others in your family.

CREATING UNREAL REALITY

AH, NOTHING LIKE SETTING UP YOUR STILL LIFE
IMAGE BESIDE A WINDOW! RIGHT????

But there is NO window in this image, because the "woodwork" belonging to the "window" is an illusion.

Oh, the woodwork is real, but the woodwork is basically broken off edging from off the ceiling of my grandmother's house.

And oh, I had a terrible time getting the scrap of edging to stand up straight!

(By the way...the peaches were fake, I got the vase at a garage sale and the flowers were picked from my garden.)


Challenge for today:

Try and create a "window" yourself.

Don't Have More Than 1 Competitor

THIS ISN'T EVEN A GOOD PHOTO! SO WHY AM I BOTHERING EVEN USING IT?

Cause I'm trying to drive home a point:

Don't let an item in an image compete with other items in the same image.

As in this photo the plain looking little vase does NOT detract from the overall image.

The eye is drawn to the material (which happened to be an old fashion dress of my mother).

As the vase is clear and very plain, it blends IN with the material and that is the objective of the vase - just blending in.

Again, I want to stress - the vase isn't in any type of competition with the rest of this image which happens to be mostly just of a dress.

And yes....during this same photo session, I tried placing some apple blossoms - white with a touch of pink - into the vase.

And you know......the image just wasn't right.

The flowers competed with the dress!

THINK OF A SERIES

THINKING OF GETTING ONE GOOD SHOT? WHY NOT TRY FOR 2 OR 3 GOOD IMAGES?

When you get into a "series" you are thinking of more possibilities.

Go into an interior decorating store and browse around. Many images on the wall are in groups of 2 or 3. Walk into an office building - many paintings on the wall are of one subject but in different settings.

Look on your on walls of your home.

Why settle for something ANYONE can purchase at the local store.

Why not showcase your own originality?

This is the 1st of April. Spring has just started. Flowers are starting to bloom.

If you have some flowers - photograph them.

If you don't have space for flowers - photograph something of the family that means a lot.

And speaking of photographing something of the family - Mother's Day is coming up.

Why not surprise mom or your grandmother with an image(s) of some treasured thing that is extra special to them.

Now, on the 2 images above.

I took a little over 200 photos Sunday. I have worked these 2 up.

The background was some type of smooth art board and I added a different background later on the computer to give the images a more "artistic" look.