on photography, part II

Last weekend, I was making a couple of new brooches. One was a gift, but I wanted to photograph it anyway to have a record and visual memory. It was late afternoon when I did this, so the light was not really at it's best. The pics below show my process of what it took to get a like for like (ish) image.
Fist pic - taken inside on my desk with my standard desk lamp. way too dark, and way too yellow
Second pic - taken outdoors. Way too cold and way too blue
Third pic - taken indoors with small photography lamps (a recent acquisition). Much more true to life but still not quite right (maybe I'm being too self critical). As you can see by the pic below, this one was taken on the dining table (please avert your eyes from the minging wallpaper - believe me, this was not the worst decoration in the house when we moved in, and is hence the last room to get decorated). I think the result would have been better with a white covering on the wall and table to reflect the light around instead of soaking it up.
This morning I've taken a couple of pics inside as it's a nice bright morning. These have come out ok too (I think). I especially like the jelly beans.It's a hard thing this photography malarky.

btw, thanks for all your recent comments and well wishes, I'm feeling much less bleugh than I have been. I won't be sad to see the back of January though, bring on February, a whole better month entirely.

on photography

Occasionally I take a picture that I'm very happy with, but for every one great moment, atmosphere, story or occasion I capture, there are countless more that are badly framed, badly lit, or I find myself unable to capture the beauty that I can see with my naked eye. I could happily spend a good few hours on flickr soaking up the wealth of interesting images, colours, textures, moments...

The following few photos were take by my dad, who has taken photos both professionally and personally for many years. When I look at these they evoke quite an emotion in me - I really think he really has captured the moment in each of these pics. I think they are amazing. I wonder if I would enjoy them so much if they had been taken by anyone other than my dad? What do you think?My conclusion: Photography is a skill not to be underestimated.
I'm also on the look out for a photographer to capture the moment on 29th January 2011 - the BIG day, I think they call it!

and the bleugh goes on...

Not the most upbeat post from me today I'm sad to say. I have a really stinky cold - my nose is red and sore, I'm coughing and sneezing, my nose is bunged up so I can only breath through my mouth, and the worst, worst, worst thing is that I cannot taste anything. I do question the point of eating if you can't taste anything - it's just no fun.
I realise that I need my vitamins a plenty at the moment however, so today I made a fruit smoothie containing almost every piece of fruit I could find in the house, and I've made a big pan and vegetable soup for tea tonight - to feed the cold, as they say.
I haven't been feeling terribly creative at all this weekend - I've just put a few ideas into the mental sketchbook.
Something I have been picking up and putting down sporadically is a little bit of hooking - a pressie for my mum's birthday in February:On the topic of hooking, if I was to make a new years resolution (which I'm not by the way) then I'm quite determined to increase my hooking skills this year - I want to make a ripple blanket, and maybe have a go at amigurumi too - not least to make use of the really cool book I got from my sister for Christmas:

just getting on with it

I find January to be such a bleugh month. Christmas is such a nice time with so much happening and then January rears it's ugly head and sends you right back to normalville. I don't feel very motivated to do anything - my day job, the housework, cooking, making... Thankfully I just know that this is a symptom of January, and that it won't last.
I've been indulging in some much needed retail therapy to get me through such tough times (a tad too dramatic perhaps?). I've been spending the Amazon vouchers I recieved at Christmas time on some lovely new books with pretty pictures to inspire me. We have also bought ourselves a new mattress - not a luxury but a necessity - we've had our old one for over 10 years and a sign of this is the countless nights of late I've ended up sleeping on the sofa because it is more comfortable than the bed! Buying a mattress is a mine field though, there is so much choice these days. I'm not ashamed to admit I was fished in by the Silent night hippo and chick - they just appealed to meOf course we have had a little bit of excitement in the form of a snow covered UK this last week I do like snow, but driving to work on snowy icy roads is a bit scary. I also realised that I don't own appropriate snow footware, so shopped around on line for a new pair of wellies. The wellies have not arrived yet so I hope we get a bit more snow so I can test drive them properly!

A little bit of creativity this weekend came in the form of this doggy Birthday card. I do like a spotty dog!

Jme

Do you actually like trawling through the January (December) sale racks in the shops?, No me neither. As a young whipper snapper, I LOVED to go and grab a bargain but these days I just can't be bothered with it - it's too much like hard work and frankly other things are more important.
Just before Christmas I discovered the new online Jamie Oliver shop Jme. Wow - this totally appeals to me. I didn't buy anything at the time, but just oggled at all the lovely homewares/kitchen items I'd like to have in my dream house. The branding is very nice too, very craft/graphic/homemade style.At the weekend I accidentally stumbled upon the Jme shop again, and luckily they are having a sale. This is the kind of sale shopping I do like - shopping from the comfort of my sofa! I placed an order on Sunday and it arrived today - well packaged, and the quality of everything I bought was outstanding. I really cannot recommend it highly enough.I bought some Christmas cards, tags, tissue paper, cooks and gardeners crackers and a tea towel - I went mad and of course will be squireling away most of this for next Christmas! The calendar is lovely - printed on really high quality card stock, and is really nice to look at too (it's just £5).
They've added some more items to the sale pages since I shopped so it's definitely worth taking a look. There is also free postage if you spend over £35.

The best thing of the day: seeing a few snowflakes falling, and knowing there is more on the way.
The worst thing of the day: finding out the fridge door had been left open all day when I got home from work tonight, and smelling the stinky (but tasty, but stinky) Camembert that has been lurking in the fridge.