a photographic expedition with my 4 year old

I went on a little adventure with my youngest yesterday.  Cameras in hand, we took a short walk through our woods.  She's shown a lot of interest in using my camera lately so I thought it would be fun to unearth my old point-and-shoot and let her snap a few pics.  These are her pictures with no editing or cropping from me.

Not surprisingly, mushrooms were a favorite subject.  She is my daughter, after all.

She also took a few that I think perfectly captured "her".

My heart swelled a little when I saw that last one, that she took looking into my dye pot.

She had no worries about how to frame her shots or of lighting or focus, she just snapped away, having a good time in the process.  When we were looking at her pictures on the computer she was just as fond of the blurry and out of focus shots as she was the lovely ones.

I can appreciate the fact that this child, who is so adept at pushing my buttons and driving me crazy, is equally adept at reminding me to relax and go with the flow.  It's like that with kids I guess.

I hope you have some relaxation and fun yourselves today.  Happy Thursday.

A wearable vessel as seen by Rachael Scott

I love the power of the internet.  I have met so many amazing people through it and made friends with people that, even though I've never met them in person, I couldn't imagine not having them in my life.  One of these amazing people is my friend Rachael.  You might already know her for her photography or you may know her as mosaicroro on Etsy.

 I know her as a truly fascinating talented soul sister.

I sent her one of my wearable vessels and she took some photos, and to me, these are just magic.  I'll let the pictures do the talking. 

She sees beautifully, doesn't she?  It's one thing to take a photograph of your own work but when someone else does it, I think it gives you a chance to see your work in a different way.  Thanks, Rach for sharing these with me.

Rachael's blog

Her facebook page

Outtakes

A picture tells a thousand words. 

As someone who makes and sells craftwork online, I struggle with taking a good picture of my items.  I have neither a fancy camera nor mad photography skills so I have to work hard to get a picture that I like.  I want a picture that portrays the item accurately, but also one that conveys a "feeling", my feeling of the item.

The sweet Karen posted a comment on my blog tonight, complimenting me on my photos, and her comment made me feel compelled to share my process.   

Here's what I know works for me. 

First I shoot in natural light near a window.  I find that 10:00am to 11:00am offers light that is kind of moody and nice.  Any later than that, and the light no longer throws shadows, something that I like in my photos.

I shoot the item while facing slightly into the sun.  

I shoot in macro mode.

I consciously arrange the scene, often with the main item slightly off-center.

I use Picasa, a free photo service offered by Google, to crop and make minor edits to my pictures.

I take many pictures, often running to the computer to check them out before returning to take more or change things up.  This becomes extra fun when I know I'm losing my light and have many things to photograph.   (take photo, run to computer, mutter profanity, run back, take another photo, run back to computer...)

Here are outtakes from today.

This one was shot in a different room than I normally shoot in.  The room was painted yellow which gave kind of a sickly yellow tint to everything.  It has a window, but it did not get a lot of sun in it.  Using a diffuser, I set up a daylight bulb to add extra light.  It looks like it's in an aquarium sort of, don't you think.

This one was shot in the same room, but without the diffused light.  A little better, but a lot of glare, and still that sickly yellow tint.

This is the shot I kept.  I changed rooms, and changed backgrounds and shot into the sun.  I like this one much more.

So please, fellow photo-takers, share your tips.  I'd love to hear what works for you and what doesn't.  What are your secrets?

Freeze Frame

Occasionally I'm asked if I sell my photographs.  I'm not a trained photographer so the question always takes me off guard.  I stammer a bit that no, I don't, I'm a trained artist but never taken photography courses, blah blah blah.  It's flattering but takes me out of my comfort zone a bit, so after much (trust me, MUCH) inner debate, I've decided to try it out.  I've just listed a few photographs in the shop and will be listing more, including some notecards, in the next few weeks. 

I hope you'll check them out, and I want to thank those of you that have given me the encouragement.  It means a lot to me to know that some of you find some beauty in how I see the world.

Happy Friday!