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Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category

Foto Friday, Silhouette

Friday, August 7th, 2015

This past weekend we went on a 4 1/2 day trip to Nova Scotia and home via New Brunswick.   Gardening work and unpacking and starting on an article has distracted me (gee, who me?) from blogging, but promise I will.  This past week’s lesson and challenge in the Ricky Tims 52 Week Photography Challenge class was silhouette.   I tried a lot of things, but due to travel wasn’t at a time/place where I could do sunrise or sunset silhouettes.  So I ended up submitting a photo of the rigging of the Bluenose II (the Bluenose original is on the Canadian dime) in Lunenburg harbor.   Right click on photos to see larger.

adjusted levels to darken the masts, smart sharpen.  Lightened the sky by adjusting the blues slightly.  Slightly cropped on the right. The Bluenose II, a replica of the Bluenose which is on the back of the Canadian dime.  Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.  I liked the play of lines across the image.

adjusted levels to darken the masts, smart sharpen. Lightened the sky by adjusting the blues slightly. Slightly cropped on the right.
The Bluenose II, a replica of the Bluenose which is on the back of the Canadian dime. Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. I liked the play of lines across the image.

Major thanks to Valerie Hearder, an art quilter in Nova Scotia, for replying to my email and suggesting stops and things to see between Yarmouth and Mahone Bay and Peggy’s Cove.  More anon!

Lightened vignetting in the top corners, crunched levels to darken masts.  Punched up sky with vibrance. The Bluenose II, a reproduction of the Bluenose on the back of the Canadian dime.

Lightened vignetting in the top corners, crunched levels to darken masts. Punched up sky with vibrance.
The Bluenose II, a reproduction of the Bluenose on the back of the Canadian dime.

The masts to the tippy top of the Bluenose II.  Essentially no edits.

The masts to the tippy top of the Bluenose II. Essentially no edits.

Foto Friday, July 24th, 2015

Friday, July 24th, 2015

The week’s challenge was footwear.  I’m not big on still lifes, but most of my ideas had already been done by other students in the class, so I set up a still life of Eli’s wrestling shoes.  The other part of the lesson was on dominance.   The shoes are clearly more dominant in the second photo, but I felt the first one was a better photo, so I submitted that for my week’s challenge.

Here's the photo I submitted for the Footwear/dominance challenge.

Here’s the photo I submitted for the Footwear/dominance challenge.

The usual smart sharpen, slight adjustments to levels, dodged a bit on the red knee-pad on the left as it was too distracting.  I like the tight focus on the well-worn wrestling shoes.  The kid came in second at the State Wrestling Tournament (Class B), and fourth overall in the State in his weightclass, including competing against the big schools in southern Maine.  Proud mama!

The usual smart sharpen, slight adjustments to levels, dodged a bit on the red knee-pad on the left as it was too distracting. I like the tight focus on the well-worn wrestling shoes. The kid came in second at the State Wrestling Tournament (Class B), and fourth overall in the State in his weightclass, including competing against the big schools in southern Maine. Proud mama!

Foto Friday on Monday, because I forgot LOL!

Monday, July 20th, 2015

So I forgot to post a photo on my Foto Friday (and just my second week of doing this…erk!).  Except I just checked and I skipped an extra week.  SHRIEK!  OK…so today you get TWO fotos!

This past week's challenge was Macro/Flowers.  I don't have a Macro lens, so I just did flowers.  I deliberately focused on the one flower, blurring out the rest to create a focal point. Adjustment to levels, highlight.  That’s all folks!

This past week’s challenge was Macro/Flowers. I don’t have a Macro lens, so I just did flowers. I deliberately focused on the one flower, blurring out the rest to create a focal point. Adjustment to levels, highlight. That’s all folks!

And from the previous week, the theme was Celebration.   We had a lovely quiet Fourth of July, and I was touched that Joshua and Ashley wanted to come spend time with us.  And I gotta get Joshua to teach me how he got a burger that is both well done and juicy!

As soon as the theme was announced, I knew I would celebrate family when the few of us (just five!) gathered on the Fourth.  I like the triangular composition and the fact that three of my four family members (well, of the humans) are in this shot, even if hubby’s slipper is barely in the lower right corner!  Used dodge to darken corners, lasso and content aware fill to eliminate the white tag on the chair behind the firepit, a distracting glint of light on the chair leg, and a streak from a rising ember that just looked off.   Given how dark it was and that this was hand-held, I’m glad it turned out so well.

As soon as the theme was announced, I knew I would celebrate family when the few of us (just five!) gathered on the Fourth. I like the triangular composition and the fact that three of my four family members (well, of the humans) are in this shot, even if hubby’s slipper is barely in the lower right corner!
Used dodge to darken corners, lasso and content aware fill to eliminate the white tag on the chair behind the firepit, a distracting glint of light on the chair leg, and a streak from a rising ember that just looked off. Given how dark it was and that this was hand-held, I’m glad it turned out so well.

I am just too dang busy, but I’m sure having fun and learning!  My yard and house are a mess, but so what.  As the saying goes, I’ll be buried under 6 feet of dust, I’ll deal with it then!

Foto Friday

Friday, July 3rd, 2015

So I’ve been taking this online photography course (the 52-week challenge) with Ricky Tims this year.  I decided maybe I should start posting my photos, as we have learned a lot.  So I’ll begin with my photo for Week 25, which was “Do Over #2,” meaning we could re-visit any lesson.   I re-did a number of lessons, then selected the best photo to submit.  I like this one so much I may turn it into a quilt!

Detail of the train engine at the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT.

Detail of the train engine at the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT.

Whooda thunk it–me, the lady all about color, considering a somewhat abstracted black and white……hmmmm……Anyway, ENJOY.  And to my fellow citizens, Happy Fourth of July!  To our neighbors to the North, Happy Canada Day two days late!

PS:  since I expect I’ll get asked, the class is closed to new enrollees.  Our sign up was in December, and I expect Ricky will offer this 52-week challenge again.  To see all his offerings, visit www.letsquilttogether.com.

 

Quilting the Garden: Thread Coloring the Flower

Tuesday, March 31st, 2015

In my last post, I told you about my new series of workshops.  Click here  (or scroll down) to read the previous post.  The first workshop, From Photo to Flower Collage, can be a one or two-day workshop.  This time, it will be two-days (click here for more information, there are just a couple spots left).  The second workshop, ThreadColoring the Flower (click here) is booked this time as a one-day class.

The Pink Water Lily from my ThreadColoring the Flower workshop.

The Pink Water Lily from my ThreadColoring the Flower workshop.  www.SarahAnnSmith.com (c) 2015

The water lily photo for the workshop. Photo (c) SarahAnnSmith

The water lily photo for the workshop. Photo (c) SarahAnnSmith

The Close up of the wild Day Lily, also used in the workshop. (c) Sarah Ann Smith.  PS:  Sorry about all the watermarking and copyright notices--after the incident where someone created derivative copies of my work, I'm being even more  diligent about marking stuff.  So sad to have to do this!

The Close up of the wild Day Lily, also used in the workshop. (c) Sarah Ann Smith. PS: Sorry about all the watermarking and copyright notices–after the incident where someone created derivative copies of my work, I’m being even more diligent about marking stuff. So sad to have to do this!

Again, students begin with a choice of two images:  the pink water lily or the orange day lily.  This time, however, students choose in advance which flower, because I provide them with a photo printed onto cotton sateen (done at Spoonflower).  Why?  You know how you go to a workshop, and are lucky if you get the top done in time to begin quilting at the end of the day?  I wanted students to have the entire day to learn how to use and blend the thread so that they learn the process.  If they begin with the image already on the cloth, they can get straight to the thread-coloring without worrying about “messing up” the top on which they worked so hard.

Along with the approx.  11 x 14 inch photo-on-fabric, the kit includes five spools of Superior Threads 40-wt. trilobal polyester thread for quilting the flower (students need to provide their own greens or purchase additional–I wanted to keep the cost of the kit down by requiring only the threads needed for the flower), and stabilizer to help prevent distortion from the dense stitching.  We’ll talk about tension, needles, stabilizing for dense thread-work and more.  However, if students wish, after working a bit on the photo-on-fabric, they are welcome to switch over and start quilting their collaged flower (if they were in the Photo to Flower Collage workshop, of course).

Detail of the Pink Water Lily shows the dense stitching.

Detail of the Pink Water Lily shows the dense stitching.

For my Water Lily quilt, I took a second photo, cut it up, and used it as a frame for the small quilt.  The Day Lily is simply quilted and aced, as are most of my art quilts, with no border.

Quilted DayLily.

Quilted DayLily.

I’m so psyched about the trip to North Carolina–I’ll get to meet internet friends who are taking the class, and spend THREE DAYS with some of them, plus visit Program Chair Debby Harwell, whom I met in a dyeing workshop with Carol Soderlund (at ProChem in Massachusetts) lo these many years ago.  This is gonna be a blast!  I can’t wait to share what the students do.  Now, I just need to figure out how to take photos and blog from my ipad!