still life

52 Frames: Week 29: Common Object!

This week, we’re looking to shoot a Common Object. And isn’t that what photography is all about, really? Taking the mundane and shining a different light on it. Highlighting an object or scene that we normally pass by with no notice, and making it something special.

Think about all the common objects you can see around you right this moment – a bottle, socks, a pen, eggs, coffee mugs, perfume vapor, cell phone – the list of subjects you have this week are endless.

I once again left this to the last minute, being on holiday it is all about being lazy, or not if you are married to a man who needs something done every day. So this week we have re-arranged our sauna / guest room furniture, got rid of some stuff, bought some new to replace the old one. Re arranges the kitchen cabinets, put up new shelfs. We gave a away a car load of old furniture to be recycled to a flee market. A car load of stuff to the be recycle center. Busy with ordinary, common objects, but it never crossed my mind to take photos. Today, last day to give in the submission I took some photos of common objects.

I often wear costume jewelry, so common to me. I drink coffee, wine and my hubby enjoys whisky. These are some finds from the cottage. Also these old glasses I found whilst our cleaning spree.

Now the challenge is to simply make the ordinary look extra ordinary, or at least photographed well. You could try focusing on a particular detail or texture. Or perhaps show how you use it in your day-to-day life. Tell a story about how something mundane and ordinary can be a valuable part of your day.

what is life with a occasional glass of wine or a cup of coffee

TIPS:

Selection: Start at the very beginning – pick an object that speaks to you – whether it’s your car keys that you pick up everyday, or the chef’s knife you use to prep dinner.
Composition: Arrange things how you want them – the great thing about common objects is that you can arrange them as you see fit; you’re not restricted by an inability to pick things up and move them around.
Tones & Colors: The overall look and feel of the colors in an image evoke different senses and emotions – do pay attention to the composition of colors and overall tones in your image, in terms of being complementary or adding contrast.
Balance: This is all about the visual weight- obviously, larger objects that fill the frame are meant to hold the viewer’s attention the most. Certain items can add nuance and help balance a frame without taking away from the main subject.

52 Frames, Week 5: Depth Of Field -2

Landscapes, Nature

It has snowed a lot lately, today there was a moment of sunshine and went out with an intention to capture Depth Of Field – a super important concept in photography that often separates those photos that look “amateur” from those that look “professional” or as I like to call it, “profesh”.

In my previous post I had taken some shots outside, here are few I took inside still life. Once again I was sloppy, I forgot to dust the table prior the shots, well, so it goes.

Here are some of them, give me once again your valuable input as I try to improve my photo skills.

Peaches

Still life

This month’s theme is peach, in my FB photography group. I struggled with it for a while since peaches where not available in the stores until recently – it was not their season 🙂 Well, anyways I found some peaches in the end and took photos of them. Feel free to comment, I am still on a constant learning curve.

I tried to create different moods, time periods (nostalgic) and obviously variations in compositions. I was not all that creative this time in that sense, but you cannot always succeed 🙂

Still Life- Rose & Bottle

Still life

My son had this Planters Pyrat XO Reserve bottle that he was about to throw away (some side information 🙂 The Pyrat gets its name from the Old English word for pirate. The stout bottle of the XO Reserve is also a tribute to this heritage.) I looked at bottle a little bit closer, I noticed that this would make a nice vase for few flowers. I washed, it took the labels of and I had a prop for my photo add three roses and lets shoot. Pretty.

A Bottle, Rose, greens and a kettle holder. Shadow and light. Color play.

Color play with fruits

Still life

These are such a contrast to the snow floating behind my window and this being the first day of spring. Today is the spring equinox, when day and night are about the same length all over the globe. As spring progresses, the days lengthen and the nights shorten in Finland and elsewhere in the northern hemisphere. The joy of this 🙂 is enormous!

I took more still life photos of fruits to pass the time

A Granny Smith and grapes and an Orange. Shadow and light. Color play.

Fruits on an oak pot coaster? Is that a right word?

Still, still life

Still life

Practicing still life photography with Bouquet of dried flowers and garlic

Fruit

Still life

I was reminded that one should not to play with food 😀 , LOL, so I took the advice and instead I did arrangements with fruit.

Granny Smith and Golden Delicious plus Oranges. Shadow and light. Bright Colors

These are such a contrast to the snow floating behind my window. Enough of white already, it is lovely when it first arrives, this time of the year not so much.

Apples

Still life

I have played with my apple images.

Granny Smith and Golden Delicious. Shadow and light. Color and black and white.

Lemon Slice #3

Photography, Still life

I promise this is my last post on lemons for now, other fruits need to be noticed too for they bright and uplifting colors. As you can see I can go slightly overboard when I try to capture just the right shot. Serious business these challenges 😀 LOL ( not! )

Lemon, yellow…I bought lemon, lime, sparkling water and set up my project.I took so, so many shots, way too many. Once again I faced a dilemma what to post. So I took macro or close ups mainly of slices of lemon , but you can see lime there too. This first one is my favorite.

Lemon Slice

Photography, Still life

If nothing else these are a splash of spring, summer in these photos; Nothing says ‘sunshine’ in the kitchen or on a menu like lemon. One of the quotes i saw about lemon was this, I did not aim for that: One of the negative side, some artists use the image of a cut lemon to insinuate that something is sour, faulty or otherwise amiss.

Lemon and Lime

Photography, Still life

One of the things I participate in is a monthly FB group photography challenge, this is my second entry to theme.

This month the theme is Lemon, yellow…I bought lemon, lime, sparkling water and set up my project.I took so, so many shots, way too many. once again I faced a dilemma what to post. Here I am not so limited I might even do several post on this. Trying to figure out the framing, this is in my humble opinion one of the main things, how you frame your topic. I does not matter if it a still life or landscape. Exposure, the light and shadow play, What area do you want to focus on, and how sharp the image is and where to place the focus. Decisions, decisions 🙂

Challenges

Photography, Still life

One of the things I participate in is a monthly FB group photography challenge, the same group has been active for a long time, now we are on going strong in the 6th year.. The amount of participants slightly differ yearly, but there has been small group of photographers, mostly women, from the beginning.

Sometimes it is a challenge, when new arrivals come to figure out what you can say about the photos they post. The idea is to give feedback on the photos other than; Nice, lovely etc. As all photos are not that, they need constructive feedback. I include myself in the group that, we all can benefit from other peoples views on our photos. Well, the ones who have been together, you know that you can give feedback, suggestions without offending them – they know it is one opinion, you might agree or or not, learn from it. Or just ignore it. Some are so opposed to criticism that you either say nothing or give some platitudes, so you have commented on the photo. It takes time to figure out what someone is willing to hear.

As I said, I have been in this group since the beginning. It is run by a friend of mine. This same friend is who got me into blogging in the first place back in 2011, then I posted photos mainly to challenges either photography or art challenges.

One thing that came from it, is my digital art interest and desire to create it and learn more of it, to create my own style. My contemporary art and this blog has kept me on a learning curve. The photos I took way back and was happy about make me slightly gringe and that is certainly the case with my digital art, at the beginning they were just double exposures 🙂

So to sum up this long post, constant learning and opinions have certainly been helpful to me. Thanks Irma for your encouragement and our willingness to keep the challenge going. For me, most of the challenges have been a learning experience, that I would not have tried if not for that challenge.

This month the theme is Lemon, yellow…Here is my take on it. The first image is the one i submitted, other are different takes on it. I always have difficulty when trying to pick one image.

Sad; simplicity and elegance

Flowers

So simplicity and elegance, was my aim as I once again took the task of taking photos of them.

The soft tilting of their heads and elegant lines inspires to try create a mood. Here are my attempt to capture sad, peaceful, or just resting mood. How do you see them, or are they just other pictures of tulips and my trying to capture some mood was in vain 🙂

But I took photos also of the ones that bowed their heads, looking lovely and a little sad.

simplicity and elegance

Flowers

I love the simplicity and elegance of tulips. I usually not able to keep them looking good for many days. This time I am trying a new trick, I’ve been adding ice cubes into the water and other trick is to have them in snow…

So simplicity and elegance, was my aim as I once again took the task of taking photos of them.

I love tulips better than any other spring flower; they are the embodiment of alert cheerfulness and tidy grace. Their faint, delicate scent is refinement itself; and is there anything in the world more charming than the sprightly way they hold up their little faces to the sun, wrote Elizabeth von Arnim and I could not say it any better.

But I took photos also of the ones that bowed their heads, looking lovely and a little sad. I will post them in my next post

Interiors, Still life

Still Life – Time

Flowers

Time, clock, lavender are the inspirations for these still life photos.

Red Apples

Still life

Something different from my travel memories and winter shots. Still life – Red Apples. Just for the fun of it.

How to survive November 2020-19

Black and White photos

I have to say 19th, went by watching the rain and wind blowing outside. It was our first winter storm, I think. Totally blank about what to post. So, here something not so inspiring, like the day was.

If you wish to participate in this survival of the darkest month challenge, use this link to add your post to it. PARALLEL LINES

Traveling being banned at the moment, here is a photo of a pelican flying at sunset

How to survive November – 5

Black and White photos, People, Photography

This is always a day of Big decisions, at least for the ladies. I should not say all ladies, but to many women I know. What to do to your hair when at the hair salon. What color, what cut…

I have had red(carrot) hair nearly two years, but now everyone is turning red, I have to try something new a darker shade. A long bob has been my look for years. Today is time for change. This isn’t my best look, but it was something I did to survive this month of grayness.

Shells found on one of out trips to warm and sandy beaches. The original photo was taken 2014 so few years back, now I edited it and then converted it to B&W

Brown symbolizes: comfort

Flowers, Still life

Brown symbolizes: reliability, stability, honesty, comfort
Effects of brown: simplifies, protects, grounds, stabilizes
Positive traits: appreciation, support, wisdom, dependable
Negative traits: boring, dull, timid, predictable

Spam, Spam & Spam

About, Still life

I have been having trouble with getting the comments and likes etc to my screen. This feature did not at all, I mainly saw them on my app on my phone. Not the most convenient to say the least, it frustrated me totally. I got help, I have to say that when you contact the help on WordPress they do respond immediately. I appreciate that. That said, I had an invasion of spams, mainly from Russia and they all were sent in the past week over 2500 of them. They jammed my sites!!!

That is huge amount – 2500 spams in weeks time, please see your sites if similar thing is happening to you. All these came after I’ve updated the themes on both of my sites Ritva’s Art- Photography and ART BY RITVA .

The photo I’ve chosen is in no way related to the topic. It is a photo of an old ledger book. I just like the photo 🙂

found in an old chair

Interiors, Still life

I has you guessing in an earlier post as to what I’ve photographed, well, these are from the same topic, old chair springs that he replaced for new ones. It is hard to find new things to take photos off. Soon we will have spring and I can see the nature come to bloom and that will help a lot. Take care everyone of yourself and your loved ones.