{31} ~ One Little Word / Another 52 Project

Prompt for Day 31 for Picture Winter

Inspired by Ali Edwards' class One Little Word, today's prompt was to shoot our word that we've selected for 2011 (and think about one, I you haven't yet). 

You might know by now that my word for 2011 is Inspiration, as I've mentioned it already more than once. So I won't write any more about it here and bore you (again) with it. It's just another representation of what I want to focus on this year with my word.

But what I also want to do this year is to do more b&w. I love b&w shots and I still fondly remember one afternoon spent in the school's darkroom, over ten years ago, developing pictures I'd taken in Venice. It was the only time I actually developed my own pictures and I sooo enjoyed it. I remember developing each photo several times, trying out all the different tones, from bright soft to harsh contrasts, watching how the chemicals made the image appear before my eyes like magic.

The digital process of turning colour pictures into b&w reminds me of that process. And I find it a 100 times more difficult than processing colour images. What works better for the image - soft greys, strong contrasts, darker, brighter, sepia, or even bringing back a hint of the original colours underneath?

I see quite a lot of b&w images around in my Flickr contacts' streams at the moment and it has inspired me to sit down and give it a try as well. I've joined the new Flickr group 52 weeks of no color to keep me inspired and to encourage me to go on with it and not give up again too quickly because I'm not satisfied with the result at the first try (and I've tried it quite a few times, most of them wandering straight into the bin afterwards).

So this is my first image for 52 weeks of no color and I'm already cheating a bit. I took this image the week before last and didn't intend it to be b&w at first but last night, when I processed it to bring out all the colours of the pastels, I just suddenly thought that it might be cool to turn a picture so full of colours into one without colours. I gave it a try and think I actually like it more than the colour version :-).

Texture by Shadowhouse Creations.

{Day 30} ~ Glimmer of Hope

Prompt for Day 30 for Picture Winter: "Glimmer of Hope"

Today, we had to look for signs that help to remind us that change is on its way.

It was a very grey day today, at least down here (sun and blue sky up in the mountains) and there weren't really any signs of spring anywhere to be seen. Which I take as a good sign - I still hope for some real winter weather with snow and all in the next months before spring :-)

Texture by The CoffeeShop Blog and Kim Klassen.

{Day 25} ~ The Magic Machine

Prompt for Day 25 for Picture Winter: "The Magic Machine"

Today, we were asked to look at our "most trusty messenger", at "our coveted computers" and to "find the beauty in the technical".

I expected this to be quite difficult, to take a picture of my computer which is somehow special, and not just, well, a picture of my computer. I was quite surprised about how much fun taking and processing this image actually was!

And my computer has certainly become my "trusted companion" in the last months, even more so than before. I spend a LOT of my time with it, even more than with my beloved camera.

{Day 22} ~ Centrepiece

Prompt for Day 22 for Picture Winter: "Centrepiece"

The assignment was to picture what's at the centre of our table and to "picture it in a way that says something about  you and your beloved table".

What you always find on my table are my beloved black+blum Loop candle holders. I first saw them at the shop in the Desing Museum in London a few years ago and simply couldn't resist. I bought just the one simply because there wasn't room for more than one in my suitcase (that was when hand lugagge restrictions were still extremely strict). But I managed to mail order two more from an online shop soon after. So I've got three of them, two satin and and one chrome finish, holding 6 candles altogether and I love how you can combine and interlace them or use them individually.

Some time later I found the matching fruit bowl (at the moment filled with tasty oranges). The third thing you'll always find on my table, as everywhere else in my home, is a pile of books. Some photography books at the moment.

So what does this say about me? That beside all the old stuff I that I love so much, I also have a passion for (affordable) modern design. In fact, my secret dream career has always been that of a (furniture) designer, but I've never even considered pursuing that. And that I have to have books around me at all times, everywhere.

The black+blum objects are also quite fitting in another way, as the designers are an "Anglo-Swiss partnership". Well and here's me - an anglophile Swiss. So there you go. My life on my table :-).

Texture by Kim Klassen.

{Day 24} ~ Obscurity

Day 24's prompt for Picture Winter was "Obscurity". The assignment was to "picture something frozen, something slushy, icy, cold, wet". And also to think about tones, when we shoot or when we post process the image, to see how colour tones effect a cold and icy image.

When I saw the prompt and read the assignment, I knew immediately which image I wanted to use for this. It's an image I took a few weeks ago, on Boxing Day.

I had wanted to post this image of snow ripples earlier and had spent some time processing it, trying different textures and tones and all, but I just wasn't happy so I put it aside. Today, I decided to go for a grainy b&w effect to emphasise and bring out the texture, patterns, harshness but also the sparkle of the snow. I'm much happier with the result now than with my earlier attempt.

I processed this following the "Grainy B&W" tutorial by The CoffeeShop Blog, using also the b&w texture and the vintage frame which I turned into a b&w. There is an Action to download and use but I still haven't worked out how to install actions. I've tried it a few months ago, trying to install actions so that I could use them in my PSE8's Action Player, but I simply couldn't find the folder you're supposed to put them in.

I was so happy to find another way of using actions described in The CoffeeShop Blog, by copying them into the effects palette. But Alas!, I can't find that folder either. I really don't know what the problem is. I managed to unhide all the hidden folders, I've come as far as ...Photoshop Elements > 8.0 > but then there are no Photo Creations > Photo effects folders. I've searched the harddisk, I looked into each and every sub-folder in the PSE8 folder, but nothing. It's so frustrating I could scream! The only consolation is that on The CoffeeShop Blog you can find the step-by-step instructions for most of the actions, so I just have to create all the layers myself until I'll hopefully find out how to use actions soon.

But what I've discovered in the last couple of weeks working through lessons after lessons of e-courses on post processing is that what I really want is the full Photoshop version...

{Day 21} ~ Winter's Pull

Spring and summer hand it to you on  silver platters; gilded platters with flashing arrows that say THIS WAY TO BEAUTY. Spring and summer oblige you. There's almost no bad angle on washes of green, dew, sunshine, life.

This is what guest photographer and Shutter Sister Kate Inglis wrote on the assignment page for Day 21 of Picture Winter. Winter does not oblige you equally easily, instead "it requires you to go out there and pull".

 As a winter lover, I must admit that I not only generally prefer winter to summer but also find it much easier to photograph in winter than in summer. In summer, I just find that all the colours look so washed out and faded by the sun and the sun is always where you don't want it and too strong. Apart from the fact that when it's over 30 degrees Celsius and 80% plus humidity it's far too hot for me to go out anyway.

In winter, the air is fresh and cool and the light and colours - simply gorgeous. A world covered in white is so soothing to the eye. There are wonderful fresh blues and purples and lilacs in the air, the winter sky full of gorgeous shades of pastel blues, soft water colour sunrises and sunsets, the morning mists and fogs. Then all the gorgeous silhouettes of the bare trees. It is only in this time of the year that I really come to appreciate the beauty and variety of trees all around me. The sun is weak enough to allow you to take photos looking straight into the sun and still get great shots with a sky sitting like a star in the sky.

And then the frost! Nothing like it. Just simply amazingly beautiful. The dried dead flowers and plants look so interesting and fascinating if you bothere to take a closer look. And when they're covered in frost on top of it, they're just a piece of art made by nature.

I also love the post processing process with these winter close-ups, bringing out all the frosty wintry purples and lilacs even more.

Or is this maybe just mainly because it is only in the last months that I have begun to learn so much about post processing and working with textures and all kinds of effects? :-)

I'm a bit behind with Picture Winter and hopefully will manage to catch and keep up again, though I might have to just leave out a day or to. Only one more week to go...

Stories & Memories

3*52 of Twenty Eleven: "Memories"   /   Picture Winter, Day 19: "A Different Kind of Story"

I had in mind and took this image for the 52 of Twenty Eleven group for this week's prompt "Memories". But when I saw yesterday's prompt for Picture Winter I knew that it would just be perfect for that as well. So this will have to serve both and considering that I spent almost three hours last night with taking and processing this, I simply wouldn't have had the time to take another shot anyway :-).

If only this inkstand could talk! How I would love to listen to its stories! It does indeed tell many stories.

One of them is my own, of my father's childhood and why I was born in the country where I live today. Of "Aunt Emily", who is only a vague childhood memory of mine but lives on in the beautiful objects that are now in my possession and among my most cherished ones (as this inkstand) and about whom I only learnt much later that she wasn't actually my or any of my parents real aunt, not even a relative.

But this inkstand holds many more stories and memories about which I'll never know. About the person who owned it (Aunt Emily's father?) and who stopped using it on 24 August 1943. What happened on that 24 of August in the middle of the Second World War? Did the person die? And why has never anyone used it again or removed the calendar and replaced it with a new one? These stories I will never know.

One sentence in the assingment for Day 19 for Picture Winter says: "Capture something that will give us a glimpse into your world". My Mum often tells me that I live too much in the past. In the books I read (basically everything before mid 20th century), the music I listen to (I have a passion for 1920/30s Dance Band Orchestras and early jazz), the way I live (old furniture and vintage pieces - I persuade my mum to let me have the old pieces and she replaces them with modern furniture in their home :-) ) etc. etc. I think she's got a point. But I like it that way. This is my world, a world full of stories and memories and voices from the past, and the inkstand is a part of this my world. And as long as it is in my possession, it will always show the 24 August 1943.

The picture in the background, by the way, is my (real) aunt and uncle's wedding photo. They're in their early 80s now and have been married for almost 60 years. They also have a lot of stories to tell, though their stories and memories of 1943 certainly are a lot different than those of the owner of this inkstand were, as they did not live through the war in relatively safe Switzerland.

Textures by Shadowhouse Creations and Kim Klassen.

{Day 18} ~ Centre of Attention / {January} ~ The Beginning of a Year full of Inspiration and Creativity

Prompt for Day 18 of Picture Winter: "Centre of Attention"

Today's assingment was to "pay attention to one subject that tends to keep showing up in your work - something that captures your eye, time and time again, and begs to be the center of attention for your creativity".

Well, brushes might not be the thing that most keeps showing up in my work, although I have taken far more and regularly ictures of painting brushes and other paining stuff than you've seen here on my stream. However.

I painted long before I picked up "serious" DSLR photography last spring, but my creativity has been suffering for a long time. 2011 will be my creative year, so I've decided, and already in the first three weeks of this new year, I have found so much inspiration around me which has helped me to develop my photography skills.

I know that I will never be an artist and never be able to produce true real art, and I don't aspire to do so, I'll always be an amateur. But I very much hope that I will also find the inspiration this year to make painting again one of the centres of my attention and the passion it once was, along with photography. And I'm looking forward to combining the two, I already can see so many ways in doing so.

And I just love images of painting brushes and painting stuff :-)

Texture by Shadowhouse Creations.

*  *  *

I am also using this image for my "Beginnings" page for One Little Word. My word for 2011 is Inspiration. The prompt for this page actually was to take a self portrait. And I will. Later. But I felt that this would be a so much more fitting image, as this is the beginning of my year full of inspiration and creativity.

I haven't really taken the time to work on this project until today. I always wanted to but then all the photo post processing got in the way. And I was also unable to order the supplies as all the three main thing - the album, the plastic refill packs and the card stock were not on stock. And although I kept receiving messages that some small quantities of stock had come in, they were sold out again so quickly that I never managed to order them all three together. And with the shipping costs from the States to Switzerland being what they are, there was no way I was going to order them individually. But album and cardstock at least are now on their way, together with some other scrapbooking stuff, and the refill pages I'll hopefully soon be able to order over here in Europe.

I'm so looking forward to start to get working on the project. I think it's a wonderful idea to have a special word for the whole year and I think that this class will really help to keep focused on it.

I'll soon write more and in greater detail about this class and project, and will be starting at the beginning, but I just had to create this page today and add it here as when I did the processing work on this photo today for Picture Winter, I just felt that I had finally found my "beginnings" photo.

{Day 17} ~ Stark Raving Magnificent

Prompt for Day 17 for Picture Winter: "Stark Raving Magnificent"

Today's assignment was to "capture some kind of starkness today", to "think minimal beauty", to "think simple".

Firstly: I didn't take this shot today but on Boxing Day, which was a perfect winter wonderland day spent with the family.

Secondly: I just can't think minimal and simple enough to do without using textures at the moment.

Thirdly: but I think I captured at least some minimal simple beauty with this winter road shot and as to starkness, well I must admit I had to look it up in hte dictionary to figure out what exactly that meant (and I'm afraid I've already forgotten it again...).

And finally. I just like how this shot turned out :-)

{Day 15} ~ Cooling It

Prompt for Day 15 for Picture Winter: "Cooling It"

The assignment for Day 15 was to "cool" an image to give it an extra feel of winter and cold. This image was already quite bleak and gloomy when I took it (it was one of those days) but not quite as gloomy as this result. I achieved the cool feel not with some "sliding" in PSE as suggested in the assignment, but with some layers of different textures.

I'm not quite sure what to think of it. I like how the textures worked but I'm not sure about the image as such. Maybe the image I started with wasn't the right one in the first place. But sometimes, one just has to try it out and learn from one's mistakes :-)

{Day 14} ~ Beyond the Chill

Prompt for Day 14 for Picture Winter: "Beyond the Chill"

These bright pink blossoms are everywhere at the moment, bringing a splash of cheerful colour into the rather dull and snowless winter days at the moment.

Texture by Kim Klassen

{Day 13} ~ Controlled Chaos

Prompt for Day 13 for Picture Winter: "Controlled Chaos"

I wouldn't part with my beloved red and green wardrobe dating from 1737, even though it's rather impractical as it is really far too small. Inside it all's more or less under control. It's outside where the real chaos is, with all the piles of clothes, and other stuff you'd usually keep in a wardrobe, that don't fit in lying around.

But it is so beautiful and has so much history and character that a new, modern, big wardrobe simply isn't an option. Just the lock is a piece of art and craftsmanship in itself and I'm so happy that in all the time the wardrobe was in use, the original never got lost.

Another glimpse into my wardrobe. I do wear black and grey most of the time. But there's some colour as well :-)

This picture reminds me of a book I read the year before last. I decided to read a modern book for a change and to read one from the Booker Prize Shortlist. I picked The Clothes On Their Backs by Linda Grant, admittedly mostly because I liked the cover, but I really enjoyed it a lot.

Texture by Kim Klassen and borealnz

{Day 11} ~ Warm Your Heart / {Week 9} ~ Teacup Love

Prompt for Day 11 for Picture Winter: "Warm Your Heart

Also for The Shutter Divas, week 9. This week's assignment: "Teacup Love". Each week's assingment is posted on Christina's fabulous blog Divas and Dreams and the pictures you can find in The Shutter Diva's Flickr group. I've missed several weeks here but I hope that soon, once I've worked through all my photography and processing e-courses, I'll be able to follow regularly again :-).

Life is so much pleasanter if you love what you (have to) do, at least most of it - and with a nice cup of hot tea or coffee ;-)

The texture is by les brumes, the texture with the script is from a page from a 16th century book, hearts by melemel

{Day 10} ~ Balanced

Prompt for Day 10 for Picture Winter: "Seeking Balance"

I'm cheating a bit with this one, as I tooks this picture earlier this year, in summer. But it just seemed to fit today's prompt so well and I've always wanted to do something with it.
I did the processing today, so it's only half cheating ;-)

Textures by rubyblossom and Kim Klassen.

{Day 9} ~ Bundle Up

Today's prompt for Picture Winter: "Bundle Up"

In winter, you have to "bundle up to head out into the winter world". No problem for me, I love bundling up in warm woolly seaters, scarves, wristlets and layers and layers of warm clothes. Skimpy summer dresses really aren't for me. I'm a true winter girl :-).

The horrible dark circles under my eyes come from spending virtually the whole weekend at the computer working through the PSE lessons. I think I overdid it slightly...

One of the things I learnt today is how to do grungy frames - you can see my creations here. With the help of grungy brushes form Shadowhouse Creations and my favourite ornaments from MouritsaDA .

Soon I'll be making my own brushes and textures. Yay! :-)

Textures by rubyblossom and Kim Klassen.

{Day 8} ~ Texture Seekers

Prompt for Day 8 for Picture Winter: "Texture Seekers"

I spent the morning working through another lesson of the skinny PSE course by Kim Klassen learning how to create mosaics. When I saw todays assignment for Picture Winter, I thought it would just be perfect so nipped into the kitchen to take a few shots before working through the lesson. So this is it, my first ever mosaic. Yay!

The assingment was not just to look for textures today, but for textures in the kitchen. The light was just perfect this morning so I there's no processing at all, all three pictures are SOOC (yes, I can hold myself back :-) ). And yes, I admit. Sunlight can be good. Sometimes.

I'm useless at cooking but I just love those shiny kitchen utensils :-)

{Day 7} ~ Quiet Beauty

Prompt for Day 7 for Picture Winter: "Quiet Beauty"

This shot was taken earlier this week, when I finally managed to get some frosty shots. I had wanted to do that for ages but there weren't many frosty mornings and when there was one, I didn't have my camera with me.

I absolutely love winter, the soft pastel colours of winter, the world all covered in snow. The withered flora looks so interesting and beautiful if you care to look more closely and when it's covered in frost, well, that's just magical.

I used several layers to bring out the purple/lilac shades of the light that morning and to give it that "frozen" feeling. My own title for this was "Frozen in Time", but I think that the prompt "Quiet Beauty" fits equally well.

My, I couldn't live in a country with no winter! :-)

{Day 5} ~ Intended For Everyday Use

Prompt for Day 5 for Picture Winter: Intended for Everyday Use

Last year on New Year's Day, I started a 5-year-diary. Five short lines a day to plot down whatever I consider note-worthy. I always use my favourite (and only) Caran D'Ache goldplated ballpoint pen which I got as a present from my Mum almost 15 years ago and which I love and treasure (and another thing I use almost daily). I try to turn the journaling into a daily routine but don't always manage.

At the time I started this, I was teaching myself to read and write the "Offenbach" script, an old German script which looks like this, and for some reason which I can't really quite recall, I started writing my entries in this script (though in English rather than German). I wonder if in 20 years time I'll be able to read it at all. Probably not...

Textures by les brumes and Pareeerica

{Day 4} ~ A Little Sunshine

Today's prompt for PictureWinter: A Little Sunshine

I found the prompt for Day 4 really hard. We were supposed to look for something that reminded us of the sun, like happy polka dots, something to "substitute for sunshine when you really need it". And that's the problem: I'm not really a sun person and I'm not looking for sun. I'm very happy about the misty, grey days & hope they're here to stay for a while. 'Winter Blues' doesn't exist in my vocabulary, but I know all about 'Summer Blues' - weeks and weeks of long, hot, sunny days. So depressing. The only "sunny" thing I could think of in my home were these cards from my colour memory set. I wasn't happy with the photo so I played around with some texture, brushes and fancy fonts. I must say, I really quite enjoyed that part :-).

So here's a bit of sunshine from me to everyone who is feeling the Winter Blues and in need of a bit of sunshine :-)

Texture by Shadowhouse Creations

{Day 3} ~ All The Possibilities

Prompt for Day 3 for Picture Winter: All The Possibilities

My books are always close at hand and they are an endless well of possibilities. I couldn't live without them. Unfortunately, those gorgeous old volumes in the pictures don't belong to me, though, but to the library where I work.

Textures by Shadowhouse Creations (love that glass plate effect!)