Kodak Duaflex II

linking with photo art friday, fab friday and fave photo of the week

So here's my anniversary present! I've enjoyed taking it's picture today and it looks so cool, I'm keen to try the Through the Viewfinder photography...it's in great working order, so I'm also keen to try some photography actual...as in, with actual film...you remember?

Try my textures for free!

So... I've been working on a few textures to use on my photographs, something I started in the spring...my teacher and mentor Kim Klassen has been such an inspiration and I'll be taking her texture course next month to improve my skills...

linking with texture thursday , this or that thursday and show off your shot, weekend texture twist, artists in blogland

I used my texture 'Shabby Script' on this photo I took a while ago, again inspired by one Kim Klassen had done. I wanted to create a painterly effect for the background, so I used an old white table cloth as my backdrop which gave a nice blank canvas for the texture to go on! I then removed the texture from the cotton reel using a layer mask... 

I've got a few textures on my 'free textures' page that are available to download, I'd love it if you tried some, please do let me know your thoughts and share any experiments you have, I'm hoping to improve greatly through taking Kim's class, it's a good opportunity for me to re-connect with my arty side and put all the years of fine art training to good use at last...so here's to small beginnings! 

Click here to go to the page or click the 'Free Textures' tab at the top of this page...

I Heart You...

I can now share this photo I took for my partner's anniversary card  ;) I wanted to do my take on the book heart  as he loves books and I love him...and I love a bit of Lomo...

linking with wordless weds with words, wordless weds, weekly kodachrome , touch up tuesdays

and good to wow photo challenge

His gift being books from Amazon and mine being an old Kodak Duaflex II, the start of the camera collection begins...I'll be trying some TtV photo's with it and as it's in great working order, will be taking pictures too! 

The Love Edition...

"A kiss is a rosy dot over the i in loving"

                                              - Cyrano de Bergerac

Wednesday is our nine year anniversary...so Kim's choice of 'love' for this week's texture tuesday is spot on!

I added two layers of the texture 'golden' which gave the door even better texture...

Pear On A Post!

When we visited Sissinghurst National Trust gardens a few weeks ago, I noticed, by the meadow (which is full of beautiful fruit trees of many varieties) someone had picked a pear and put it up on the top of a high post...so of course, I took a picture! I think pears always look good in still life paintings and was inspired to try my own version of that here...

Linking with Weekend Texture Twist, creative exchange, artistsinblogland and Favourite photo of the week 

and still life standouts

Gerbera Love...

Linking with wordless wednesday with Alicia, wordless wednesday but with words and show off your shot with Rachel, Texture Thursday, This or that Thursday, photo art friday and Live Every Moment

Signs Of Autumn...

We were lucky enough to have a day free at the weekend that was warm and dry, so we got out for a walk. The signs of Autumn are now all about us, with beautiful red berries appearing on shrubs, to bracken turning that lovely burnt gold...it's such a lovely time of year! For this weeks Texture Tuesday I wanted to try using the texture layers to add something different to my chosen pictures, I wanted a more subtle, warm feel, so turned down the opacity...

Above,  I used Kim's texture 'Thursday' at 30% opacity soft light, which gave a lighter, warm feel to the photograph...

Time to get the logs sorted and chopped for the cooler nights to come...

...and for this last one, I used 'warm sun' at 21% opacity, soft light. I've always loved Chinese Lanterns, they're so magical and fairy like! We walked and walked for miles, it felt good to get back to spending a bit longer outside together, wombling along in our walking boots and wellies, such good times!

Linking with Macro Monday and...

Kitchen Gardens...

I love the old fashioned Kitchen Gardens, where you see the companion planting of flowers with the vegetables. The best one near us is at Godinton House, it's really beautiful there...also, a bit further afield is Gt. Dixter, the home and garden of Christopher Lloyd, who designed amazing colour schemes throughout the borders...

Linking with the great favourite photo friday, go have a look at some wonderful pics! Hope you have a great weekend :)

A Bit Of A Do...

As I mentioned in my last post, my friend Shula was married recently, so I had the new opportunity to take photo's of people, something I never do...so here's just a few I've been working on, I really wanted to go for a vintage feel, maybe I just have fond memories of going to weddings as a kid and remember the photo's being very lomo!

Using some of my usual texture layers and techniques on people was interesting...I still feel I can do much better, but for a first attempt it got me interested in a new area of photography and it was fun trying things out, I like to experiment! 

Linking with Texture Tuesday

Eep! No Internet...

Well, I've somehow by a  sheer fluke managed to get on-line and to get a small blog post done! We're having problems with our phone line and it's taking a while to fix...I thought I'd surprise it when it wasn't looking and see if it worked...so far, so good, just having to use photo's I uploaded already as uploading is just too much to ask...

I've more Zinnia pics to show you but for now, this one is all I have to offer, I hope you like it! 

Meanwhile, my friend got married at the weekend and so I took some photo's of people for a change, very different! I'm still working on them, going for a vintage look and hopefully, I can share them here very soon, once I can upload again! Shooting raw all the time now, it's very liberating...

I wanted to say thank you to everyone visiting my blog as I can't always send emails at the moment, although I am able to pick them up, it's all a bit hit and miss, so thank you for being in touch, it feels a bit strange not being able to visit everyone's blogs this week, I'm missing you all! I hope you have a great weekend and hope to hear from you again soon!

...and I can't pick up my lessons from Kim...grrr!

Linking with the Creative Exchange , Macro Monday and Macro Friday!

Very Vintage Darling!

Yes, I love those old muted tones and cracked texture that you sometimes find on the old photo's and postcards...this week for Texture Tuesday, I wanted to find an image that would work with Kim Klassen's texture 'crackerjack' and thought I'd choose the Dahlia, a lovely old fashioned cutting flower that was grown in the Kitchen Gardens...of course, I couldn't do a post on old fashioned flowers without a rose or two and a great quote from Mae West...

Practice Practice...

...so it turns out shooting in RAW is pretty amazing! I'm still at the very early stages of it all and getting my mind around how it works is coming along gradually but I can see how as usual, the learning process, both here, in ps5 and in life, the more I learn, the more I can shape things, hopefully for the better...

Sharing with the Creative Exchange and Macro Monday...go check out some wonderful work there!