Be Still 52 - Week 52

I felt like I needed to have a finale for Be Still 52, a year long class on still life photography that I took with Kim Klassen. I was looking forward to the last post and the last week's exercise. The post came with a beautiful photo, a thank you, and a goodbye from Kim, but no exercise. I was disappointed. I felt a little let down. So, I decided to do my own finish. I chose to create a few still life images with sea shells, since that's how I began a year ago. The first picture I posted for the class is the one above. I don't know that I can adequately describe what I have learned this year. This class was a big step outside of my comfort zone. I am not a still life photographer unless it is a still life in nature. I struggled the first few weeks. I just could not create those beautiful soft images like everyone else.  My heart had to be in it and it wasn't until I began to create with the things I love; bits and pieces of nature. That's when I relaxed, breathed, and found peace while setting up and photographing my simple arrangements. 

The shell above is one that I picked up when our family vacationed on Dauphin Island, Alabama last summer. I was captured by it's imperfections. The sand? Along with the shells I did bring home a container full of sand! 

Playing with the shells and sand brought back such wonderful memories of the best vacation I've ever had. I loved the beauty and sound of the ocean and I loved the week spent with my family!

I enjoyed the early morning walks along the beach; the sun coming up, my bare feet in the sand, and my little red bucket filled with shells. Oh, how I long to return. Maybe someday!

Be Still 52 - Week 51

I don't know where this week went. I can't believe it's time to post another exercise of Be Still 52. This week's exercise was movement. Not capturing movement, but creating movement in our photos. We were to create a still life that caused the eye to move through the picture. 

I created a little scene with beads flowing out of a bottle and strings of beads in the background. It worked. Your eyes followed the trail of beads to the focus point and then follows the blurred beads out of the photo.  I must have arranged this ten ways and took many pictures and never really found one that made me happy. So I scraped the idea of setting up a still life and headed outdoors to see if I could find one.

I like this one better. Your eyes focus on the rose and then drift out of the picture following the blurred stems in the background. I'm not crazy about the mess of stems in the lower left corner. They seems to confuse the eyes a little. The rose in this picture is from my mom's yard. My mom took cuttings from my grandmother's rose bushes and began her own. These little roses smell like a rose should!

The last two were taken along the road I walk. You can't seem to go wrong with dandelions and I can't seem to quit taking pictures of them. I wish there were more light on them, but we've pretty much had nothing but gray cloudy skies for weeks.

I was never really satisfied with the pictures for this exercise. Maybe, when things slow down around here I will try this one again. 

Tomorrow we get our last exercise.

I wonder what it will be.

Be Still 52 - Week 50

Dandelion Wishes

Find a fluffy dandelion

Think about a wish

Take a deep and cleansing breath

Blow the seeds away

Watch your wishes float aloft

Seeds in the sky

Be Still 52 exercise for week 50 was
"messy." 
Dandelion seeds can create quite the mess.

Be Still 52 - Weeks 48 and 49

Week 48

I will admit when I saw this exercise that included coffee/tea and change I immediately was not interested. First, I don't like coffee or tea. Second, I really couldn't make the connection of coffee/tea and change. They just didn't go together to me. You might find them together at a coffee or tea shop, but I don't go to either of those, since I don't like the smell of coffee or tea!

I like my photos to tell stories not just be an unrelated grouping of things, so it took a lot of thinking to come up with a theme. I finally focused on the change. I thought of my grandfather's change pouch that he always carried in his pocket. The coins in the picture were also his. There is a . . .

• 1953 nickle which just happens to be the year I was born
• "good luck" souvenir from the Josephine Tussaud World Of Wax In Hot Springs, Arkansas where he lived
• token from Taylor Drug Company "good for merchandise"

I gathered up a a few other things a man might have around when he's reading the morning paper and drinking his cup of coffee. By the way, that's not coffee in the picture it's watered down hot chocolate.  

There is a story behind the newspaper. It's from the Sunday paper that featured my daughter's wedding photo. The paper is getting a little yellow around the edges. I'm not telling her age or anything!

I know I keep way to many things because of sentimental value, but there are times that I'm glad I have them.  I enjoy including props that touch my heart, even those glasses! They're a really old pair of Mr. H's. Why do we still have them??  Don't ask!!

On to week 49 . . .

We were challenged this week to think about stillness and go back through all the images we've taken for the class looking for those that spoke of still moments. I chose three. The first one was from the first exercise. It is still my favorite of all.

When I took the first one I wasn't even thinking of stillness. I didn't breathe. I was terrified. I was pretty new at choosing and setting up for a still life photo. Now, forty-nine weeks later,  I remember to breathe and enjoy the exercises. I no longer feel the pressure of being judged or pleasing anyone with my images. I choose what pleases me whether it be nature, sentimental objects, or just plain junk!

Be Still 52 - Week 47

Many of the spring flowers have long gone;

the daffodils

the azaleas.

There are still a few things blooming right now;

the peonies

the roses.

Do you pick flowers and bring them into your home? When you do, do you find the perfect vase to place them in? This week's Be Still 52 exercise was to find unique vessels for our flowers. I thought about this for a whole week. Walking around the house and searching for anything that could hold flowers. Then I spotted an empty Coke can sitting on the counter. Why not? It holds water!

I began to gather things I thought would work for the shot choosing fun things with touches of red.

Not quiet happy with it, I decided to move one of the flowers and pull back a little bit. I have a tendency to fill the frame.

Check out these cool sunglasses. They were my daughter's when she was a teenager.  They're one of the sentimental things I was never able to get rid of. She loved her Coca-Cola glasses!

For one last composition, I took everything out but the can and the flowers. I like this. I like the simplicity and the cleanness of it. This turned out to be my favorite.

Lately, I haven't been able to do the exercise just once. so I kept looking and found a vintage lipstick holder that a dear older friend had given me. Although it doesn't hold water, it was perfect for a little romantic still life.

If you bring flowers into your home,

think outside the box;

put them in something unique.

They will brighten your day!

Be Still 52 - Week 46

Letters and words

surround us, but finding just the 

right ones to add to photography can be a

little challenging.

It took me a few days to even know where to start. Of course, my childish heart soon solved that. My mind went to some vintage wooden blocks I have. "B" seemed a good one as I have several bears and books around my home. The book in the background is "First Lessons In Nature Study" written by Edith M. Patch in 1940.

While looking for the first book, I ran across this one. It reminded me of our family vacation last year. So, I visited the "sea."  The book, "We Visit The Seashore" has the most wonderful pop-up illustrations that are reproductions of antique pictures by Ernest Nister. Nister's book was published in the late 1800's.

I guess I had summer and the sea on my mind.  I cross stitched this small pillow several years ago. The boat, beach ball, castle, and lighthouse on the pillow represent the letters S-A-I-L. 

More and more as I go through this class I'm surprised at the many props that are right within my reach. I just have to stop and look around! One more thing, the boards that I used as the base in these photos were old pieces of a picket fence that someone dumped in the woods nearby. I will never understand why people choose the woods as a dumping ground, but this time someones trash was a treasure for me.

Be Still 52 - Week 45

The morning was overcast and with the gentle breeze blowing, it was slightly chilly. Just my kind of weather and a perfect time to take a nature walk around the yard. I took a little blue bucket with me and a pair of clippers. I was looking for bits and pieces of nature to create still life photos for this week's Be Still exercise. As most of you know, this exercise fit me very well. There's no place I'd rather be than outside. The weather, the temperature, the pollen doesn't bother me. I only sneezed half a dozen times!!

For the first image I knew I wanted to use this little egg that we found lying in the dirt. I think it's a wren egg, but I'm not sure. The little nest is so sweet. Momma bird found a piece of very fine black netting to decorate her nest. I wish you could see it better, but it's tucked inside.

Next, I tried some azalea and narcissus blooms against a rotting piece of bark.

I used narcissus, dandelion flowers, and fern fronds to decorate an old limb covered with lichen. I couldn't make up my mind which picture I liked best, so I just made a collage. 

Can you tell I'm having a wee bit of fun here? I couldn't stop at one or two or three arrangements. I went for four!

Lastly, I gathered a bucket full of green. It's amazing all the shades of green, the textures, and the shapes that can be found. I didn't even use half of what I gathered.

This was fun!

Challenging, but not stressful.

I enjoyed the outdoors,

the pollen fresh air

and the exercise.

Be Still 52 - Week 44

Find an object and create five different still life images with it.  That was the exercise for this week's Be Still 52 class.  I had a list of objects that included a feather, spool of thread, ink well, books, lilacs, and a heart necklace, but I was stumped when it came to creating the five different set-ups. One set-up a week is hard for me. I finally settled on a skeleton key and went very simple. 

The Key To My Heart

 Vintage Keys

The Key To Learning

Key Collector

Music Is The Key

So, there you have it;

one key, five ways!

Be Still 52 - Week 43

In celebration of spring this week's exercise was pastels. I enjoy the softness of pastels, but I like brighter colors, so I had a hard time coming up with props and ideas. 

While thinking of pastels, I remembered that I have several of my grandmother's handkerchiefs which are soft pastel colors. It's sad we don't carry beautiful handkerchiefs in our pocketbooks anymore. We are missing out on such a pretty accessory. One St. Patrick's Day when I was six, my mother tucked a green handkerchief in the waistband of my skirt so I wouldn't get pinched for not wearing green. Anyway, my grandmother had such lovely feminine handkerchiefs and I'm so thankful I have a few.

One thing I have noticed about my still life photos is that like in nature, I want to get in close and see all the details; the textures of the bunnies and the edge of the hankie. I take pictures that give "room to breath," but I almost always choose the close up. I guess that's just part of my style.

I hope you're having a lovely spring!

Be Still 52 - Week 42

This week's exercise involved crates. I don't have any crates around here other than a couple of bright plastic ones which definitely wasn't what I wanted. I did remember this old sewing machine drawer and added a few of my wooden spools, bobbins, and spindles.

Bobbins and the machinery they ran on were some of the greatest inventions of the Victorian Era. They were created to manage the piles of thread and yarn that would be used to weave cloth. Each spindle held a bobbin that either released or collected the thread. 

Wooden bobbins can be found in various shapes and sizes since most mills had bobbins made specifically for their machine. When I see these beautiful wooden pieces of history in an antique store, I really have a hard time passing them by.  They just want to come home with me!

Be Still - Weeks 39, 40, & 41

Although my days have gotten a little busier, I have managed to sneak in a little time for photography. I especially didn't want to get behind in the Be Still exercises. Finding time to put together a post has been another matter. Finally the opportunity came, a rainy afternoon.

Week 39

The exercise included 

glass, light, airy, and shades of white

I have a small collection of glass jars and bottles that I choose three from. Then, I added a few buttons tumbling out of the jar and a piece of lace in the background. Very simple, but that was the look I wanted.

Week 40

Our exercise was to make something that we could use in the next week's exercise. I looked through my Pinterest boards wanting something springy. Since my time is limited I was also looking for something easy and fast. I decided to create a couple of simple little paper birds, gathered my supplies, and began to create.

Week 41

This week's assignment was to photograph what we made three different ways. 

First, I brought in some blossoms from my flowering plum tree. They are such pretty, delicate blossoms.

I embellished a small nest with blossoms and stuck a couple of limbs in a bottle.

Next, I covered three books with scrapbook paper, added one of my grandmother's doilies for the background, and picked a bunch of daffodils "for you."

And, lastly, just for fun I took these little sweeties outside. They are not very stable on those paperclip feet, so the breeze kept blowing them over. It became a race between me and the wind.

I finally got one I was fairly happy with.

Then we just wandered around the yard together

checking out the spring colors.

I loved the "make something" exercise and because I love these little birds, it was easy to photography them.  I definitely needed the time outside enjoying the fresh air and the beauty of spring.

A quick update on my mom. She is now in a rehabilitation center. I'm not sure she'll regain much use of her right leg and arm. There is a little movement, but not much. Her speech has improved each day and we are so grateful for that. Things can still change, nerves can heal and that's what we're praying for. I want to thank each of you for you thoughts and prayers. You're each very special to me!