I’m going to paint my house. Only the inside walls but it takes me ages to complete anything so I’m taking a break from ‘Loose and Leafy’ while I do it.
It’s not my time of year either. Not really. I’m not a very mid-spring kind of person.
And in the breaks from cleaning and painting I’ll be experimenting with my new camera.
So far, I’m not doing well. Indeed, if it weren’t for Gary (at Gary’s Garden) who went to the trouble of downloading the manual onto his own computer and giving me some really helpful advice - I would probably have shrivelled up in despair. BIG THANKS! I’m even beginning to hope I might eventually be able to take photos where the colour comes right first time and the focus is focused on what I am photographing instead of on something completely different. By June, with luck and effort, I will have got beyond having to decide whether a nettle swaying gently in the wind most closely resembles a golfer or a plate of food. (This camera provides me with some very odd options!)
My idea of a good photograph is one where it goes straight from the camera onto the screen or onto a piece of paper with no editing whatsoever . . . No colour changes, no cropping - nothing. And it’s been a frustrating (but illuminating) experience - trying to make things come ‘right’ on the computer. Sometimes, I can. Mostly, I can’t. And when I can’t, I find myself pressing buttons wildly and randomly like a demented organist in a supernatural storm.
. . . And the results have, at times, been illuminating.
I’ve realised there can be moments when seeing something all ‘wrong’ highlights things which have been there all the time but which weren’t so prominent until their colour changed. Truly, it’s a matter of seeing things ‘in a new light’.
Perhaps living next door to Esther Montgomery is rubbing off a bit. After all, photographs from space are sometimes presented with ‘wrong’ colours when that’s the only way their information can be expressed.
So, as a final fling before I reappear with proper photographs (hopefully!) sometime in June (after the carpets have been cleaned and when the hedgerows are beginning to tire interestingly instead of being all sparkling-fresh and boring) . . . here, in this post, are some mad-organist results.
Best Wishes
Lucy
8 comments:
Good luck with the painting Lucy. I will be thinking of you while I am weilding my double 0 sables this week, wishing for 4 inch house. Loved the dappled post .. Val
Sun, shadow, focus... there's a lot to control. Since you mentioned feeling like a mad organist, you may like this music my friend composed: http://www.filkyou.com/~professorpete/Mad-at-the-Universe.mp3
love the opening photo--so full of promise! good luck & sure accomplishment with figuring out the camera & the inside painting. what color are you using (for the paint)?
Hope the painting is going well and mostly, the photography. I love taking photos. Mostly of plants. I've just done a blog about ferns, the photos are super, if I say so myself, but I always fiddle about with them on the computer. It's the fun of having digital, what you can do when the shot's taken and what you can do afterwards to improve it.
Hello Valerie.
I'm glad I'll be using bigger brushes than yours!
Glad you liked the dappled post too.
Lucy
Monica - I couldn't make your musical link work.
Lucy
Hello Petoskystone.
I'm using white for almost everything. I have lots of paintings and prints on my walls and I like plain white for the background.
Where I want a little touch of colour . . . I'll be adding some dashes of children's paint and making my own.
Apart from that, it will be as environmentally acceptable as possible. The paint I used before is great . . . except it washes off easily so I've sent for some samples from a company that sells even more environmentally friendly paint which, it claims, doesn't wash off.
As you will tell from the date . . . I'm running a bit behind! And I'm soon having visitors for a few days who are bringing their baby with them . . . so I think the painting will be delayed even further now.
At this rate I'll be having the carpets cleaned before I've done the painting.
(When I did it last time, I tipped a tray full of it down the stairs! That was a moment when I was glad it washes off things easily!)
Lucy
Hi BT. That's interesting. I don't like having to fiddle with a photo on the computer. I prefer to spend the time going out and taking more pictures and feel cheated if things don't come out as I want straight from the camera.
Thanks for your good wishes with the painting . . . if only I could get round to starting!
Lucy
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