The Table

Hello there,

Yesterday the table got painted.  First step to getting back to painting.   Our neighbor of 17 years and now friend of over 30 plus years built this for me for a birthday, we are talking probably close to 30 years ago.  What a wonderful surprise.   I painted it yellow then and held all of my pastels and all my painting goodies.   The poor little thing then was used for a table to hold my light box and photography paperwork and crop cards (film days you know) for over 20 years.  Then for some reason it was ousted to the garage for at least 5  years.  Don't know why it was punished and what it did.   Well, new life for it now and I painted it red and then did some mishy mash stuff on the sides with yellow paint.   It is happy as a lark now, starting to get loaded with my wonderful art books. By the way I have had these since around 1974.   They aren't as old as I am YET!!!

The top will hold the pastels, can't wait for you to see them.  I was once suggested I sell them and get rid of them.  They are like my babies, I know them all by heart.  I use to anyway, now I will get reacquainted with them.  I am going to put a rug on the floor, pastels are messy you know.  Eldon suggested I paint another floor cloth and use that, so of course that means another project.  I will put my thinking cap on that one and see if I can come up with a interesting design.   Can't wait for you to see the little table, with new and improved casters by they way, with the pastels on it.  

Here it is!!!! Getting happier as it gets full.  My wonderful books, oh I am so glad I didn't donate them to the library when we moved.   Whew, they escaped.  I know someone would have enjoyed them.  Now they are safe and sound on my table. 

The mishy mash of paint.  Just had to do a little something different for it.  A new look never hurts anyone feelings.

There you go, what is going on in my world today.   Hope to get the pastels on there today.   Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy.

The Lamp

Hello there,

The other day I saw some wonderful lamps, they had to be wonderful they were over $250-$300.  Doesn't that make something wonderful?  The price?  Well, me being me thought, OK I can do that.  So off I went.  We bought a frenchy looking lamp with an ugly shade on it and then another cheap ($19.99) lamp with a pretty shade and off I went.   I switched out the shades and  thought this needs some bling.  I had some pretty ribbon and remembered I had one of Eldon's moms old pins.  Digging and digging I found one and tada with my trusty glue gun there it is.

Here you go, I thought looked frenchy of sorts.  Not sure if am going to put some crystal hangie downs or not.  Still thinking about that.

A close up of the pin, not really doing it justice but you can tell it is old.  Even older than me!!!

I put this creation in a bathroom that has double sinks, a guest bathroom, and no one really uses it and if they do only the other sink gets used.   It is decorated with blue and I have some reddish towels and a few do dads with the reddish color.  Can't have all one color you know.    the little silver tray on the vanity is a round framed mirror I found so perfume bottles got put out also.

That is what is going on in my world for the moment.  Please enjoy and have a good day.

A NEW LOOK FOR ANNETTE'S WORLD

Hi, I had to give my self a new look and the header is some of my art work.  Hope you enjoy it.  of course Red is the color of choice for us.   

Thanks for looking and seeing what is going on in my world.

Photography-"shooting a beautiful scene"

Hi there,  I had to share some of the images I took while we were gone.  We were in central Texas and always a wonderful site with the rolling hills and trees.  Remember we live in the land of no trees and the land is flat as a flitter  You can see horizon to horizon.  This is a good thing ----you can see the storms coming.  

We ran upon fields and fields of pretty yellow flowers.  Not sure what they were, don't think they were a version of Indian Paint flowers, not sure. They were so pretty.  I asked Eldon  "OK, if you see another field of them please pull over".   Well, we were boogie ing( don't think that is a word) down the road and here they were.  Just had a hey day with them.   Didn't go out in them though, didn't want to take the chance of a rattle snake taking in the sun. 

The sun kind of came and went but did take advantage of it anyway.  Sometimes you just don't have the perfect time to photograph.  You just do it.

Here they are, aren't they pretty?    Thought you might like a close up.  Looks like painting material to me. 

The field was just breath taking, though there are lots of little spaces for our slithery friends.

The sun was pretty overhead, not the best position but did give me a shadow to work with.

Here you go, the whole scene.   The best thing to remember "shooting" a scene, move around, take different positions and sometimes just don't worry about the sun.    I am trying to take these on the automatic mode so you can not have to worry that I played with the image in photoshop or anything.  Just a straight shot.  

There you go, thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world.   Have a great day.  

We can change our hair color--why not our fireplace colors?

When we were watching HGTV, what a wonderful network by the way, they were staining a fireplace.  I thought why not do ours?   Eldon has always hated the color of the tile and I told him we cannot add more woodwork until he is happy with the tile.  I just didn't want to spend a fortune to remedy the problem.   We went to Lowes and bought a couple of wood stains and practiced on an extra tile we had and lo and behold we came up with a color we both liked. 

Well then the job was done, didn't take a fortune and looks pretty good even if I do say my self.   Here are the before and afters.  

Here you go, the tile was a drab grey. 

Now it is a nice warm color and goes with the sofa and the tad of warm color in the rug we have down.  

Simple fix with regular wood stain, this was two coats and looks great.   Thanks HGTV.

  Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world.  You never know.  Have a good day  my friends.

Photography-more on the SUN!!!

Hello there,

I thought I would have a little more going on with the sun and it's effects.  You know it does put out a lot of light and we love it for that.

Now in the last post I commented on it being harmful and good.   Shooting in full sun does have it's benefits.  Below is a couple of images, that is just a fancy way that photographers call pictures.   They are taken in FULL HOT SUN!!!!! I mean 114 degrees of Oklahoma humidity.   These work!!!

Here you go FULL SUN!!!!

 

Now if you were not wearing sun glasses you would have major squint.

  

The sweet subject, our granddaughter is looking down so no squints.   One more of the full sun.

I do have to add that the two above images were not taken on AUTO, but you do get the picture of how the sun can work for you.   

 

                  The rose bud has the sun coming from behind me.  Pretty but a tad harsh. 

This same rose bud but with the sun kind of behind it.   Now I haven't played with photo shop at all, just a "raw " print as we would shot with a camera on AUTO.   quite a difference.

S

Same rose bud, shot inside with just available light from the window.  It was shot on AUTO also.  The light is softer and not as harsh.  

T

Plant leaf with sun shine on it, course it is to hot and burning the leaves some but that is not what we are talking about.  The shadows are stronger but the green is sort of washed out. 

 A couple of shots with back light as much as we could get.  I hope this shows a pretty color as it really looks.   

One more sample

T

These are what we call some hot leaves.  The color is washed out with the sun.  Now remember this is all on AUTO.    

Same leaves of the tree but with the sun pointing at them instead of at my back.   

There you go, I just wanted to show the difference with sun behind me and behind the subject.   Really makes a difference.  Just playing with the lighting makes a difference.   I hope this is making you say " OHHHHH, that is what she means.

.  I just had to show two more one of rose in full sun and one of rose with side sun.  

  There just seems to be so much more depth with the sun working this way for you.  

Ok there you go for today.  A quick lesson with the sun.   I hope this has helped one person in any way.

Thank you for stopping by Annette's world and see what is going on here. I'll post some more later.   Lighting is a fun adventure and you can do a lot with just on AUTO.  

Photography-knowing the camera and some lighting

Hello dear readers.   

Now there isn't a magic recipe for lighting or photography.   I believe you mainly need to 


1.  Know your camera.  I know all the   techy   stuff is boring but that is what your little book is for that comes with your camera.   I bet it is stashed somewhere, you will have to hunt for it, but has a wealth of info in it.   Don't try to read it like a book but read parts of it, the part that kinda is familiar and you think---OK, I sort of know what it is talking about.   When you feel comfortable with that and seem like you have mastered it---go to another chapter.   It will talk about f stops and film speed and Greek words like that.  It is ok.  Just shoot on auto for now and as you get comfy with it you will grow in your photography.     


When I use to take art lessons off of a wonderful teacher, Ben Konis from Amarillo, he would teach the same info over and over again. When my brain was ready for it,  a light bulb would come on in my head and say OH that is what he was talking about.   We can only soak in so much info at a time.  


Remember it is a camera and will not eat you.  Really, don't think I have ever heard of a man eating camera.  

2. Lighting.  Kind of scary but it really isn't at all.  This has been the most requested subject.  A main rule, well not really a rule but strong suggestion,  in photography is early morning and late evening is called the sweet light.  Now it is nice to use it but when you are driving on a highway or some beautiful park with gardens sometimes it is just not possible.  So you take your photographs when you can and just work with it.   

The sun is your biggest light source.  Then a window if indoors or natural light and then down the food chain is a flash and a reflector.  

The Sun.  No the sun can work with you or against you in photography.  Kinda like it does with our skin, it can ruin it or gives us Vitamin D.  If the sun is directly at your person's eyes they will squint.  Not pretty and does cause wrinkles.   Only time it is good is when you are looking at a painting and trying to see your lights and darks.  We are not painting we are being a photographer at the moment.   The sun to the side of your subject gives shadows and different effects that are more desirable.  Take for instance, if you are photographing a field of flowers or say cotton and the sun is to the side it will have shadows and some depth.   The leaves will look better and it will shine thru some of them and is really pretty.   The sun straight on the field, possibly behind you and you are looking at the field with your camera provides a nice flat, no depth field.  Good in some instances I suppose but not what you are looking for.   If the sun comes behind your subject you will have a pretty rim light and this is pretty but then you have sun spots,the ugly little orange circles in your lens.  Just hold a cap, your hand, a notebook or something like that to shield your lens.  That should take care of it.
                                        
Now when you start learning f stops you can do some adjusting and can "open up" the lens and take in more light and do some different things with the lighting.   But the above is just a simple way to start learning to  Look at light.   You will start looking at light so differently.   


    I did a class with Karen Bonaker on Digital Art Academy about noctunrne lighting.   I took the three following  photographs to show the effect of different lighting on the same subject.  Sometimes we forget the simple things of lighting.

This image was taken is the morning, not to early.  Notice how strong the shadows are and there is a lot of contrast. The colors are there!!!  You have no doubt in your mind what they are.  The sun is to the right of the pots.

 Next image we have in the shadow of the house, there is not direct sun on it at all.  See how soft the shadows are and the colors are not as strong.   Now if you know photoshop you can boost the colors and play with the image,  but we are just talking about auto shooting of the camera and doing nothing fancy.  Guess just a good point and shoot photo.   

Now this blurry little picture is taken with the sun gone down and nothing but a porch light.  The colors are still a softer color and the highlights are taking up the golden hues of the porch light as the colors of the pots. .  Just looking at this you can see it is night.   (I hope so anyway)  Reason for blurry?   I didn't hold the camera still-so blurry.  Nope your eyes are fine. 

Well there you go, I hope this helped a little to start understanding the light.  Just let me know and say hey Annette, what does this mean?  I will go into more available light, flashes with your camera and reflectors.  Then you can just play and experiment.   That is the fun with digi, you have almost instant images.  When we did film you sent to the lab, they printed, sent back to you and then it was SURPRISE!!!! this is what you did.  

Try to keep a notebook or something to write notes on what you do and then you can remember what trick you did.