Photography

I've been busy this winter and spring learning how to use my new (super duper) camera. Help for learning has come in the form of Saturday morning photo walk classes. I've also joined a group that does photo walks around the city. I've been focusing on street photography. Below are a few of my endeavors.

Using some of the photos I had fun creating these pages as well.

You can see more of my work on my Flickr page. Your comments are always welcomed.

GSO

I received a notice today that this page was chosen as a Gallery Stand Out. What is a GSO you might ask. This is their definition  "The purpose of this blog is very simple: to showcase some of the most outstanding digital scrapbooking layouts posted in the galleries, every single day." It continues to be a thrill that my work is recognized no matter how many times it has happened.

New Software II

 

 
 

When we were in the south of France last Spring we visited a number of beautiful mountain villages. This photo was taken in St. Paul du Vence.

 

I used Filter Forge  to give the photo more intense colour.

 

 

Part of the same trip we spent time in Tuscany one of our stops was San Gimignano.

 

 

 

 

Using Filter Forge:

 



 

New software

I have been admiring photo posted on Flickr by  "Beaches Marley". She is a talented photographer and  uses  very artistic techniques to process her photos. She kindly told me which software she uses and lucky for me one of them was on sale. I've been experimenting on what it can do, which is quite amazing. Below are my first two photos  using the software.

Before

After

Before

After

Been Traveling

I haven't posted in a while. Winter blahs mostly. It's been a long and bad winter in my part of the world. And it's snowing yet again today!
I did have a bit of a break and headed south for a couple of weeks. The weather was mixed but there was some colour. Green grass, flowers and some warm weather. Heavenly!!

This is what we left.
And this is what we found.

Not swimming weather but lots warmer and sunnier than what we left.

Hopsewee Plantation ..well worth the visit.

More photos to come taken during our travels.

New Camera

Yes, another new camera. I  indulged myself and bought a full frame camera the Sony A7r.

It was chosen as the camera of the year in 2013. What attracted me to the camera was it's light weight and good reviews on what it can do.  When I purchased it I also purchased a 35mm Zeiss lens which only weights 4ounces. This lens I hope will become my lens for street photography. All the other lenses that fit this camera are on back order at my local photography shop. For the past few days I been spending time setting my preferences on the camera and taking photos in the house. The weather here has been awful and I have been a homebody so now outdoor shots! Maybe tomorrow if the weather co-operates I'll get a chance to do a bit of a walk trying out my new toy!

Another project

When my children were young I learned how to smock and made my daughter and son some lovely smocked clothing. At the same time I took classes in heirloom sewing by machine and learned the art of attaching lace to garments.
Now many years later I've decided to make a smocked dress for my youngest granddaughter who loves pretty "girly" cloths.
I had in my stash of fabric some pale pink Nelona Swiss cotton batiste which will be easy to smock. It's been so long since I have done anything like this that I had to find a book with instructions. Well, I'm on my way now and will post photos as I progress, my goal is to have the dress finished by May for her 3rd birthday.

Fabric pleated and ready for smocking.

Dress pattern

Smocking pattern

Embroidery Floss and lace

Embroidery 101

When I was in the south of France this past spring I bought a bag of dried lavender thinking it would be nice to make  lavender sachets. I asked my 61/2year old granddaughters if they would like to try an embroidery project to make the sachets and the answer was a yes. The girls chose the colours they wanted and worked hard on stitching the first letter of their names on cotton for the front of the sachets. I made a little embroidered piece for the back of each sachet as well as making the ruffled edge with my sewing machine. This was a nice little project to introduce the girls to the joy of working with your hands to make something beautiful.

Happy Holidays 2013

From my home to yours Happy Holidays

Photo Walk III

A friend and I went out for a photo walk this past Wednesday to what was once the Gooderham & Worts Distillery. What was once warehouse have now been turned into a wonderful shoppers paradise and a interesting place to take photos.
I took this photo of a old delivery truck

 

Then with a little Photoshop magic changed it into this:

And then into this:

I took quite a few interesting photos which I'll be using over the next few weeks and will be posting here.

Photo Walk II

Photo walk II using my Sony RX100

This photo became this:

And these two

Became this:

Lift

 

Each week Anna Aspnes team selects one creative page from the Anna Gallery at Oscraps as an inspiration page. It is suggested to take one or more ideas or inspirations and create your own page/Lift.  This is my take on this weeks Lift. The photo is myself as a very young child. I am guesting that I was about 2. The original  was in black and white which I recoloured using Photoshop.  It took me several days of work to complete. I played around with adding light as well as texture to give interest and balance to the page. I  added shadows to give depth and blended a number of the textures as well as adjusting the Hue & Saturation to get the colour that I wanted .
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Summers End

Summers End! I took this photo the last weekend we spent at our cottage. A bitter sweet time closing up for the season and saying goodbye until Spring.

Friday Challenge

Many of you who read this Blog may also be familiar with Kim Klassen. Kin's husband John has been fighting cancer for the last several months and it's been a difficult time for Kim and her family. Each week we are given a challenge at Photoshop Artistry- Grunge to create a page using certain guide lines and elements in it. Added to this weeks challenge was a request to dedicate the page to Kim, John and their family focusing on the theme Life, Hope & Love. Above is my submission.

Another week

I find as I age time seem to go so quickly! Here we are and another week has passed and we are heading into Fall weather, Halloween and oh to soon Christmas, snow, and cold weather.

This week I met with friends from out of town for a walk about in Kensington Market, a yummy lunch and lots of chat to catch up on  news. These ladies are fiber artist and  belong to The Group of Eight, you can find their bog here and Linda Kittmer's blog here. I took some photos of the day which will eventually end up in my work over the next months.

I am continuing to enjoy and learn with Photoshop Artistry-Grunge. Sebastian our instructor asked me to write tutorials for the group on two my pages Golden Glory & Venezia. You can see both pages on my Flckr page.

One of the pages I made in the last week called Finding my Way received quite a few comments on the  Photoshop Artistry-Grung  group  Flickr page

 

And this page called California Dreaming received a "Standing O" over at Ocraps. It was taken during my last visit to LA.

And California dreaming I am! I hope to be able to go back to LA in the New Year for a visit.


 

Another Project Finished

     
   Knitting this shawl was a bit of a challenge. The pattern is call Entrelac and it is made up of  tiers of blocks that are set on their points and are diamond shaped. Each block is knitted separately and jointed to its neighbor as it is being knit. This shawl is almost 6 feet long and took forever to finish. I used a yarn made in Japan called Noro. Noro yarn is handed dyed silk, mohair & wool and comes in beautiful colour combinations. I finished off the shawl by crocheting a fringe which I love the look of.

World Wide Photo Walk

I participated in my first World Wide Photo Walk last Saturday. The walk was started by Scott Kelby  a number of years ago. Last year there were over 900  walks around the world with 32,000 participants. What is a photo walk you ask "Its a social photography event where photographers get together (usually in a downtown area or trendy section of town) to walk around and take photos, and generally have fun with other photographers." And fun just what happened on my walk!
The walk I joined started at 10 am  and finished at 1:00 with a pub lunch. I really enjoyed myself talking and sharing with other participants.  I was super impressed with the camera's and lenses the other participants had. I shot with my new Sony camera and was happy walking with its light weight. I was also happy with the results of the day.

The photo above of the statue  was taken in alleyway. I came away wondering why it was there and not in some ones garden. 

Working with my hands

Although I love creating digital art, I also love working with my hands. And now having 3 adorable granddaughters knitting has become one of my favorite pastimes. I find it very relaxing when watching television in the evening to knit. Below are some of the sweaters I made over the summer.

And here's the cutie who wears this sweater.

I made the same pattern in pink for the "big sisters"

 

 

Another sweater that I made was given to a friend with a new baby. Unfortunately I did not take a photo of  the finished sweater, hat, and little shoes. So here is a second best the photo from the pattern.

 

I also knitted a sweater for myself. TWICE! Yes twice, I had to rip out the first completed finished attempt which was heartbreaking, but it was too big and did not fit.  It was either rip or give it away. I loved the yarn that I used that was sent from the UK and would not be easy to replace, so rip it was.

 I'm delighted with the finished results this time around especially that it fits!

 Right now I'm knitting and Entrelac shawl. It takes 10 balls of wool and feels like it is taking forever! And if you don't know what Entrelac knitting is (I did not until I started the shawl) you can see some photos here