Focus On A New Subject

The latest lesson on Kat's class Find Your Eye Journey of Recognition was to find something new to photograph.

At first I wasn't sure what to do but then I remembered about a silver tea set which we inherited from Dan's mum and dad.  

I really love it and once I had cleaned it up (boy did it need some silver cleaner) it looked really good.  

Well what I mean to say is the teapot looked good - I'm not so sure about the pictures!!!

I have to say I enjoyed trying to find different ways to shoot it - but my main bugbear was trying to eliminate reflections.  I always knew I was going to get them but I was trying to find ways to lessen them. 

 After a while I decided the best thing to do would be to take advantage of them.  

So I tried to place the tea set in such a way as to get the best reflective pictures.

 But you will have to excuse the fact that I am in ALL of the pictures lol.

 I also tried to use the lovely ornate handles as I felt they added another dimension to the pictures.

I don't know if I managed to shoot 100 images but it can't have been much less than that - there were a lot of duff shots that I didn't like.  I did finally reach the stage where I didn't know what else to do with them and I did find it quite limiting which I don't usually find when taking pictures of something I know. 

I did enjoy doing this new subject but I definately need more practice and experience with it.

Exploring Rules

I have signed up for the 2nd part of Kat's Find Your Eye Journey of Recognition.  And the next lesson is

 Exploring Rules and breaking them.

I have to say though that I don't really follow rules as such. I go out with my camera and if I like something I take a picture. But looking at it logically I must follow rules in my head without thinking about it (I hope you know what I mean).

I was out on a walk the other day and it was a bright sunny day - for a change lol. I loved the way the sun was shining - but I know that you shouldn't really shoot into the sun but the picture below I really like and the main reason I like it is because of the direct sunlight.

 Anyway do they not say that rules are made to be broken - or am I just a photographic rebel lol.

Final Lesson

 Well, we have reached the final lesson in Kat's Find Your Eye class. I have to say it has been an eye opening class. Makes you look and assess your pictures.   

I have transferred a lot of pictures to my inspiration folder and studied them to try and find a common theme. 

The main themes I have identified are light, reflection and water. 

Somebody told me most of my pictures had water in them somewhere - I hadn't realised it before but she was right.

On of my most favourite things to photograph is flowers and using macro is great as you get right into the heart of the flower.

Beautiful light add to much to a picture and I am always on the lookout for it.

I also love reflections - the clearer the better. The picture below was taken at a break we had at 

Pitlochry. It was a beautiful Autumn day and the water was very still.

Now, I'm not very good at putting what I want to say into words, so I've not found this part of the exercise very easy.  But it has definately made me think a lot more about my pictures.

 I have really enjoyed doing these lessons and I thank Kat and the rest of the girls for their input and comments.

Familiar Subject

The next lesson from Kat's Find Your Eye was to take 50 shots of a familiar subject.

My daughter had her 17th birthday on Monday and one of the gifts she received was this beautiful mirrored jewellery box and bracelets. 
As soon as I saw them I wanted to photograph them. I love reflections and I thought this might make a good subject. I took more than 70 shots - I nearly didn't know when to stop lol.

It's amazing where the time goes when you get engrossed in what you are doing.  Anyway here are my favourites - I hope you like them

The

Why Do I Take Pictures?

A few weeks a was very lucky to win a competition on Lisa blog 

The prize was a place on   Kat's Find Your Eye Course .  So  I started this new blog to chart my progress through it. 
Here is my first entry - Why Do I Take Pictures?

 Good question!!!

I used to take lots of pictures when my 3 girls were wee. I did this so I could have a memory of them growing up. So I suppose that answers that one. 

To keep memories alive.

 There is nothing like a picture to conjure up a memory be it a holiday, birthday or a  special day you want to never forget.

However together with that I now like to take photographs of things that I think are visually pleasing - at least to me. Like flowers, landscapes and sunsets.

Here are a few I took over the last year.

 

I really love to take pictures - I have an awful lot to learn but they say practice makes perfect - so I should get there hopefully :))
I welcome any feed back and comments.