Day 31 - Final Curtain

I'll put in this last shot from France, because what is France if not a country famous for its wines? I simply couldn't leave it out of the French set. It's not part of that day at the medieval market, but it may as well be. France and wine is like Scotland and bagpipes, which incidentally brings me to my next point, and that of my next series. I've decided to continue with my Edinburgh shots next :)

Ah will se ye a' th'morra

/MrsHjort

Day 30 - Out of a Fairytale

This shot concludes my medieval market series. It's of one of the castle's towers. Each time I see it, I half expect Rapunzel to let down her hair haha. The architecture and the general mood of this shot is just like what I imagined when I was a child, listening to the story as my mother read it to me before I fell asleep.

30 is an appropriate number to end on, and I want to congratulate my fellow challenge participators Kim and Craig on making it this far. It's a joy to to get to see your pictures every day, and I really enjoy reading your thoughtful comments. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me, and for making this challenge so much fun. You guys are awesome!

Like I said, 30 is a nice round number to end on, it's the length of many of the months and the length of the challenges hosted in the past. Though it need not be the end. This challenge is a casual one, and we're all free to stay and play for as long as we like (or jump right in and join the fun, if you've not been a port of it yet). Personally, I still have a load of unedited pictures on my hard drive, So you'll see me for a while yet, and hopefully a bunch of cool people will help keep the challenge
alive with me.

I'm still undecided on what to continue with, now that this set is finished. I'm choosing between more pictures from the vacation in France, and pictures from the weekend in Edinburgh. I've done my homework and picked out the pictures I want to edit from both trips - 105 more Frenchy shots and 87 from Scotland. So, there is a lot to choose from whatever I decide. Hey, maybe you can help me make up my mind? What do you think I should choose?

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Day 29 - Chateauneuf en Auxois

This is what the castle and its village looks like viewed from the place where I stayed. It's not strictly taken at the medieval market (which is my theme for this challenge), but during the evening that same day, so I think it qualifies.

It was such a beautiful evening... The perfect end to a great day... My medieval market series is drawing to a close too. It started out as a 7 day challenge, which is why I've labelled it as such, but I've never been one to follow the rules, and thus it turned into a full-blown 30-day challenge. Best of all is that there are two more rebells breaking the rules with me. Kim and Craig, you guys are awesome! Mwah!

I'll show you the last shot tomorrow, but the post-ed challenge will carry on, at least for me anyway, and hopefully some new faces will join in on the fun. We've left the challenge open for anyone to join, at any time, but maybe the change of months is the perfect time? We'll see... But just so you know, all of you reading this right now, you are more than welcome to join me :)

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Day 28 - Red Window

This window is something that caught my eye straight away. It's quite striking don't you think? Subjects such as these are a joy to shoot.

I've removed two distracting items from this shot, can you spot which ones? Hey! That could be a fun idea for a photo contest! A comparative "spot the five changes" competition. What a fun combination of childhood memories and photography.

Speaking of contests, Dagger Bay is increasing the number of advanced contests next week, so if you haven't already found your way there, I can really recommend it. There are lots of fun competitions to be found there, as well as tutorials, a great forum, and some of the most awesome people you can find online. :)

I hope I'll see you there!

/MrsHjort

Day 27 - Lions and Vines

I have a feeling that this combination of lions and vines found above the door is not very common outside of France. At least it felt very french to me. I love little details like that, they convey the heart and soul of the places they're in.

The village surrounding the castle looks like it came straight out of the fairy-tales, and this shot is typical of what it looks like - very authentic, filled with lovely flowers and oh, so beautiful! You could easily film a movie set in the medieval ages here, or why not an episode of Game of Thrones? Remove a few modern details, like the lamp, and I could see Daenerys stopping here on her way to Westeros :).

I was a bit surprised to find out that people actually live in this beautiful place. Walking through the streets, I thought that it felt closer to a museum than a place where you park your car and go inside to relax on the sofa. What a lovely place to live. I envy the people ho get to call this place home.

/MrsHjort

Day 26 - View from the Castle

I shot this from a vantage point close to the castle of Chateauneuf en Auxois, overlooking the canal and one of the small villages near by. It's a charming landscape, but as always, it comes off as flatter than it really is when you see it like this. There are more hills to this area than you can tell from looking at this shot. Boy, do I wish I had the ability to bring out the beauty of the rolling landscape and show it like it was. I'll just wait patiently for the "holographic imager" to be invented I guess...

I did a lot of editing to this shot, obviously. Off the top of my head I used, Levels, Detail Extractor, Bleach bypass, Contrast color range, Cross processing, Graduated filters, Foliage, Skylight, Tonal contrast and then a slight lightening of the center. Oh, and a noise reduction - since all that tweaking bought me some free grain. I think that's it... It took me a while to get the look I wanted. As you can see, the original is quite bland, and the clouds were casting shadows over the landscape, making it look dull and colorless. This enhanced version is closer to what it really looked like, though of course I've taken some artistic freedoms, but then that's what we all do in post-ed isn't it? Spice it up a bit to make things a more beautiful :)

I hope you like it.

/MrsHjort

Day 25 - Three Pots

Sorry, no real blogg tonight, just pictures. I actually went to bed before realizing that I forgot to do the challenge! Not that I'd have to get up and do it, but I like to. I'm just a bit too tired to think up something interesting to say. I'll do better tomorrow.

Night night

/MrsHjort

Day 24 - Bricks and Stone

The juxtaposition of these very different types of stone caught my eye as I was wandering through the castle. Not that I know when they started laying brick walls like this, but I have a feeling it wasn't in the Medieval ages - it looks way to even and well maintained to be that old. I guess they had to redo this fireplace at some point. I like the effect nonetheless.

This will be the end of my abstract texture high key shots, and I'll move on to... I don't really know what I'll move on to... I've sort of exhausted the best of my shots from the day at the market, but I might be able to dig up some more if I really try. Otherwise you'll se some of the other pictures I took in France. Either way, I'm no way near done with this challenge :)

I'll see you tomorrow

/MrsHjort

Day 23 - Carved by Hand

I'm showing you an other beautiful piece of interior today. Looking back, I remember that I found it particularly hard to do a partial subject in this case, since it was so beautifully detailed and I wanted to have it all and show it off in all its splendor. Sometimes, it's not easy to find the right balance between the marvel you feel when you've found a lovely subject and cold calculated composition. I'm still doubting myself when it comes to this shot, and I've experimented with the cropping a bit, but I'm satisfied enough to show you my take on it today. I don't remember if this was a cabinet door or a piece of the wonderful wall panels. But whatever it is, it certainly managed to captivate me :)

/MrsHjort

Day 22 - Aged

I can't help but wonder how this would have looked when it was brand new. The fine apartments of the castle were all beautifully decorated and filled with wonderful details such as this. It must have been stunning! Though as beautiful as it must have looked back in the day, I think I like this better, not to live in mind you, but as a subject for photography.

Speaking of photography, I've gotten a brand new camera (Nikon D7100) as a birthday present from my family, and I'm having so much fun checking it out! All the new functions are so much fun to explore. I was just outside in my garden testing the HDR-settings and I'm very satisfied with the results I got. It's so much easier than the way I used to do it. As a matter of fact I've just entered one of the HDR shots from today into the Calendar Corsair Challenge for this month at DaggerBay. So you'll get to see it in a bit over a week. Time will tell how it all goes.

/MrsHjort

Day 21 - Sculpted

I have to admit, when I was at the castle in Chateauneuf en Auxois, I totally fell in love with all the little details inside, like the ornamented windows, the sculpted stone and the aging paint pealing off hand-crafted wood. I love stuff like that. I'm a sucker for aged textures :).

Editing the shots, I'm trying very hard to resist my urge to crank up the contrast. I love doing that as it usually brings out the colors and clarity of a shot, though these shots are all about the texture and light, and cranking up the contrast eliminates that. I hope I've gotten it right - a part of me still wants to crank up the contrast, but then, the different shades of white and grey are more discernible this way, so I keep going back to it.

Do you agree? Is less more in this case?

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Day 20 - White Door

An other Saturday and we're hosting yet another birthday party. It's quite fun do get to celebrate my birthday almost the entire month haha. This time it's with my family. We had planned to invite them all earlier, but both Mr and I were sick back when we had planned to host the family dinner, so we had to cancel. We're still not 100% well, this dang cough just never ends, but we're definitely well enough to celebrate, eat cake and enjoy ourselves.

As usual Mr prepared my cake, and as usual he has outdone himself! He tries to make the cakes larger and more yummy each year haha. So, this year it's a 8 layered cake, with 30 written in blueberries on top, and a lot of fruit and berries inside. Yum yum yum! I'll try to take a picture and show you the masterpiece.

See you tomorrow

/MrsHjort

Day 19 - Window Knob

Today I'm starting the next segment of shots from that day at the Medieval market - shots of details from inside the castle. There were loads of pretty stuff in there - authentic, aged, beautifully worn and oh so charming!

I have to confess that there is an ulterior motive to me doing this particular segment - it's not all about the subjects. You see, I don't do high key shots very often, and this is my chance to practice editing them. So please, don't be afraid to give me a pointer or two. I always appreciate feedback.

The post-ed here was a bit more complex than what one might think. I started with the usual stuff - Levels, Detail extractor, High key, Cross processing, Foliage (to enhance the yellow spectra) and a slight vignette. Then I did some local editing to brighten the knob and the wood. That blew out the highlights to the right though, so I used a soft history brush to bring them back. The experimenting almost made me forget about sharpening haha. But only almost.

/MrsHjort

Day 18 - Gunpowder

This is me trying out fake DOF on a still life in order to make distracting stuff in the background less distracting. Did it work? Or did I just blow in by telling you haha. I like the result nonetheless, even though this is a very brown shot (I'm no fan of the color).

I am a fan of olden things though. I think it's my next favorite thing to shoot, right after nature. There are just so many wonderful textures to be found on the surfaces of aged stuff.

There is also something very attractive about things that have been made by hand. They're not perfect like the massproducerad stuff you see everywhere nowadays, and those little "imperfections" make them much more interesting. A little wonkiness, asymmetry or a crack or two... nothing wrong with that. Great stuff, it shows character :)

/MrsHjort

Day 17 - Feathers and Metal

All these beautiful helmets were standing on a table, just begging to be photographed. Aren't all those feathers marvelous? I love them! There's just one thing that's bugging me... If I could have, I would have rearranged stuff a bit, but I didn't want to intrude, so I found the best angle I could and shot them from there. My fingers still itch from wanting to turn that one front helmet sideways though, but hey, what can you do :)

/MrsHjort

Day 16 - Officer's Chair

Do you know how sometimes you intend to write something with a specific angle, and end with a certain point, but get carried away with your memories and end up writing something completely different? Well, it happened to me yesterday...

I had intended to write about how I loved that the Medieval market turned me around, and how it made history come alive to me. However, I got too caught up in memories of anger and frustration to finish my original train of thoughts. I am still full of contempt for most of what higher education entails (at least in my country) - the hypocrisy, rigidness and self-righteousness it reeks of is enough to make any resonable person angry. But enough of that... I can make my point today instead ;)

Do I still hate history? Well the word itself still makes me feel aversion, but, I have to say, I really enjoyed spending that day right in the middle of living history. I loved seeing the knights, vendors and ladies in fancy dresses, not to mention the re-enactments and the shows! Wonderful!

I guess the answer is that I love the non-academic side to history - the side that makes me want to explore and enjoy discovery, rather than force-feeding me facts without context. That's the side of history I hate. Not the subject itself, but rather the practices it is associated with. Here's to making history come alive. If you ever have the chance to take part in an event like this, don't hesitate! It's a wonderful experience :)

/MrsHjort

Day 15 - Great Balls of Fire

I've never been interested in history. It was always the subject I found the most boring in school - it was nothing but "years" and "old names" to me, it never came alive and I never really cared for it. Not that I hated it, it was just... meh...

When I went to the uni I really started to hate history... You see, I had to take "The History of Literature" as a part of my education. Sigh... talk about lost potential! I mean what better way is there to make history come alive than through literature? Sadly, that was far from the case. The shear volume of literary works we had to read was staggering in itself, but that's not what made me hate it - I love reading. No, the thing that made me hate it with a burning passion was that the course was accompanied with a list of (I kid you not) hundreds of authors, publishing dates and book-titles that we had to memorize for the final exam. I've never struggled so much with anything in my life! I passed though, and on my first try too. Thank goodness for that! Can you guess how much I can retain today? The answer is next to nothing. Well done uni, well done...

/MrsHjort

Day 14 - Fresh Meat

Not mush processing was needed for this shot. Subjects such as these make themselves and only need a tiny bit tweaking. I used levels, Detail extractor, Contrast color range, Skylight filter and a vignette. That's it. Easy peasy.

We hosted a party last night, celebrating my 30th birthday with our friends. It was a great evening, it always is when those guys are involved! Our friends are awesome! Funnily it was also our official "moving in party". "Funnily" because we have actually lived here for over two years now. We teased a friend of ours for the very same thing a few years back - it took him a while too - but we ended up taking even longer ourselves. Now though, that our house is finally fully renovated, we felt that it was completed enough to host that party - all rooms are now actually moved into, even that one "room of chaos" where "everything" went haha.

 /MrsHjort

Day 13 - Gauntlets

Sorry, I don't have time for a description today. Guests are arriving withing the hour and I have a lot of stuff to do. So, it will just be a quickie today.

See you tomorrow :)

/MrsHjort

Day 12 - Hear Ye

"Who is this?" You may wonder. Well, it's the announcer of the knights' duel I wrote about yesterday, clad in beautiful green and gesturing powerfully as he captivated the crowd between the clashes :)

This might possibly be the last of the portraits I'll show you from the that wonderful day at the Medieval market (which doesn't mean there isn't more to come). This shot was the one I worried most about. I was afraid that the fake bokeh would be problematic, I mean just look at all those fuzzy details of the subject's costume!

Having done so many of the fake bokeh shots lately, I've learned the ins and outs of the process. The key is to get real close and meticulous with the lasso tool when the background is busy, and looser when it is relatively monotone. My first try to get this right turned out much better than I expected it to. I usually go over it with the clone stamp to smooth the edges after blurring the background, but it required very little work this time. Maybe because I was extra careful with the lasso tool...? It was a huge relief nonetheless.

/MrsHjort

Day 11 - The Squire

It's not everyday you get to see two knights in full armor have at each other with war-hammers! In the middle of lunch there was suddenly a roar right outside the restaurant garden, Overcome by curiosity, I grabbed my camera and hurried to see what the fuss was about, and to my surprise I found this dramatic scene playing out. I didn't understand a word - I only know a couple of words in French - but the drama spoke for itself. Sadly the crowd ruined the photos from the actual fights (people got right in my way) but I did get this shot, of a squire helping out his knight, adjusting a gauntlet. I hope you like it.

/MrsHjort

Day 8 - 10 Merriment, Music and Heart

Sorry for posting so late! I've experienced some internet problems - we haven't had a connection in three days. Our household has just gotten optic fiber installed, and ironing out the odds and ends took some time. But now it's up and running, and considerably faster than before! Yey!

Day 8 - Merriment

The photo above is a "right in the moment" type of shot. I saw this group of beautifully dressed men and women greeting each other, and snapped a whole bunch of photos of them, hoping to get one that was okay. Anyone who has taken pictures of a a group of people knows how hard it is to get all of them right at the same time, and that's not even speaking about candid pictures, like this one. The lady on the right sort of makes a funny face, biting her lip like that, and the lady in blue just moved behind the lady in front of her, but I still like it. The energy of the group mirrors what is was like to be there perfectly. It was joyous, warm and very dynamic.

Day 9 - Music

This violinist played beautifully as she walked up and down the street. Thankfully, there wasn't much people there, so I could take her photo without too many distracting elements getting in the way and choose my angles without worrying about people walking into my shot. It's such a luxury to get to do that! Only too often I find myself waiting for people to move out of the picture when I'm shooting something, and when they're finally out of the way, others take their place. Shooting stuff in crowds is hard!

I really shouldn't complain though, I'm very fortunate to have gotten so many decent photos from that day. I only expected a few of them to meet my standards. My camera is getting kind of old and sluggish, you see, so I have to say that I'm very happy with the crop of pictures that I've gotten. Soon things will be different though... I'm awaiting an upgrade! I turned 30 a few days a go, and one of my presents is a brand new camera! A Nikon D7100! I can't wait until I get my hands on it, and I'm so looking forward to testing all of the new functions I'll have access to. 

Day 10 - Heart

I don't usually go for a central subject, but in this case it seemed fitting. The pose and the direction in which he is looking made me go against my usual preferences. I just couldn't crop away his arm and cropping away the "air" on the right side would leave him looking like he was moving out of the picture, and no one likes that. So, central subject is was!

If you're wondering about the pose, despite of the how things may look, it's actually a candid shot. This man was standing listening to the Scottish bagpipe music and dreamily looking into the distance as they played "Amazing Grace". You can even see a pipe in the shot in the unedited version below. So it seems, I was not the only one moved by the music :). It was truly beautiful.

/MrsHjort

Day 7 - The Blowing Scotsman

This is another of the bagpipers I wrote about yesterday. This fellow was all dressed up in the traditional Scottish manner, with all the accessories. He made for a wonderful subject!

The fake DOF in this shot was a bit of a pain. I wanted it to look real, and keep that wonderful long hair from looking slick and unnatural. It proved quite a challenge...

I used my new method as a base, which worked very well with the hair on top oh his head - there was not much going on in the background so the blur didn't change much - but the hair falling down his shoulder was an other story. I used the clone brush as best I could to create a natural looking transition from blur to hair, but it wasn't enough - the blurry background had changed color too much to look natural, and the original one was peaking out from between the hairs. I ended up using a combination of things - de-saturation, dodging and color replacement. I took me a while but I'm finally satisfied with the result.

/MrsHjort