CCC - August: Calm Afternoon

I was very happy to win the August competition. It's the first contest of the calendar series that I've won this year. That's always a great feeling, but this was even more special...

You see, I got a new camera for my birthday this year. I turned 30, and my family had all pitched in and bought me a brand new Nikon D7100 together. They're just the best (thank you, thank you, thank you!)! This win, is extra special because this is one of the very first photos I shot using my new toy, it's the first time I tried the HDR function that I had been longing for, and it's the first one taken with my new camera that I entered into a competition. That made the win all the more special to me. It was so great to be able to tell my family about the win when they asked me how I liked my new camera :)

/MrsHjort

24 Pictures from One Spot Challenge

I love new challenges, that's why I joined W1K back in 2013, and it's a huge part of why I've stayed. Even more important though, are the awesome artists you meet there, and all the inspiration you get.

Today, thanks to Buffy, I've finally gotten around to shooting my garden. For some reason, it's hard for me to get around to shooting at home. I like to go places and shoot, but really, you can find loads of nice subjects in your own back yard.

So anyway, the challenge was to stand in one spot, without moving your feet, and shoot 24 different photos. Fun huh? It makes you look around more than you usually do and experiment with angles and composition. I shot all of the pictures with my Sigma 70-300 mm lens - I just love how flexible it is and the gorgeous bokeh you get when using a large aperture :). It's just the best!

Shooting comes quite natural to me, I'm usually very fast - that's the way you get to be when you have an impatient husband, who sighs loudly when you take too long haha. The time-consuming part is the post-ed. But, it's an oh so important part. Some sharpening here, some curves manipulation there, getting the levels right is important, and saturation is the cherry on top. About two hours later, and I'm done.

So, here it is, the fruit of my work, both as a photographer and gardener. I hope you like it.

/MrsHjort

Day 6 - Apple of My Autumn

Here are the apples I promised to show you. We currently only have one apple tree that brings us fruit - since we chopped the other one down and replaced it with two baby ones. But this one has loads of apples. So many in fact, that one of the branches now touches the ground.

Apples are so pretty in Autumn, and we've already made some yummy apple pie. Speaking of pie, maybe I'll try and grow pumpkins next year. I love pumpkin pie too, and it would be pretty cool to try.

I remember one of my friends was planting some flowers in a balcony flower box once. Her sister "helped" and put in a few pumpkin seeds for fun. Ironically the seeds sprouted very fast, and ended up taking over the whole arrangement. She got a lot of pumpkins. What's even more ironic though, is that all of them, despite their appearance, tasted really bad. I guess I'll have to do some research before I choose which seeds to buy haha.

/MrsHjort