Day 7 - Portrait of a Hearty Mother

I've always loved this shot. It spot on shows just how this person is. I've never known quite what to do with it in post-ed though. It never occurred to me to try B&W, yet it proved the best choice - the building behind the subject is a bit too dominant, and this way it does not steal the attention away from her. It's much better this way.

So this concludes my week of square cropped black and white portraits. I was worried I wouldn't make it - not all pictures do well as square crops - but I managed to find seven of them. It's been an interesting challenge.

I don't know it the challenge will continue one more week yet, we'll see. But I'll keep the possibility in mind and have a think on what theme to go for.

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Day 6 - Portrait of a Playful Man

Many of you will recognize this person, and the kitty too I think. This is Mr and Freya :)

I shot this for a contest about three years ago but I ended up going with a different picture since this one didn't quite strike my fancy at the time. The shadow on the right bugged me and the lens I used made a shadow in the lower right corner. This was before my external flash... Now that I've added a vignette to the shot those thing do not bother me as much anymore though...

I'm glad this finally got to see the light of day. It's one of those rare pictures where Mr doesn't look uncomfortable. Maybe because he is holding Freya haha, she on the other hand, looks a bit like she'd rather stand on her own four paws. They make a cute pair nevertheless :D

/MrsHjort

Day 5 - Portrait of a Cunning Boy

Here's an other candid portrait. If I remember correctly, I shot it just after getting my Sigma macro lens. It eases the process of taking candid portraits a lot because, using it, you don't have to be as close to your "victims" haha. It makes it much easier to catch family members unawares. Man, now it sounds like I'm a creep haha! I love those little moments you get though. They're so genuine, and I love the mood they create, like this one, pure curiosity :).

As some of you know I lost my photography spark this winter (the lack of colors outside depresses me), and I haven't really my camera to that any social events lately. I'm gonna have to start doing that again. Having found so many old nuggets in my shoebox made me realize how fun it can be.

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Day 4 - Portrait of a Gifted Teen

I love doing candid portraits whenever I can manage. With a big DSLR camera and an external flash it is hard to stay unnoticed haha. But occasionally someone is distracted or have drifter away in thought enough for me to catch them off guard.

I sometimes wish I could be invisible... the cloak in Harry Potter comes to mind. Man would I love one of those! Imagine what great candid portraits I would get! Especially of those loved ones who are uncomfortable in front of a camera...

Mr is one of those people. If I had a nickle for every "uncomfortable picture" I have of him I would have enough money to buy a brand new camera haha. It does not keep me from trying though. Sooner or later I manage to get him :)

/MrsHjort

Day 1 - Portrait of a Strong Woman

I didn't think I'd make it an other week, but I decided I'd at least give it a shot. So, this week I'll be focusing on portraits - something I don't do very often, as I'm not that comfortable with doing them. And, to make things even more unusual, I will be going with black and white portraits - I love colors, and for that reason I've never stepped into the realm of B&W if I didn't have to for some reason. Hopefully I'll learn to get more comfortable with it as I go haha. I'm still sticking to the Nic collection though, which is (thankfully) easing the process of editing B&W a lot! Finally, I will aim to do square crops - I don't do that very often either.

So here's to making it a really unusual week, hopefully it will be fun :D

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Day 7 - Summer Lilac

This final one is very surreal, but I didn't want to go with a natural look at all for this one, but rather a graphic poster-ish kind of thing. The bold colors almost makes it look like a negative, but it's not ;)

Thus ends my one week long post-ed challenge. It's been a fun ride, more relaxing that the usual 30-day challenges and more playful - since I got to play around with colors and light using new tools. A very welcome task after the long boring brown winter we've had, ugh! I've missed color so much! Thank you Kim for coming up with the idea and for running this for us.

Finally, congrats to all who played! It's been such a pleasure to see what you've all come up with each day. It's truly an inspiration! Also, thank you for all your thoughtful comments! It's so much fun to hear what you have to say and it's always helpful to see my work though your perspective. You all rock!

Thank you!

/MrsHjort

Day 6 - Peony

This is one of those shots that I've been saving for what seems like forever, but never found a use for. One of the reasons is that it's cliche, and therefore I wouldn't want to use it in the regular contests at Dagger Bay (or the like). And, when a cliche contest eventually arrived, this shot was long forgotten... but now it finally gets to see the light of day :).

Isn't that funny though? When you shoot something and think for yourself "I'll keep that one in mind for future use, it's perfect for this or that kind of contest" but then you totally forget? It happens constantly to me. But I guess it's only natural since my archive is now... let me see... it's storing 19 413 pictures!? No wonder stuff get lost! I guess I'll have to create some kind of new filing system for potential contest pictures haha.

/MrsHjort

Day 5 - Snowdrop

This picture was a though one to edit, I am still second guessing the processing I used. On one hand the white flower needs contrast to shine, and on the other the "contrasty" background may be a tad too much. I like the glowing foliage in the background and the golden quality it adds, though at the same time I am worried it takes the glory away from the flower, buuuut at the same time I like the overall impression of it all. Aaaargh! Maybe I'm overthinking this haha. After all, those dark areas are where they are supposed to be.

The main thing I like about this shot is the way that little bell-shaped flower is only just open. That's when Snowdrops are the most beautiful. I love the clean innocent elegance of them, don't you? It's a pity they only bloom once a year. But then again we wouldn't appreciate them as much if they were more generous would we?

Happy Spring to you all

/MrsHjort

Day 4 - Wood Squill

Here's an other little ugly duckling who got to grow into a swan. It was one of those shots that got pushed aside in favor of a better one, plus, it always bugged me that the center of the flower is't in focus. Processed this way it does not matter to me as much though - since the glow makes it an entirely different kind of shot. Enhancing the light like this makes it into a "mystical fairy-tale" type of shot, and that takes the pressure off the that little imperfection. Funny how a photo can change genre like this, just through the use of different post processing techniques - in this new context the blur actually works in its advantage.

I'm gonna have to stop trowing shot's like this away haha. If only I can get that perfectionist inside me to keep her finger off that delete button. A photo does not have to be technically perfect to be enjoyable. That's the lesson I relearned today :)

Cheers!

/MrsHjort

Day 3 - Laurentia

This little nugget of mine has been a neglected for far too long. I have always loved the raw material, but I've never been able to do it justice in post-ed before. The original is much more "contrasty" and green, and therefore, being one to go with natural looks, the green has always turned out too powerful for my taste when I tinkered with it before. Either that or too boring, too bland or too ordinary looking... Bah!

Thanks to Morporkian, a fellow Quartermaster at Dagger Bay, I've now got a fresh set of tools to play with. The full collection of Nik filters is free for everybody, and wow are they fun to play with. It helped me step outside my comfort zone to try new stuff, the way new software often does, and it is wonderful. Thank you Morp!

Anyway, this little dainty flower really needed a pastel surrounding to shine. Well not exactly pastel, but close enough - it needed a bit of contrast too or it would have disappeared. I'm so glad to have these new tools to play with :)

/MrsHjort

Day 2 - Dahlia

This is from last autumn. The shot was doomed to the shoebox when I saw it on my monitor and discovered that the focal length didn't quite cover the bee. Alas I had no other shot that did, so focus stacking was out. Thus I gave it up at the time, and went with an other shot for whatever I was shooting for that day. Photoshop sure can do some magic though, a couple of bee specific High Pass layers later and I'm satisfied to use it.

This shot made me think of Alice in Wonderland. Maybe it's because the composition looks similar to a drawing in the children's book I had when I was young. That made me want to use processing to make it look slightly unworldly, as fitting for a fantasy story. So off I went and did several layers of cross processing and then cut them together with different layers softly spreading out from the bottom one in the middle.

Now that I'm done it makes me think of the book even more :). I love the time travel you sometimes experience through photography! Don't you?

/MrsHjort

Day 1 - Tulips

Dagger Bay has just started running a Shoebox Challenge! Fun fun fun! If you're wondering, the main idea is to finally get around to processing old picture that haven't yet seen the light of day. Boy do I have a tonne of those haha!

For this challenge I'm going to focus on floral shots - I absolutely love doing them and as a consequence I have a million of them gathering dust on my hard drive.

This shot is actually three shots - they're focus stacked in order to make all three tulips crispy sharp. I shot them two years ago but never got around to finishing the work. It was too time consuming at the time and I didn't really need the shot anyway. Today I found them again, and I'm so glad I did!

I am also going to try to focus on processing techniques that I don't usually use - I tend to go for the natural look, but for this challenge I want to focus on bringing out light and colors in new ways. Time will tell if I'm successful.

Wish me luck!

/MrsHjort

Happy Easter

I have really been neglecting my blog lately. Dagger Bay is taking up much of my time (but it's so much fun) and work has been busy too (I love it though). In the meantime spring has finally arrived, and colors are returning to the world outside my windows.

This spring is something extra. Maybe it's because last time I didn't have the time to enjoy it. Sure I'm busy now too, but it's a positive kind of busy. The kind of busy that is about building new things, enthusiasm, creativity and drive.... about that feeling of moving forward and accomplishing something. I am very happy right now. Life couldn't be better. It feels so good to be able to say that.

This is a shoeboxd picture. I shot it years ago but it has never seen the light of day because of some slight focus issues. I can't help but love it though. The low angle in combination with the light and colors is so pretty. It's very "Eastery", if there is such a word haha.

Happy Easter to all of you!

/MrsHjort

An Unexpected Victory, and Me and Worth

Sometimes things can really surprise you, like the last contest I entered at W1K. I entered three pictures, just for fun. You see, I haven't entered in a while and the theme - "Bugs" - actually fit something in my beloved shoe box! So, I happily entered, without a though of weather I would win or not - sometimes it's fun to play just for the thrill itself. Because believe me, no matter if you are actually close to the top or not, checking that leader board is really addictive!

I did not feel this relaxed and comfortable about my photography in the beginning, no, not at all! Back in 2012, as I joined W1K, it was so much more personal. I imagine it's like that for many of us when we're rookies. The step, to actually participating from just lurking is really quite a large one. You see, I've actually been lurking at W1K for many many years, on and off. A friend of mine told me of the site, and the first time I checked it out I was completely awestruck! The things you can find there are just... there are no words to fit the awesomeness of it, and to dare to become a part of that is a bit daunting.

I don't know what finally pushed me to competing myself. Maybe it was the university, and the fact that I really needed a creative outlet in my life back then. You see, learning about math can be quite dry at times (believe it or not haha). Or maybe it was the new camera that finally gave me the inspiration - DSLR cameras are so much more flexible than compacts. Or maybe it was a very lucky combination of both.

Anyway, competing is very much connected to the ego in the beginning. You take things very personally when someone gives you a comment that is not 100% positive. It takes a while to let those feelings of vanity go, and actually look at your own pieces with objective eyes. Worthians (people at W1K) are very good at giving you helpful comments, and once you learned to see behind the stinging surface, you'll really begin to learn, and you'll learn a lot.

My first entries, were no beauties, let me tell you! It's a long process to learn how to compose, use light, and post-process. But the fun of W1K is all the help you can find there, and all the helpful generous people. You'll find a lot of great tutorials on just about anything, and, if you want to, you can ask for help in the forum, or even get critique on specific photograph. They also have a great mentor program, that is completely free! I promise, if you keep the ego monster away, it will really jump start your journey towards becoming better. I learned so much from my mentor, and it's so much fun to get to know people from around the globe too.

Oops, sorry, I've rambled a lot now, lets get back to my original intent. So, I was very pleasantly surprised by the outcome of this last contest. The top picture actually actually made first place! But not only that, it is now my highest scoring entry ever! It got so very close to that "magical barrier"; the mean was 7.935 and I've set a goal to score an entry over 8. You see, all entries with a mean over 8 gets added to a special collection, and I would be so honored to be added to that group of select artists that have made it. But hey, I've passed a lot of my goals over the years - my first medal, my first gold medal, graduating to the advanced arena, winning a gold trophy, and finally, winning a master's gold trophy!

So, even though I've not quite made all my goals, I's nice to still have something to strive for, and I'm proud to have come this close!

Thank you for listening!

/MrsHjort

Little Birdie

I know it's been a while now. I have had the misfortune of getting the flu, and let me tell you, it's been worse this year than it has been for a long long time - I've been completely out for about 6 days, and today is the first day that I've been able to function relatively normally again. So, alas, there's a lot of catching up to do, both here and at work. Luckily I have a week off though, so I might actually get caught up, if I can find the discipline that is haha. (yeah, yeah, I know, I know, I probably will, that's both my blessing, and my curse).

Having had to stay indoors for a while now, I have to confess I'm really aching for some out doors time with my camera. No amount of watching sci-fi or playing Dragon Age can make up for the thrill of shooting. Now, if only my scratchy throat will get better I might actually take a stroll. But for now this photo will have to do.

I shot this about a year ago, but I haven't known what to do with it in post-ed until now. It was very grey to start with and I just couldn't make it interesting enough - when manipulating the levels, the sky somehow always turned out too bright. Today it hit me though - why not embrace the sky's hopelessness and really overdo the highlights instead? So I turned this originally very grey photo into a high key shot instead. I hope you like it :)

/MrsHjort

Winter Walks

The snow has come, the first real one that is - the kind that stays for more than a few hours. Last Friday the flakes were ginormous, and all of a sudden, the boring browns were covered by a blanket of white.

I love the idea of snow - it brightens everything up a bit, during this dark time of the year, and I love sitting inside with a hot cuppa by a window. I can't say that I'm overly exited about the days when I have to actually get out in it though; I hate when its slippery! My workplace is down hill from where I live, and you really have to watch your step, or you'll start sliding uncontrollably. Wouldn't that be a sight for my students? Their teacher skidding down hill, whilst wailing squeakily and flapping her arms, falling nose first into a snow covered bush. Maybe I should buy crampons for my boots, just in case haha.

Don't get me wrong though, there are instances when I really enjoy a walk in the snow. Like when I have a camera in my hands, or when we bring bread down to the stream and feed the ducks, or, even better, both!

I just found these pictures from two years ago hiding away in my computer, and thought to myself, it would be fun to compere my best shots from back then, to what I can come up with now, after two years of shooting and competing at W1K. So stay tuned for more winter bird shots. I don't have the time to go shooting today, but hopefully the snow will stay a while, and I'll try to manage a troll soon.

/MrsHjort

The One That Didn't Quite Make It

Like so many, I have a "shoe box" folder on my computer, filled with pictures that somehow didn't survive the process of selection, the ones that weren't quite good enough, or didn't quite fit into what I was looking for.

This is one of those pictures. It was a candidate for the Calendar Challenge (April), but I ended up going with an other once, since I didn't want a picture of a white flower that month - I wanted to vary the colors, and I did white in February. So, there it has been since then, in the shoe box, gathering pixel dust, still waiting for an opportunity to shine - so today, I thought to myself, why not here?

As I look back on my time at W1K, I realize that it's almost been two years now, and the quality of my shoe box pictures has improved a lot! Ever now and again I erase the ones that no longer live up to my standards - the one's I know I will probably never enter into a contest, and when you think about it, it's actually kind of cool, because if anything, it shows how I've grown and how I've found my "style" so to speak. Because apparently, I have one haha, or so I've been told.

Anyway, the point of today's fumbling ramblings today, is that a year or two at W1K really enhances your skills, and I want to thank all of the kind, generous people who have taken the time to comment and advice me. You are the best!

/MrsHjort