May and June on Instagram

It's been months since I shared any Instagram images on here. It will never supersede blogging for me, but I enjoy it enormously, especially on those occasions when I don't have my "big" camera with me. People seem to use Instagram for all kinds of reasons - to promote a business, or to showcase their photography - but I like it most when people use it to make friends and share their hobbies and passions, and to capture and share the everyday in an instant way, and that's how I like to use it too.

So here are a few snippets of May:

Row one, feeling blue: 

Sunset. Bowling. The tiled floor in the Natural History Museum. A heart in the clouds.

Row two, spring greens:

Quilt drying on the line. Children in a maze. A gate on the way to school. Sandals and daisies.

Row three, everyday life:

Making jam tarts. A messy kitchen. A good day for washing. A sunny spot.

Row four, looking downwards:

Pancakes for breakfast. Sketching. Cake break. Angus turns five.

And a few from June:

Row one, out and about:

I've been into Leeds three times this month, that's unheard of! Shopping, lunch, theatre, you name it, I've been gallivanting.

Row two, looking downwards:

Map garland. Cake and a new book. Drinks in a friend's garden one evening. The makings of a Victoria sponge.

Row three, heat seeking:

The view from the school playground one hot morning. The kid's playhouse. Garden shadows. Blue skies.

Row four. family life:

Before the theatre. After the theatre. The loom band obsession begins. Father's Day tray.

I'm here if you want to come and find me. I love finding blogging friends on Instagram. Come and say hello! 

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Thank you so much for all your recent comments. I feel like I've neglected this space a bit lately. Well, not neglected it, but I don't feel that I'm as "present" as I usually am, if that makes sense. Life is just too hectic at the moment, but it will soon settle down again and I'll have more time to be here, to think, to craft and to visit your blogs too.

Photography Tips For Bloggers: Part Two

Hello! Welcome back to the second half of my photography tips, hints, ideas, whatever you like to call them. I was so touched by your response to part one, thank you for your comments. I hope you like this post as much. Many of you mentioned that you had to use your phone for blog photos, and lamented the quality of the images. I think it's worth emphasising that you do not need a fancy camera to enjoy taking photos for your blog (or photos for yourself, for that matter) and that the important thing is that you enjoy what you are doing, that you enjoy taking the photos, and I think that this will be conveyed in your images.

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7. Editing

By this I mean playing around with an an image on the computer by using a package or a website like Photoshop, PicMonkey or Pixlr. PicMonkey is the one I usually use, and certainly the one that I am most familiar with. It's largely free - the functions I use are - but you can pay more to access extra filters and effects I believe. I tend to use it to to correct wonky horizon lines, crop images  or sometimes, during the winter, add warmth to the light and colour settings if I took the photos on a very bleak day.

You can have tremendous fun by uploading your photos and playing around with the filters that are there, or creating your own effects by playing around with contrast, colour saturation or focus. I changed the effects of the leaf skeletons below by going into "Sharpen" and moving "sharpness" and "clarity" to their maximum settings, for example.

I'd really recommend you play around on it and experiment. 

The other thing it's great for is creating collages. All the collages you see on my blog were put together using PicMonkey. Sometimes they can give a feel or flavour of something in a way that one single photo can't. 

Sarah at Mitenska uses collages very successfully to capture the feel of an event, day or holiday to great effect, such as here, rather than showing us lots of individual photos. They become pieces of art all of their own. I think she also uses filters really successfully, and they work well because her original photos are so good.

Annie at Knitsofacto is a very gifted photographer, and she recently put together this excellent tutorial for using colour in PicMonkey collages. But I'd highly recommend a look at all Annie's photos, she has a unique talent. (in my humble opinion!)

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8. Be Observant

I find I often wish I had my camera with me when I see something I like the look of, or something I want to capture. Often it's a view or a sunset, but sometimes it's something more mundane. My eye is always drawn to interesting or unusual shadows around the house...

...or reflections...

...or the way light is refracted through glass.

Things like this fascinate me. You might say that images like these don't really serve any purpose, but if they catch your eye or pique your interest, then it's a challenge to try to capture them on camera in the best way you can, and rewarding when it works out. Scenes like these challenge me and make me more observant, and I like that. Also, they remind me how much beauty there is in the everyday, and that's worth remembering.

I think that these four bloggers all have a genuine knack for capturing the beauty in the real, everyday, even mundane things they see in the landscapes around them. 

Leanne's love of her local Cornish coastline comes over time and time again, such as here and here. Jennifer's love of homemaking, of her crafts, her garden and ever changing local desert landscape is a rich vein running through her blog. CJ has a gift for capturing her local area, her allotment and her life with three small boys, not to mention a very wry sense of humour. And Sue's talent for spotting and documenting the happiness there is to be found in simple pleasures - food, fresh flowers, sunshine, knitting, her quince tree - is a joy to behold. (Also - if you don't already know Sue's blog, do have a browse through her recipe page - you wont be disappointed.)

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9. Break the rules 

I always thought that all photos had to be taken with the sun behind you. I'm sure we all remember those family photos taken outdoors: a group people stand in a row, squinting into the sun, with the long shadow of the photographer in the foreground of the photo. 

But guess what? You can take photos into the light! It can create wonderful, dramatic, sometimes magical effects. (But please, be careful, don't blind yourself.)

These two shots were taken on the beach where the reflection of the sun on the water created extra light. I know that these are not technically good shots, but when I look at them, straightaway I remember that feeling of the bright winter sun and the cold wind

These two were also taken in the winter, proof that the low, bright, cold winter light can be as photographically rewarding as the golden light of summer.

These three were taken into the setting sun in the summer months, creating a softer, warmer effect, and wonderful rainbows on the lens.

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10. Take lots of photos. 

Then take some more for good measure, then delete most of them. The joys of digital photography! Or, you can get your husband to take lots and then go through them until you feel there is one that does not make you look like an idiotic poser. (John taking a photo of me is an unhappy situation not unlike when one of us is navigating while the other drives; me tetchy and uncomfortable, him not really sure what I want or what he is doing, both of us unsatisfied.) I loathe having my photo taken and am now wondering why I've shown you twelve photos of me. You can laugh, if nothing else.

If I'm trying to get a good photo of, say, this cowl, then I'll take far too many and delete about 90% of the ones I take. This works for me because I've learnt to edit quickly and I'll whizz through them, deleting or not, until I'm happy with what I've got. Here, you can see me moving it in and out out of the sun, arranging and re-arranging until I was happy I had some clear photos that faithfully reproduced the colour of the yarn and showed the texture of the stitches.

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11. Go Large

I would advocate uploading a bigger photo onto your blog, if you can. This is purely my own personal preference, but I would suggest using the large or extra large settings. It's as simple as clicking on the photo while you're composing your blog post, and then choosing your size preference. Here is the difference for you to see...

Small:

Medium:

Large:

Extra Large:

One of my absolute all time favourite blogs is Posie Gets Cozy. Alicia always begins her post with a long series of images which fill the screen and almost stand alone to create a post of their own, like a visual story ready to be told, and that's before she even starts to write.

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12. Avoid Using Flash

It's the middle of winter. You left for work in the dark and returned home in the dark, and your weekends are most likely filled with a mixture of hobbies, chores, seeing friends and family, getting out and about, and having fun. That leaves precious little time to take any daylight photos and so, if you want to photograph something you've created, you are left with the option of electric light. It doesn't always show colours accurately and your camera will most likely want to use the flash, as it will tell you there is not enough light. This one is up to you - try the electric light in different rooms (maybe the bright spotlights in the kitchen give too much shadow?), try experimenting with and without flash, just snap away and see what you come up with. Try using Picmonkey to add a little more light into the photo if you think it needs it. I don't have any solid advice here, I am sorry! What I would say is, with electric light, go with the low light levels, go with the interesting shadows and effects it can create, rather than trying to control it too much.

However, in daylight, it's a different matter and I'm very wary of using the flash on my camera during the day. I'm always amazed at how keen my camera is to use the flash! It decides there is insufficient light constantly, so I generally switch it off. I took the photos below on a bright day and was surprised that camera still felt flash was needed. The two below were taken with the flash turned on and I think the glare spoils the depth of the photos and gives an unnaturally bright, false look.

These were taken with the flash turned off. Yes, they are very slightly darker, but I prefer them. It's a matter of taste I think, but my preference is not to use flash unless it's really necessary.

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Well that's it. I've enjoyed putting these posts together enormously, thank you for indulging me. Snap way, practice, and most of all have some fun.

Photography Tips For Bloggers: Part One

I love to take photos and think that one of the many wonderful things about blogging is the way it encourages us to use our cameras, to challenge ourselves to create visual records of our lives and interests and, speaking personally, it's become an absolute delight. I didn't expect to love photography as much as I do. Some of you are kind enough to compliment me on the images you see here and mentioned you might like some tips for taking photos, so I have put together twelve points. Some are tips, some are more ideas or suggestions. It turned into the longest post ever so I've halved it - one to six are here below, seven to twelve will follow shortly.

But first, a few things.

1. This post assumes that you are not a professional photographer and you know that I am not either. It doesn't matter what kind of camera you have, whether it's a point-and-shoot, a DSLR or the one on your phone, it's about me trying to share simple tricks and ideas, not technical information.
2. There will be no talk of settings, apertures or shutter releases here. I do often use my camera on manual, but I simply don't feel well enough equipped with information to advise you on how to do the same. 
3. My camera is Canon DSLR EOS 1000D. I bought it on sale three years ago and I don't know if they still make that model, but I do think it's a very good camera indeed. (I treat is terribly, banging it around, covering it in greasy fingerprints, and losing the lens cap constantly. I keep having to mend the memory card flap with superglue.)
4. I wont be talking about how to photograph people very much. It's always been an enjoyable challenge for me to try and share the ebb and flow of our family life with you without bombarding you with photos of our children. If you do want some inspiration on photographing children, I'd really recommend looking at Jodi's 52 Project, which I'm sure you've seen around a lot, it's hugely popular.

 Ok, now that's out of the way, here are we go.

1. Good light

Nothing matters more than this, particularly if you are trying to take a good "still life" style shot of something you've made, or a ball of yarn, say. Ideally this should be daylight, but do try to avoid direct sunlight which will give you too much contrast and shadow. Under a window may not actually be the best place to take a photo.

This photo below was taken in full sunlight. See how the colours are slightly bleached and there is too much shadow?

Just moving the yarn six inches into the shade made a big difference to the clarity of the image. This shot was taken on automatic so the camera automatically re-adjusted it's settings.

As I've said before, on days that are very sunny, I draw the curtains in our living room, which are quite thin and unlined as you can see. The room is south facing with a large window so it has a lot of natural light, but drawing the curtains helps to give a softer, more diffused light.

If your home does not have good natural light - perhaps it has lots of trees around it - try taking the photos in an upstairs room, if that's possible. Rooms on the first floor or higher will more than likely have better light. This isn't always practical (like if you're baking) but if the thing you want to photograph is small and portable, take yourself and your camera higher.

For inspiration, have a look at Yvonne's blog Yvestown to see some beautifully light interiors photography.

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2. Get to know your home

Work out where in your house is a good spot for a photo. I've mentioned before my square foot of kitchen worktop under the window, somewhere convenient and reasonably well lit.

I often use my mantel for photos; it has a sturdy ledge, a plain background and good light.

My new favourite place is the desk in the office, as the white background and good light make it very useful indeed.

Work out where those areas in your home are - they will vary depending on the time of day - and use them to their best advantage. 

Laura at Circle of Pine Trees often uses her kitchen table, with it's textured background, convenient location and good light, to photograph beautifully arranged images and her monthly On The Table series of vignettes is a really lovely idea.

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3. Background

I've already mentioned my love of a white tea towel, old sheet or mantelpiece for a good, neutral backdrop. Plain is my preference and even a sheet of A4 white printer paper works well. But sometimes you need to play around with the background colours, like below. I wanted to photograph this yarn and thought the turquoise-blue might work well against the brown, but my camera just couldn't pick up the colour accurately. 

So I tried moving the yarn on top of a book covered in a pattern with similar colours and it totally changed the photo. Same light, same camera, different background. And this colour below is the true colour. So if you're having trouble capturing the colour of a ball of yarn or piece of fabric, try a different background.

Jen at Little Birdie has a great skill for using backgrounds to control and highlight certain things in her images. Sometimes it's something as plain as a white wall, other times the backdrop is dramatic or busy, like a rug, piece of wrapping paper or a deep blue wall. Have a look at her gorgeous home here.

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4. Composition

I have to confess that I don't think a great deal about composition when I am out and about snapping away, I tend to trust my eye and think about the feeling of what I am trying to capture rather than how technically correct an image it is. What I am talking about here is closely controlled composition, like when you want to show a collection of things, to group them in a way that is pleasing to the eye. If I want to show a list of ingredients, or a selection of different items, and I have ten minutes to faff around, then this way is both fun to put together and very effective.

Visit Caroline's blog, Scraps Of Us, for some beautiful examples of creative and colourful composition. In fact, just visit it for some downright talented photography full stop.

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5. Staging and Styling

For ages I thought that staging a photo was dishonest and misleading, or somehow inauthentic. Don't worry, I've changed my mind. Every blogger who made the decision to photograph a cake on a pretty plate rather than a chipped, ugly one - well, that's styling. So style away and have fun. For this photo, yes, I ate that toast and, yes, I drank that tea but I also put it on a pretty tea towel and left the jar of marmalade open just so, just for fun. It's fine to want to create a lovely image and use it on your blog. 

The same goes with this sandwich. Unstyled:

Styled:

Visit Kate's blog Kate's Creative Space for some wonderful examples of styling, especially for seasonal displays and really imaginative ideas for table settings.

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6. Be Playful

Experiment with unusual angles, zoom and focus. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's huge fun and when it's successful it's very rewarding.

I took this photo below by focusing in on the surface of the wood...

...and this one by focusing on the beach huts in the distance through one of the holes in the wood, still standing in exactly the same position.

With this photo of Bella, below, I crouched right down on the sand so that she looks as though she is jumping much higher than she really is.

Nina at Tabiboo is a very talented photographer and I especially love the way she plays with focus and light in her images in a way that is imaginative and highlights the beauty of her local area.

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Ok, that's all for now! I hope you have found some of this useful. I have been busy snapping away all this week as the chuildren and I have been staying at my parent's on the south coast. We've been blessed with the most beautiful weather and have been outside almost all the time. We're back in Leeds soon, when I will have a big catch up with all your blogs.

Zooming Out

Sometimes I like a closely cropped, very controlled image. There are times when I want to share with you something pretty like a ball of yarn or a new dish and I just need that object to stand perfectly alone without distraction.  But today I am feeling mischievous and want to demonstrate that it's not all beautifully lit perfection round here, and I thought it would be fun to show you what it looks like when I zoom out, what is going on around the edges of these photos.

Zooming in: Two gorgeous round balls of alpaca yarn. I wanted to capture the texture of the strands as much as the colour.

Zooming out: Two balls of yarn on a plain white tea towel on the hall floor, because that's just where the light was best that day. The living room was too bright. Good thing no-one knocked at the door.

Zooming in: Three delightfully pretty fairy cakes, complete with girly wrappers and sprinkles. I'm not normally a fan of such feminine colours and patterns but think where fairy cakes are concerned it's acceptable.

Zooming out: That white tea towel is in use again, this time on the one square foot of kitchen worktop that gets any good natural light. Do you see how everything else was, quite literally, pushed out of shot? 

Zooming in: Ah, my utterly fabulous birthday pyrex dish. That coral pink! That repeated floral pattern! I wanted the background to be almost invisible so used an old white sheet.

Zooming out: Angus played around me while I borrowed the toy boxes to create a little area for my backdrop.

Zooming in: Birthday present heaven. Lovely colours and it was fun to play with the composition.

Zooming out: That white sheet again, but in the living room this time. Books and baskets pull the corners tight to stop it wrinkling too much and the bright sunlight meant I had to close the curtains - it's not often that's happened lately! The end of the coffee table is cleared as I stood on it to take the photo.

Zooming in: Four prints - some new, some I've had for a while - in four IKEA frames. I'll hang them soon. For now, I just wanted to group and admire them.

Zooming out: Me, in my pyjamas, standing on a chair so I could lean over them as much as possible (while trying not to fall off). And see the glasses on the edge of the table? I hadn't yet put my contacts in, but find my glasses really annoy me when I'm using the camera. It's like I can't get the viewfinder close enough to my eye. Does that happen to anyone else? 

So that is what it looks like when I zoom out. I am putting together a little post about photography tips (for what it's worth - I am not a professional, clearly!) as a few people have asked in the past. It's not technical, more tips and tricks. Things which are easy. I'm a bit nervous as I'm painfully aware of my lack of technical knowledge, but I'm enjoying writing it and I'll share more on that soon. 

Thank you so much for all your birthday wishes and your messages of good luck for John. Really, thank you. It means a very great deal and I think you are all wonderful. Have a great week.