Happy Halloween

Okay, I wasn't going to do anything. I wasn't even going to hand out candy after lacklustre years. I didn't get a pumpkin except three little ones. But then I thought a garland might be nice. And then I thought some sort of candle thing and it got all Martha Stewart here. The candle cover is made with anaglypta wallpaper scraps and I found some nice orange paper for a garland of pumpkins. Then hubby went to the shed to get the lanterns that were just put away. Looking all right.

San Francisco on my mind

A cloudy Saturday and it's bliss. I'm finally working on some photos that I've been trying to work on for a while. Even though Photoshop keeps crashing, I'm struggling on and I'm mostly pleased with the results (I also have the Restore Sanity rally Live streaming behind me on my laptop). I should be making soup for dinner and I will go to the kitchen soon (and for a cup of tea).

Anyway, I must get some more photos done. I'm going for a portfolio review in less than two weeks (hopefully) to see about taking some courses. We'll see.

A book is born!

Yep, another one. I'm giving this one to somebody tomorrow. I also was told to do another one a few days later so you don't forget the steps (although I had cheat sheets!). This one had better folding but I still love the first one.

Moody

The other day I started playing with some old cemetery pictures that I took in Highgate cemetery in London in 2008 in Lightroom. It only dawned on me a few days later that these would fit with our photography group's "moody" theme.

I will have to visit the photography store tomorrow for more ink for the printer in order to fix it's new problem (alignment issues!). This is always deadly. I have to be good, though.

Colour

Not sure what is going on between my computer and my printer. Usually they have been conversing rather well since I got my good printer and figured out the whole ICC thing. But this picture has a greenish tone that I like. However, I've printed it twice on two different types of paper and it's sepia so not green at all.

How to get to the bottom of this?

*the original photo was taken in Highgate cemetery in London in 2008

Bookmaking!

It's nice to try a new creative form so when a friend told me about a workshop for bookmaking taking place near her studio I jumped at the chance. I've always wanted to do this. It looks like there may be more classes in the future too. This is my first effort. I've already bought paper to have a go at another one on my own. Wish me luck. I'm planning to give it as a gift. Well, that's the plan now. We'll see.

I can see Christmas presents...

Inspiration needed

Well today started out as a beautiful day but I needed more than that for inspiration. So, you dial up an artist when you need help and plan a spontaneous trip out to the westend of the city to go to a great art supply store. You buy photo paper you don't need but mat board that you do. You even try to spur on the painting (I haven't done any lately as you can probably tell from this blog!) so brushes were bought and a lovely travelling watercolour sketchbook. Which led me to think, our trip to France is just over a month away! On my return with my goodies I wasn't entirely done there. I also purchased a photo magazine that came with a cd with really good workshop videos including one for Lightroom (still trying to figure that one out). So, now I'm combing through my old photos looking for inspiration there before adding more photos next month and also playing with some new textures and borders (thanks to PhotoRadar). Not entirely happy with it but I'm going with the feeling that I'm just experimenting and playing tonight. This one was taken last October with my lensbaby on my camera so it already had texture and a strange colourcast to work with. More serious work to come.