Beyond Layers - Day 7

On Day 7, Kim encouraged us to think of things that make us happy.  She also gave us a link to a very moving real life story of a mother's fight for her disabled child, which stopped me in my tracks and made me realise how lucky I am.

My photo was taken in the morning with the light from an east facing window.  To it I've added kk_simple at 70% multiply, kk_musiclovin at 55% multiply and duplicated that layer at 40% multiply.  The fonts are Freebooter Script and Kleymissky.

I bought the rose in a bunch 5 days before and the whole bunch of 10 are a real delight and make me happy.....I think whenever I feel down, I should just buy myself a bunch of flowers.

Beyond Layers - Days 5 & 6

On Day 5 it was suggested we take some photos to show how our day went and on Day 6 we were shown how to create a storyboard with those images.

The following is my effort and is of images from the Heffle Cuckoo Fair on Saturday 26 April 2014.  Heffle is the old way of pronouncing Heathfield, which is a village about 20 miles from where I live, here in East Sussex.

Beyond Layers - Day 4

The title for this day was Vision and Blur, but as you'll see, I didn't quite follow the brief.  We were also asked to think of a single word and mine was Grace.  I then went in search of a suitable quote and then set about thinking up an image.

The textures used were kk_savour and kk_cinnamon.

Beyond Layers - Day 3

Kim introduced us to Smith Magazine and our 6 word stories.  This got me a thinking and I jotted down some words and after just a short while came up with "Seeking quiet in a noisy world", which just about sums me up.  I like the simple and uncomplicated life.

My picture was taken a couple of weeks back of an unknown lady on the beach, gazing out to sea, which is something I do quite often.

I've added kk_pumpkingrunge at 80% soft light just to the beach, then kk_totalgrunge at 100% soft light.  The font is Italianno.

Beyond Layers - Day 2

On this day, Kim urged us to be simplistic with our composition and think "Less is More".  Also to look for the light and be light with our processing.

So, this is my effort.  I've added the texture Kim gave us in the lesson, kk_awaken, firstly at 40% soft light and then duplicated the layer at 20% hard light.  I've brushed out some of the texture over the vase, stem and centre of the image.

The text is Alex Brush to which I've applied a drop shadow at a distance of 7, spread of 70% in black at soft light.

At the beginning I made slight adjustments in levels and hue/saturation and then used the high pass sharpener at 4.5 pixels.  To end I resized to 1400 pixels wide and sharpened slightly again with unsharp mask.

The plant material is a stem of Comfrey from my garden and the little vase was a £1 from Asda.  They are on a mantelpiece, with light from an east facing window about 10 feet away, at 8.30am.

Beyond Layers - Day 1

In 2012 Kim ran a year long workshop called "Beyond Layers".  This is now a self paced course and free to those who subscribe to Kim's Test Kitchen, but I bought it along with "Beyond Beyond" which was another year long course from 2013/14.

On Day 1 of "Beyond Layers" Kim encouraged us to write our creative story, and had even anticipated we would say we don't have a creative story!  Well I'm one of those who doesn't think I have a creative story, or not much of one, but here goes......

As a kid I played with Lego, using my imagination to create and build - it was very basic when I was a kid.

At about aged 7, I was trying to make dolls clothes out of scraps of fabric and a kind lady (the landlady of the flats where we lived) showed me some basic stitches and how to cut and fit the outfits.  Also at this age I started to take an interest in cooking - I usually say I learnt to cook in self defence.  My Dad did most of the cooking and it was plain and dull, but heaps better than anything my Mum put on the table.  (I'm an only child.)

My Dad bought me my first sewing machine when I was 11 and I started to make my own clothes.  At about the same time my Gran and an Aunt taught me to knit, and Dad taught me about gardening and home DIY.  I didn't really learn very much from my Mum as she had no hobbies and was always too busy to spend any time with me - unlike me, she loved ironing, hoovering and dusting!

And so, any creativity I had was expressed in cooking, sewing and gardening.  In 1997 I joined the local flower club and for many years I enjoyed flower arranging.  Then in 2009 I discovered photography.  At the end of 2011 I found my way to Flickr and was completely bowled over by some of the images, and that lead me to Kim and her wonderful style of photography.

So my creative story is brief and whilst I like to create, I don't consider myself to be a natural creative.