Friday Finds - 30 May 2014

This week I have a new tea-towel, a new to me vase and the Allium was a nice find in the local Aldi.

I'm becoming quite a fan of Aldi as you never know what little treasures they may have.  This week they had bunches of Alliums, 8 stems for just £3, which I reckon is a bargain.  I'm hoping they will dry out nicely, but also that I get to enjoy them in flower.  The tea-towel was also from Aldi.  The vase was from a charity shop and the book in the picture just happened to be to hand.

To this I've added kk_rest at 71% soft light and kk_cora at 58% soft light and removed some of the texture from the the Allium.

Friday Finds - 23 May 2014

I'm a bit late with this weeks find and it is a little rainbow.

I haven't added any textures.  All I have done is have a little play with Nik software to bring out the colours in the rainbow.

Friday Find - 16 May 2014

Yesterday I had to take my Mum to the dentist, which gave me half an hour to have a wander around the charity shops, where I found this little pottery jug.  It's just 10.5cm tall, and so sweet.

I haven't done very much to this image....a few tweaks in Lightroom, over to Photoshop and 1 layer of kk_bend at 50% multiply and removed most of the texture from the table and jug.

Friday Finds - 9 May 2014

This week I was so excited to find these litte butterflies in our local museum, as part of a WW1 exhibit.

They have been cut out of copies of old documents, letters, maps and some were of photographs.  Some were on card, whilst others on paper.  I thought they were absolutely delightful and came away saying I should make some of my own.....but it's that time thing!  These had been made by local school children.

The lighting in the museum was a little challenging.  Bright spots in places and nothing in others.  Then there were things in the background, either brightly coloured or shiny.  I used my 50mm with an ISO of 500, and aperture ranging from f1.4 to f2.8, but still had to fiddle in Lightroom to put some light into these images.  They aren't as sharp as I'd have like, but never mind :)

You can't normally take photos in the museum....signs up every where say you can't.....but the museum opened up after hours, so that a group of us from Bexhill Photographic Club could wander around taking pictures.

The following image is part of the same exhibit as the butterflies and is the "Tree of Tears".

 

Each little bottle represents the tears shed for a solider who didn't return from the fighting.

Friday Finds - 2 May 2014

I have 2 lovely little finds this week.  The first is a flower made from a piece of hazel and the second a little hand-made bowl.  I would think both had been made with love.

I watched the chap who made the flower, make others by peeling a stem of hazel on a very sharp blade.  They start off as a natural creamy wood colour, but he had a bucket full of ones that had been dyed.  I bought 5 of different colours, and they will most probably figure in future photos.  The little bowl was for sale on a craft stall along with a few others....think I got there a bit late in the day as there weren't many left.....but I just loved the purple colour of this one.  It's very light and delicate.

To this image I've applied kk_word at 40% soft light and kk_2Bsafe at 80% multiply.  The font is Pea Step.

Friday Finds - 25 April 2014

Yesterday evening I went for a stroll along the beach with a couple friends (Dave and Paul).  It was perfectly still with soft clouds and a setting sun to warm the sky.  On the beach I found this battered shell and it became my find of the week.

 

To this I've added the 2 free textures Kim gave us on Tuesday, kk_simple1 at 78% soft light and kk_simple2 at 53% screen.

Friday Finds - 18 April 2014

I'm a bit OCD when it comes to my photos and like to crop them to the same ratio, i.e. 16 x 9.15.....don't ask!  And I normally try and compose my images in a landscape orientation.  But for today's Friday Find, I turned the camera and my find was some little plants growing in the grass in the local park.

I've added kk_rest at 50% soft light and kk_paperstained at 10% hardlight.  The font is Dreamer.


I did give a little thought to this....the light was striking from about the 3 o'clock position and I focused on the top weed head at F5.6, the widest my 18-200mm can manage at 200mm.  I always shoot in manual mode and have since I first got my Nikon D90 in 2009 - it's been a long journey teaching myself how my camera works, but I'm there now, and hardly give the settings a second thought.  I went straight from a little Sony compact that I could just about switch on to the D-SLR.

Friday Finds - 11 April 2014

My Friday Find was some little bowls I found that morning in an animal charity shop.

To this I've added kk_wish at 40% soft light and kk_urban at 25% soft light.