It didn’t rain on Sunday! The Yard Sale Trunk Show was so much fun. For the first time we had vendors out in the backyard, which made the show feel more spacious. Kessa brought along a tent, just in case of rain and it fit perfectly on the patio.
The highlight for me was Celine’s outdoor photobooth. I approached Celine a little while ago with the idea and wondered if it might be something she would like to try. Little did I know that she would take the idea and make more marvelous than I could have imagined. Celine worked with Rosalyn to create the sunny yellow backdrop. Now I’m in love with yellow! The night before the show, Celine & Jin arrived with a box of tools and worked to rig up the backdrop, a cute wooden ‘photos’ sign, and string to drop the lights and fabric bunting from. All their hard work totally paid off. For fun props, we used cute cardboard diamonds that Rosalyn made and super sour lemon candies that Celine brought.
All the photos have been posted here on flickr. They are all so wonderful, happy and funny. I have already spent hours looking through them all.
We asked for donations towards Sketch for the photobooth and we raised $155 dollars. the workroom will be matching the amount and sending a cheque for $300 to this great organization. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to have their photo taken and making it such a huge success.
Celine, you are amazing. Thank you for your sunny disposition and hard work. Best. Photobooth. Ever!
To christen the new camera, I had to make a camera strap for it. Or rather, recover the Nikon strap that came with it. I really loved my old camera strap in Zain Liberty of London. Rather than remake that one (which I considered), I thought it best to have a fresh start with a fresh new fabric. I knew the fabric needed to be rather dark, as it would probably get a bit dirty. The reproduction fabric I chose from the Regency Collection was the perfect fit. The print is so unusual and I love the mix of black with bits of odd pink, green and blue.
I had to refer to my original blog post about making my first camera strap to refresh my memory on just how to do it. This project is so easy and the results are totally satisfying. I love the final step of sewing through the strap around and around in concentric rectangles. I just used the edge of my presser foot as a guide for the spacing, which is why my sewing looks so straight.
I am now quite bonded with my new Nikon D90. It’s a heck of a lot of camera, so I have a lot to learn still. My latest discovery was learning to customize the picture controls. I keep the manual beside my bed, so I can dip into it before I fall asleep.
365 : star lights
Tested out a longer shutter speed (30 seconds) with f-stop 32 for this photo.
Star lights and hand painted ornaments by Kathryn Boyd are year-round decorations. I love the light beams coming out of the stars!
365 : katrina sewing with heart bokeh
I’m trying to be more experimental with my photography. Here’s a technique I haven’t quite mastered, but I actually love the weird blurry results I’ve gotten so far. Bokeh is the “way the lens renders out of focus points of light“. I had seen a tutorial on how to make different shaped bokeh and finally decided to try it out with a heart shape. I think this would work much better using a lens with a bigger aperture than the one I currently have. I’m having lots of fun playing around with it though.
One of these days, I hope to get something more like this with my heart bokeh photos. So pretty!
I’m also thinking about a new lens for my camera… 50mm 1.8 or a 35mm 2.0. I would also love to have a macro lens. What lenses are you using and loving?
Doing the 365 project has got me thinking a lot more about photography. I’ve also been reminiscing about my days at Ryerson in the Media Arts program. My major was photography, so I spent a lot of time taking photos and even more time working in the darkroom developing prints. The red light bulbs, the vinegary smell, and making test strips to determine proper exposure… things have changed so much since then.
One of my courses in school was a computer graphics class, where we spent the entire semester writing code to create a program that would literally do what a Photoshop filter can do in 3 seconds. Seriously! I’ll confess, I never wrote that program but ‘borrowed’ a friend’s. I must have known at the time what a ridiculous exercise that was.
I don’t often spend much time doing post production on my photographs, mostly just adjusting the colour balance and exposure. Surfing around in the last few weeks I’ve been hearing more and more about Photoshop Action Sets that you can download and use to create fun effects on your images. My favourite find so far is Pioneer Woman. I downloaded her free action sets and used the ‘Seventies’ action to create these vintage photos of the workroom. Another blog with great free actions is Coffee Shop. It’s very easy to get carried away with these, but it’s pretty fun in moderation.
While I’ve discovered lots of random tidbits here and there, I haven’t found any solid photography blogs to subscribe to. Do you have any that you read?
I’ve been following Adele’s 365 and am excited by her new interview series based on photography.
