Recovered

Just 2 months into this resolution and I'm getting a lot better at editing. I already posted the picture I'm featuring today (not as part of this challenge) but I was never happy with it. I snapped this shot of a gorgeous little girl in the Himalayas but the yellow from the tent just threw the color off like crazy. As I was not shooting in RAW this was not a simple fix. While it still isn't perfect I've improved it quite a bit. Below you can see the original, my first edit, and what I did today. None really do justice to this little girl but I'm getting closer.

New Light

I found a little post on via pinterest that I, of course, cannot locate at the moment that I just relocated on ApartmentTherapy. Although it didn't teach me much I didn't already know (use indirect sunlight), I'm writing about it because 1. It may be helpful for anyone looking to take better photos on anything from an iPhone to a dSLR and 2. It have me great idea on backdrop. I am constantly using the underside of an old Coca-Cola crate because the old dark wood makes a good vintage feeling negative space, but I often find it really darkens the photos. A lot of photography these days is super bright and slightly overexposed. That's hard to do with ark wood. Possibly the best $5 I have ever spent on photography was on a 2 ft x 2ft piece of light wood that I picked up from the lumber section in Lowes. The men in blue vests were happy to cut it in half for me and now I have a great little base and background that I can easily move around and use to find good light (which is exceedingly hard in an apartment because my windows only face 2 directions). So if you're keeping score so far, for around $25 at Lowes you can get a decent light and a backdrop. Not bad! Especially considering what some people pay for big backdrops. I took this photo using my new setup. #44 Bright white light!

Work in Progress

Both this post and the blog artwork are a work in progress. Not complete but I need to study and leave this be for now. But I will leave you with a little something. I went to Vermont this weekend and it actually snowed! Snapped this picture of the barn from the first day of the photo challenge just when the setting sun lit it up.

This is the inside of the barn, not exactly as pretty as the outside, but cool in an old barn sort of way.

Pink Tea

Looking at different blogs and following Instagramers, I get a little jealous of the downtown jaunts that offer passerbys delicious cups of coffee and a variable selection of teas. Out in the Jersey burbs we have a Starbucks. The town I live in is in dire need of a mom and pop coffee shop. So I pull out my own chipped china and make myself some Passion tea (purchased from Starbucks ::gasp::).

Tape

Ruche is this amazing little clothing company that I am falling in love with and lusting over their clothes everyday. It might have something to do with the awesome photography on their website. They also have a great little blog with photo tutorials. Today they had a nice tutorial on creating a taped on look using some free tape patterns.

I was easily able to create this look: