Photography » A Life Not Quite Perplexed

Category Archives: Photography

5.20.13

Cropped.

This week Bella has challenged us to share our before and after shots from images we have cropped. I must be honest, apart from those iPhone shots I take and post on Instagram I don’t tend to crop my photographs. My thought has always been that if I didn’t manage to get a decently framed shot then I just wouldn’t use it.

One of the things I have been trying to tell myself is that even good photographers don’t take every image perfectly and that there is nothing wrong with editing them. I am not sure I am completely convinced. In that vein, here are a few images I have taken over the past couple of weeks that I subsequently cropped.

Pansies from my in-laws’s garden, uncropped:

and cropped and rotated slightly to straighten.

The next one I converted to monochrome

and then cropped for a better, less cluttered perspective.

The pansies are not high on my list of favourite images of flowers I have shot, the street scene pleases me much more.

Have you taken and cropped any images you would like to share in Week 4 {Crop It}of this year’s 52 Photos Project? If so the gallery is still open until Tuesday night.

Week 5′s prompt is Waterdrops, the Gallery for it will open on Wednesday. If your area is anything like mine nature is providing plenty of waterdrops in the form of rain to provide inspiration.

I look forward to seeing what everyone brings to both galleries.

5.12.13

Sunday sweep-up.

No matter how long it takes, or feels like it takes, for the weekend to get here, once it does you blink and it is Sunday afternoon. The new week has just begun, before I jump into it too far lets take a look back at the one just finished.

Yesterday I wrote Carers and Caring in response to the news here in the UK that doctors have called for carers to be screened more frequently for depression and other health related issues of their own. It is a longer but personal piece based on my experience as a mother of a child with multiple and severe special needs. Please do have a read if you have not already done so.

Now, lets have a look at the week that was.

The tulips finally poked their heads above the ground, teased by last weekend’s sun, dismayed by this week’s rain.

While my youngest waited for her sister to come home for dinner Rosie just let it all pass her by, cosy and warm on the sofa.

I journalled, drank tea and finally got it together to write a piece for submission to Kindred. {Fingers crossed.}

From a wet Sunday in the garden to a cosy afternoon on the couch.

Have a great Sunday everyone and to those of you in countries celebration Mother’s Day today, I wish you a happy day.

Lynn x

5.6.13

Small things.

Today has been the most glorious day which is almost unheard of on a Bank Holiday, the sun has shone from early morning. My husband has been making the most of his day at home to do some work in the back yard which of course means I have to deal with really important things, like cleaning the computer. Honestly, it really is important, this thing has become so loaded with photographs there is practically no movement, time to let some of the older ones fly free from the mothership.

Allow me to share a few recent images with you, this time from the Canon and not the iPhone. I take the camera bag with me most places I go, loaded with the Canon and the Polaroid but I am very remiss at getting the images from the SD card or scanned on to the laptop. I took the chance today before the backlog gets any more enormous and off-putting.

Bella’s topic for this week, Week 2, Year 3 at 52 Photos Project was {Microscopic}, with an emphasis on small things rather than using the macro. You would not believe how hard I have found it, where are all the tiny things? Probably right in front of me if I could only see them. I may have to stretch a point or two to make these images work.

Okay, so the bee is small but you will just have to go with the next one including tiny blossom petals on the ground, and on the tree, I suppose.

And now someone who isn’t that tiny any more but what would a set of images on my blog be without one of Rosie? Think of her as your bonus feature.

Why not join in and add your own photographs to the Week 2 Gallery and enjoy the contributions.

5.5.13

The past week – pixelated.

Last Sunday in the garden, with the promise of ripening fruit.

Daughter and dog feeling snoozy together.

Her hand held.

Meals prepared.

Tea and view savoured.

Rosie’s head on my knee.

Magnolia in bloom.

Looking back on the week there have been downs as well as ups, plans altered, head colds in full flow. They are, however, just part of the story, the good and the not so good make up our lives.

I hope today you are able to see some of the good in your past week and that there is more goodness awaiting you in this week just begun.

Lynn x

4.28.13

Sunday sustain.

Sunday is a day to tend to our selves, to our souls. This morning my husband began with cooking breakfast for me, a lovely surprise on an easy Sunday morning. As I take care of myself with precious, snatched moments of time alone to reflect, to create and just to be, I also take care of others, tending to their needs with love and thoughtfulness as well as being loved enough to have someone take the time to care for me.

Please join me today on Kindred as I look at a different way to Sustain ourselves on a Sunday morning. I am incredibly touched that this wonderful print magazine and online journal and community of thoughtful creatives have chosen one of my images and some of my words to share with my fellow readers today. If you haven’t discovered Kindred yet, I am sure you will find it beautiful and deeply rewarding.

Today I am also pleased to have my darling Rosie featured on Mortal Muses’s Diptych Favorites. I am honoured to have my rather dark Polaroid diptych included in such beautiful company, I have no doubt its inclusion is due in no small part to the presence of my velvet friend.

I hope your Sunday is giving you a chance to sustain yourself and your loved ones and be sustained in return.

Lynn x