abstract photography – Page 2 – Slow Shutter Speed

Posted on September 3, 2017 by Anne Sandler

Photoshop fun: IKEA

Nothing! That’s what I did for a week after we returned from our month long road trip to Montana, Glacier National Park and Weiser Idaho for the eclipse. It took us a few mornings to empty out the trailer so we can sell it. It seems we came home just in time for a heat wave, so we only had the mornings to work.

I did gather up energy to shoot with my Toastmaster photo club, All About Photography Toastmasters. We went to IKEA because of the heat. If you remember, I had been there with my Tuesday group so I chose to shoot with my macro lens for practice. I can’t say I was totally successful, but I did learn. This lens has such a short depth of field, and that made it difficult. It’s a 105 mm so I had to stand far enough back to get what I was shooting in the frame and in focus.

Since the shoot, I’ve been working on the images and found the Photoshop filter panel. What fun! With no effort on my part, the software took my images of patterns and turned them into great abstract designs. I’ll show you the before and afters:

Before: A kite.

After: I think this may have been the zig zag.

Before: the back of a wood lounge chair.

After: the ziz zag filter.

Before: Another chandelier that I tinted green in Lightroom.

After: A tighter swirl pattern.

Before: Fabric on a couch that I angled in post.

After: One of the blur filters.

Before: This was a lamp shade.

After: The swirl filter and a change to black and white.

I may have been able to do more, but I was stymied with my limited knowledge of layers. Now I have to delve into Photoshop now that my energy level is back. I had fun with these.

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Anne Sandler · 2 Comments

What’s your passion? IKEA, part 2

I have two passions: Photography and Toastmasters. Toastmasters changed my life and Photography enriches my retirement. So I decided to combine these two diverse activities and formed a Toastmaster’s Specialty Club: All About Photography (AAP).

At AAP we follow the Toastmaster format, but as our name suggests, we speak on photography and our table topics are on photography. We have photographers of all levels. Last week, I presented my images from IKEA for table topics. The participants were to give a 1 – 2 minute mini-speech on how they would edit these mostly abstract photos. I do crop well in the camera, so they had a difficult time imagining the total scene.

It was a fun exercise, and I picked up a few hints on what I could have done–next time. So what is your passion? What has changed your life? What enriches your life?

Here are my remaining images from IKEA in West Sacramento in black and white.

Zooming in on a chandelier.

These clocks were all lined up. I zoomed in.

This was a stainless bowl, but I think it looks better in copper. Okay, it’s not black and white.

Wine glasses.

This is actually a colorful barrel type chair!

A mixer.

Another chandelier.

The same chandelier with a twist.

A hanging light.

Posted on February 25, 2017February 25, 2017 by Anne Sandler · 4 Comments

Color and Texture Challenge: IKEA

It’s either raining, cloudy, sunny–right now in California, we never know days in advance what the weather will bring. This makes planning a weekly photography outing difficult. We were running out of indoor venues and virtual meetings were also scheduled. We needed something different. We needed to shoot at IKEA! I called them and got the okay for my Camera Totin’ Tuesday group to shoot at their West Sacramento store.

What fun we had. If you’ve been to an IKEA store, you know they are large and set up like a maze. We met at 10 a.m. and decided to meet up again at noon in their cafe for lunch. Jim and I hung out together. I learned more about metering light from him. He’s great about sharing information.

At lunch everyone was talking about how much fun they had. For me, it was more enjoyable to see their posts. It’s amazing how imagination can be different from photographer to photographer. Even if they took the same shot, the processing was diverse, giving the image a unique look.

I know with Spring coming, we’ll be going to various outside shoots; but, maybe there will be an opportunity to go back to IKEA. After all, it does get sunny and hot here in the summer!

Here are some of the color shots. Black and white will be posted next.

A preset in a processing program helped added fire to this range hood shot.

A little bit of texture on a lamp shade.

Okay, they are hokey, but kissing zippy cups are cute.

Another lamp shade with color changes.

A stainless bowl with added color.

Lamp shade. I shot a lot of them.

Here’s another one.

More lamp shades. Go to IKEA for lamps.

A feather duster.

Lamp shade.

Tables.

Mirror images.

Guess what? Another lamp shade.

I really can’t remember what this was. I can see it’s a reflection and something else.

Posted on September 1, 2016September 1, 2016 by Anne Sandler · 9 Comments

Making a cloudy evening fun: Another Milky Way Shoot

Yes, we tried it again, and, yes, the clouds rolled in and hid most of the Milky Way. The forecast called for clear skies, but Mother Nature had other plans. But, with the help of Karen, we had fun light painting, catching color off the clouds and enjoying each others company. For a few, it was a first for night photography.

We shot up at my husband’s observatory. He didn’t get clouded out until just about the time we decided to leave. He does deep space imaging, so his criteria is different.

I’m glad I was with photographers who make the best out of a somewhat bad situation. Will we try again? I’m sure we will. Anyway,here are some of the images I captured that evening.