yesterday we went to visit the Catalonia art museum
I mostly spent time walking through the modern art exhibit
rooms and rooms of paintings, sculptures, furniture, drawings, metal work, photography you name it
the great thing was that I only knew very few of the artists
there might have been one Picasso and one Dali
of course there were some Miro
but otherwise I really didn’t know much
How refreshing and exciting to discovery all this art
here is some of it
enjoy
there won’t be much
a few photos
Paris is taking all of our time
too too much to see
here is a tiny bit
will get back mid week on my site
one more day to get lost and soak it in
I love Paris!
It’s a gorgeous sunny morning here today. I will most likely spend some time outside pruning apple trees later. Yesterday I had a peak in our greenhouse and discover a carpet of young tasty “mache” (it’s a type of lettuce that loves to reseed itself and is rather cold resistant). I want to start some flower seedlings; nasturtiums and sweet peas is all I could find at the local general store. It will do for today. I’ll get my fix with playing in the dirt and chopping some branches. I love this time of year.
Alright now, lets focus, and talk rug pictures.
I am sure you all spend a fair amount of time hooking your rugs. True.
Now let’s spend a few minutes together taking pictures of those rugs and make them look as pretty (almost) on print as they are live.
Last week Cynthia commented on my blog and mentioned how she was not satisfied with the pictures she took of her rug. To illustrate my answer to her here is one of Deanne’s rug at the studio. It’s called “Coral Pine”.
First I cheated and placed the rug up high on the wall. I did so to show you NOT to do this. First thing, place your rug or rather place yourself, eye level with the rug. Why? So you get strait lines. Also in the example I had the flash on. Have a look.
There is a few problem with this picture. First, if you were to crop it so all you see is your rug you would loose some of the bottom side edge because of the angle. Second, the bottom of the rug is in focus but the top is a little soft. There is no need for that. Also the flash in this case lit the rug unevenly.
So all and all it’s a reject.
Here is my second picture, still with a flash but this time I am eye level with the rug.
This is already better but I told you last week not to use a flash if at all possible.
Why? Flash has a tendency when thrown straight on to your subject to flatten the image. There’s light everywhere, no shadows, no depth. It can work and can produce creative pictures but for this unless there is no option I go without.
Now for Deanne’s rug I use two methods. One is I take the rug outside in the shade and hang it on the wall. It works great if the rug is large. I use a little step ladder to place myself level to the rug and I move in as close as possible so the rug fills most of the frame. Here is the set up.
The rug is right under the yarn sign and there is a line of screws sticking out of the bricks placed there for that purpose.
If your rug is small like this one then find yourself a spot by a window in your house with no direct sunshine. A North window is great. Here I placed that lovely little rug on a black piece of wool cloth. It makes a nice background and with a simple editing software I can crop my picture without having to crop the rug.
Notice how there is this piece of white cardboard. I will be using this as a bounce.
Now, placing myself above the rug here is my first picture with no bounce.
Pay attention to the bottom of the rug. A little dark if you ask me. Now let’s see what happens if I place my white cardboard right at the bottom of the rug and angle it so it bounces the light from the window to the bottom of the rug.
Now I am content. Notice how the whole bottom half is brighter and vibrant. We can almost feel the texture of this rug. You can see all the various wool cloth and yarn used.
I think you can all get great pictures of your rugs. Just take a little time. Try a few settings. Try it with flash and then without. See what looks best to you.
Good luck! Let me know how they turned out.
by Catherine Bussiere
My 15 year old daughter Charlotte is a singer songwriter. About a month ago I made a music video for one of her song. Here is the video and the lyrics. Enjoy.
(Click on the photo to view the video)
“Laying in an open field, letting the tall grass cover my fears, I’ll let the sun shine down on me today.
But the shadows of my life, still linger close behind. Where the sun don’t shine and the devil likes to play.
But I can forget even a minute enough to believe that the goodness is here to stay.
So hold out your hand and we can take a stand. Make a memory out of us today.
Moments pass me by each one a treasure trying to hide but I will dig them up for my sake.
And I will forget each moment that I regret and let the good ones back in.
Walking down the street, a stranger smiles to me, I hope he knows that he’s brightened up my day.
And I do believe that its moments like these that make the dullest days seem great.
Moments pass me by each one a treasure trying to hide but I will dig them up for my sake.
And I will forget each moment that I regret and let the good ones back in.
All these little things mean so much to me, so I’ll think about them till they bring a smile to my face.”
Catherine
hookingrugs.wordpress.com 