sunlit grass

Taken on a sunny day a couple of weeks ago, the sunlight was lighting up the grass from behind making it an intense green. But I still love the black and white treatment.

umbilifer

I think this is called an umbilifer but not sure. Do know it's a 'dead thing' though!

berries

laurel bud

I love this little cluster of laurel leaves just starting their new life.

bark

I saw this incredible example of bark whilst out walking the dogs today. I had intended to convert the picture to black and white but it just didn't work, so here it is in colour.

grass and seeds

Dead grasses and seeds taken at the end of last Autumn.

black and white

How I love black & white photos!

happy new year!

I love this rose hip with its long tendrils and sharp spikes. Oh, how I wish I'd removed the dead piece of stem before I photographed it though.

NEW YEAR'S JITTERS

After seeing pictures of several of my blog friends' studios I decided the time had come to 'fess up to the mess I work in and post some photos. Here is my desk/work table:

It shows my tapestry sampler in progress which restricts the amount of space I have left to work on as it attaches to the table on clamps for comfortable working. The monitor belongs to my old PC which I rarely use now as I have a Mac notebook which I love. But I still need it for a few things so I keep it.

This view is the wall behind my worktable:

I've been careful not to include the floor area in the photograph because there's a lot of stuff down there that REALLY needs to be tidied up! The two collages are by a favourite artist of mine, Nagib.

This wall has my project/inspiration board and containers below for art materials and yarns.  My studio also houses our wine rack which can be seen bottom right! How's that for good planning :-)

This was a great opportunity to use my 20mm wide angle lens which I don't use that often. It also reminded me that I need to tidy my camera equipment away somewhere in this room.

I found taking these photos and writing about them quite emotional. It confirmed my worries about the fact that I'm such a butterfly, moving so rapidly from painting to embroidering to drawing to photography to weaving and on and on without really settling on one thing, making it my own and developing it properly. This actually worries me a lot - it seems to me that it's a big flaw in my character and something that I need to do something about. With another New Year nearly upon us I find myself thinking a lot about these things and wondering what I can do to change. I'm not a fan of new year's resolutions, but I do certainly get that feeling at this time of year that if I need to make changes now's the time.

But how to make them is the problem...

SPLIT TONE EXPERIMENT

I found how to do split tone in Lightroom. Thanks Kat!