For I was ...

So Mournful The Elegy, So Comforting The Hymn by Hymns From Nineveh

:   :  :

Here's a printable 

of Matthew 25:35 (NLT)

for you

... Have a blessed new week ahead,

Nina 

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Scripture & Snapshot 
Sunday Scripture Blessings


Photo: iPhone 5S - Camera+, Snapseed, VSCO, WordSwag apps

Lemon Tea [Wordless Wednesday]

... Let's take a little time for tea today.

:   :   :

Sweet Wordless Wednesday greetings,

Nina

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Wordless Wednesday by NC Sue
Wordless Wednesday by Create with Joy

Say it with flowers [Wordless Wednesday]

... Have a beautiful Wordless Wednesday,

Nina

Sharing with 

Wordless Wednesday by NC Sue
Wordless Wednesday by Create with Joy 

Photo: iPhone 5S, Camera+, Snapseed, VSCO & Faded Apps

[We visited Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød, where I fell for these flowers and photographed them.]

Light - One Word 2016

I have chosen Light as the my word for 2016.   

Looking for light in many aspects, hoping the process to be molding & shaping ~ leaving a trail and maybe some changes, reflections and deepened insight ....   

Light is defined as  
~ The natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible
~ Of little weight; not heavy 
~ Come upon or discover by chance   
[Oxford Dictionary] 

Light is the essence in photography ...

Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. 

Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.
George Eastman 

:   :  :

Light diet in the sense of nutrition and sustainability of the ingredients ... not following any special rules or regulations, but paying attention to use the seasonal vegetables and fruits, produced close by if possible 

Take care of your body. Its the only place you have to live.

Jim Rohn 

:   :   :

I like the symbolical way the Apostle John, writer of the Gospel of John, uses light his Gospel and letters ... Not only as an illumination of God and Christ, but also referring to both choices we make - moving towards light / away from light.   

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 

John 1:4-5. 

:  :  :

One's day can be lightened up ... and you can lighten up the day of someone else

Not all of us can do great things. 

But we can do small things with great love.
Mother Theresa

:   :   :

... Wishing you a good week ahead,

Nina

 [Blogging every day in February - Day 22]

Random Acts of Kindness

During the months of February, with focus on Random Acts of Kindness, I may have become a bit more conscious of my Language of Love. It might be giving or being encouraging (Words of Affirmation or Acts of Service). That is, when based on my actions and ways of showing kindness in general.

Marriage counselor Gary Chapman has defined 5 languages of love being Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. His theses is that when spouses became aware of one another languages of love, they can be more conscious in expressing love and affirmation in a way that speaks to his or hers spouse. These ways of affirmation can be applied to other relations as well - being therefore one way and one perspective (though not all inclusive) in ways to express affirmation.

If you're wondering, what your language of love might be, there is a fun little quiz on the subject, that comes up with a suggestion.

Above the editing process: Photo edited in Glace, Tangled FX, Clever Painter and the final layered photo with textures.

Well, what were my Random Acts of Kindness this week?

• Baking sandwich rolls and giving them to my friend (a mother with the sweetest baby girl), so she could freeze the rolls and use them later making an easy lunch to herself.
• After visiting the Art Exhibition, I did send a Thank you- e-mail to the artist with a photo I took of her (showing her beside her paintings) - It was lovely to have her tell us about her art and the process of painting.

Sometimes it can be hard to notice the opportunities for Random Acts of Kindness - at at these times it takes a conscious effort from one self to take action. 

But take heart - Julissa Arangue from Community Outreach, Shari's Berries, has a very practical solution: She has developed a Random Acts of Kindness Generator! The Random Acts of Kindness Generator gives you suggestions on how to make your family's friend's coworker's and even stranger's day better.
Click on the link above and be inspired by the kind acts, the generator will randomly suggest you!

Happiness is something that multiplies when it is divided.

Paulo Coelho 

Have a peaceful weekend,

Nina

sharing with

Random Acts of Kindness by Manu

 [Blogging every day in February - Day 20]

Photo: iPhone 5S - Glaze, Tangled FX, Clever  Painter & Image Blender iPhone photo applications
Textures: Simple 2 by Kim Klassen & Tableaux_CremeFaiche by FrenchKiss

On Stillness

Stillness is an undisturbed state of the intellect, 

 the calm of a free and joyful soul, 

the tranquil unwavering stability of the heart in God, 

the contemplation of light, 

the knowledge of the mysteries of God, 

consciousness of wisdom by virtue of a pure mind, 

the abyss of divine intellections, 

the rapture of the intellect, intercourse with God, 

and unsleeping watchfulness,  spiritual prayer, 

untroubled repose in the midst of great hardship 

and, finally, 

solidarity and union with God.

 Nikitas Stithatos in “On the Inner Nature of Things”

... Being still on a Tuesday,

Nina 

 
[Blogging every day in February - Day 9]

Create Rustic Background to Your Still Life [Photo Recipe]

January calls for cozy moments inside, both gathering with family and friends inside with tea and coffee, and moments alone in a peaceful corner, getting in deep with a book or knitting. I wanted to create a Still Life photo, that has a warm feeling of indoors coziness.

White flower with the coffee colored tiny petals in the middle, inspired me to use an old, iron coffee table as a table top and a light brown panel backdrop. I chose a simple composition with a black espresso cup, to give contrast to the ivory colored flower.

Photo recipe:

1. I opened the photo in Lightroom, checking the cropping of the image, to secure that my motive is horizontally in the middle of the frame.
2. With the brush tool, I sharpened the flower and increased slightly the contrast and the exposure of the flower.
3. Thereafter I opened the image in Photoshop, and added the Calais texture from the Olde World Collection by Love that Shot, with blending mode soft light 35 %. 
4. I removed the texture from the flower with the brush function with 100 % opacity, and from the cup using 50 % opacity.

Simple as that! I like the natural warmth, the textures from Olde World Collection add to the images. I like to use them especially in Still Life photography to create rustic background effects.

What brings you inspiration in photography in January - February?

... Until next time,

Nina

[This post contains affiliate links.]

Good Books

“Good books, like good friends, are few and chosen; 

the more select, the more enjoyable.” 

Louisa May Alcott

:   :   :

Wishing you glimpses of sunshine and joy,

together with a good friend or a favourite book,

for this upcoming week,

Nina 

Lightroom Preset Dark Light by Kim Klassen
Textures: Atwood by Monas' Pictoresque, Effervesent 23 by 2 LilOwl's, Simple 1 by Kim Klassen, Sunshine 4 top Left from the Illumination Collection by Love that Shot

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Texture Tuesday Roses of Inspiration   

Wordless Wednesday Saturday Share Fest 

Create a Painterly Canvas Effect with Textures and Photo Veil [Photo Recipe]

Easter Tulips and the first episodes of the 4th season in Downton Abbey, inspired me to create this still life photo with a painterly canvas effect. 

At times I wish it would be possible to live one day in the early 19th-century ... Either in an aristocratic British family or on a Souther cotton farm in America. I would love to experience the interior design and the style of the dresses, and the etiquette in general, trying to perceive the difference in classes those days - that may be a bit hard to imagine in our modern society. 

I used a burlap cloth as a back drop to my image. I made the setting beside a window, using natural side light coming from the left. I did set the books, the can with the tulips, the small plate with a single tulip and a dried leaf to the right side of the frame, leaving the negative space to the left - for the painterly canvas effect, that would create the warm, old mood to the image.

This is how I proceeded with the editing and adding layers:

1. I adjusted the cropping of the image, making use of the rule of thirds, so that the tulip on the silver plate is in line with one of the golden sections.

2. I sharpened the image a bit, and adjusted the contrast, highlight and shadows in Lightroom.

3. Thereafter I opened the image in Photoshop, and added the following layers with 3 textures and one photo veil:

• Camembert texture from Olde World Collection with blending mode Saturation, opacity 40%. Blending mode Saturation with the Camembert texture creates a vintage-like warm glow to the image - you will notice this effect when you look at the books in the before-after-image below. I brushed the texture effect away from the tulips, since I wanted to keep some of their blue-lilac color.
• Lavendel Glow Left - Vertical photo veil from the Illumination Collection with blending mode Soft light, opacity 15%, adds a soft lavendel light effect.
• Salerno texture from the Olde World Collection with blending mode Soft light 15% adds a mild and soft painterly effect. I brushed some of the effect away from the upper right corner, using a brush with 50% opacity.
• Riviera texture from Olde World Collection with blending mode Hard Light, opacity 39%, adds some more painterly effect to the image. Using a brush I removed the texture effect from the tulips and the books - leaving it on the negative space, to my "canvas" background

What I like about Still Life Photography is the process of creating the image - Both setting up the scene, and the post processing ... Thinking about the light, the shadows, the balance, and what I want to focus on, together with the style and the feeling, I wish to convey. 

Already as I was setting up the books and the tulips, I had the textures from Olde World Collection in my mind - I like the rustic touch and the warm colour effect they create.

...Wishing you creative moments with photography and editing,

Nina

One Photo Four Ways - Adobe Lightroom Course

I have greatly enjoyed One Photo Four Ways-course at ShillShares, where Kelly Ishmael shows the basics of her post-processing workflow in Adobe Lightroom. I am smitten by Kelly's photography style, especially the soft haziness and the feeling of vintage in her images. Kelly is a co-writer & photographer on Focusing on Life ; that is where I her beautiful and serene photography caught my attention. You will find more of Kelly's photography on her blog Minding My Nest.

Kelly gives you a brief and concise introduction to the develop mode in Lightroom, before she starts to guide you through the four different edits. Her videos are very helpful in orientating you in the Lightroom - you can easily follow along, even if you are not familiar with editing in Lightroom.

I chose  to use my "Message in a Bottle"-photo, that I took a few weeks ago, for this course. I like the highlights on the flower and on the bottle ... and that the focus is on the flower in the foreground. 

One of the things I appreciate for learning in this course is how to create a hazy look to an image in Lightroom by making slight adjustments to the tone curve - therefore the edit above is my favourite of these four. 

Achieving a proper amount of contrast and colour play in the X-pro edit above was a bit of a challenge to me ... Yet I enjoyed a lot adjusting the curves and playing with the endless possibilities.

Another "Aha"-experience to me was the making of a black and white- image. I appreciate finding an easy way of creating natural highlights to the areas of your choice by simple adjustments.

I warmly recommend Kelly's inspiring and enriching One Photo Four Ways-course at ShillShares - Thank you Kelly for giving insight in your post processing workflow!

 ...Until next time,

Nina

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Saturday's share Fest by The Sits Girls

Still Life Photography [Sidelight - Organic]

The theme of week 38 in Kim Klassen's Be Still 52-class is Sidelight - Organic. Kim inspires us to use natural materials - tin, linen, cotton, branches - anything from nature ...  in order to create cozy Still Life images, with her Lightroom preset Organic.

I am fond of the tin bowl from my husbands grandmother, and the tin plate from my grandmother. The green linen fabric is at least 12 years old - I sewed anoraks and trousers to our boys of this fabric when they were toddles. The pine cones and the packthread are "leftovers" from out Christmas decorations - to be packed down to the cellar.

And this plant ... I was looking for something nice to my colleague and I fell for this pretty plant - and I ended up buying also one plant for myself. I have no idea what this plant is called, I only know that it needs to be watered twice a week. I find the  combination of green and lilac in the leaves as special and beautiful.

Using dark cotton cloth, I covered partly the window to the left - setting black cloth as a back drop, to create depth and feeling of shadow. 
I adjusted my camera settings to 18 mm 1/10 sec at f/3,5 with ISO 100, and I reduced the exposure even more with going down 3 stops.

The Organic preset creates a lovely dark mood. I did made some further adjustments in Lightroom, opening the shadows a bit, and increasing slightly the light and highlights.

This is the "setting behind the scenes": I used dark cloths to block out part of the sidelight from the window.

The great contrast in the photos awakened my curiosity to find out, how the photos would look like in black and white. I did the conversion to black and white in Lightroom, using Summer Rains BW/5 -preset from 2 Lil Owls Studios. 
Since I wanted to create a feeling of antique, warm tint, I used the split tone-function in Lightroom, adding just a bit orange hue to the shadows.

... I cannot wait to see the Still Life photography my classmates have created: I am sure, many of them will share their interpretations of the Sidelight - Organic -theme in Kim's Texture Tuesday this week.

Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature.

Thich Nhat Hanh

... All the best to your Tuesday,

Nina

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Texture Tuesday Roses of Inspiration   

Saturday Share Fest 

I'll be there

When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. 

And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.

Matthew 18:19-20 The Message 

God of Our Yesterdays -Chris McClarney


:   :   :

Blessings to your week,
Nina 

Here's a printable 
of Matthew 18:20
for you 


Sharing with 

Give Me Grace 
Scripture & Snapshot

Photo: Nikon DS3200 1/20 sec at f/5.3 ISO 800

Green Tea With Lemon, Ginger and Mint

Green Tea with Lemon, Ginger and Mint - and a spoonful of honey - has been

my favourite warm drink the past few weeks, like I wrote the other Friday. 

It is the season for all sorts of common cold now, and I have experienced that this mixture does not only taste good, but it seems to contain vitamins and other nourishing and strengthening qualities, that has kept me from getting the flu.

I boil a pot of water, and pour it in my teapot (for 8 cups tea), together with thinly sliced fresh ginger and fresh mint leaves. After about 6-9 minutes, when the water is about 75 C / 165 F degrees warm, I put about 3 tablespoons of green Sencha tea in an empty tea infusion bag, put it into the teapot and let it brew about 2 minutes, whereafter I remove the infusion bag. 

Sencha tea has an aromatic and mildly sweet flavor - when brewed only 2 minutes. With longer brewing time the taste gets easily bitter - or if used boiling water. I leave the ginger and mint into the pot, since I like the warm feeling the ginger leaves to my mouth and throat ... The stronger, the better.

After pouring the tea to a cup, I add some honey and squeeze some citron juice to go with ... Voila!

Green tea with lemon, Ginger and mint is a healthy and tasty way to build up your immune system against a common cold ... And a delicate warm drink, that surely will tickle your tastebuds.

... Let's savor every sip!

Nina

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Texture Tuesday Roses of Inspiration   

Saturday Share Fest 

Camera settings ISO 800  f/4,5   1/15 sec. 

On Air_Lemon LightRoom preset & Epic texture by Kim Klassen

PS. We're having Winter Break and I am away from the blog - this is posted with the help of Bloggers pre-post planner

Spoonful of moods [Texture Tuesday]

Lightroom preset Moodswing by Kim Klassen

Last weeks theme in Kim Klassen's Be Still 52-class was Spoons. Kim inspired us to create moody photos using a spoon - including shadows, different points of views and depth of fields. Kim used two of her Lightroom presets, Darkmood and Melancholy, in her beautiful captures of dried lavendel on a spoon, lying on pretty, old note pages.

I drink a lot of tea - so does my husband and our oldest son as well - so I thought of making a photo series of green tea. I used an old silver spoon, my husband has gotten from his grandparents, together with a silver coloured tea container. The textured surface of the container made me want to keep it, even when we have a bunch of tea containers - now I'm glad I didn't give it to flee market. 

Using a cover of sushi stick box as a table top, I wanted to convey the feeling of preparing Japanese green tea. The textured blue paper of the box looks a bit like an old handmade parer. I chose it since it creates a vintage type of mood together with the silverware. 

Lightroom preset Melancholy by Kim Klassen

I took the photos in our kitchen, close by the window. I blocked the direct sunlight with a curtain and a low masonite board, to create shadows and accentuate the contrast and highlights. 

By the way, this spoon is my favourite... I use it for serving sugar to coffee and tea - I like the round form and the decorations, both on the top and also down just before the spoonful-part. Adding just a bit more contrast and highlights made the round forms of the spoon pop out. 

I fell for Kim's Moodswing and Melancholy -Lightroom presets. I tweaked the Moodswing photos a bit in Photoshop (I couldn't remember how to do it in Lightroom) - I desaturated the yellows a bit. 

Lightroom preset Moodswing

The Moodswing preset creates an old, worn, Eastern type of mood to the photos - a feeling I like a lot. These two images are my favourites - making them as good candidates for my Still Life-card project.

Lightroom preset Moodswing

The images with Melancholy preset, I diminished the shadows almost all the way to the left in the tone curve - to create more contrast and to lessen the haze.

The Melancholy preset brings along an old, vintage-type of mood, which I may prefer even more ... I play with a thought of printing these two images, the one above and the one below, on a canvas, and hanging them on our kitchen. 

Thank you Kim, for enlightening the inspiration through your courses. Watching your videos and tutorials I feel safe (I was gasping for air when I first time opened the trial version of Photoshop!) - You are taking us by the hand and showing how to use these photo editing programs like Photoshop and Lightroom. Just one step at a time. Patiently. Repeating the tips a few times, to assure, that we've got it.

Well, which prints would you prefer - the rustic ones with the Moodswing or the hazy images with Melancholy?

... All the best to your week,

Nina

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Add a Warm Vintage Glow with Photo Veils [Photo Recipe]

Printing my photos - using them as post cards or greetings for birthdays - is something I plan to do more often this year. And to start with, I will make a series of Still Life photos with simple motives, that will convey a warm and peaceful feeling. 

My mom has a bunch of old bottles, she has gotten from a friend of hers, whose mom was a pharmacist. The memories from my childhood - seeing these bottles filled with flowers - inspired me to compose the image above. To create a touch of vintage, I used a coffee-toned cloth, together with a brown masonite board as a back drop. I photographed the image beside our kitchen window, where the light is best in the afternoon. My camera settings were following: 1/60 sec, f/3.5, ISO 800.

Photo recipe:

1. I checked the cropping of the image, to secure, that my motive is in the middle of the frame, and adjusted the brightness and contrast.
2. I added the Rosy Glow Veil from the Illumination Collection blending mode soft light, 70% opacity. This veil creates a mild and warm glow to the photo.
3. In order to underline the light, that comes from the upper lift corner, I added the Sunshine 2 top left vertical photo veil from the Illumination Collection, with blending mode soft light, opacity 36%.
4. To create a natural vignette, I added the Medium spotlight top photo veil, also from Illumination Collection, with blending mode soft light 100%.
5. Finally, I added the Privet photo veil from the Botanical Collection to create a touch of vividness and depth, with blending mode softlight 29%.

"Say it with flowers"-works fine with photography cards  as well... Receiving a card via Snail Mail makes one happy today, when a great deal of our communication and greetings takes place via via e-mails and social media.

I hope this photo recipe has inspired you to create and fine tune the mood and feeling in your photos, you wish to convey with them. 
Let's keep on clicking our cameras - and let us not forget to make use of the images we capture!

...Until next time,

Nina