A Touch of Foraging

Finding bits of beauty of something that is worn, fallen, dried ... Foraged.

Foraged is the theme for our first assignment, sparking new inspiration to still life photography, in the class of Studio 2.0 by Kim Klassen. 

Old books ... They feel like old friends, and are some of my favorite finds from flee markets. I cherish the yellow, worn pages ... 
Sometimes I wonder, who has been holding the book in his / her hands, where has it been read, which books has it been standing next to on a book shelf. 

And ...I may have found my favorite Lightroom preset: I have failed for Kim's kk_Justa -preset, that creates a faded, dusty matte mood. I have tweaked the preset slightly, increasing the shadows and pumping the contrast up a bit.

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Holding All In Being 

 I can see the love in a flower 

the foraging of a Bee 

a Sunrise and Sunset 

Noon and everything in between 

but the love they all point to 

is beyond all wildest dreams 

a love in love with creating 

a love holding all in being. 

 Nivek

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What type of foraged is calling for your attention?

Nina

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Little Things Thursday

September Sun at Sophienholm

The september sun keeps on shining on us ... from Monday to Sunday this week. It is a pleasure to witness the sunrise in the mornings - see the warm light playing on the trees and reflecting on windows when biking to work - and home again. 
Now that it is weekend, one gets a change to spent a whole day outside!

Sophienholm is a former country house by the Lake Bagsværd in the outskirts of Copenhagen. The house and the side buildings belonging to the estate, are being used as an exhibition venue with a restaurant and a café.

The actuel exhibition at Sophielhom is called Himlens fugle, translated freely The Birds in the Sky. This exhibition honors the 50th Anniversary of Fugleværnsfonden, that is a fund protecting birds and nature. I took a few snapshots from the exhibition with my iPhone. I was fond of the aquarelles and the impressive panorama drawings. 

There is the most beautiful park between the main house and the Lake Bagsværd. To the right from the house you'll find an impressive greenhouse with seasonal flowers. 

I enjoyed the possibility of taking photos with my DSLR - adjusting the settings using manual mode. We're approaching the season, when the days are getting shorter - and the natural light is available only during the day, when you're at work. 
So it is in the weekends, one gets a change to make the most out of light and photography.

Burk Uzzle says "Photography is a love affair with life." It is about seeing and noticing, about moods, stories, relations, moments ... as much as it is about light and shadows and frames ... 

Well, my analytic mind is playing a trick on me, starting to peel with the words and their mening - What is love? As I see it, love is not just a feeling, but often an act of your will - where you choose to love and show it with concrete actions - to a person, to yourself or in relation to something else. In that sense photography - like any other hobby - asks for diligent training, by a learning process with getting information and practicing with trial-and-error - as well seeking inspiration and putting the camera down ...

We walked slowly and just enjoyed the fresh air ... talking and finding a nice spot to sit every now and then. 

A lovely afternoon with my husband and sister-in-law. 

... With September sun greetings,

Nina


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 Friendship Friday Friday Photo Journal
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Summer memories - Texture & preset play

My original photo and my edited photo with textures by French Kiss Studio and 2 Lil Owls

I found some this photo of a daisy from last summer from my memory card - and it inspired my to play with textures and Lightroom presets. 

I started with adding the text to the upper left corner - it is a stamp from French Kiss textures. Thereafter the one texture took the other ... I wanted to create a sort of an old photo, with worn and vintage like feeling. Adding some texture layers with blending modes Saturation and Lumination, created the washed, desaturated look. 

Then I took the texturized photo into the Lightroom, where I created virtuel copies of the photo, and tried out different Lightroom presets on it. The most presets are by 2 Lil Olws, one is from Contrastly and one is mine.

LR Preset At the Vineyard 25 by 2 Lil Owls

Once Upon A Day

Daisies
small perfections,
white lips of nature
each one a star from God,

LR Preset Infrared by Contrastly

Breeze dusts their golden faces
as they search for the sky,
mute as the breath of angels
their voices still travel in beauty
calling to the birds singing to the bees

LR Preset Matte Glam 14 by 2 Lil Owls

they dance with the wind 

till chubby fingers lift their hearts 

entwining them into tiny circles 

each one a study of love 

created to lie in drapes on cherubic arms

 

LR preset At the Vineyard B/W 5 by 2 Lil Owls

Transformed they become much more,
haloes of nature
a childs wish, a parent's hope,
small pockets of sunshine,
so much beauty in such tiny amounts 
on a green day,

My own LR preset TheBirkes


Small links between the grass and play,
visible moments
of golden childhood,
intangible almost
they live on in the heart and memories
of once upon a day.

- Moondamp Roses-

LR Preset Matte Glam 1 by 2 Lil Owls

Yes.. I am looking forward to summer ... 
As well as I am enjoying right now the signs of spring and the days, 
that are getting longer,

Nina

Free e-cards - A little midweek gift to you

Download the free e-card

Reading a good novel is like immersing one self into another universe ... A journey across culture and time, getting to know new personalities and following their destiny - relationships, their hopes and dreams, thoughts and actions. I finished a novel yesterday morning, which inspired me to take the photo above - As an appreciation on books and moments with them.

Download the free e-card

I added a stamp and notes to the photo above - to add a bit romance and feeling of old times to the photo.  

Photography has been my focus of interest for some years now - I have learned so much from photography blogs, where photographers share teaching and tips, and from courses in photography.

There are some very good free online photo editing programs, which I have used and am still using, besides Photoshop and Lightroo, (which both are photo editing programs you need to pay for).

I have been thinking of maybe writing some blog posts with tutorials on my favorite free online photo editing programs this spring - to share some of the things, I have learned in photography ... If you would be interested on a series of blog tutorial blog posts on free online photo editing programs, please leave a note in the comments section.

I am truly thankful for the online photography fellowship and community: The talented persons with beautiful minds, that are teaching and sharing their knowledge and expertise on photography.

Download the free e-card

Little did I know, when starting this blog in July 2012, in how many ways it would enrich my life ... Not just in and around photography, but also befriending with unique, creative and fantastic people around the world. To start somewhere - these e-cards are just a tiny way to express my gratitude. I have placed a link to Dropbox under each e-card you, where you can download the e-card.

Feel free to download them and delight your relatives and friends by sending a note. if you wish to use these e-cards on your blog or pin them, please give a proper credit by linking back to this post.

Download the free e-card

... With sunny midweek greetings,

Nina

 [Blogging every day in February - Day 17]

December & November 2015 [A Month in Photos]

Awaiting with peaceful anticipation ... Advent Sunday's

Scent of ginger bread

Morning tea in candle light

Christmas spirit at work with secret elfs and funny presents 

Christmas Cards from to and from near and afar 

A pregnant young woman and her fiancee making their way to Jerusalem - long time ago ...

No hurries this year:

Life is so urgent it necessitates living slow.

Ann Voskamp

Advent: The time to listen for footsteps -
You canøt hear footsteps when you're running yourself.

Bill McKibben

December 2015 in Photos from Nina Jensen on Vimeo.

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Cloudy days, wind and rare spots of sun shine 

Pots of tea and candles inside - simple pleasures

Short naps after work

Fresh air with walks and small rides in the weekends

Finding Christmas decorations from the cellar

And - A lovely long weekend with mom visiting us!

Advent candles from Nina Jensen on Vimeo.

It has been a pleasure making these monthly photo collages - It all started in January 2015, thanks to Mona's Pictoresque and her inspiration! I have used these collages in making desktop calendars for 2016 - I look forward of receiving them next week!

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A month in photos by Mona's Pictoresque

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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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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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

Add a warm glow to your food photography with photo veils [Photo Recipe]

A culinary experience consists of tastes, scents, visual inputs, sounds and sensory experiences ... like

• Enjoying the sight of a beautifully set table, 
• Hearing the crispy top of a cake crack as you cut it, 
• Smelling the sweet cinnamon and apples, 
• Seeing the colours and feeling the crispiness of the cake blending with the soft and airy cream, and
• Experiencing a symphony of taste as you take the first bite ...

Is your mouth watering by now? All of our five senses are being activated when we eat. Therefore it is worth going an extra mile when taking pictures of the dishes being prepared, served and enjoyed.

We are eating with out eyes, so you want to focus especially on the details in food photography.

I added a tiny branch with flowers to the corner of the plate to give a feeling of festive coziness. I had the colour play in mind as well: The white and yellow flowers, and the green needles, go together with the green marzipan and the colours in the lemon slice. 

In editing I wanted to create an overall warm glow to the photo. To achieve a natural look, I decided to use photo veils from Love That Shot, since they blend softly and seamlessly to the image.

Photo recipe:

• I started with increasing slightly the brightness and the contrast of the original image.
• Thereafter I added the following 2 photo veils:
• Lychee photo veil from the Botanical Collection  blending mode soft light with 100 % opacity. I used a soft brush with 50 % opacity and removed some of the veil from the cake and the plate.
• Serendipity photo veil from Simplicity Collection, using blending mode soft light with 30 % opacity.

And that's it - easy and delicious - Ain't it!

Why don't you give it a go and try photo veils: You can download a FREE sample by following this link to Love That Shot-website.

... With Scrumptious greetings,

Nina

Quietude

A long weekend and some quiet time - I feel like the flower in the image above: Laying down and resting, enjoying the sunshine and letting go off my thoughts ...

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, 

listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, 

is by no means a waste of time.

John Lubbock

Light is this weeks theme in Kim Klassens class Be Still 52. The morning light falls softly to our kitchen... I hang a table cloth as a back drop behind a low table with a white, linen cloth, where I layed the flower. I added Oldendays-Lightroom preset by Kim Klassen, together with Roxi Hardegree's Scriptured Overlayer 02, to the flower image.

To get a dreamy look and shallow depth of field to the bowl and the flower above, I selected f/stop 8 and used spot metering. I added Kim's Lightroom preset Oldendays, together with her Waterfront 1-texture.

To the image above I have added Kim's Melancholy-preset and the Waterfront 1-texture. 
The preset gives a bit hazy effect with lilac shades.

iPhone 5

As I was taking the table cloth down, I noticed how the shadow created a nice frame around the flower - so I took a quick snapshot with my iPhone.

... May the spots of sunshine find you this weekend,

Nina

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