Photography Concept and Styling - MUNDANE

Today is the day, it's the last day of November. I think I'm going to trust your intuition this time. It's a little bit difficult to open my thoughts about the word mundane even though it might feel quite obvious when you think about it but it's not. I have so many thoughts that I don't know where to begin. I hope this photo essay brings you many thoughts worth to think.

I want to thank you Jealous Curator who gave me this word - I love her blog. It's a great place to dive in! So here we go - mundane!

Any thoughts? Of course I like to hear!

This post is part of my Photography Concept and Styling post series where I make a photo essay of one word, thought, song, idea. If you have word in your mind, you can leave a comment or write me e-mail or send a fb message. I won't tell them before I do the essay of it and I'm not sure when I do it or will I do it. 

But one thing is sure. Tomorrow is December. Oh my, time flies so fast - I just got back to work and suddenly we are almost welcoming X-mas. 

I hope you have a great weekend going on!

xo

Kreetta

Slow living - A snail mail card to your friend or family?

Nowadays we hear things about our friends and family through different kind of social media. You also know a lot of things about people you hardly know through social media or you meet new great people with same interests through social media and that can be also a beginning to great friendship. 

But somehow I miss so much old-fashioned letters and cards. Do you?  They are more intimate.

I've been thinking that I could make a series of cards from my pics in my blog. What do you think? Which pic would work for you and when you would send it? Could it also work as a small art piece somewhere at your workspace? It would be great to hear if you have time go through my blog and choose one or two and leave a comment here or in fb. 

Tip about my blog posts - you can find vintage related here, art related here or inspiration related here. But you can also just scroll through quite easily. Have fun and very beautiful Sunday!

xo
Kreetta

It's the color

How could you ever imagine that inside the rotten and wrinkled, you can find such a beautiful colored beans. Nature is just amazing.

Thursday has been full of things - almost too much for me. There are days when in the evening you are not sure what should you think about that day. Like today...today the best thing was to see the work of Nanna Susi. She is one of Finnish contemporary artists.

Is It Vintage - Vineta

It's time to tell you a vintage story. This is a jug by Rörstrand. Design is called Vineta. I totally love it's decoration. I photographed it in August that now I can give you some summer feelings in the middle of November. We all need it, don't we. You know, at the moment the wind is blowing heavily and you can hear how it whistles in the corners of the house. Sounds familiar?

I found this jug from one big antik shop/ flea market in Sweden few years ago. We made a trip by car here and there in Swedish countryside. There were so many beautiful landscapes. The antik shop was huge and full of vintage treasures. Because the jug is a little bit broken I got it very cheap.

Vineta was produced between 1887-1925 by Rörstrand. I tried to find it's designer but I couldn't. Do you know the designer of Vineta? It would be great to hear.

I think Vineta is very romantic and sophisticated. It is like a jewellery on the table with bunch of flowers. 

I collect vintage treasures and this post is part of my Is It Vintage post series. You can find all of them here. I'm a photographer and I always need beautiful props and things in my work.

Have a lovely Sunday and I hope the week will begin with great energy and inspiration!

xo

Kreetta

DIY Dry Herbs with Photography Tip

 

You can dry your home garden herbs. It's easy. All you need is good ventilation, string and herbs. I tied my stems and lifted them hanging above our living room table. I took all the bad leaves away and washed all the herbs before that. It takes few days to dry. 

I also continued my Lupo LED light testing. You can read my previous test here. I bounced the light from the white wall and ceiling. It filled quite nicely the shadow. I didn't want to lose the whole shadow - just make it a little bit lighter. You can try what kind of light you want to do. You can also use reflectors to less shadows. That's another way to make the light lovely. But I think I like this light source. I can use this kind of light source also as a main light and fill the shadows with reflectors.

Thyme is one of my favorite herbs and I like things look like very natural. I like to shoot food and everything with natural light and if I use artificial light I always try to "hide" it if it is possible. Of course there are situations that you want to go crazy with flash lights. Anyway if you want to see more beautiful natural light food photography you have to go and see Aran Goyoaga's photography. I took her food photography workshop in June. It was totally fab.

We have less light this time of the year so I want to find nice ways to light my photos. It's all about light - photography. I'm always thinking how the light was made when I see the beautiful photo.

You need a string to hang your herbs. It's nice to pick up a nice looking one and use it - expecially if it's in your living room.

I have to admit that it is a little bit late to dry herbs - not the best time of the year but sometimes you are late, sometimes too early... Herbs had quite good aroma still so I thought it is just fine to dry them. It would be sad if the snow covered them away and I would have to live without having my herbs as dried during the winter. 

xo

Kreetta

Photography Tip - Hard light vs soft light

I got a chance to test Lupo light LED light panel. I made one test yesterday evening with our dinner. You can adjust your light temperature quite easily. I just wanted to test does this light work for me in my photography. 

left: straight and hard light                   right: diffused and soft

This test has done without ambient light. Just the light panel. We don't have so much light here so I wanted to find out how the food looks like with artifial light. I photographed two different light. Straight light from the light panel and diffused light with the help of Lastolite diffuser from the light panel. Can you see the difference? Take a look at the reflections of light. With diffused the reflections are softer. I think it looks a lot nicer than the hard ones. 

hard light

soft light

I'm going to test this light with ambient light tomorrow. I hope you find this tip of hard and soft light helpful with your photography. So many things you just have to learn by doing. I didn't work so much with styling this time. I just wanted to have black and white and different kind of surfaces in photo because I wanted to see how the light works with different kind of textures.

Was this tip useful?

xo

Kreetta

Lucky Lazy Gardener

That's me. I should be working in the garden but I have to admit that I like staying on our cosy sofa...totally slow living at the moment. Lazy woman. Few weeks ago I brought our chili in. Actually I think they aren't chili at all if we are talking about the taste. It's more bell pepperish. 

Even you don't do anything you still have to eat, don't you? We decided to make filled bell peppers. We cooked lentils and made hummus and filled peppers with this combination. They were about 10-15 minutes in oven and ready to eat with fresh salad. Easy lunch or dinner and I just love hummus and there are so many ways to make it.

Does it sound good?

xo

Kreetta

Slow living - Vintage letter

Have you sent snail mail lately? I did this autumn. I sent it to Céline - the blogger of BohèmeCircus. But before that I got so gorgeous snail mail from her as you can see below. Thank you Céline! If you haven't sent snail mail lately - I recommend! It's a great way to make someone happy!

I have to admit that I love to buy old paper goods like today I found some gorgeous old paper napkins again. Can't wait to show them to you! But because it's very very late on Sunday evening and tomorrow we all have to be early at work...I keep it short. I hope you enjoyed a minute or two with my photos of my vintage treasures that I sent to Céline.

I wish you a very lovely and inspiring week!

xo

Kreetta