I had a blog project brewing for the new year. Then I got a little push to work on the project before the new year started. You are looking at the project, it is the blog itself. I wanted a new look for it. This blog is the living room of my online home and I wanted to redecorate. I had big plans, a whole new WordPress theme I was thinking. It turned into something much more modest. None of the themes that I tried on suited my vision of home. I’ll be honest, it was frustrating. So, what have I done then? First, I kept the theme I had been using, it’s the Able theme if you are curious. What’s new is that I got rid of the sidebar. One of the lovely things about the Able theme, is that you do have the option of displaying photographs in a large format. This is a photography blog, it makes sense that the images should be large. All of my social links are now up in the header. I did keep the header image and kept the type a color that I borrowed from the lion header image.
Another thing that won’t change on the blog is the underlying thread of photography. I hope you enjoy my photography and reading about how I create images. That is the main reason I write this blog. With that in mind, this is an image I was working on creating this week:
ISO 800 50mm f/5.6 1/30sec
When this poinsettia branch fell off the rest of the plant, I was presented with a lovely photography opportunity. I wanted to create an image that was both warm and dark, one that represents the idea of reflecting on the year that has passed and the one that is to come. The original photo is here:
ISO 800 50mm f/5.6 1/30sec
I decided to shoot this photo using a bracketed exposure, I wanted to create an HDR image that would bring out the detail in the leaf. The final image was also cropped in Lightroom. I used the perspective crop feature to level out the final image just a bit. I have also used a photo filter. The filter was adjusted to add warmth to the image and also a bit of texture. I then darkened the corners using a vignette. The final image was added to my Picfair portfolio because I do think this would make a good stock image.
So, what do you think of my final image? I was using only the candle and natural light to light the photo, can you believe it was only 3pm? In this part of the world these last days of the year are also the darkest. They do open up a wide variety of photography options though. This will be my last post of the year, I expect to be back in this space in mid-January. In the meantime you can find me on Instagram and Twitter. If you are a blogger, I’ll probably be by to visit. Feel free to leave a comment below about the photo I have created. I would also appreciate feedback on the new layout of the site!
All the best to you and yours for the coming year.
Cheers!
Photography Journal Blog 