photography

All posts tagged photography

Some Kawaii Things In My Room

Published December 22, 2012 by kurolace

Hi! I suddenly got an urge to take photos in my room, so I decided to showcase some of my favorite items. These items, by my definition, are all kawaii! Although perhaps not all of them are usual examples of kawaii (no big bubble eyes, cute foods, or any of that).

To start, here's a cute "piggy" bank I bought I Target a few years back.

To start, here’s a cute “piggy” bank I bought I Target a few years back.

My mom bought this for me last year while cruising the Baltic.

My mom bought this for me last year while cruising the Baltic.

My Stitch plush... and yes that's a bandana around his neck.

My Stitch plush… and yes that’s a bandana around his neck.

Another bank... I've had this one since before I can remember.

Another bank… I’ve had this one since before I can remember.

My Victorian bed style wire jewelry organizer...I bought it on Amazon.

My Victorian bed style wire jewelry organizer…I bought it on Amazon.

This is my sprite doll from the old cartoon Rainbow Bright. It makes a squeak noise when you shake it.

This is my Twinkle doll from the old cartoon Rainbow Bright. It makes a squeak noise when you shake it.

A jewelry stand I bought at Hobby Lobby.

A jewelry stand I bought at Hobby Lobby. There are mesh parts (which you can barely see in the picture), where I can store my earrings.

Its hard to take a picture of something like this... not only is it behind glass, but its a foil picture too!

Its hard to take a picture of something like this… not only is it behind glass, but its a foil picture too!

I think the above things are pretty true to my personality. Of course there are plenty of other things which aren’t so true to my personality, but slowly I’m trying to phase those things out.

What sort of kawaii things do you have in your room?

New Kitchen and a Little Tree

Published December 21, 2012 by kurolace

Hi hi!

A quick update on whats been going on around here lately… For about 2 months, we’ve had a non-functional kitchen. It started with an leak under the sink, which lead to the discovery of a black mold epidemic inside the wall. We had to have out kitchen sink, dishwasher and all the lower cabinets on that wall torn out and the wall “re-mediated”. Then, since we already had half of the kitchen torn out, my parents decided to go ahead and remodel it, since it was probably about 50 years old. Sadly, I didn’t take pictures of the old kitchen, but I do have some pictures of the new one! They aren’t completely finished yet, just a few more touch-up type things will be done tomorrow, but then we’ll finally be able to move stuff back in and start cooking again! We probably wont be cooking Christmas dinner at our house though, so we’ll be going out again (we did at Thanksgiving too).

So, the main differences? Well a lot! Its much brighter now, although I hate the yellow/green paint my mom chose for the walls – luckily its mostly covered up by cabinets and the tile.

Yay, lots of light, we added under-cabinet lights because it used to be really difficult to see what you're doing.

Yay, lots of light, we added under-cabinet lights because it used to be really difficult to see what you’re doing.

We had to get a new dishwasher cause the other had mold on the back.

We had to get a new dishwasher cause the other had mold on the back.

We tore out these horrible pantry shelves that had folding doors, they were shallow and half weren’t really accessible because the doors were in the way. Now there is a blank wall. The other part of the corner used to have a built in desk and a few bookshelves above, now its all cabinets – which are our new pantry / appliance storage.

DSCN0511

Needless to say, during all this we haven’t been fostering kittens. We did three batches (I only posted about the 1st litter). Also, sadly, just before the renovation we had to put out dog to sleep. She was 17, and had a huge tumor on her shoulder. She finally stopped eating and my parents decided that it was time. I went with them, sat on the floor with her, and she lay down on my foot / against me, like she always used to. Then she closed her eyes and was gone. 😦 I cried for a long time there in the vet room, and so did my mom and dad. Brownie was my dog for 16 years, you know 😦

I pulled it out of a video, so its not the best pictures of her... Just a few months ago, she was still very alive. See the white part on her shoulder? Thats where the tumor has pushed her hair up so you see her undercoat.

I pulled it out of a video, so its not the best pictures of her… Just a few months ago, she was still very alive. See the white part on her shoulder? That’s where the tumor has pushed her hair up so you see her undercoat.

Since our living room area is kinda messed up with boxes of stuff, we didn’t put up our big tree this year. We got a dinky little one for $24 at Whole Foods instead. I found this Star thingy which I’d never seen before, tucked right in the top of one of the decoration boxes that is stored in my room (well in the tiny closet in my room). Don’t know where it came from, but luckily it had a short string of lights attached to it – we thought maybe w didn’t have any lights anymore, since our big tree has them built in.

DSCN0512

 

This morning, in the garden…

Published May 28, 2012 by kurolace

….I met an old friend:

Ever since I was a child, my mother has had these growing in her garden. I always loved the way they look from the side – like some creature with a snout.

… dreamed of eating cherries, just barely out of reach:

(some more pictures from this morning are bellow 😛 )

 

Solar Eclipse Video & Pics

Published May 21, 2012 by kurolace

As you probably know… today there was a annular solar eclipse visible in the western part of the USA… I happen to live right along the line of visibility 🙂 So my family took some time to watch it happen. We are lucky enough to own an Orion telescope and a solar filter, so we were using that to get a “close up” experience. My family didn’t believe me when I said I was going to take pictures – I guess they thought it wasn’t possible to get a good focus through the camera + telescope…. its true that I didn’t have perfectly crisp pics, but there were a few that turned out fairly decent. You can even see a sunspot or two (very blurry  – even at max zoom/focus). Take a look…

I also took a video of the eclipse as the moon “exits” the sun…


 

 

Anticipating Spring

Published February 14, 2012 by kurolace

Spring is my second favorite season… autumn being my favorite 🙂 . So although today was cloudy and cold, I keep thinking spring should be here soon… Fortunately I live in a warmer climate, so spring does actually come a little bit earlier here than other places…

But flowers are a long way away… So I thought I’d post some pictures that I took last year, just to remind us all what we have to look forward to!

Here you go:

Blue Blossoms

Review: Gothic & Lolita by Yoshinaga

Published February 3, 2012 by kurolace

Review: Gothic & Lolita (book)

Cover of the book.

Masayuki Yoshinaga – Phaidon Press Inc. – 2007- 200+ pages

ISBN 978 0 7148 4785 6  –  Amazon: $22.83 (at time of review)

I bought this book about 3 years ago, so it’s not exactly a new product. However I figured it didn’t hurt to add a review for it here!

To start out with, this is a photography book, so it’s not like it provides a lot of actual information on gothic lolita fashion or street fashion. That being said, the photographs are great and beautiful to look at.

One important thing to note about this book is that the photographs are not limited to people in Gothic Lolita fashion. There are quite a few photographs of people in other types of alternative fashion – cyber/club wear, western goth, and a few real oddballs. However a majority of the pictures are of girls in some kind of lolita fashion (mostly “gothic” but also a few sweet, classic, wa, etc.). This fit my needs well, as I was primarily looking for a collection of good lolita photographs so that I could practice drawing lolita style dresses.

On each page there is a photograph of either one or two people. The model’s name and age are written vertically on the side of the photo, and there is a small bit of text toward the bottom of each photo which I’d call a “stats box.” This text includes things like: current obsession, clothing brands, and “point of fashion”.  These bits of info vary from person to person and convey a bit about the model’s personality and preferences.

While I wish the book had a little bit more actual “Gothic Lolita” and Lolita subtypes pictured, and less western goth / club goth outfits, overall I really enjoy this book. I get it out from time to time to do a quick sketch or two in order to practice drawing, and also just to look at the pictures. Since this is Gothic Lolita / Goth that we are talking about, each person has a unique and interesting outfit on, so looking at the pictures never gets old.

While $22 might be a bit pricey for some strangelings’ wallets, I think its worth it, and I would certainly purchase this book again!

Jewelry Photography Accessories

Published February 1, 2012 by kurolace

A simple set up using a wooden tray and black background

Browse through Etsy, DeviantArt, or any number of jewelry maker’s blogs, and you’ll see that jewelry photography often makes use of a variety of props in order to enhance the presentation of the jewelry. In the past when I’ve photographed my jewelry, I’ve only had the intent of posting the photographs on deviantArt in order to share my creations. The quality of those photographs were mediocre and often didn’t include any props other than a black flock background. However, recently I’ve taken an interest in listing my jewelry on Etsy.com with the hopes of someday selling a piece or two. In order to do this, I decided that I need to try taking my photography up to the next level. 🙂

Today’s post is a summary of a few of the things which I’ve decided to use in my photography, and perhaps this post will give ideas to others like me.

Basic Jewelry Photography Equipment:

  • Camera  – In the past I used a Nikon Coolpix S203. It’s a true P&S pocket camera and fairly decent. It has a slew of presets and a few creative settings, but it doesn’t exactly have the greatest macro, and it doesn’t have the PSAM controls that I wanted. So I finally gave in and bought a Nikon Coolpix P7100. While it’s still technically a P&S camera, it sure as heck isn’t a pocket camera. Jewelry photography isn’t the only photography that I like to dabble in, so having this “pseudo DSLR” is ideal for me. The P7100 has great image quality – a huge improvement over my other coolpix camera. If you’re into photography and can afford a PSAM camera, I would suggest getting one – it helps when shooting macro. Otherwise you can stick with a P&S pocket cam.
  • Tripods – Yes, multiple tripods. You can probably get by with just one, but I like having both the tall, stand alone type (50″), and the tiny table top type (4″). I also fancy my dad’s gorilla tripod, which can wrap around things like rails to take pictures at fun angles… In case you didn’t know, having a tripod dramatically reduces the shake you experience when you take a picture without a tripod. Less shake = higher quality, sharper images.
  • Backdrop – A bed sheet, some card stock / poster board, or a blank white wall… each will do nicely as a backdrop for photos. I decided to go with the poster board method: I bought 2 sheets of black poster board and 2 sheets of white poster board. One sheet serves as the horizontal surface, and I tape / hang up the second sheet to be the vertical background. This gives the photograph a nice, clean background.

Additional Photography Props:

  • Jewelry Displays / Forms – These are available in sooo many different sizes and models. You can order some fancy ones from stores like

    My recently acquired props.

    Fire Mountain Gems, but you can also find them on the cheap at stores like Michaels. This past Sunday Michaels had one of those coupons for “25% entire purchase,” so I finally was able to buy a few displays. I bought a black flat necklace board, a white necklace form, and a set of 3 black pillars. I already also have a 3-tier bracelet display and 2 earring displays, but I use those more for storage of finished jewelry than as displays.

  • Trays / texture pieces – Trays can be useful in displaying the jewelry. I recently bought a wooden centerpiece dish from target for about $20. I love the way wood looks with a lot of my jewelry. I kinda wish my new wooden tray was a bit darker and a bit smaller, but its pretty nice as is. I also bought a pink ceramic flower dish.
  • Scarves / cloth – One of the quickest ways to add interest to the photograph is by using scarves or pieces of cloth. I like to sometimes spread the scarf out to cover the entire background, but other times I just use it as an accent around the piece of jewelry. Throw blankets and towels can work sometimes too. Today while I was at the craft store I saw variety of really nice looking plush / fur cloth, which I  think I’ll add to my “props wish list” 🙂

One thing about these photography accessories that I’d like to mention is that I prefer finding things to use that I have other uses for as well. For example, the wooden centerpiece. I fully intend to use that as a centerpiece tray when I’m not using it in photography. The same goes for the flower dish (I’ll use it as a ring dish on my dresser), and the scarves. I live in a small, cluttered room already, so I can’t be adding too much more stuff to my collection!

Some of my scarves

A few other props I’ve seen used that I don’t currently have / use are: glass stones (like they put in the bottoms of vases), stones / rocks, nature, and fake flowers. Of course, if you have the space for all that stuff, then you’re lucky. The larger variety of items you have to use, the better chances are that you’ll be able to set up a photograph that matches the feel of that particular piece of jewelry.

I’m hoping that tomorrow I will have some time to go out in the backyard in the morning and make good use of the indirect sunlight. Trying to take photos indoors with flash or with light-bulb light tends to cause a lot of glare with glass beads.