As usual… I have been busy and behind as far as keeping things caught up or current. Part of my problem is that I don’t think much of what I do is interesting… or even worth mentioning until after the fact!!! Sometimes well after the fact! Does that happen to you too?
Sometimes I see my obligations as just that -a job to accomplish… and don’t stop long enough to see that there is value in just doing the job. For instance. One of the guilds in town will be hosting a Quilt Auction as a fund raiser that will feature both a Silent Auction and a Live Auction as well as a rummage table we are calling the ‘Quilters Attic’. While my hand was resting in February I built a web page for the guild… nothing spectacular in terms of design, as it was to show some of the quilts to be auctioned. If you are interested in visiting that page…. go here: Nine Patchers Quilt Auction and of course if you are nearby… please come.Next up was taking pictures of those quilts. It was the photographing, that I think I missed a great opportunity to talk about.
Over the years there has been lots of information shared about how to photograph quilts… so I took much of what I remember reading… about the subject… using a tripod, appropriate lighting, level camera and quilt display and distance as well as focal length. I am a nature photographer… and generally don’t have the patience for lighting a subject with artificial light.
The shooting quilts went really well, even though all of them were photographed indoors! and without a neutral wall behind them at one location and pretty closed to the ceiling… several had to be pinned to a sheet. Our weather in Kentucky hasn’t cooperated with warm enough days…. to shoot outside, and not bright enough to use south facing windows for a nice natural light indoors… So I had to also play with fluorescent and fill flash. Overall I think the quilts look good.
Next I was asked to photograph a knife. That proved to be a different lighting difficulty. For this I actually wanted the dull dark grey skies!!! Metal reflects light and creates bright reflections that look like imperfections in the metal work. We decided that a new lens would help with that problem… so another small obstacle … to over come. Well after a couple of weeks of experimentation… I think I finally nailed it.
Have I been doing anything remotely related to fiber recently…NO!!!
I’ll have to explain more later… What about you…. are you keeping up?
Beth