Building New Memories :: in Lewes ::

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the fireworks over the weekend (if you are in the UK). We had a great time at friends, and managed to sneak in a visit to Lewes. I wanted to go there for a while, I saw shops featured in my favourite magazines based there, and a house featured on the TV show Grand Designs. I saw neither the shops nor the house, but we still had a great time building new memories for Baby MiH and us. 

Baby MiH was happy to go along with it (you will see some pictures of him tomorrow) because we were visiting more friends afterwards. I am wondering whether he is not bored of us at the moment. You should see how excited he is about spending an evening with his grand-parents rather than us. Maybe it is too much attention, and he is not used to it anymore. 

Anyway if you are based in the UK, and have not been, it is totally worth a visit. I found it quite calming as a town but big enough to keep me interested. We will probably do more of these one-night trips, what do you recommend we visit next?

And here is a sneak peak at tomorrow's pictures... I just have to steal the beanie hat for a day so that I can take proper pictures of it and tell you all about it. 

A weekend in Brighton

Some of the pictures of our (childfree) weekend in Brighton

Memories are made of this...

 

 

Pictures were all taken from my Iphone, most were edited on Instagram.

And this closes one week of sunshine in Serre-Chevalier (France) with my favourite people.

How to Sunday - How do you take and edit pictures {Photography}

* Don't forget to enter my current giveaway here*

I have been wanting to write a post about my pictures - because there are such a big part of this blog. I don't mind writing posts but I feel that I am never able to convey the message as well as with pictures. So my posts are loaded with pictures, especially tutorial ones. I should really be making videos - or at least explore this possibility - but with Baby MiH around it is not necessarily as simple as taking pictures here and there and posting them as a full story. 

I think this post will be great, if you were all to share your experience in the comment box as well, as I am sure I have a lot to learn, and any tips would be welcomed.

All geared up.. 

This is what is behind the scenes... 

My Canon EOS 450D was a birthday present from Mr MiH when I decided to enter the digital era in earnest a few years a go. Since then I added bits and pieces to my kit.

1. 70-300mm lens; 2. The camera with the typical 18-35mm lens;
3. 50mm lens;4. mini-tripod; 5.Polarizer

Surprisingly this is not the camera I use the most for the blog as it is bulky, it takes time to set up - because if you are going to get it out you may as well make all the right adjustments to get a good picture. But I love the close-up pictures it tajes, so it is usually used for finished projects, unless Mr MiH takes the pictures.. 

Then it is the Olympus XZ-1 all the way. This is not actually mine, but my present to Mr MiH for his birthday a couple of years ago (we are very creative when it comes to buying birthday presents). Most of the pictures on this blog are taken with this little camera. And they are nearly all taken with one of the 'scene' settings, I don't even bother changing the aperture, shutter speed, white balance.. No I trust this little camera to take the best picture possible. And it does. It is light, small, and easy to use - you can take it anywhere. A brilliant investment, except for close ups - then it is not really as good as the Canon. 

Finally the Iphone. You remember I made a case for an Iphone when I did not own one - that same weekend I got myself one and entered the world of Instagram. It is AMAZING! That editing software seems to be able to convert any ok pictures into amazing pictures - and the quality is so good I don't mind using them on the blog. 

Editing

I try to make as many adjustments as I can during the photoshoots. It is not always easy because the light may not be good - especially with shorter days, or the colours did not come out like they should. Because more and more pictures will be taken in the evenings from now on, I bought an external Flash - the Canon Speedlight 430EXII flash. And it will be my life-saver, for real. I cannot actually believe the quality of the light in the pictures.

I also edit all my pictures, through PicMonkey. I add the name of the blog at a very minimum, and then tinker with the brightness, saturation and temperature settings usually. 

The right angle

Taking the right picture is easy and hard. First of all it is very subjective, and I am never happy with the pictures I take in general - maybe one but not all of them. For a tutorial, it is easier because the aim is purely to show a technique. For a 'photoshoot', for a styling post for instance, we take many many many pictures and go through all of them to find the best ones - we take that many that we do get good ones eventually. 

I also have a 'photography inspiration' Pinterest board to collect images I like because of the angle, the detail they focus on. I am yet to manage to recreate any of these pictures but at least I have some sort of inspiration to work with. Of course, reading magazines and other blogs is inspirational too. 

I love this selfie picture found on Pinterest

So here we are nothing, fancy really. Yes I have the gear, but I don't use it that often - maybe now in the evening it will become necessary and this is what is going to make a real difference. 

So how do you do it? Do you take pictures with your phone and blog on the go (maybe not that easy when you have a craft blog)? Which editing software do you use - or you don't use one? I would love to hear your experiences. 

How to Sunday - How to showcase your handmade {Photography}

On Monday I started watching the Quiltcon lectures (available for free on Craftsy) - they fit in neatly in my routine as they are about a naptime-long. There is one that has totally inspired me - 'Homemade Lifestyle Photography', by David Butler. David talks about talking photography of course. This is not a technical lecture however, it is about writing a story and how photography conveys the story.  

If you did not know (I did not), David Butler is Amy Butler's husband and the designer behind Parson Gray fabric line (which I used in my Totally Retro Groovy Quilt) .. He also does all the lifestyle inspiration pictures for Amy Butler Designs. 

The lecture really spoke to me because I really find it hard to showcase my handmade makes. It is easier in a way to show work-in-progress projects because it does not need styling. Clothes are easier to show as well because you just need to wear them... But how do you make the most of your quilts, cushions etc? 

I suppose it never clicked that handmade interiors items could be treated like clothes that I can style, despite the fact that I read a lot of interior design magazines. But why not? I put as much effort in making them as I do for clothes, so why treat them differently?

So here I was on Saturday, Baby MiH asleep upstair changing my whole living room around, pulling out handmade items scattered around my house, and styling it, just for fun and see how I can style a space. There are many areas in the house that I can style differently - without foam board (David talks a lot about foam boards).  My living room looked totally different in an hour, which is not too bad considering how long it takes for a quilt to be handmade. 

Another thing came out of this styling, I actually want my living room to look like this all the time - and so does Mr MiH. Guess we should start saving as the whole electrics need to be changed to make it happen... 

Has a lecture, post or article inspired you recently? How do you style your handmade - do you have a conscious process or you have a preferred space to take pictures? I would love to hear your thoughts. 

#3

3 Years

Wedding picture by Maxime Lepers

2 Mortgages

1st year picture taken by Benjamin Brolet

1 Baby

2nd year picture taken by Debs Ivelja

Happy Anniversary to us!