More Tidying up

I suspect this blog is going to ramble a bit. It cannot be interesting for anyone to read a list of completed jobs! So what I want to talk about is photography. This is changing from something I do to record completed textiles into something closer to an obsession. The countryside I drive through or train through, I see it in terms of potential photographs. Crop the right hand side? A bit more sky? A lot more sky? No sky? And the White Balance? Buildings in the city? The same.

I have now done enough courses that taking the photo is a dawdle but composition is where I fail. Although I have suddenly realised that my very best photos are of wildlife! In one article I read today, the author said that once you knew your camera backwards, you would slowly come to realise what topics you liked best. Basically my likes are trees and markets with lots of people. All this photographing foreign parts is actually rather boring when I look at them back at home. And I know it is composition I am bad at. Another thing I have learnt from my many online courses is that the answer is not to buy another, even more expensive, lens but to keep at it with what you have got already. Although I admit to buying a few, cheap, items. A bean bag, a polariser. 

An interesting fact. I have been doing online courses with Craftsy, several in fact, concentrating on landscapes. There were three I found most useful. Two were ever so good at the technicalities and showed you how to get their effects. These were both men and their landscapes, although okay, did not have the Wow factor. The third was a woman, not so good about the technical side but her photos, oh boy, did they have the Wow factor. I have learnt a lot just looking at her photos. And I intend to rewatch this course next week.

Why am I doing this? I suspect it is because I find drawing and painting too difficult, that is photography is a substitute for art. My hands are no longer steady enough for drawing and painting. I can see me going on to a remote control for the camera in another few years.

So what have I actually done in the last few days? Lots of gardening, a euphemism for weeding on my knees. Finished a scarf, which has not come out as I expected. The warp is a fine white cotton, slewed at 24epi, should be 35 to 40 for a balanced weave. The weft was a fine Swedish yarn but a lot thicker than the warp. It was space dyed and in a ball when I bought it in Stockholm. I misjudged it. Although space dyed, it is black, charcoal, grey and a teeny bit of red so it is a very sombre scarf. Definitely a man's scarf. Started making a cotton top with some lovely created by Dorothy. I have ironed the pattern pieces and cut out all the parts. More tomorrow.