Hi everyone. I am sorry that I have been a bit tardy in writing. I was busy with some last minute client projects - some window treatments to install...a faux finishing project and a home staging project. Then - over the weekend, I took a wonderful Blogging Class (Road Trip, Blogging Your Way NYC) with the delightful Holly Becker, the wunder-blogger (did I just coin a new word?) behind the successful decor8 and Leslie Shewring of A Creative Mint. There was so much to learn but I know that I came away with a lot of very important ideas. I also learned how to operate my Nikon 3100D Digital SLR camera much better - and I learned some new tricks on PhotoShop Elements. Here are some of the pictures I took at the workshop.
One of the other delightful things about taking the class was finally meeting one of the first people who ever commented on my blog - Shawn Byles of the blog Jamaica Byles. Shawn is an awesome textile designer and I encourage you to check out her blog. She will be revamping her blog as well though, after attending this wonderful workshop.
The Big Aha Moment: I think that the one critical thing that I learned was that I needed to share my creative process on my blog. What inspires me to create such and such a faux finish or to concoct a particular color scheme in a room. My inspirations come from many, varied places - it could be a photo of an old house in Provence, the colors in a painting, an advertisement in a magazine. Inspiration is everywhere. But, as a creative person - I usually just show the final product.
So, not many people really understand the process that brought that particular look together. I now know that I need to "tell the story" behind a room, a color scheme...a finish. I know that I have done that at times (especially when I am giving some of steps in the recipe) but I am not "showing" the whole story. Not only the reason behind the look, but the process: Show the tools, the bottles of tints that comprise the color, the bucket of plaster and me applying it. Or when it comes to using fabrics in a room - perhaps I should show the fabric showroom and how I come to choose several fabrics amid a sea of possibilities.
To compose those shots, it takes another skill that I am only beginning to develop - styling. It's one thing to pull some colors, finishes and accessories together in a room...but to pull it together for a photo shoot is another thing. I have to exercise this muscle and better my eye for this. I know that I will be taking a ton of photographs until I am happy with the result. For the above photos I must have taken hundreds of less of than beautiful shots before I loved the result. Learning to work the camera (changing the fstop and the shutter speed...the ISO) plus styling the photos is new to me so it will take a while to really get the hang of it. But, I know that it will make my blog more useful as well as beautiful to my readers.
Thank you Holly and Leslie for a great class. Looking forward to implementing everything I learned!
And...thank you for reading!
The Big Aha Moment: I think that the one critical thing that I learned was that I needed to share my creative process on my blog. What inspires me to create such and such a faux finish or to concoct a particular color scheme in a room. My inspirations come from many, varied places - it could be a photo of an old house in Provence, the colors in a painting, an advertisement in a magazine. Inspiration is everywhere. But, as a creative person - I usually just show the final product.
So, not many people really understand the process that brought that particular look together. I now know that I need to "tell the story" behind a room, a color scheme...a finish. I know that I have done that at times (especially when I am giving some of steps in the recipe) but I am not "showing" the whole story. Not only the reason behind the look, but the process: Show the tools, the bottles of tints that comprise the color, the bucket of plaster and me applying it. Or when it comes to using fabrics in a room - perhaps I should show the fabric showroom and how I come to choose several fabrics amid a sea of possibilities.
To compose those shots, it takes another skill that I am only beginning to develop - styling. It's one thing to pull some colors, finishes and accessories together in a room...but to pull it together for a photo shoot is another thing. I have to exercise this muscle and better my eye for this. I know that I will be taking a ton of photographs until I am happy with the result. For the above photos I must have taken hundreds of less of than beautiful shots before I loved the result. Learning to work the camera (changing the fstop and the shutter speed...the ISO) plus styling the photos is new to me so it will take a while to really get the hang of it. But, I know that it will make my blog more useful as well as beautiful to my readers.
Holly Becker from decor8 blog...and me
Thank you Holly and Leslie for a great class. Looking forward to implementing everything I learned!
And...thank you for reading!
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