It amazes me that even this far along on my second 365 journey, I am still tweaking and changing my approach to editing all the time. I still feel that I have so much to learn and the never-ending quest for my own "personal style" continues. This week I have found myself using the HSL and Split Toning panels in Lightroom more than ever. I am very much in the habit of bumping the orange luminance slider to brighten up skin tones, however I have been a bit scared to use the other sliders too much apart from perhaps to tone down a distracting background colour in the frame. Then I watched a Clinkin Moms tutorial this week which taught me that a small bump in orange saturation and a reduction in yellow and orange hues can further improve skin tones. I am particularly interested to see what happens with that tweak in hues because I long felt frustrated by the green tone that my pictures take on when I post to certain, but not all, social media sites. My photos become green tinted in Flickr in particular but Instagram can also throw things off in an unpleasant sickly green direction. I wish I understood things like this better! Also, as I have been adding more of my camera shots to Instagram I have been frustrated by how much more like them with a quick filter flung over them. That feels like cheating and I would love to know how to achieve the same looks all by myself.
Day 175 - The boys were delighted to sit together for a portrait. It's just a shame that they were taking it in turns to strangle each other. Perhaps that is how brothers express their love for each other! Lets just go with that theory. It does look like love after all.
Day 176 - We are on the tail end of half term and on Friday I took the kids to the Museum of Childhood in London. I have been once before and I wasn't' convinced that the children would enjoy it that much as most of the toys are in glass display cases and from the "olden days" (aka - my childhood!) I chose this museum because it doesn't attract the same sort of crowds as the bigger museums like the Natural History or the Science Museum but also because I am keen to show the kids the less wealthy side of London, and life in general. The Museum is situated in Bethnal Green in East London. I lived there one summer whilst I was waitressing in a pizza restaurant in Central London. It was an amazing summer full of adventure, freedom and rollerblading. The boys are always interested to hear stories from our previous lives and sharing them feels so special and bonding. The conversations that stem from such stories are so constructive. Days out like these are so much better than hanging out at home and playing Minecraft!
I was reluctant to get my camera out at all because I am so sick of being told off for using it in public places. I decided to use my now semi-retired 50mm lens as it attracts so much less attention. I am thinking of upgrading this handy little lens and it is perfect for days out like this. As usual it took me a while to warm up and I played it safe taking pictures of interesting stuff in glass cases. I really do love toys, in case anyone missed that!
This was the first computer we had in my house. I spent weeks or months begging for it. I convinced my parents that I would use it for homework. Eventually they caved and bought it for Christmas. We were allowed to open it and look at it but my parents decided that they wouldn't put the plug on until Christmas day. So when they weren't around, I figured out how to put the plug on myself and had a little play with it. My brother and I had some good times with this computer and I even managed to learn a tiny bit of coding with the use of an Usborne book. Good times!
My brother had this x-wing.
My husband had this AT-AT and often talks about his love for it.
I had the Barbies in the centre and to the right. It won't surprise anyone to hear that I would love them back again. I would love that Indian Barbie too.
An original Kenner Blythe.... Yes please!
I had all of these too.
As much fun as it was to take pictures of my old toys, I felt very drawn to taking more creative pictures of the kids in the "museum space" - something that has drawn the attention of the museum staff before. I couldn't resist though and I hoped that my 50mm would slip below the radar.
I was really getting into this and ran the risk of making a spectacle of myself. I was excited by the potential of this room in particular.
When I started contemplating getting down on my stomach and waiting for the perfect illumination from the screen, I knew it was time to move on. It was hard to let it go though.
We need a drafts board.
The light in this bit was really bad and I couldn't get any good photos. I did have fun playing with split toning in post processing though.
It as a really nice day out. We would go again.
Day 178 - After all of the creative shooting from the day before I wasn't in the mood to do anything too fancy on day 178, so I just snapped a couple of everyday shots. I think of these sorts of pictures of capturing memories. Rexy is loving the game of life right now. We are also about to vote on whether the UK should remain in the EU. We have clear views on the matter.
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