Life Inside the Doll House

The long evenings are closing in now and I am regularly finding myself shooting at bedtime with no decent light. I was inspired to get my flash out again after watching a really cool video about capturing motion with second curtain sync. I was very frustrated to discover that I cannot convince my Canon 6D to perform second curtain sync with a third party flash. I couldn't quite justify shelling out a few hundred pounds for a Canon Speedlite last year and so decided to go for a much cheaper Yongnuo YN560 III along with the YN506-TN flash controller. I wasn't sure how much use I would get out of a flash and just wanted to play around. I was particularly interested to have a go with off camera flash.  Generally speaking I am happy enough with the Yongnuo but it would be wonderful to take advantage of the ETTL function and have the camera and flash communicate with each other. At the moment I need to keep adjusting the flash strength up and down to find the perfect exposure. ...

My main goals for this second 365 were to gain a greater sense of mastery over my editing in both Lightroom and Photoshop and to pin down my own personal sense of style. Although I have indeed learned a lot of new editing skills this year, I can honestly say that I have failed to develop my own style. I am not convinced that this is such a bad thing though. After all, it is not as if I am planning to go into business anytime soon (ever!?). I have enjoyed playing around with different looks and I'm not ready to end that exploration process yet. Perhaps I never will. I am however very much looking forward to stopping this 365 as it takes up so much of my time and energy. My plan is to use the time it frees up to focus on pushing myself creatively with a fresh focus on quality over quantity. That said, I am often surprised by how much I love some of the photos that I take solely because of my commitment to the 365. There are quite a few from this week that I really do treasure, but I...

As we head further into autumn and winter, I am eagerly embracing the Danish concept of hygge with both hands. Here  in the UK we are currently being flooded with books and articles educating us about hygge, which can best be described as a lovely cosy sense of togetherness with people that we feel very safe and comfortable with. It is generally an indoors thing and tends to involve soft lighting, candles, blankets, open fires, comforting food, warm drinks and can be centred around activities such as chatting with family or friends, reading, watching TV, board games, crafting, and so on.  Some people are very cynical about the current obsession with hygge, but I think it is wonderful. Life has been a little stressful lately and a bit of cosy togetherness has been much welcomed here in the Dollhouse.  Here is where we are up to.  Day 336 Day 337 Day 338 Day 339 Day 340 Day 341 Day 342 Day 34...

Unsurprisingly, we have had a bump back to reality after our amazing week in NY. It is hard to return to everyday photos around the house and I am now feeling very relieved that my second 365 is coming to an end. If I do one again... it will be a long time from now. As good as it is to practice taking photos everyday and to create a detailed record of our family life, I really want to focus on taking better quality pictures rather than tons of snapshots.  This is what we have been up to recently.  Day 327 Day 328 Day 329 Day 330 Day 331 - I have been looking at a few portrait tutorials. I was interested to learn about the effect of asking the subject to push their forehead forward. In the top photo my husband has adopted a normal relaxed pose, but in the second he his jutting his forehead towards the camera just a little. It has such a huge effect on the definition of the chin and gives a much more flattering photo. No one wants a dou...