Happy winter solstice and for us kiwis of course its Matariki and the arrival of Plaedes in our early morning sky signifying the start of the new year in the Maori calendar.
Its certainly different being a flower photographer in the winter,altho Roger has found some beautiful late roses even up to yesterday that are still waiting for their late winter pruning. Winter is a quiet time and as a sign of the times, we are having a quieter business winter than usual, but a good time to plan ahead and re-energise. Our flower canvas prints are on special for the months of July and August. Take a look -www.gardenartimages.co.nz/products/CanvasArtPrints We are offering a 10% saving on all sizes. They are quality prints,NZ made, which showcase Roger's gorgeous photography.
Its soup time at our place and I am loving our own tasty pumpkins especially, also gathering delicious green shelled mussels off therocks and turning them into Ngaio Bay mussel chowder. Here it is:
1 large onion diced
several cloves of garlic finely diced/minced
a celery stick or 2 diced
perhaps a leek diced
saute in butter (I know, but it tastes so good) on a medium-lowheat until soft. Add as many potatoes diced as you want, perhaps 2 -3 per person, and stir and continue sauteing, until partly cooked.Barely cover with fish stock or seafood stock or water . I also add a little of the water from the steamed mussels.
Add sea salt.Bring to the boil and simmer until the potatoes are tender. Mix either with a stick blender or roughly with a potato masher. Set aside
Steam open fresh mussels (Garlic, wine and fresh coriander in pan)
Dice some bacon and panfry or grill until crisp.
Add mussels roughly chopped (minus stalk and frill), and bacon to veges. Add a little wine, skinny milk and a generous dollop of cream, untilthe desired consistency (thick is good). I add a generous spoon of homemade pesto. Stir until near simmering. Do not boil!
Season to tast with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, fresh coriander, a few drops of tabasco.
Best prepared ahead then reheated to just under simmer for fuller flavour.
Enjoy and don't forget to look at our gift and greeting card range as well! www.gardenartimages.co.nz/products
cheers until next month
Jude
fab flower art
rogersonneland photography www.gardenartimages.co.nz
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
winter approachs brrrrr.....
jude here again.....Its almost the end of May, and winter is around the corner...how's that for stating the obvious.! Living in the Marlborough Sounds is special any time of the year. Watching the wind move over the water in a southerly squall picking up whirls of salt water like a tiny tornado and skidding it accross the surface. But when the sun shines its just gorgeous.
Flowers are a bit thin on the ground at this time of the year, altho Rog found a late Compassion rose and a Westerland rose and has some very moody gentle shots of these.
Firewood has been the job and now we are all stocked up for at least 2 winters, that feels so good. Now it is time to refocus on our business and persuade the world to come to our cyber door! www.gardenartimages.co.nz or to start planning a summer stay in the Sounds. Check out Ngaio Bay www.ngaiobay.co.nz
More soon, time for an Earl Grey!
Flowers are a bit thin on the ground at this time of the year, altho Rog found a late Compassion rose and a Westerland rose and has some very moody gentle shots of these.
Firewood has been the job and now we are all stocked up for at least 2 winters, that feels so good. Now it is time to refocus on our business and persuade the world to come to our cyber door! www.gardenartimages.co.nz or to start planning a summer stay in the Sounds. Check out Ngaio Bay www.ngaiobay.co.nz
More soon, time for an Earl Grey!
Friday, May 9, 2008
learning the art of blogging
well, we are finally into autumn and the end of a fantastically busy hosting season. Our B&B has been full for months with great guests from all over the world, experiencing a bit of Kiwi magic at our special corner in the Marlborouigh Sounds. www.ngaiobay.co.nz
Actually I am Jude, rogers partner and I'm just kick-starting his/our blog. We are really just a couple of wrinklies having a good life producing great food and generous hospitality in a magic setting, growing organic food, plus gorgeous flowers for Rog to photograph then turn into gorgeous things for all sorts of uses.
today he "captured" a very late blooming peace rose....it will surely be one of the last. I picked a bunch of my favourite roses, Abraham Darby, a David Austin rose which is so fragrant it almost makes you swoon ....now there's an old fashioned word if ever I heard one. Everything seems more intense at this time of the year, perhaps before the almost-hibernati0n that accosts us in the winter as we slow down and pull in. The kitchen fire has begun its winterlong burn.
We are starting an email and website program to boost our product sales...trying to stick to the things that are affordable in what are becoming tight economic times. Beautiful cards are always needed, only cost a few dollars and give so much pleasure. Rogers images are there to see on our website and the cards are so reasonable . Check our website for a look www.gardenartimages.co.nz
Actually I am Jude, rogers partner and I'm just kick-starting his/our blog. We are really just a couple of wrinklies having a good life producing great food and generous hospitality in a magic setting, growing organic food, plus gorgeous flowers for Rog to photograph then turn into gorgeous things for all sorts of uses.
today he "captured" a very late blooming peace rose....it will surely be one of the last. I picked a bunch of my favourite roses, Abraham Darby, a David Austin rose which is so fragrant it almost makes you swoon ....now there's an old fashioned word if ever I heard one. Everything seems more intense at this time of the year, perhaps before the almost-hibernati0n that accosts us in the winter as we slow down and pull in. The kitchen fire has begun its winterlong burn.
We are starting an email and website program to boost our product sales...trying to stick to the things that are affordable in what are becoming tight economic times. Beautiful cards are always needed, only cost a few dollars and give so much pleasure. Rogers images are there to see on our website and the cards are so reasonable . Check our website for a look www.gardenartimages.co.nz
Monday, September 17, 2007
welcome from me ..my first entry
‘Flowers, Natural Light and Beautiful lmages.
Flower photography is more than taking pictures. I feel it is the art of creating beautiful images from nature and I am often asked by other photographers and flower lovers “how do you get that glow, that warmth to your flowers?”
I shall try and explain.
When I set out to work with a flower, I am very aware of what the light is doing before I leave the house, and more or less have an idea of how I am going to work with it. As most of you will know, when creating an image, early morning and late afternoon are usually the best times to work. This second image is in the last of the early evening sun.
I always find the morning sun works better if I am looking for a sharp image, or a crisp image. The evening sun is best when I am looking for something a bit softer or warmer. I love creating dream-like images so for those I would do most of my work in the late afternoon when the sun is on its way out, very special light the last light of the day.
After working with natural light for quite a while I began to wonder what I could do to tone it down a bit on a bright day. Now if you were going to use sun as the illuminating source, we have been taught that it is far too bright in the middle of the day to do any decent work. I know quite a few photographers who consider from around 10 to 4 as a non work time because of the brightness.
BUT, there is an answer here and it is called defused light. I use it rather a lot. What do I mean by defused light?... well it is just what it implies, sunlight with some of the strength taken from it. How you go about finding some of this defused light is quite simple. Go behind a shrub or a tree or some foliage. Just make sure you are on the backside from the sun. Look around you carefully and you should see lots of different little sun beams filtering through.
I should back up a step here. I have been working with flowers now for 5 plus years. When I started I used to go to the garden and get myself in all sorts of awkward positions trying for different compositions and different lighting, then one day I got hit by a lightening bolt of insight!! It said “pick the flower you fool”.
Since that day my creativity and also my back have improved immensely. To really work with a flower it is essential you have the ability to move it to the environment you choose. So now you have that sorted out, it is back to the light. You are now behind what ever you have chosen and there are all these little beams of light shining through.
Take the flower (say a rose, as I love working with roses), so take the rose and just hold it in one of those little rays of lights. Maybe the sunbeam you have chosen is too bright so just experiment and move it around to another pool of light and keep doing so until you find what you are looking for. Sometimes you have to use your imagination and move to another bush or tree or part of the garden or whatever. This can take practice to learn but once you see the benefits you will see how wonderful it is. Just a wee bit of light here and there can make all the difference.
Another good way to use it might be as backlighting. I use backlighting a lot. That is what gives my images their glow especially as it is natural light. Backlighting and floral photography go hand in hand for me. Take your rose and put the sun behind it. Set your rose in a sunbeam or even try direct sunlight,( be sure the sun is behind your rose) and you will see your rose come alive. The trick is to figure out which strength of sun beam suits you best.
These experiments might not work the first time for you but I promise if you persist it will all come together. Overtime you will develop your own tricks and methods and when you find something that really rocks perhaps you will share it with me.
A nice trick I use sometimes is to hold the rose or put the rose in a position where the sun is coming in from behind on a cloudy day preferably with a bit of wind so the clouds are scooting across the sky, the light is changing faster than you can click the camera but for finding a unique light that you will probably never be able to recreate, this is the way. There are lots of other tricks you can do using mother nature. Below is an image that I thought would be gorgeous using a narrow beam of light. I got this effect by holding the flower on the backside of a picket fence and placing the flower in the path of the sun shining through the crack in the fence.
This probably will be the most valuable piece of information I will share!
I hope this is of some help to even just one other person. If you just give it a chance and have a bit of patience you will see it start to work for you.
I am not a big fan of Photoshop. I know there are people who do absolutely wonderful things with it, just as there are people who can’t do anything without it. In the work that I do, I like to make it a point of difference. I am happy working with composition, light and color, but if there ever comes a day when I get those 3 elements figured out I may move onto Photoshop myself.
In the meantime, happy creations to anyone who has taken the time to read this.
cheers
Roger
Flower photography is more than taking pictures. I feel it is the art of creating beautiful images from nature and I am often asked by other photographers and flower lovers “how do you get that glow, that warmth to your flowers?”
I shall try and explain.
When I set out to work with a flower, I am very aware of what the light is doing before I leave the house, and more or less have an idea of how I am going to work with it. As most of you will know, when creating an image, early morning and late afternoon are usually the best times to work. This second image is in the last of the early evening sun.
I always find the morning sun works better if I am looking for a sharp image, or a crisp image. The evening sun is best when I am looking for something a bit softer or warmer. I love creating dream-like images so for those I would do most of my work in the late afternoon when the sun is on its way out, very special light the last light of the day.
After working with natural light for quite a while I began to wonder what I could do to tone it down a bit on a bright day. Now if you were going to use sun as the illuminating source, we have been taught that it is far too bright in the middle of the day to do any decent work. I know quite a few photographers who consider from around 10 to 4 as a non work time because of the brightness.
BUT, there is an answer here and it is called defused light. I use it rather a lot. What do I mean by defused light?... well it is just what it implies, sunlight with some of the strength taken from it. How you go about finding some of this defused light is quite simple. Go behind a shrub or a tree or some foliage. Just make sure you are on the backside from the sun. Look around you carefully and you should see lots of different little sun beams filtering through.
I should back up a step here. I have been working with flowers now for 5 plus years. When I started I used to go to the garden and get myself in all sorts of awkward positions trying for different compositions and different lighting, then one day I got hit by a lightening bolt of insight!! It said “pick the flower you fool”.
Since that day my creativity and also my back have improved immensely. To really work with a flower it is essential you have the ability to move it to the environment you choose. So now you have that sorted out, it is back to the light. You are now behind what ever you have chosen and there are all these little beams of light shining through.
Take the flower (say a rose, as I love working with roses), so take the rose and just hold it in one of those little rays of lights. Maybe the sunbeam you have chosen is too bright so just experiment and move it around to another pool of light and keep doing so until you find what you are looking for. Sometimes you have to use your imagination and move to another bush or tree or part of the garden or whatever. This can take practice to learn but once you see the benefits you will see how wonderful it is. Just a wee bit of light here and there can make all the difference.
Another good way to use it might be as backlighting. I use backlighting a lot. That is what gives my images their glow especially as it is natural light. Backlighting and floral photography go hand in hand for me. Take your rose and put the sun behind it. Set your rose in a sunbeam or even try direct sunlight,( be sure the sun is behind your rose) and you will see your rose come alive. The trick is to figure out which strength of sun beam suits you best.
These experiments might not work the first time for you but I promise if you persist it will all come together. Overtime you will develop your own tricks and methods and when you find something that really rocks perhaps you will share it with me.
A nice trick I use sometimes is to hold the rose or put the rose in a position where the sun is coming in from behind on a cloudy day preferably with a bit of wind so the clouds are scooting across the sky, the light is changing faster than you can click the camera but for finding a unique light that you will probably never be able to recreate, this is the way. There are lots of other tricks you can do using mother nature. Below is an image that I thought would be gorgeous using a narrow beam of light. I got this effect by holding the flower on the backside of a picket fence and placing the flower in the path of the sun shining through the crack in the fence.
This probably will be the most valuable piece of information I will share!
I hope this is of some help to even just one other person. If you just give it a chance and have a bit of patience you will see it start to work for you.
I am not a big fan of Photoshop. I know there are people who do absolutely wonderful things with it, just as there are people who can’t do anything without it. In the work that I do, I like to make it a point of difference. I am happy working with composition, light and color, but if there ever comes a day when I get those 3 elements figured out I may move onto Photoshop myself.
In the meantime, happy creations to anyone who has taken the time to read this.
cheers
Roger
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