Whisk Kid

 

(All photos courtesy of Whisk Kid)

Hi everyone, thanks for your sweet comments about my article coming out in Country Sampler.  Although I've been freelance writing about homes and photographing for regional magazines for the past 12 years, it's still thrilling to me to see my name in print for my writing or photos in the national mags!   So thanks for letting me be all about "me" for a post or two!

Today I'm not really thinking about food, I have a flu bug that my dear husband decided to share with me, but I have been wanting to share something myself for awhile about someone who is a master of food.

Do you remember being 19 or even 20 and what you were doing?  I was spending my days playing tennis at college and wishing I could skip the whole class part and simply hit the courts 24/7.  I lived in an apartment that had a microwave, 2 tiny burners, and no oven.  I considered it a gourmet meal if I slapped some store bought roast beef between two slices of bread and cut up a piece of fruit to go along with it.  And as I recall, Domino's Pizza lost a lot of money on us with that "delivery in 30 minutes or it's free" rule.

At 19 or 20 most of us are in college or starting our first big job, busy just making ends meet and not really thinking about a whole lot more than what needs to be done that day...at least that's how it was for me.  But for one Michigan university student, she has her eye on the prize!

While I was busy worrying about what to wear for a weekend date at her age, she's busy creating this!!!  You see, Kaitlin, also known as the Whisk Kid, has a dream, and one I fully expect her to attain.  She hopes to one day own her own bakery.  

"I'm a marketing major, and I'm hoping to open a bakery after I graduate," says Kaitlin when I emailed her to ask why she wasn't styling food for the likes of Martha Stewart or any other national magazine who wants to feature yummy as well as gorgeously presented food!

One of the things I love most about blogging is the spiderweb effect it has and how you can start one place and end up finding the most wonderful things as you wind your way along the spiderweb.  That's how I found Kaitlin.  

I had read on Kate's blog about a food photography challenge over at Pioneer Woman's site and so off I went to visit the photostream on Flickr to enter a picture and look at all of the other wonderful entries.  It's quite addicting really, flipping through pages of beautiful food shots and I was instantly struck by the photo above of homemade ice cream.  It was one of Kaitlin's photos...as are ALL of the photos in this post.  You see it wasn't just a picture of homemade ice cream in a bowl, it was a picture that said it's summertime y'all and the heat wave is upon us so come onto the big back porch, grab yourself a big 'ole glass of lemonade and enjoy this cold refreshing bowl of ice cream!  Yup, it really said all of that to me with just this one photo.

I was intrigued, so I went to Kaitlin's profile page expecting to find a link to a professional photographer's website, but instead it took me to her great blog Whisk Kid.  When I read the "about the kid" section in her profile I was floored.  She was a college student, cooking in a tiny and very dated apartment kitchen...the one you see above actually!  And she shoots with the same Canon Rebel XTi that I use, but I've never taken a food photo that looked like hers!  

So I emailed her and asked how on earth she does it, baking in a tiny apartment kitchen with only the counter space you see in the picture above?!  She was so sweet and replied by telling me that she was a college student studying marketing and about her dream of one day owning her own bakery.  "I do bake in my apartment, but it's ill-equipped (I have approximately 1 1/2 square feet of counter space) so I often bake at my boyfriend's apartment, which has a larger kitchen."  But we all know that most college town apartments are not equipped with a gourmet cook's kitchen so I'm still over the top impressed!  And can we say lucky boyfriend?!

Kaitlin clearly has a talent for baking, just look at these vegan cupcakes she made in the photo above, but what strikes me as really amazing is her ability to stage and photograph food.  Take a look at a few of her wonderful and oh so mouthwatering photos...

She even makes Pop Tarts look inviting!

And she's no one trick pony, she also makes wonderful main dishes, but her real love can be found in her baking.

Along with providing wonderful recipes on her blog, she also gives her readers helpful hints on how to create these delectable desserts in their own homes, including step by step instructions on things like how to frost the perfect cake! 

But even with Kaitlin's wonderful instructions, I'm betting I couldn't recreate many of her beautiful desserts. 

  

And it's not just her recipes and instructions that are so wonderful, her writing is great too!  I'm just so glad I found her beautiful and inspiring blog, and I wish Kaitlin all the success in the world with her college career as well as her dream to become a bakery owner once she graduates.  I think we'll all be seeing more of Kaitlin in the future.  I think any magazine that would give her a chance on doing food styling would not regret it for a minute!

Thanks Kaitlin for letting me use your wonderful photos and for allowing me to share your story with my readers!  Best of luck in everything you do!  And to see more of Kaitlin's great food, click HERE to visit her blog!

Spread the Love...

Mom's Good Recipes  (so funny this was picked at random and it's a food blog!)

Molly Glover

33 Shades of Green  (ok, this is freaking me out a little, this one has a post up right now with a link party about food!  Apparently the universe is guiding me to food blogs for my random shout outs today!)

Humble Pie and Other Goings On

The very talented Kate from Chronicles of a Country Girl often enters her beautiful photos into the photo assignments challenges on Pioneer Woman's site.  Kate was even a finalist in a recent contest with her gorgeous cardinal photo, a well deserved accolade when you consider the hundreds of thousands of people who enter each of these photo assignments!  It really is quite intimidating and awe inspiring when you see some of the photos which get submitted each time.

I finally got brave enough to put one of my photos out there, the pear picture above, since this round's assignment is all about Food.  You can click here to see some of the finalists so far.  You might think that photographing food would be a piece of cake...sorry, pun intended, but it's actually quite hard.  Shooting in sunlight is a must, not getting too close, yet close enough to your food is important, and motion is also a good thing for food shots, like pouring something, etc.

Of course I did shoot my pear in bright sunlight, probably too bright actually, but hey it was my first attempt with these assignments and after seeing the competition I was served a big 'ole slice of humble pie...perfectly lit, expertly composed, and mouthwateringly beautiful of course.  There is some serious talent out there people, and just scrolling through all of those photos is enough to make a person want to pack away their Kodachrome and pull the covers over your lens.  But I won't do that, instead I'll study the winning photos and take heed of all their subtle tricks which take a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and turn it into a masterpiece.  Hmm, I seem to be talking a lot about food in posts lately don't I?!

 (photo with Random Inspirations Texture)

Feeling slightly deflated and very much inadequate after viewing some of the photos in the contest, I did pick my chin up long enough to visit a few photo streams on Flickr of those whose photos I envied.  I came across one person's stream, which I have since forgotten their name because that's how many photos I looked at, and she had the most beautiful textures on many of her photos.  I'm talking drop dead, stop you in your tracks gorgeous textures.  Words gracefully blended with flowers, they had me at hello!  So I decided to crack open my photo archives from last spring and buy myself some textures, you know as a way of making myself feel better.

The textures I used on each of these photos are all from the very talented Kim Klassen.   Although the textures I used weren't free, they were all very reasonably priced I felt, and if you sign up to be on Kim's email list she often sends out freebies for folks like you and me to try.

I purchased a total of 10 textures, for $20.50 which I thought was fair, and after applying them to some of my flower photos from last spring I was convinced that if I ever decide to sell art prints or create note cards, these will be my "go to" textures!

The two pictures above both feature Kim's Layers Texture, I adjusted the lighting, the color burn, and erased a bit of the texture in the top cherry blossom picture so you can see that the same texture can be applied in a variety of ways to create very different looks.

On the photo above I used Kim's All My Lovin' texture, I love the mix of type written words, script, and music found in this texture. 

I also purchased a set of textures called The Vintage Collection.  I combined several textures from this set to create the photo above.  I love how some of the textures in this set give a subtle lace like quality to the photo and subject matter.

This last photo is my very favorite out of the group I created.  I used the All My Lovin' Texture once again and I simply adore the juxtaposition of the sweet sentiments with the delicate cherry blossom buds.  I actually think something like this would be so pretty for non-traditional wedding invitations or even bridal shower invites!

I want to thank Kim, who up until today I'd never really known much about, and had never used any of her textures.  She truly is a gifted artist and a very giving person.  We exchanged a few emails this afternoon and she was more than helpful in answering all of my questions regarding the compatibility of her textures for Photoshop Elements, which they are, HOORAY for me!  She also offers some great videos on her site to teach you how to use her textures and to help you take better photos!  She jokingly told me that this texture thing can become quite addictive, and I have to say that with these textures and others I'm planning to purchase from her, I may be in need of a 12 step program very soon!

You might have noticed that my watermark has changed too, I'm now using the name Kat W. Photography, not just Low Tide High Style.  I've decided that it's time to take off my training wheels and get serious about this photography stuff, so we'll see where it takes me, but for now I'm enjoying the ride, and I have you all to thank for constantly giving me support and encouragement...thank you!

I want to say thank you to those of you who have been brave enough to send me your house photos, if you missed it, read this post, and there is no time limit for submitting pictures, so keep them coming!  I wish we could feature single rooms, but right now we're looking for whole houses.

And also, there is still plenty of time to enter my latest Giveaway, click HERE to find out how to enter.

I hope you each have a wonderful weekend!

Stepping Outside The Box

Today I read THIS post over on Laura's Blog, White Spray Paint, where she was singing my photography praises and wondering why she can't get the results she wants with some of her own shots.  This got me thinking about photography, and pictures in general.

On New Year's day, I decided to finally try out my new studio lighting equipment (It's White Lightning recommended by my good friend Gary!) that I got for my birthday in early December.  I had really wanted this lighting equipment, yet there was a part of me that was terrified to try it for the first time.  I wanted to try my hand at portraiture, but taking photos of people is much different than shooting inanimate objects that you can pose and have stay still for long periods of time.

And let's face it, dogs don't count, because for the most part dogs, and pets in general are pretty darned cute so it's hard to miss when shooting puppies!

My daughter volunteered to be my test subject for my lighting trial run, and Mr. Tide helped me set everything up since he has more technical knowledge about photography.

Each set of shots has 2 of the exact same shots, but they have very different post production techniques applied to them.  When I did the first round of each photo, I was pretty happy with how they turned out, but I just thought they were missing that "finished" look that some photographers seem to be able to capture and create.

I really wanted that look too, and thanks to a few emails from Kate, of  Chronicles of a Country Girl, I found my magic bullet so to speak!  She suggested I use a TRA re-touching action, not because my daughter needs wrinkle removal or major changes, but because it gives you the polished professional look that I was longing for from my photos of people.  I wanted my photos to not be fake representations of the person I'm shooting, but I wanted them to speak to me, to draw people in, and well, sometimes that means a little re-touching!

Unfortunately TRA's re-touching actions only work with full on Photoshop and all I have is Photoshop Elements 9 (which I highly recommend by the way!).  So off I went to do a Google search to find a re-touching action to work with the program I had.

I found just what I was looking for at MCP Actions' website in the form of a package deal called Amazing Faces Photoshop Actions, which is also compatible with Elements!!!  It's not free, it's on sale for $79.98 at the moment, but for someone like me who hopes to do some portrait photography in the near future I thought it would pay for itself fairly quickly.  After seeing the results, I'm convinced that it will not only pay for itself but that it will give me the oomph I've been lacking in my photos of people.  Now please understand that I'm not affiliated with or get compensated in any way, shape, or form by MCP Actions, I just like their stuff!

This photo is a great example of what I've been able to do with free actions up to this point.  I used free actions from Pioneer Woman to turn this photo into a black and white photo that has an edge burn.  I really like how this turned out...but...I really wanted to take my pictures to the next level, like the pros do.

And the photo below will show you what I mean...

Now, I know it's hard to compare apples to apples when the first photo is done in black and white and this one is in color but bear with me on this.

With this photo I used several actions from the MCP set I purchased.

1.  I used Eye Doctor to whiten the whites of my daughter's eyes, to highlight the white "touch lights"...those little white flash dots that draw you in to the eye.  And I darkened her pupils and lashes just slightly.  I actually didn't change her eye color, those other little tricks did everything I needed to highlight her beautiful eyes without making her look different or fake.

2.  I used the Dentist action, but instead of whitening her teeth I used an action called clean the teeth and polish the teeth which don't change the color really, but make them sparkle more...don't ask me how they do it, but it works!  Of course I did all of this with a very light hand so to speak, another tip from Kate, so that I didn't end up with someone who doesn't resemble my daughter.  It's her, just slightly more dramatic as you can see compared to the earlier shot.

3.  The last thing I did was to use an action called Magic Skin to even out her skin tone, and then Powder the Nose to help smooth out her skin, notice the smoother chin.  Both of these were used sparingly as well but what a difference these little things can make for how a photo turns out!

4.  For the final touch I cropped the second photo which brings the focus in on my daughter's face.

This one is un-retouched with Sepia tone added.  I often used Sepia or Black and White to help hide slight imperfections in a photo.  Although these look cool, it often distracts from the subject, I think, which is why I was thrilled with the other photos where I used MCP  re-touching Actions.

Re-touching can be mis-used to slim people, change eye color, etc. but all I wanted to do was to have photos that were real representations of my subject, just with a little minor tweaking and MCP has allowed me to do that now!!!

So this brings me back to Laura's post today.  Sometimes it's not just the camera, (although I love my Canon Rebel XTi) that makes a good photograph.  Sometimes you just need that little helping hand that you can only get from post production of your photos that takes a good photo and makes it a more memorable one!

Play around with this stuff, have fun, and try whatever you want to change your photos and make them what you want them to be.  It's one of the great gifts of digital photography, and I'm just thrilled that I live in a time when I can take full advantage of it!  There is no RIGHT way to take a picture, just take them, play around with the results, and learn as you go!

The Eyes Have It

For my last post I'm sure many of you wondered just how much Photoshopping I did to make me comfortable posting my picture.  It's true there was some shopping of the photo, and I'll explain with this picture exactly what I did with the other one.  I would show you the before of the other one, but I didn't bother to save the original file.

The photo above was taken in my guest bathroom at 11:30 PM last night...or there abouts, let's just say it was late and I should have been in bed.  It was the only mirror in my house that had decent lighting, and bathroom lighting is also normally flattering...which for me is a good place to start.

The photo is straight out of camera or SOOC, and it's slightly overexposed so everything appears a little washed out.  My eyes are a very light brown, and the later it gets in the day, the more golden they appear but...

Here is the Photoshopped picture, and here's what I did to it.  Bear in mind that these are the same actions/textures I used on the photo in my last post.

First I used Pioneer Womans "bring out the eyes" action which highlights and brightens the color of your eyes.  It really makes my eye become a focal point and brings out the gold tones.  I didn't use anything else on the eye except that action and I lowered the action's opacity to 70%  (I did not lower the opacity in the photo from my last post because it wasn't as alien looking as this picture).

Second, I used Flora Bella's Dreaminess overlay.  I used soft light and increased the opacity slightly to give me a more even skin tone and to soften fine lines (trust me I do have fines lines and wrinkles!).  And I used color burn, which darkens and enriches colors.  I also increased the opacity on the color burn to get my hair color and fleece color to more closely resemble their actual colors in real life.

So there you have it!  Photoshop can do so many things, but I never want my photos to be too far from the truth, just a nicer version of it.  But I also didn't want people to think that I had altered my photos so much that they didn't even resemble me.  Soft light and dreaminess are my friends, but you should still be able to tell it's me in the end.

The lovely Lindsey from Better After posted this great post (click HERE to read it) on how celebrities use Photoshop to get that perfect photo.  Although I wouldn't mind looking years younger (we can't all live in our bathrooms all day!) and pounds thinner, I think I'll stick with just using the simple actions and textures that will maybe make me willing to post my picture every now and then...or as I like to call it...once in a blue moon!

My New Addiction

Remember a few posts back when I said something about not knowing if I would like using actions and textures...umm well I had a nice breakfast this morning as I ate those words!  It's only been a week since I've been using actions and textures and I'm completely addicted!

It's not that I don't like the photos I take straight out of the camera (or in photography lingo SOOC), it's just that actions and textures can enhance a photo and take it to a whole new level.

Take the photo above for example.  SOOC it was great, good color, nice contrast and I focused the image on the tiny patch of fog through the trees in the field beyond the woods.  Then I applied Pioneer Woman's free action called Boost (lowering the opacity by quite a bit) and then used another one of her actions called Soft Faded just to make it a little more ethereal.  Finally I used Edge Burn and again, lowered it considerably to help darken the edges and draw the eye toward the center of the photo even more.

If I had tried to do this by myself, and with my limited PS knowledge it would have taken awhile.  I would have figured it out eventually, but let's just say that this is WAY faster and much easier!

Actions can make life for people like me who haven't studied photography, or taken a class in how to use Photo Shop, so much nicer.  So to the people or peoples who thought these things up...Thank You!...you're a genius and if you're ever in my neck of the woods I'll make you dinner, take your picture, and make you look fabulous! ;-)

This photo looks almost exactly like the SOOC version, except the lowered Boost action gave it just a hint more light, and the Soft Faded action made it a tiny bit softer.  It was foggy here this morning, so even the SOOC shots had a soft feel to them, but I liked how Soft Faded accentuated that quality in the photo above.

Now, I'm no expert on any of this, I've been feeling my way around in the dark and just trying whatever strikes my fancy at the moment.

The photo of my vinca above benefited from Flora Bella's Vintage Summer action and a Flora Bella Texture...I forgot to write down what it was called...but it began with an "A"!

The picture above is such a great example of how actions and textures can take a photo and give it almost any look you want.  This is SOOC.  The sun was hitting my front yard so that hardly any color showed up in this photo, something I didn't really notice while I was taking the shot, because the camera sometimes sees things I don't...smart camera, since I love this picture!  I love the way the lack of color really gives you a sense of what it was like here this morning...misty and foggy.

But look at it here after applying the Vintage Summer action and a texture with color burn...be still my heart!  

So, see what a decent night's sleep, some wonderful actions and textures, plus getting a new puppy can do for you?!  

For those of you who already have textures or plan to get them, here is a nifty free little tool Mr. Tide found that makes applying a texture SO much easier.  It's a texture applicator action...I'm telling you, these people are geniuses, well that and Mr. Tide was tired of me buying things I didn't know how to use...hehe!

Until next time my friends.

Brownies and Ice Cream

Ever since I started taking pictures earlier this year I have completely fallen in love with photography!  I think it's funny that it took me until my mid 40's to find something besides my family and pets to be so passionate about.  Better late than never I suppose!

In all honesty, I don't think I could have been a photographer prior to the digital age.  I would have been too impatient to see the results, and too frustrated that I had destroyed a whole role of film by using the wrong settings.  The beauty of using digital is that you can take lots of pictures for free and play around with the manual settings as much as you like until you learn what works and what doesn't.   Plus you get almost instant feedback on what works and what doesn't...I love that!

My hat is off to the Ansel Adams of the world who could do this long before digital cameras existed!

 (check out the view in the viewfinder on this one, it was completely accidental)

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, then you know that we've begun the painstaking process of selling my childhood home. 

My mother was an only child so she inherited a large amount of "stuff" over the years, plus my parents acquired even more stuff in their 50+ years of marriage.


 

Lucky for me, one of the things they had never thrown out were old cameras.  When we went through the attic there were several old cameras that called to me.  None of them are particularly valuable, and thankfully no one else wanted them, but because of my new found love, I just had to have them!

Sarah, from the wonderful blog A Beach Cottage, has a passion for vintage, well loved cameras too, and had done several posts on using her new camera to shoot through the lens of these old beauties.

I had Mr. Tide hold this old Kodak camera as I shot a picture of the brightly colored maple tree in our yard.  I love how the scene becomes reversed or upside down sometimes in these old viewfinders!

I have no idea who these belonged to, except for the Argus, which was my parent's camera.

But I love imagining where these cameras have been and what wonderful bits of history they recorded for someone in my family.  Just think if they could talk...I wonder what tales they would tell of  war, or foreign lands, and family gatherings?

Shooting through the viewfinder on the Brownie I captured this pint of Breyer's Ice Cream...you can't have a brownie without ice cream right?!  Is a pint really a good size for ice cream?   I think not!

Here is the Argus.  I'm pretty sure this one produced a few embarrassing photos of myself when I was very little!

My father was the official family photographer.  He had a wonderful knack for snapping photos of you looking like a puffer fish as you blew out the candles on your birthday cake each year. 

My mother was particularly fond of the photos he took after she had stayed up all night being Santa, or the Easter Bunny.  There all 4 of us kids were lined up looking bright, happy, and perfectly dressed, while my mother was still in her nightgown, or a slip waiting to finally get herself pulled together for the day!

Although I know photography would not have been for me when film was your only option, I still love the way these cameras look and feel.  All the fancy dials and knobs must have been the height of technology in their day.

And on the old ones, I love the simplicity of it all.  How wonderful and exciting it must have been when cameras became available and easy to use for the general public.

The Argus was the most difficult to shoot through the lens with my own camera.  See that tiny speck in the middle of the photo of our table and umbrella?

Even though the photo isn't great, I still love the way that tiny spot of table looks...so 50's/60's with the colors and the haziness.  All those things we now try and recapture with our fancy textures and actions!  Our grandparents and great grandparents would get a kick out of that I'm sure!

And here is that same scene just shot with my Canon Rebel.  Amazing how far we've come isn't it?!  My great grandfather on my mother's side was a professional photographer, and actually met my great grandmother when he came to take her picture.  Maybe that's where my love of photography stems from...

And to answer Jo's question about how I downloaded and installed all of my new actions onto PS Elements 9, I simply followed the step by step instructions that came with my Flora Bella textures and Actions.  They came as part of the download so you have to open them up and read the file.

For the Pioneer Woman actions, I simply clicked on the actions on her download page (HERE), and then followed the link to the Texas Chicks website where they give you step by step instructions on how to install them, click HERE to read those instructions.   

NOTE:  

The Flora Bella Actions installation differs from the instructions for installing Pioneer Woman's actions, and be sure to "unzip" the files after you download them.

I use a PC so the install for a Mac will differ as well.  And there is also an updated version for installing PW Actions which I've linked HERE.

I hope you each have a happy Wednesday!