In order to tidy my studio I need to be able to hang lots of pictures which currently have 'mirror plate fixing' rather than strings as that was the requirement of the recent exhibition/gallery/s. In my studio I have a professional hanging system which relies on strung pictures - so having asked hubby several times in the last few weeks, he finally got cracking on this today and so I will be able to reorganise, move all the pictures currently stacked on the floor and thoroughly clean my room tomorrow YIPPEE! and thank you David :-)
David also took off the back from the 'secondhand' frame I bought recently as I liked the unusual shape. I've photographed the whippets with the mount/frame just laid on top to give a better idea of how it all fits and where I need to do more work .... The glass is horribly dirty. Originally I thought it was non-reflective glass but have since realised its standard glass which has a thick film of nicotine YUK! I've given it 2 cleans but it will need more to totally remove all the yellow gunge ....
I also finished a cat (coloured pencil) picture I've been working on (sporadically for a few weeks) so I really do need to sort out what I'm going to submit to the UKCPS coloured pencil exhibition ..... when we get home from the sunshine it will be getting pretty close to deadline so I need to get my act together
but, in the meantime......
I've been trying to work out why my (ageing) camera has started making all my photos look very 'bright' and over-saturated with colour. Normally, I just 'point and shoot' as I really don't like reading instruction books etc., but today I found a setting on the camera that suggested I could change the 'colour saturation' levels from High to Standard ..... How amazing is that????
So whilst experimenting I photographed some of our garden wildlife ... still not sure about the camera settings but I was really pleased with these Bumblebee shots - as I didn't do anything special - just aimed and clicked!!
We're seriously planting lots of bee friendly flower beds this year as we've been shocked to learn how many pollinating insects are in danger of extinction due to pesticides/wrong garden flowers etc .... without these bees/pollinating insects we may lose our fruit crops (so important in Kent/South East England). So I was very happy to see this huge bee this morning - and obviously it has had a successful forage judging by the bulging 'baskets' on its legs.
David suggested that I use the Bumblebee as the subject for my next coloured pencil drawing .... but not too sure yet. It certainly looks cute and fluffy and I do have a few more (close-up) shots to help with defiinition ... I'll think about it :-)
In a couple of these photos the proboscis is clearly visible (nectar collecting tongue) although when I photographed the Bee I didn't know this. I was just happy to see a huge Bumblebee busy in the Aquilegia flowers (which self-seed every year so I can't take the credit for planting these)
Shortly afterwards the garden was invaded by Starlings .... the babies all lined up on the fence whilst the parents frantically hunted for food to keep the babies happy (if not quiet) .... Starlings have to be one of the noisiest species of British bird???? Here are a few of the 'little darlings' ...
No wonder the fatball feeders get emptied so quickly ...... but the birds give us hours of pleasure with their antics in the garden so ..... small price to pay to keep the feeders full (even this late into the year)!
OK enough for tonight .... tomorrow ... I CLEAN!!!! Not being known as a 'domestic goddess' I may get bored very quickly and get sidetracked with the Blog
Oh Sue, the Whippets look incredible in that frame..as they always say, the presentation is so important..and love all those wonderful pictures you took of the bees on the flowers..isn't nature wonderful? your camera takes amazing photos!!
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