I’m taking an online class on still life photography called Be Still – 52, taught by the lovely Kim Klassen. I’ve never thought of still life as “my thing,” but I enjoy Kim’s quiet but effective teaching style and have learned a lot from her about post-processing in Lightroom and Photoshop Elements.
The year-long course includes a focus on mindfulness and inner calm along with the technical lessons and photo prompts. The class began in mid-May, while I was in the throes of apartment hunting and packing and moving, and the idea of slowing down, breathing deeply, and finding a quiet place to be still through my photography was tremendously appealing.
However, all that apartment hunting, packing, moving, and unpacking again meant that I fell far behind in the class. Now that I’m (more or less) settled, I’m busy trying to catch up on past lessons and not fall further behind with current ones. How’s that working for me? Well………let’s just say I have a ways to go.
Anyway, one of my favorite prompts so far was “Laundry time.” I was recently given some vintage linens which I thought would make lovely photo props. Unfortunately, they had some pretty serious vintage stains, and were stored in a plastic bin with some anti-insect stuff whose smell gave me a headache. Perfect subjects for a laundry exercise, right?
Here are a few images I took as I washed, dried, and folded them for putting into the linen closet.
Sadly, some were beyond redemption, but these and a few others turned out beautifully. You’ll probably be seeing more of them as time — and class — goes on.
September 10, 2014 at 3:41 pm
These are beautiful Leon. I have a drying rack just like that and I never would have thought to use it for my still life work. Especially love the from underneath shot. Perfectly unexpected.
September 10, 2014 at 3:57 pm
These are wonderful! All of them. And I love Sarah’s phrase ‘perfectly unexpected’ – the words and photos make me happy.
September 10, 2014 at 4:17 pm
Sigh 🙂 I can almost smell the fresh laundered beautiful cotton linens here. I especially like that last shot of white on white. Now THAT says “clean”. Great job!
September 10, 2014 at 4:42 pm
Gorgeous! Now can you please come over and do my laundry too? 🙂
September 10, 2014 at 5:33 pm
Oh, beautiful! And I feel the calm! 😀
September 10, 2014 at 6:47 pm
Laundry never looked so good. Beautiful photos and linen.
Donna aka. Externally fickle
September 10, 2014 at 7:32 pm
such cool mood and calmness to these shots – – sounds like a really cool class!
September 10, 2014 at 7:40 pm
Love these! I was immediately struck in “clean and simple” by just that. The lighting on that shot is just spectacular! Each is beautiful for it’s high key lighting, lines and angles. I love the contrast of texture/design in “finished.” And I also feel the calm…
September 10, 2014 at 7:54 pm
Very nice.
September 10, 2014 at 7:57 pm
Such simple white loveliness! I can’t wait to see what you come up with for your still lifes – a genre for which I have no skill whatsoever. So far, you are well on your way.
September 11, 2014 at 12:18 am
Lovely . . . would love to know your whitening trick . . .
September 11, 2014 at 12:37 am
Beautiful photos. A tip on stain removers that I have discovered over the years: http://www.thecleanteam.com/Red-Juice-Concentrate-32-oz-bottle-_p_54.html and good old Neutrogena soap.
September 11, 2014 at 4:12 am
These are lovely. Love your edges image especially. Beautiful still lifes – love the naturalness of them.
September 11, 2014 at 6:33 am
Your linens–and your photos–are beautiful. I look forward to seeing more of your Be Still work.
September 11, 2014 at 8:13 am
I so love each one of these, Lee.
Beautifully simple, and simply beautiful.
Have a wonderful day, my friend! xo.
September 11, 2014 at 8:26 am
Your minimalist approach on all things white, is beautiful. Very lovely compositions, then ending with the delicate lace borders is the cherry on top. Beautiful work.
September 11, 2014 at 9:31 am
Love your new linens! My favorite is the last one with the beautiful old chair and the lovely linen edgings! Looking forward to seeing these again! I couldn’t find any laundry at my house that looked beautiful!
September 11, 2014 at 9:55 am
I love the third photo. Great perspective. And the last is truly luscious. If you still have the reject linens, you can send them to me. I collect throw aways. I may have some thing you need. (Oh we really don’t ‘need’ more stuff right ? Yeah right.
September 11, 2014 at 10:21 am
These photos are so beautiful. Who knew laundry could be so peacefull. Thank you for the inspiration
September 11, 2014 at 12:04 pm
These images are wonderful — you have captured a beautiful stillness here, Leon. What a lovely set of linens! I have found I can get into the zen of laundry — it can be very meditative. I signed up for the Be Still class several months ago, and haven’t had the time to get into it. You’ve re-inspired me.
September 12, 2014 at 12:03 am
There is a simple elegance to old linens, and you’ve captured it perfectly.
September 13, 2014 at 5:10 am
these are beautiful and it sounds like a great course!
September 15, 2014 at 10:16 pm
Very nice. I have had an odd fascination with depth of field and the edges of fabric (I love the way the threads come together and form a matrix that gets lost in the whole other structure of the fabric completely as it recedes into the background). Curious that you end up shooting something along those lines.
September 24, 2014 at 11:35 am
I love these photographs, especially the last one. Calm and beautiful.
November 13, 2014 at 5:53 am
Beautiful still life images. I really like the soft light and the soft touch of all the photos.