Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Styling and Photographing For Instagram

still life photography, dogwood flowers, Japanese Ironstone, tea and flowers, Independence Ironstone Japan, pink dogwood flowers in basket, dogwood floral basket

Hi everyone! Here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, the flowers are in full bloom almost everywhere you look. And that means an endless supply of ideas for photographing them starts tugging at my brain.

Today I'm sharing three recent iPhone images, all involving styling flowers together with tea. Styling is a challenging skill to acquire, but it can be an enjoyable and mindful activity, especially when the subject matter is one you enjoy. And I happen to enjoy both flowers, and tea!

peonies and tea, Fiestaware, Homer Laughlin Fiestaware, Fiesta Scarlet, Homer Laughlin Scarlet Fiestaware, tea and peonies


Still life photography can be a photographers best friend - it's just you, your camera, and a few objects. You are free to arrange and rearrange your subject matter, trying a variety of layouts, without interruption or worry about being judged. And if you are using a phone camera, which has no manually variable adjustments, your main concentration is on lighting and composition.

Fiestaware, Homer Laughlin Fiestaware, Fiesta persimmon, Persimmon Fiestaware vase, Fiestaware persimmon vase, Fiestaware turquoise teacup and saucer, Homer Laughlin turquoise Fiestaware, Hummel style figurine, rhododendrons, pink rhododendrons, pink rhododendrons in persimmon Fiestaware vase


For me, photographing tea and flowers came about rather serendipitously. Discovering the supportive community on Instagram, learning the art of flatlay composition, acquiring a new obsession with collecting vintage teacups, and opening an Etsy teacup shop, has all been a fun, challenging, and fortuitous journey of discovery!

Thanks for looking friends!


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Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Vintage Finds: Berggren Kitchen Tile

Berggren, vintage Berggren, Berggren Dalmalningar, vintage Dalmalningar, Swedish Dalmalningar, vintage Swedish Dalmalningar, vintage ceramic tile, vintage Swedish ceramic tile, vintage Berggren Swedish ceramic tile

Hi Friends! Of all the blog posts I've shared thus far, one of the more popular ones is about the home wares made by the Berggren Shelton Trayner company.

Design Spotlight: Vintage Berggren Ceramic Wall Hangings outlines the history of the company and talks about how Audrey and Arthur Berggren specialized in designing their gift and home ware products in the traditional Swedish folk style known as 'Dalmalningar'. I also featured three of my own vintage Berggren decorative wall hangings as examples of that style, and shared a Pinterest board of their unique and lovely products.

On a recent stroll through one of my favorite charity shops I found yet another vintage Berggren ceramic tile, pictured above, and it reminded me of how fond collectors are of the rich bright colors and whimsical floral motifs found in Dalmalningar art.

So in honor of all the Berggren fans, as well as those who appreciate Swedish folk styles in general, not only am I sharing this tile (which, by the way, says "Flowers leave part of their fragrance on the hands which bestow them"), but I've also updated my Pinterest board with even more images of Berggren home wares.

Enjoy!

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