Welcome back everyone. This weeks regular programming is going to be put on hold to bring you something a little bit different. I figured a change would be good for all of us – great for creativity.

Presently I am sitting at the lovely St Martins Country Inn aka The Castle (pictured above) in St Martins, New Brunswick on the gorgeous Bay of Fundy. The Bay of Fundy has the largest tidal changes in the world – absolutely huge and amazing (over 14 metres!!!). The tidal changes though are not the reason I am here.

We are here to take part in a photography workshop being presented by Freeman Patterson and André Gallant. If you have never seen their work I do suggest clicking on the links to view it – absolutely stunning.

A photographer I am not, but the course is focused on composition which as a textile artist and quilter I am very interested in. This week I will pick up a camera to compose photos and use the different elements and building blocks of composition to hopefully create some great images that can be turned into quilts.

The elements of photo composition are very similar to the elements of composition for quilts and especially art quilts. They include tone – or value in quilt design, shapes, lines and a gut feeling of what looks good or feels right.

Today we had an exercise where our tripod and camera were put into position by Freeman and we had to stay in that spot until we had at least 20 photos we were happy with. I was plopped in front of set of stairs unable to move the tripod but I could move the camera 360 degrees on the tripod and up and down with both horizontal and vertical positions.

Piece of cake, right? – not as easy as one would think. It took me a bit but I finally got into the groove of it all and managed to create 159 photos in a couple of hours. Then I had to cull these images down to 3 to submit for critique and evaluation. I was pleasantly surprised to find I had a few to choose from.

Here are some of my favourites:

Image #1

The steps rather close up on a bit of an angle so that the lines run oblique and all the way across the image. The different tones help to create contrast within the image and a quilt would look great in an achromatic scheme. It kind of looks like shelves with rocks sitting on them.

The steps to the front door

Image #2

A wicker birdhouse attached to the side of a tree. I love the simplicity of this one.

Birdhouse on side of tree

Image #3

The bike leaning against the large tree truck with the small building in the distance looks very peaceful to me.

Bike leaning against tree

Image #4

I  love Inukshuks so I couldn’t not shoot this little one.

Inukshuk in the garden

Image #5

The simplicity of the tire and spokes makes for a great shot and an idea for a quilt.

Tire and spokes

I hope you have enjoyed today’s collection. I’ll be back tomorrow with more.

Happy Quilting