Come and find out the little behind-the-scenes stories of my photography on Instagram over last week…
We landed in New York exactly three weeks ago, and after jet-leg woke us up early on the following Sunday morning, we had a long slow morning unpacking and getting settled in our air bnb until we were due to meet our friends who live out here. It was strangely hot. For January anyway. It was a bright sunny day, and I was perfectly fine in just a dress and lightweight cardigan – it was frankly weird! Anyway, we joined our friends in the afternoon and took their adorable dog out for a walk on the beach. Out of season, there were no restrictions on who could use the beach car park (In Connecticut in summer it’s rare to find a beach non-residents are allowed on) and also dogs were allowed too. And boy, were dog owners making the most of it. I have honestly never seen so many dogs in one place! It was like a real-life dictionary of dog breeds!
So we had a short walk up and down the beach, and watched as the sky turned to beautiful shades of sunset. At the far end, just as a siren sounded to indicate the beach was closing, I managed to take a photo with no-one in front of me.
This photo was taken the day after boxing day the year before last (except it feels like we’ve only just had Christmas so it really feels like last year) and all my family were staying at ours for a couple of days. As we all bundled into cars to go and visit a National Trust property, I couldn’t let the mist roll in so beautifully without taking a photo of it! We are lucky enough to have an amazing view from our house, and this is a zoomed in small portion of it.
I took this photo here in the air bnb when we stayed here for all of October last year. I really miss having my things around me; particularly my beautiful things that are perfect for Instagrams. Although this house isn’t completely sparse of homeliness, we bought a few fake flowers from craft store Michaels, and this white sunflower is one of them. The best thing this house has for photography that our house doesn’t at home, is shafts of light and shadows. I don’t know if it’s because we live on a hill, or whether our windows don’t face the right way, but apart from our kitchen table for a brief few minutes in the morning, we just don’t get that beautiful dramatic light!
So anyway, I propped the flower up on a chair and leant it against the wall where the light fell. Simple.
You will have seen this one if you read my blog post about the photo-walk we went on at Montgomery Pinetum the week before last, and the creepy guy that followed us around! Anyway, I took this photo while there, and while trying out my new Lensbaby creative filter system. I’m sure there’ll be a proper blog post all about that soon! This was taken just behind a ruined house and the green pine needles seemed to glow. The light was a bit dull though, so I added in a prism to give the effect of streaming light on the scene.
Lastly, Friday’s Instagram photo was of me sitting on the front step of this house, the day before the snow all melted away, simply holding a bunch of flowers (also fake, also from Michaels). I had a hand-knitted wrist warmer I bought at Glastonbury festival, which I thought gave a nice texture to the photo.
I’m not sure how helpful it is to include camera settings, but if you’re interested in photography and would like to know them, leave a comment below and I’ll get the information for you. These photos are all taken from my personal account, Helen Hobden, but don’t forget I also have my clothing business account, Threads of a Fairytale, and also our portrait account with photos by Chris, Photos of a Fairytale.
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