New Floor

So we had this new flooring in our livingroom, and loads of space, because the furniture hadn't been put back yet, so..... PHOTOSHOOT!!!!

Model: Kitty, hair and makeup by Amy Miller

Redecorating 4

The living room....

Before...

Bye bye carpet! We won't miss you!

We really like the nice open look and feel of the place :)

Redecorating 3

Our bedroom....

...before decorating....

...painted and floored...

...and finished!

Redecorating 2

Here's some more pictures of our "Room of Requirement"

It was really, really great to get the carpet out of there! Then everything had to be washed and/or scrubbed, the ceiling and walls painted, and the floor sealed.

When that was all done, I laid the laminate flooring. I made this video using a free time-lapse app for my iPhone. It took a while to make up its mind whether it was shooting in landscape or portrait format - probably because the camera was aimed at a downward angle. I supported the camera nine feet off the floor on a c-stand in the hall with two booms, so there'd be nothing on the floor that I was working on. The app shot at three frames per minute, and plays back at nine frames per second, so there's about three hours compressed in this vid.

Et, voila! The finished room :)

I wonder what we'll use it for now?

Redecorating 1

It's been ages since I posted anything here, so I'll do a couple of "catch-up" posts, starting with some pictures of inside our house, where we are doing a big redecorating project...

First is the "Room of Requirement" - this has been an office, a feline sick bay, a spare bedroom, a bird nursery, and a general dumping ground for all kinds of stuff....

Our bedroom....

And the living room.

In these images, note particularly the carpets - they won't be around much longer!

Taking a Wider View...

I have been experimenting with panorama photography recently, taking multiple images while turning the camera around, and "stitching" them together in Photoshop to make one big picture. These are my first efforts. They leave a bit to be desired, as I don't have a nodal slide, and a couple of them were shot handheld....

(Blogger has cropped these images, so you need to click on them to see the full width of the pictures)
This is the Western Skies Scenic Byway between Panora and Stuart in Guthrie County.
It's a composite of twelve images.

Next up is the magnificent High Trestle Trail Bridge between Woodward and Madrid, taken from the road bridge on Highway 210. This is a "first draft" for a picture that I'm planning. I shot it handheld, as I just wanted to get a feel for the scene, and didn't bring a tripod. The light was tricky too, as I was shooting into the sun. Fifteen shots went into making this composite.

Next time you're on the Highway 210 bridge, don't forget to look to the north too. This eight-image composite shows the beautiful S-curve of the Des Moines River. Again handheld, I think I'll revisit this shot as well.

Randomness...

A few more snippets from the past couple of months.

We saw the wonderful and talented Daphne Willis perform at a house concert. (I don't actually have a thing for girls with goggles - it's just coincidence that the model in my last post had gogs too)

And Dawn working her anti-Nargle force field...

I found time to do this shot for a magazine article on natural dyeing that Maggie wrote.

Autumn and harvest time is probably my favourite time of the year, certainly from a photographic point of view. Here are some pretty squashes we saw at Wills Family Orchard

This guy (probably girl) was sunbathing on the roof of a car at the Orchard.

Some random autumn shots: This is on the bike trail behind our house.

The old Raccoon River bridge at Adel,

...and Adel's beautiful Court House.

 Maggie's hair is green now :)

We had a lovely Yoga photoshoot at Gray's Lake Park with Paula.

And we went to Hanging Rock Park in Redfield this morning to do some more pictures of the beautiful autumn colours.