Tuesday, July 6, 2010

These Are Two of My Favourite Things

Two of my favourite hobbies are photography and knitting.  They are both activities that take nothing and you create something out of it.

In photography, it’s all about making the image: selecting your subject, checking your lighting, choosing a composition, selecting an appropriate aperture, and perhaps playing with the ISO (to introduce grain, or noise, into your image or not).  It is not just taking a quick snapshot.  It is a process of turning nothing into something – in my case, digitally.  Then, if you like “tweaking” your shot, there are many post-processing programs out there to help you fix anything you are not happy with – within reason of course.  But if you have carefully taken the time to make your image as your mind prefers to see it, you shouldn’t have to do much “tweaking”.  Although, it can be fun to play with some of the artistic brushes that are commonly found in your post-processing programs.

For example, here are two images I took several years ago.

This is the image after playing with the artistic brushes and combining two images together.



My favourite mode on my camera is the Manual mode (or M on the small options dial on your camera). Here you can really play with the light.  I tend to underexpose many of my images.  I love the “moodiness” it can create in the image.  It creates a whole different secret world than what your eyes are sometimes seeing.




Knitting, on the other hand, really can take nothing and make it into something.  In fact, a number of years ago I took a spinning class.  No, not the popular spinning classes at the gym where you are on a stationary bike.  I’m talking about taking wool and scouring (washing) it, brushing it, spinning it, plying it, and setting the twist so that you can knit (or crochet...though that’s not my thing) what was once a stinky mass of greasy wool with bits of straw, insects, and poop in it and creating anything.  Anything right from a chunky wool sweater to the silkiest gossamer shawl.

Currently I have four projects on the go.  Some are nearly completed and waiting for the final stage before unveiling it to the world while others are still just barely cast-on to the needles.  I tend to have several things going at once.  If I get bored, I start something new or continue something else I had been bored of several weeks or months (or years...) before.  Currently, my projects on the go are:  a felted shopping bag (all complete, just needing to be felted), a pair of socks (I got bored of them since they are rather plain with no funky pattern to them), a cardigan sweater (no great excuse except I got bored – which is rather surprising since it is full of cables, bobbles, and all sorts of intricate patterns), and a wrap which I just cast-on a couple evenings ago.


My favourite thing to do though is to combine my two favourite hobbies together.  I love to take pictures of my knitting.  Especially when there is some beautiful colours blending together or amazing textures.  I love that both my hobbies can sustain me every month of the year.  And, yes, I do knit in the summer, albeit, they are lighter projects (socks, hand-warmers for fall, wraps, etc.).  Knitting, like photography, is a very portable hobby.  When we are traveling, sometimes even on trips to the city which is only 40 mins away, I usually have a simple project to work on.  It passes the time and I don’t get bored.  So I love when hubby is coming along because I will always call “shotgun”.

1 comment:

  1. B. Thanks again for returning to the Meadow. After seeing your photos I almost wish I had a better camera to make my flower fireworks photos into something amazing as you did with the lilly and the girl photos. That is really cool. I hope to see you around again soon, and I will certainly be coming back here. I am crafty ADD and hearing you talk about your knitting is making me want to give it a shot : )

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