This week I started a 21 Days of Creative Abundance Course – aimed to help a person set their life and environment up in a way to encourage and give space in their life for creativity.
One of the exercises is to take 15 minutes to create something once a day.
A couple of days ago we had a heavy dew on the very large crop of dandelions I have growing in a patch of my garden. When I got home, I picked one and set it up in my studio (aka spare bedroom) after spraying some water on it.
This very high key soft dreamy look is a very different style for me, it has been deliberately softened to enhance that softer effect but I really like it.
So for today’s exercise I wanted to explore more options with the dandelions, so picked a bunch and setup a small still life setup and experimented.
It was very difficult to get good focus on the tiny seedheads – they moved in the slightest air movement, even moving my arm around the camera was enough, so I had to be very still and center myself.
Turns out if the dandelion heads are still fresh and whole, they can be stacked up on top each other if you are gentle 🙂
Finally a shot of the loose seed heads. Lots of different shots trying to get the best focus point – these were all taken with my 100mm Macro lens which is a 2.8 L grade lens. The 2nd and 3rd image on the page were taken at F4 to give enough depth of field to capture all of the seed head feathers.
Because of the fine details, theses images have not been softened further, so as to retain the detail – the very small DOF provides plenty of blur and softening for the background.
All images processed solely in LR6, with Kim Klassen Presets – click on any image for a larger version.
I am enjoying challenging myself to create something small once a day, and using elements nearby is proving to be an exciting exercise.
What will I come up with tomorrow?
Learning to See Light 
15 mins per day sounds like a plan!
Yes and I have achieved it, mostly. Having fun with it too which is the important thing 🙂
Excellent! I must start doing similar, I think….
The course Im doing is available to buy if you want a more structured approach
No, no, I’ll do my own thing!
well good luck 🙂
Thanks!!
Like what you are doing with the dandelions, I’ve just started the Creative Abundance Course today. So still to get to this.
i am still in the first week, not that far ahead of you 🙂
🙂
You accomplished a lot in 15 minutes. These are beautiful.
These were two different days lots of images, so 30 minutes, but yes did get a lot done – the idea is to just set aside mentally a 15 min space – not enough to be too intrusive but enough to be achievable. Yet you end up spending LOTS longer once you are in the flow 🙂
Beautiful!
THanks, for a weed they are very pretty with the right light and treatment
Yes I love them.
Wow, these are stunning. Visiting from Kim’s class.
Hey Diane – nice to meet a fellow classmate even if I am WAY BEHIND 🙂
I love dew drops, and I love dandelions… perfect match! I find that I spend way longer with a set up like that than 15 min, so it seems hard to me to make the time. I do like the idea of spending 15 min a day being creative though. 😀
The idea is that if you have your brain set to “just 15 minutes” then you are more likely to do it. Yes you will probably spend more time on it.
But if, as you say, you spend lots longer, then you tell yourself “oh this will take too long” and then you don’t do it 🙂
Its totally about making the time achievable otherwise you talk yourself out of it. If I end up having dinner an hour later than originally planned, life will carry on 🙂