Have you managed to have a browse of the latest issue of Laine Magazine?
Issue 7 contains stunning designs by Carol Feller, Stephen West, Kiyomi Burgin, Aleks Byrd and Kristin Drysdale (to name just a few). But on top of those designs is some breathtaking photography by Sini Ellen and Jonna Hietala. So, when we decided to take out a full page advertisement in this magazine, you can imagine how we started to worry about a little about our photography skills.
How did it all start?
Lisa and I took the photography workshop led by Jonna and Sini at Yarnporium last November. Lisa already has a beautiful eye for capturing images and I’m starting to get a feel for my camera. Within the workshop, we got to take a deeper look at framing, F-stop values and, most importantly, editing. This workshop was great for focusing on what really matters in an image and also how to create the photograph you want to take.
After taking this workshop both of us were feeling a little more confident about taking and sharing yarn and knitting images. Here’s a raw unedited image from that day on my camera:
And one from Lisa’s phone:
How do you sum up an Irish Yarn Festival?
Well, this is the question, isn’t it?
We all know that visual storytelling is important. The right image will stop you scrolling or aimlessly flicking through pages.
But how do you take an image that is:
- good enough to be featured, and
- feels like us but doesn’t stand out negatively from the magazine itself?
Enter one morning of yarn faffing, a very overcast and wet day, a very small room, and a tripod that is too large.
If you think that sums up a level of “creative chaos”, then you would be right. Kind of like this image of Lisa balancing on my couch…
We had gathered a basket of Irish yarn that represented the Woollinn brand colours. We had settled on a dark grey background to fit with the Laine aesthetic, and we had a number of props so that we could tease out an image within the proportions required for the advertisement. We played with values, lenses and had a terrible time getting a sharp image (even with the tripod) thanks to the ever-darkening weather.
It was tough but a challenge both of us enjoyed the process. We ended up with two that we liked enough for Lisa to work on with graphics. Which is your favourite? The first or second one below?
If you want to see which one made it into the magazine itself then you will have to pick up a copy Laine issue 7! You can also catch more of our in progress photos on our Instagram channel this week.
Nadia
