Day 90 - Wilmot Again

It would seem that I've fallen in love with Wilmot United Church at the corner of King and Carleton Streets in downtown Fredericton.

I find myself returning to it day after day, filling the Olympus with dozens of pictures of its black and white frame, its blunted tower, its severe lines. On this day, the brilliant blue sky and the billowy clouds provided a wonderful backdrop for the steeple. I love the way the two halves of the image complement and contrast each other, how the soft lines of the clouds enhance the effect of the parallel lines of the grill in the tower and the wood slats of the walls.

I am, of course, realising that I am going to have to start to plan trips to take photographs of other aspects of this city. I can't imagine anyone wanting to come back day after day to see pictures of any church, no matter how lovely. So I will work harder to find new subjects. But I can't guarantee that I won't come back to Wilmot again before the year is over.

Day 89 - An Etiquette Lesson

I had my first photo-blog incident today. The first photo I took as I walked from my work to the bus stop was of a dog sticking its head out of a car window. After snapping some more shots of my favourite church (Wilmot) with its head in the clouds, I spotted another dog, this one sitting at attention by a table on the patio of a local coffee shop.

I stopped, zoomed in and snapped a picture of the dog. Then a man, whom I had not even noticed, got up from a table on the same patio and sprinted across the street toward me. "Hey," he said, "You've just taken my picture without my permission and I consider that very rude."

I said, "I'm sorry but I didn't take your picture."

He glared at me. "I saw you. You pointed your camera right at me."

I smiled. "I'd be happy to show you all the pictures I've taken to prove to you I didn't take any shots of you."

"No. That's fine."

"Well, I'm sorry you ran all the way over here for nothing," I added as he turned to trot back across the street.

Then, this man who felt he needed to run about a hundred yards to teach me a lesson in polite behaviour, turned back and told me to "F--- Off". At least I'm learning from a master.

So I took a whole bunch more shots, none of him of course, and came up with this interesting little image of the upper floors of King's Place Mall, their windows reflecting the clouds in the blue sky, the lines of the windows creating an interesting feeling of perspective.

And the building didn't swear at me once!

Day 88 - Wilmot Once Again

You talk about your themes! It would seem to me that Wilmot United Church in downtown Fredericton is turning into something of a theme for this blog. Or perhaps you could call it a subject of study.

I have been planning this shot for some time. I had noticed that, on sunny days, the front facade of the church was always reflected nicely in the windows of the bank building across the way. In this case, the windows of the bank are smaller, surrounded by more concrete than in previous shots, so I thought it created an interesting effect. I'm impressed that most of the significant features of the church manage to place themselves, at least partially, in the bank's small windows.

I think it's a neat shot. No matter how I tried, I just couldn't get the church perfectly centred but that's okay. And you can see me in front of the church's blue front doors at the bottom of the frame.

Day 87 - The Interview

I've been considering Michael Freeman's admonitions to photograph people on the streets (rather than just streetscapes) and to focus on small details and close-ups, trying to work each of these considerations into my recent shots. So you can bet I'm pretty happy with this picture since it does a nice job of combining the two.

Another example of reportage photography, with a bit of a twist, this shot simply presented itself to me as I walked out on the windy streets of downtown Fredericton during my lunch hour. I took a number of pictures, most of which captured the cameraman, reporter and the interviewee in a cluster, but I thought this one showed up as most interesting on the computer. I used the full 18-times zoom on the Olympus and, because I had to get the shot quickly, I left the camera on its automatic settings.

I'm pleased with the result. I think it's a visually interesting photograph that captures the essence of what was going on: a probing microphone and its stiff, uncomfortable target.

Day 86 - Red Sky at Morning

There's an old saying: Red sky at night; sailor's delight. Red sky at morning; sailor take warning.

So this red-tinged scene that greeted me this morning forewarned that we'd be having a stormy day today. Windy and cold but with a brilliant blue sky and lots of sun. Despite the bitter wind, I'm not going to complain.

And I'm pleased with this picture. The sun is just starting to push through the trees, leaving strips of red light on the snow in the yard. I took a couple of shots of this scene with the Olympus on automatic but it washed out the colours while trying to get enough light. So I switched to manual and forced it to accept the low-light conditions, ignoring the flashing warnings of the internal light meter.

I think it's a pretty good result. A nice shot which captures the early-morning red in the sun's light.

Day 85 - The Spice of Life

Back on the theme of watching for close-up and detail shots to add variety to my photographs, I was at first captured by the lovely aroma rising from this spice mix on the stove yesterday.

Patti was making a dish called Aromatic Corn and had added a cinnamon stick, some whole cloves, several cardamom pods, a couple of bay leaves and a bunch of green mustard seeds to some hot olive oil. The smell was wonderful and, when I glanced in the pan, I found the visual presentation just as appealing.

I grabbed the Olympus (just in time, since the mustard seeds were about to pop) and left it on automatic, with built-in flash, to get this shot. The final product? Spectacular. Absolutely delicious. And the picture's pretty good too.

Day 84 - The Bike Alone

The next day. I'm at the same bus stop, enjoying the emergence of the same afternoon sun. Olympus in hand. No street musicians today but, to my surprise, the red milk crate is still there. Apparently attached to the same bike, a bike I didn't see yesterday because of all the people around it.

Same location, different shot; different elements, different effect. Still a medley of reds and related colours but this one much more of a still life: the bike, the two milk crates, the plastic chair all combine to create an interesting composition. And the strong, direct sun brings out the vibrancy in the colours, defines the details of the objects and adds just enough crisp shadows to create a little drama.

Day 83 - Street Musicians

Three things of interest from my reading in Michael Freeman's book over the last couple of days: the phrase "reportage photographer", the idea of adopting themes in your photographic exploits, and the thought of capturing street life as much as street scenes.

I like the phrase "reportage photography" because I think it captures my approach to the whole game. I was once a reporter/photographer and I believe I've incorporated the journalistic approach to picture taking into this blog. I don't often "arrange" my shots and I certainly don't use a studio: I use the camera to report (hopefully in an interesting way) on things I see.

With regard to themes, this is something I've been thinking about for a while. I was noticing, as this year has been passing, that I tend to prefer certain subjects in my photos: like lamps, doorways and signs. Freeman would call these the "themes" of my work and would suggest that they tend to give form and direction to my photography.

And last comes the idea of photographing street "life" rather than simply street scenes. Make the people more important than the buildings and landscape. So I felt fortunate that, as I waited for the bus home from work today, the sun suddenly emerged and brought out the vibrant reds in this display of street musicians across from me. I used the full 18-times zoom to get as close as possible without being noticed (another of Freeman's tips) so that the characters are in as natural positions as possible.

I am so pleased with the way the pole and the tree frame the musicians, with their relaxed, into-the-music poses and with the variety of shades of red (the brick, the milk crate, the coat) that pull the shot together.

Day 82 - Obligatory Cloud Shot

I spent some time on my lunch hour, trying to capture the clouds. I wanted to photograph some of the details on the billowy clouds that were scudding across the Fredericton sky, despite the uneven light they themselves were creating.

I am pleased with this photograph because I believe it depicts some of the drama and beauty of these clouds, without losing entirely the detail of the earthbound objects that frame them. I could have used iPhoto to lighten up the buildings and trees a bit but I chose not to. I want them to remain as they are: dim, not quite faceless shapes that try but fail to catch the clouds and contain them. The automatic settings on the Olympus failed me so I had to adjust the aperture and shutter speed on manual to avoid overexposing the clouds. I'm quite happy with the result.

Day 81 - Flat Sky, Go For Detail

When I was a journalist, I longed for days like this: a blanket of cloud in the sky, creating uniform light with no significant shadows. Great for getting a realistic, well-lit picture of an event or of people.

But when you're trying to be artistic? Even the book is pessimistic about this kind of light. Flat light like this creates flat subjects in your photographs, meaning you have to find subject matter that bring its own interest. It's not bad light for taking pictures of people's faces (since there are no harsh shadows and the softer light makes people look healthy) but I'm not at the point where I want to try portraits yet.

So I tried to find an image that would work in the flat light, in this case an interesting sign for a kids' shop, photographed from below. I like the lines in this photo, the perspective created by the letters as contrasted with the detail in the brickwork above that rises in almost straight vertical lines from the sign itself.

Day 80 - Magnificent Mistakes

Sometimes mistakes are not so bad. In this case, I was taking photographs of the perigee full moon and had just come in from outside. Not realising that the change in temperature from the cold back yard to the warm kitchen would cause the Olympus' lens to fog up, I decided to try to get a shot of the moon through the window, hoping for a nice framing effect.

Instead, the condensation on the lens spun the light from the moon out into this interesting mess. I wish I had all kinds of technical information to describe what happened but I don't. It's just one of those neat things that can happen when you're not looking, or thinking, or keeping track. Looks to me like a close-up of an eye.

Day 79 - Spring and the Moon

The "perigee full moon" presented some awesome opportunities to get photos of earth's only natural satellite. I'm sure you'll find hundreds of pictures of this close-hanging, brightly lit moon all over the internet by now. So how do you make your photograph different?

My goal was to try to get a picture while the moon was involved in some other aspect of the "landscape" but I almost missed it. After much struggle, I did finally manage to get this shot, involving the moon with clouds and buildings.

The challenge was to find some way to deal with the amazing amount of light being reflected from the moon. If you want detail from the moon's surface, you have to reduce greatly the amount of light entering the camera. With so little light coming in, the remainder of the image (the clouds, trees, buildings) doesn't show up at all. If you want to include those other features, you risk over-exposing the moon and having it turn into a flat white fireball, dominating the photo.

To get this one, I put the Olympus down on the sidewalk in a fairly open space, aimed it by using the screen on the back and then took a series of shots to try to find the right light balance.

The small photo (of just the moon itself) was taken at an unbelievable setting of 1/200th of a second shutter speed with the aperture at its narrowest (f8). Amazing to be shooting with those settings at night.

I cropped the second image in iPhoto to eliminate the flat black sky that surrounded the moon and make the planetoid fill the frame. With an exposure that low, of course, there was no chance of anything but the moon showing up in the image. And you can see very clearly the details of the moon's surface.

Day 78 - Parsley In Sunshine

A friend of ours saw this bouquet of parsley on our window sill and exclaimed: "You can't leave parsley in bright sunshine: it will wilt more quickly!"

She's probably right. But I left the parsley there anyway, at least for a couple more minutes. Just long enough for me to photograph the lovely way the direct sun brought out the colour, shape and texture of the leaves. Once the picture-taking was finished, however, I moved the parsley to a dimmer, safer place.

For me, this photograph is a medley of focuses, of the shades of green that are brought out by the light and shadow, of the many different shapes of the leaves and stems and of wonderful textures of the tops and bottoms of the petals and the barrels of the stems. I used the zoom to get in close enough; the shots from a greater distance proved less detailed and less interesting. As I said before, I'm trying to learn to see opportunities for these close-in, detailed shots and I'm more and more pleased with the results.

Day 77 - Sharp Light and Shadow

The book says that strong, direct sunlight enhances textures and creates opportunities to exploit shadows. The book is right.

We had one of those days today in Fredericton when heavy clouds dash around the sky and the sun plays hide-and-seek with the world. Frustrating, to be honest, since for the longest time I seemed to be set up for a bright-light shot during cloudy times and a low-light shot when the sun was out. Finally, I decided: stay put and wait.

I loved the way this shadow (a tall, bare tree just to the right of the frame) tattooed itself to the Barracks building in downtown Fredericton, creating an interesting contrast between the sharply defined shadow-limbs and the rich texture of the stone building. I especially love the delicate shadow play on the roof.

I'm pleased I waited. The shot was well worth it.

Another thing that book has taught me is not to feel guilty about "correcting" shots on the computer. In fact, it urges you to plan for such corrections: understand what you can do on the computer and then take pictures knowing you'll correct them later. In this case, I cropped the shot better than I had on the street. Then I went into the colour-correction part of the program and increased the contrast to make the shadow darker and more defined against the lighter stone.

Day 76 - Inside Out

Reading so much about light has gotten me looking at photography in different ways. I woke up this morning to find a lovely, soft illumination coming from the rising sun. As expected, it cast long, raking shadows and brought out the textures in objects (like snow, tree bark, etc.).

I grabbed the camera and took some shots, looking for any scene that might benefit from this wondrous light. As usual, though, when I loaded the results on my computer, I was surprised by the one that jumped out at me: this image, taken through the half-closed curtains in our "green room" of the sunlight on the gnarled old tree in our front yard. I think the two dark bars of the curtains add drama, while the white window frame gives added shape and dimension.

I took several shots of the tree by itself in the sunlight, without the frame, but they seemed kind of bland. So I decided that this one was best for the blog.

Day 75 - A Glove Story

I have been reading Freeman's Field Guide about the different kinds of natural light and what to do with each. So, when I went for my lunch-hour walk today, I tried to keep in mind what he had to say about mid-day sun and the kinds of pictures you should take when the sun is shining brightly from directly overhead.

He says that bright, mid-day sun produces crisp, clean images, with clearly defined shapes and bright, accurate colours. Vertical surfaces can benefit from what he calls "raking shadows" that emphasize form and texture.

So I tried to put that knowledge to good use. Unfortunately, by the time I had worked out what I should do, the sky had clouded over and my lunch-hour was running out. Oh well. I still took a number of interesting photographs, some before the sun disappeared and a number after.

That's why it surprised me that, when I moved them all onto my computer, my favourite turned out to be this image of a lost glove, soiled by months in the snow, lying at the edge where sidewalk meets last fall's leaves. It was obviously taken after the clouds had moved in but I like the gentle range of colours and the many different textures in the photograph. I like the sense of perspective and the slight loss of focus at the top of the shot. And I think the glove somehow looks sad, in its posture and its expression.

Day 74 - Nose to Nose

I warned you that this photo blog might end up offering a number of pictures of our beloved dog, Marlee. Here she is, nose to nose with a timid little friend, Maggie, as they both enjoy a midday walk in the sunshine and mild temperatures.

Marlee has just been to the groomer and is especially fluffy and trim today so it's an exceptional chance to catch her at her best.

I think, however, that the sunlight was a bit too intense when I took the picture, creating deep, hard shadows that take away from the effectiveness of the image. Oh well, sometimes you take what you can get. And the nose-to-nose pose is well worth it.

Day 73 - Sweet Potato Heaven

Mr. Freeman, in his Field Guide, talks of the importance of variety in a photographic portfolio. Don't forget close-ups, he says.

So when I saw Patti slicing a massive sweet potato as part of tonight's dinner, with its neatly lined up chunks on the cutting board, I decided to give it a shot (literally).

I stood back from the subject and used the zoom. This resulted in the tight focus on the front pieces and the shallow depth of focus, which makes sure the larger chunks in the background are a tiny bit blurry. I'm pleased with the effect.

I also like very much the rich orange colour of the root vegetable and the texture it provides to the picture. I'm not always quick to spot these kind of photographic opportunities but, since this one turned out pretty well, I'll have to make it a focus in the future.

Day 72 - The Photo Theme

My very kind sister and equally kind brother-in-law gave me two wonderful presents for my recent birthday, which are quite topical for this blog.

First, Michael Freeman's guide for photographer's like me: The Photographer's Eye Field Guide. I've only started delving into it but so far it's really interesting and helpful. The second gift is the interesting object on the left: a travel mug in the shape of a camera lens. And if Lynn and Gavin hadn't been wise enough to have a tea bag tag hanging out of it, we'd still be thinking it was a real lens. Very realistic.

I believe Mr. Freeman would approve this picture. The play of light and shadow is interesting, bringing to life the colours in the book, the cup and the table cloth and making what is at best a "product shot" worth looking at, I think.

Day 71 - Memories of Summers Passed

Of all the photographs I've ever taken (and I've taken a lot), this might just be my favourite.

I offer it now because, to be frank, I'm sick of winter and snow and rain and ice. I needed something to perk me up and, as I was copying all of our pictures from older computers onto a new expansion drive, I saw this one. It made me feel happier as soon as I saw it and I decided to put it up on this blog today.

The photo was taken early one morning in Algonquin Park, Ontario while Patti and I were on our honeymoon. We were standing on the front porch of our cabin and this lone paddler appeared out of the mist. He didn't see us there and, while I had my camera trained on him, slumped forward, exhaustion in every line of his body. He must have set off paddling very early that morning. I have a closer-up picture of him that shows the exhaustion better but doesn't capture the colours of the beached canoes in the lower right, the tree to the left nor the mist still hanging over the lake in the background.

Day 70 - A Light in the Darkness

Another attempt at night-time photography produces a pair of photographs of the same lamp at the end of a driveway on Bessborough Street in Fredericton.

This lamp is extremely bright and is visible from a quite a distance away. I like its shape and detail but, in the daytime, pictures of it just seem flat while, at night, you face the light issue. So I thought I should do some experimenting.

In the top photo, I simply left the camera on its automatic settings, interested to see what the light metre would make of this extremely bright light surrounded by deep darkness. Clearly, the metre takes readings around the outside of the frame since it read the darkness of the edges rather than the illumination of the lamp in the centre. The result is a long shutter opening, leading to a slightly shaky image, with the centre of the shot oversaturated by light and the edges showing some detail in the darkness. With the neat shape of the light coming from the lamp, I think it's an interesting picture.

The lower photo is the product of a manual setting on the camera. I moved a little closer to the lamp, then tried to estimate what settings would get me some detail of the lamp's housing itself. This meant allowing a lot less light to enter the camera. I knew I'd lose the detail in the background but I was more interested in seeing the lamp itself.

The camera's light metre, of course, was no help so I had to guess. Well, actually, I had to take several pictures at different settings until one worked out. This photo, of which I'm quite proud, was taken with an aperture at f8 and a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second. I was kind of surprised that those settings turned out to be the right ones since "f8 at 1/60th" are generally felt to be the appropriate settings for landscape photographs in bright sun. Note, as well, that the shutter speed of 1/60th of a second was fast enough to eliminate the fuzziness caused by the shake of my hand holding the camera.

Day 69 - Night Vision

There are a lot of interesting details in this night-vision photograph. The shadow of the tree in the foreground, the shine of the dim light on the ice-packed snow, the silhouetted tree in the background, not to mention the borg-like figure in the centre of the sidewalk.

That's Patti, by the way, wearing a special head-light that makes walking the dog safer at nighttime. We took Marlee out for her evening walk, giving me a chance to practice low-light photography between near falls on the icy walkways. Unfortunately, the Olympus' automatic settings simply can't handle night-time shots so I was forced to go to manual, open the aperture as far as it could go, then try to hold the camera as steady as possible through the long (1/4 of a second) opening of the shutter.

I was standing beside a fairly strong street light, which really helped, and I think the picture turned out pretty well.

Day 68 - Saint John Scenery

I just said to Patti, "Boy, Saint John is hard to photograph." And it's true.

An amazing, odd city on the Bay of Fundy, Saint John offers an interesting patchwork of historic buildings and modern additions, lines of three-storey brick edifices marred by empty lots, boarded up derelicts and 7-11s.

That makes it tough to photograph because you want to fight against the mess and find some way to capture the history on its own, or the derelicts by themselves. You just can't seem to frame a shot that is purely one or the other.

I took 46 pictures during a 15-minute walk through the core of Saint John and, while many turned out well and are interesting, not one jumped out at me and said, "Pick Me!" I like this shot because it captures some of the many neat life-sized sculptures that litter the downtown area with some of the older buildings in the background. Not bad, I think.

And the sign between the two figures is for a French restaurant, Opera Bistro, that we're told is wonderful. We, of course, opted for Indian food since our hometown, Fredericton, is in desperate need of a good Indian restaurant.

Day 67 - Freezing Rain

A bright, sunny morning presented some beautiful sights: the trees in our backyard, their branches coated with a thin sleeve of ice, glistening in the sunshine.

Beautiful, yes, but difficult to capture on film. (That's an outdated expression, isn't it - "capture on film"?) I tried to photograph this delicate phenomenon in a variety of ways, from shooting the sun through the icicles that hung from our roof to reaching out to the very tops of a couple of ever-green trees to attempting to isolate the thin brown branches themselves against the blue sky. I think you can guess which approach worked best.

I think this is a nice picture. The blue is deep and lovely, the lattice-work of the branches provides interesting shapes and the ice does glisten, at least a little bit. So why do I feel disappointed with this effort? How can something so beautiful in the world lose so much when transferred through the camera's lens?

Day 66 - A Postcard from the Netherlands

A welcome break from all the snow and now rain in New Brunswick, this beautiful photograph comes from our favourite relative in the Netherlands, Ineke de Blaeij.

Ineke has been visiting this blog, enjoying the photographs, and decided to send along for my enjoyment some pictures she took on a walk near her home. And what beautiful photos they are! I had a hard time picking just one of them to feature here but ending up deciding on this one for many reasons.

As I wrote to Ineke, I love the blue sky, the clouds that look like foot prints in the sky, the green field and the shape of the water at the bottom. I think her other pictures are lovely too but this one caught my eye. It is a beautifully composed image with wonderful colours. And such a nice change from the winter dreariness of New Brunswick. Thank you, Ineke, for sharing your photos with me!

Day 66 - Farm Art

And now for something completely different: farm art. Try to take a complicated machine, frame it in an interesting way and end up with a piece of abstract art.

I'm not sure I am entirely successful in this effort but I'm still fairly happy with the picture. I like the rust-red colour of the machine, the weight of the black tire in the bottom right corner and the complexity of the shapes of whatever this machine is. It's got something to do with hay threshing or baling but I don't know exactly what.

We're in the misery of the melt in Fredericton, with temperatures above zero and a steady rain, making it difficult to be inspired about anything. Spring might be right around the corner but there's a flood to deal with first.

Day 64 - Pretty Scene

I find much to like in this pretty picture of snow washing up against a weathered wood fence. The sweeping whiteness of the snow provides a nice contrast to the straight lines and the grey-brown of the aging fence and then, beyond and above that, the delicate complexity of the intertwining branches.

It's almost like a strange sea-scape, with white water, brown beach and green cloudy sky. I must admit I would have liked to find some way to get rid of the houses in behind the foreground objects but I'm not that good with the iPhoto editing tools.

Day 63 - That Much Snow

Since New Brunswick is about to enter into a warm, wet spell of weather (five straight days over 0 degrees with rain), I thought it was time to try to capture in a photograph just how much snow we've got on the ground. You know, before some of it melts away.

So, on a walk with Marlee, I watched for interesting images that might give a true sense of the snow. I took shots of snow on top of things, beneath things, around things, but nothing seemed to capture the amount of snow so well as this picture of a stop sign just barely keeping its head above the wave of white stuff.

I admit, of course, that some of this snow pile was created by the plows clearing the street (we don't actually have seven feet of snow on the ground naturally) but it is an eerie sight. And its precisely what you face all over the city: unbelievably high banks of snow, narrow passages for cars or people between them, and select bits (like hydrants) shovelled out completely to create odd little alcoves in the snow banks.

By the end of this weekend, however, I expect at least some of the white stuff to have melted away with the milder temperatures and the rain.

Day 62 - More Reflections

I am surprised by how much I like this picture. I took it while standing on a street corner in downtown Fredericton, waiting for Patti to pick me up. The day was bright and cold and the image of Wilmot United Church, a central icon of this city, danced in the windows of the Scotiabank opposite.

I just had to wait for the buses to get out of the way in order to take the picture. I know that reflection shots can get a little boring as a concept but I find this one to be quite alive and interesting. Wilmot is a gorgeous old church and I think it gets an interesting boost from the windows of the bank.

I took a couple of shots that were closer up (that cut off much of the bank building itself) but those pictures didn't seem as interesting. I think what makes this photo neat is that it looks like the church has somehow merged with the bank. It's interesting too that the sky above the bank building is not as deep blue as the sky in the reflection.

Day 61 - Heart Health

Close ups of small objects can often provide interesting results. In this case, my daily regimen of pills (Omega 3, Flaxseed Oil, Vitamin D and low-dose Aspirin) for heart-health reasons becomes a neat little arrangement of shapes and colours.

I tried to take the photo without using the Olympus' built-in flash but I just couldn't get enough natural light on the subject to make it work. Then the auto-focus started acting up on me so I ended up having to take a fairly distant shot and then crop out the excess table-top in iPhoto. I think the camera has a close-up photo program somewhere inside but I was too lazy to find it for this one picture. I almost used one of the out-of-focus shots for today's picture: the combination of the flash and the blur made for an interesting, star-like quality. I settled on this shot, however, because I like the arrangement of the pills (they actually dropped that way onto the table) and the tiny round one that managed to stand on its side for the picture.

Day 60 - Angry Birds

These three adorable but angry birds have flown out from Ontario to cheer me up during my convalescence.

My sister is a master with yarn and has sent these little darlings along to make me feel better. I love the bright colours and the angry expressions and I'm amazed at how big they actually are in person. They're softball size, the smallest being still bigger than my fist. Of course, were I thoughtful photographer, I would have put some other object in the shot to allow you a chance to understand their size but I was more interested in showing the beauty of the colour and of the craftspersonship. Fabulous!