art || outdoor photography for sketching

Last month I went on a nature walk and brought my camera to make things extra fun! I finally sat down to draw + watercolour some of these in my bullet journal, so I wanted to show you the photos themselves before I share my drawings of them.

You can see my setup for drawing the photos in the photo above. I printed them with my Phomemo thermal printer, which I received as a gift from the company. You can check out a mood board I made with the same printer, and if you’re interested in checking out the product itself just remember that I have a discount code for you, too!

If you draw or use any of these photos yourself, please tag me @mistralspirit or send them by DM or email, because I would love to see them!

First up: these funky leaves. I just love the colours on them. You’d think they’re small and ordinary from far away, but they clearly have something going for them.

These are called Snowdrop Flowers and they are often one of the first signs of spring. (Source) I think they are absolutely beautiful. So delicate but their visible growth communicates so much potential for strength.

There’s a cute appeal to the messiness of the outdoors.

I’m starting to doubt whether fall even has a colour palette…

I recently purchased a new lens for my camera (Canon SL2), the Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 lens, so that’s the one I brought on this trip. The focus and bokeh you can achieve with it is superb for close-up shots.

This isn’t my bike but I love its colour so much. Oh no… have I become one of those strange people who photographs other people’s luxury vehicles?

Which photo was your favourite?
And, do you ever bring your camera on walks to make it more fun? If not then I would totally recommend it!

Comments (4)

  • video || paint with me! nature sketching time lapse + watercolour tips – Mistral Spirit

    May 7, 2020 at 9:00 am

    […] couple months ago I went for a walk with my handy camera and snapped some cute photos of plants and leaves. In this video, I’m showing you how to turn a fun outdoor adventure into […]

    Reply

  • Laura

    May 7, 2020 at 11:24 am

    I love taking my dslr out but the macro lens is very heavy so I tend to get achy shoulders and neck ache if I wear it round my neck. Did you shoot in raw and edit of did you just do jpegs? I always shoot in raw on manual but sometimes it’s too much manipulating all the photos in Photoshop. Have just found your blog by the way. Already subscribed to your YouTube channel.

    Reply

    1. Ioana

      May 11, 2020 at 9:38 pm

      It can be bulky and frustrating, and I carry around a camera case too which doesn’t help. But generally, I’ll just make it a walk focused on photography and so it’ll be more of an art adventure than anything else.

      I always just shoot in the largest jpeg file possible. I generally use the basic Lightroom app on my iPhone to edit, so I’m not quite at the expert, raw-file-stage yet. I also just tend to shoot in Auto – so not manual. 😛 I’ve looked into what all the settings mean, but at the moment I’m not into it enough to learn all the intricacies.

      Reply

  • creativity || paint with me! nature sketching time lapse + watercolour tips – Mistral Spirit

    November 15, 2021 at 11:09 pm

    […] couple months ago I went for a walk with my handy camera and snapped some cute photos of plants and leaves. In this video, I’m showing you how to turn a fun outdoor adventure into […]

    Reply

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