Soap in Shadow.

My fabulously talented daughter Maddie is working on her senior project.

She's getting a degree in graphic design, and using my handmade soap as the subject of her entire project.

Which meant I needed to make a bazillion bars of the stuff to be cut and stamped and packaged per her specifications.

Last night we got down to work slicing them up and using the custom stamp she had made.

This afternoon I decided to fiddle with my new camera, and while wandering aimlessly around the house looking for what to shoot, I saw the sun falling just so on my soap babies curing on their racks amidst the mess I hadn't yet cleaned up.  

There's beauty in chaos....at least that's what I tell myself.

I learned a lot about my camera while snapping off these shots.  

Lots about aperture, shutter speed and ISOs gone wonky.

And that sometimes luck just plays your hand and you say 'hey, thanks.'.

And that the art of photography is just that....art.  

Some will like what you like, see it like you do, appreciate it.

Some can't get past the 'technical difficulties' in each picture.  

That's ok.

I'm just a novice dSLR owner after all.

But me, I'm all about raw reality with a few wee tweaks in picasa.  

Mostly some crafty crops.

Don't take much to make me happy.

I was just fascinated with how the light fell on these simple, rustic bars of soap.  

I was challenged by how to capture what I saw into a digital image. 

How to use my camera to add some blur, snag some crisp, tight  focal points.

How to simply and artfully record the organic shapes and colors onto my memory card.

All these were shot with my Canon EOS Rebel T3i with the kit lens that came with the camera.

I love how the process of paring down newly cured soap with their raw, pure essence was captured.

And I'm glad I noticed the beauty of a stark, wintry afternoon sun kissing the chaos on my counter.

What 'beauty in the mundane' have you noticed recently that took you by surprise?