Why Can’t I Capture It?

Three weekends ago Peter and I tackled a home improvement project that has been ‘in process’ for quite some time.  (‘Stalled out’ would be another way to put it.)  See, I found this cool idea online a while ago for how to make simple floating shelves using a hollow-core door.  Months before now, we bought the door, sawed it in half and then did nothing further.  At last I can say that after almost a year in our basement, the door halves have reappeared, been painted and are presently hanging as shelves in my piano studio/office.

Now that this last project has been completed, I am very pleased to announce that my office is finally done!  I have no further plans for improvements/decor, other than to someday replace the metal mini-blinds with something more attractive and maybe throw in a few more pictures or accessories (you didn’t honestly think I meant I was DONE done, did you?)

But since I am at least done for now, I thought I would mark this auspicious occasion by posting another before and after.  So, here is my office before we moved in:

And here is my office currently:

I am extremely pleased with how the room turned out, but I am very frustrated with my lack of ability to capture the room in a picture.  I think the room is well designed, cozy (it’s 10×10) and has a lot of visual interest, but after taking about 30 pictures, I still don’t have one that really feels like you’re in the room when you look at it.  How do you make a 2D image feel 3D?  I see it in magazines all the time, but I just can’t do it myself.  I’ve got some photography books on order from the library.  We’ll see if this problem is something a little ‘how-to’ help can fix.

5 thoughts on “Why Can’t I Capture It?

  1. I love it and I need to know about the door/shelf thing. I have been looking at buying some shelves for the dining room, but nothing is the right size…

    Yours look great!

  2. Yeah, I looked into buying shelves at first, but they are expensive, to small for what I wanted and don’t hold much weight. The only thing about these shelves is that they are glued and nailed to the wall, so you’d completely destroy the shelf (and most likely do some damage to the wall) if you decided to take them down.

  3. Sometimes taking a picture from above captures the “in the room” feel while also capturing the whole room!
    You could stand really high on a ladder in the corner… or I’m sure your books will have better, safer ideas ;) I love it! It looks great!

  4. To Anonymous:

    I actually did try standing on a chair to get a higher perspective, but felt like it wasn’t as intimate looking as when I sat on the floor (which is what I did for the picture I posted here). However, both higher and lower were better than a ‘straight on’ perspective.

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