C is for Colour My World

As with all hobbies I think it's natural for your interest to come and go. When you're undertaking a 365 project of some sorts though, you need to make sure that your interest doesn't disappear for too long else the whole thing becomes a very miserable process. I started a number of photography 365s this year as I am currently job hunting and need to have something I enjoy to break up the soul destroying process. I do love being creative with my photos and dressing up or finding new props, but some days I just cannot be bothered to pick up the camera at all, especially as it involves either going out in the garden and being absolutely freezing (we're having an endless winter) or setting up lamps and a light tent and sitting scrunched up on the floor.

A couple of weeks ago I decided I needed a new mini project to spark my creativity and motivation again, so I searched Flickr for groups or ideas and found the Color My World Daily group. It is a very simple idea - you create a rainbow of photos over one week, with Monday being red, Tuesday orange, Wednesday yellow, Thursday green, Friday blue, Saturday purple or pink and Sunday black and white. I immediately felt excited about the possibilities and what props I could use for each day, so when last Monday came around I was ready! 

Just starting the project made me look forward to taking all my photos. I chose to make each shot a self portrait too. Once the week was over it was so satisfying seeing all the colours together. I might even do it again with a different theme soon. So for anyone struggling with inspiration or a 365 in particular, why not give your world some colour for a week?!

Project 52 Week 19 - From Trees

I can't believe it is week 19 already. I have been feeling quite uninspired in my photography this past week, although I've had the ideas, just no motivation to create them. But, as today was the last day to get a photo taken on this theme, I decided to force myself to get the shot together. Once I started I was totally in the mood for messing about and getting creative with props, even though it was raining!

I wanted to use the 'from trees' theme to create a little writer's corner, somewhere inspiring, quiet and free, where I imagine I would like to sit and write if I could. Of course, this had to involve a cup of tea and a biscuit! I thought this would fit the theme in 2 ways - literally, as paper obviously comes from trees and is used to make the books containing the writer's words; and also because the inspiration of my imaginary writer could come from the trees and nature surrounding them. Feeling quite poetic as I've just been to a meditation class, so you'll have to excuse me if I'm rambling on.

I used Camera Bag 2 to process the photo. It was quite an overcast, drizzly day, so I set white balance to cloud, but the image came out a bit on the yellow side, so I corrected for this using selective saturation to decrease the yellow/green tones. I increased contrast and luminance contrast a bit, and then just added the 'heavy' effect which creates the matte texture. I finished off with a touch of 'saloon' for the pale vignette and faded colours.