Little - Week 40/52

Welcome Autumn - Project 52

I've been casually eyeing up the pattern to knit these leaves for a while now, and I finally had a reason! They were actually pretty simple. The pattern can be found in the book '75 Birds and Butterflies to Knit & Crochet' by Lesley Stanfield if anyone is interested in having a go themselves.

The best bit about autumn for me is looking at (and photographing) all the gorgeous leaves and colours, but I had to give nature a hand because the trees aren't all that pretty round my way just yet!

Interesting Perspective - Project 52

While in London searching for Olympic mascot statues, I noticed this Sherlock Holmes outside Baker Street Tube Station. He always had an interesting perspective on things.

It's a Book - Project 52 Week 36

Pride & Prejudice......

'Elizabeth obeyed, and running into her own room for her parasol, attended her noble guest down stairs'

Project 52 - Fun in the Sun

Something we all need when we get the chance. Seeing as summer is a slowburner at the moment, every time the sun so much as peers around a cloud, I'm there. And so is Ted. 

Project 52 - Look Up, Mr Gull

Having been surrounded by seagulls down on the coast last week, I thought it appropriate to use one for the 'look up' theme. It never fails to amaze me how cheeky and greedy they can be, especially if you're a bit free and easy eating your food outside!

I managed to take this shot using only my kit lens (a 55-200mm lens is next on my photography wishlist!), which means it has been cropped down quite a bit. I was happy to discover that I'd done a good job holding the camera still in the wind! Mr Gull here might not be the prettiest bird, but I find him very interesting to look at all the same.

I used Camera Bag 2 and Picmonkey to process the image. 

My reject shots were the same image in black and white (but I felt you needed the colour around his beak and eye), and this one of the Devon flag flying high in the winds at sunset.

Project 52 - Rings and Things

Out of all the types of jewellery, rings are my favourite thing to wear - I have lots of them in unusual shapes and styles, and some that mean an awful lot to me. I just couldn't think of a way to photograph them all, and my attempts at wearing as many as I could, didn't quite work out! 

My next idea was inspired by the bag of British-themed Haribo sweets I was bought over the Jubilee weekend. It contained lots of yummy jelly rings. My aim was to save them until the following day so I could make a photo out of them, but temptation won over and I scoffed the lot!

An impromptu trip to the local Aldi supermarket on Monday saved the day - here I spotted the last remaining bag of mini Party Rings! I used to loooove Party Rings, and here they were in mini form!! Perfect. My first photos were of them alone, but it was missing the 'and things' part of the theme. My brain suggested children's toys as a colourful accompaniment - and from there, my Alice in Wonderland children's party theme photo was born.

Project 52 Week 22 - From the Kitchen

I found this little guy coming out from the kitchen today, looking rather pleased with himself.

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. 

Natural Light - Week 18 Project 52

I was a bit worried about this week's theme as there hasn't been much natural light around lately. In between the rain and the gales though, the sun managed to push its way through and shine over this gorgeous rapeseed field on Sunday afternoon.

Normally I don't like going near rapeseed flowers as they smell pretty disgusting, but all in the name of art, I made my sacrifice! To be fair, it actually didn't smell that bad.

In A Row - Project 52

This photo turned out to be a total pain to take - I could only find one complete pair of my old Barbie shoes (luckily bought these pairs from the local secondhand toy shop), the dolls kept falling over, the desk lamp I was using for light fell on the floor so the bulb broke, and my knees hurt from trying to get in the right position. Moan over. 

I intended to just have the shoes in a row, but thought the legs looked better. I used polaroid effect and added a slight matte border using Picnik.

From the Attic - Project 52 Week 2

 

This was a genuine attic find. A while ago I was rumaging in my mum's loft when I found this 1960's/70's original Bullworker complete with fantastic photographic workout instructions! It belonged to my dad and as he is no longer with us I get all sentimental about his things so I knew I had to keep it. It has been sitting in my cellar for a while now with my other exercise equipment, but it hasn't been used since. I did try having a go but it is really difficult. I guess it wasn't aimed at females anyway. I will try out some of those other exercises from the sheet - if only for my own amusement.