Project 52 - Week 6

The theme for Week 6 was "Words".  I'm going to be honest, I wasn't really feeling the theme last week and, well, I didn't even try to take some pictures. 

However, this past weekend in Canberra, the multi-cultural festival was being held.  This is one of HA's favorite weekends of the year, so on Saturday evening, we headed out.  When I attended the event two years ago, it was fairly busy but not so overly busy that you wanted to shoot people.  Unfortunately, I couldn't say that about this year.  The festival was crammed with people - which is good for Canberra - not so good for someone who hates crowds.

My point is, this festival was very busy and parking in downtown Canberra is at a premium.  On the walk home, HA and I were getting a kick out of how all the Aussie's were parking wherever they could - this includes on sidewalks and grass areas.  Which led me to this picture.  I took it with my iphone so it's not great quality.



Words - that people don't pay attention to

This is definitely an Aussie trait.  They will park anywhere that is available without repercussion of a ticket.  It can get quite funny.

Also while I was out walking the lake this weekend, I came across this:

You can't really tell in this picture, but it's clear that the trolley has been in the lake for some time - it's quite rusted.  How it got pulled out of the water, I'm not real sure.  But it's now sitting in the grass by the lake.  I took this picture with the Hipstamatic app on my iphone.

Project 52 - Week 5

This week's theme for the Project 52 was "Muse".  I'm still experimenting to find my style and to be quite honest, to find the time to practice.  The themes for the Project 52 don't come out in Australia until late on Saturday so that generally leaves me Sunday as a free day to try and take pictures.  Otherwise, I have to take the pictures in the evening after work.  I'm not quick to come up with ideas for the theme.  Quite often HA will provide me with an idea.  Getting good at photography is hard work and if you don't have an eye for the composition, it's very difficult.

This past weekend, I was in Sydney.  Friday night I was at a concert for Grinderman and on Saturday, I saw "Love, Loss, and What I Wore" at the Opera House with my friend LB - which, by the way, I HIGHLY recommend.  The show was fantastic - I would love to see the American version.  While we were in Sydney, we also went to the zoo and Watson's Bay.  Both areas of Sydney have phenomenal views.  Every time I go to Sydney, I am so inspired and wish I knew how to take those breathtaking landscapes pictures that you find in stores.  Sydney is one of the reasons I wanted to learn to take good pictures.  So in that vein, I decided to have the city of Sydney as my Muse.



I'm finding that I like my pictures with a border - I feel like they make the picture pop more.  At the same time, I think I need to keep playing with my style to find what suits me.

What's your muse?

Theme for Week 5

This week's theme for Project 52 is Muse.  I've got a few ideas in mind that I'm playing with.  What suggestions do you have?

Project 52 - Week 4

This week's theme with the MCP Actions Project 52 was Soothing Repetition.  I wasn't sure if I'd participate with that theme this week but after some thought I decided to try and shoot for the theme.  I spent some time looking through some of the pictures which were already uploaded b/c I didn't want to do something that someone had already done.  There were a number of pictures around food - ice cream, soda, coffee - and there were things like brushing your hair.

I spent some time thinking about what would be repetitious and soothing.  This brought me to running.  I hadn't seen a picture for running uploaded yet and I know quite a few people that would call running soothing (certainly not me!). 

I recruited HA (again!) to be the model.  It was a beautiful day in Canberra again and HA and I went out to the lake to try and get a shot.  I played with a few different perspectives.  As it turns out, the one I liked the best was the very first shot I took.  It's in black and white but I think that it works for the evening sun that's coming in from the side.



Next week's theme hasn't been posted yet!  Stay tuned!

Project 52 - Week 3

The theme for this weeks Project 52 was "Shades of Grey".  I had this vision of finding someone with beautiful thick grey hair and getting an amazing picture.  Unfortunately, I don't know anyone with grey hair.  Or, at least, I don't know them well enough to be like "hey, can I take pictures of your grey hair?"

So I thought all week about what I wanted to do.  I wanted to take a picture that would highlight the many shades of grey but also be something that wouldn't require traveling somewhere or alot of setup time.

On top of that, I didn't have much time this week.  I had things scheduled for every night after work so it also needed to be a picture I could take at home and wouldn't need alot of natural sunlight.

So, Thursday night I took the easy way out and bought some beautiful gerber daisies from the supermarket and headed home to try and do something creative with them.  Unfortunately, the boys called and I ended up getting drinks until late in the evening Thursday.  I had plans to go watch the Australian Open that weekend so Friday rolled around and I was frantically packing so we could catch our plane.  I took a few pics of the flowers, converted them to black and white and uploaded to Flickr so that I could have an entry.  It didn't turn out too badly for a quick 10 minutes of work.  What do you think?



This week's theme is "Soothing Repetition".  I'm not sure how I like this theme. I may go my own way this week.  Stay tuned!

Gravity...

HA had a very cute idea for the "Illustrate a Song" theme this week and that was the song "Gravity" (you choose - either John Mayer's song or Sara Bareilles song - both are great).  We recruited our friend MayDay to help with the project and set out on Saturday to shoot it.

Saturday ended up being a gorgeous day though hot by recent Canberra standards.  HA was so keen on this particular photo shoot that I let him be the director.  We weren't able to get all the shots we wanted as my shutter speed just wasn't fast enough but I don't think it turned out too badly.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to submit the picture b/c the deadline was midnight Friday US east coast time.  I thought I would share it anyway.

Thank you to MayDay for being such a good sport about the photo shoot - I wouldn't be surprised if he has a few bruises.

This week's Project 52 theme is "Shades of Grey".  I'll post once I have a picture to share.

My Favorite Shoes

I'm part of the MCP Actions Project 52 and this week's theme was "Illustrate a Song".  I've had a few ideas and have been taking lots of pictures so I can pick the one I like the best.  One of the songs that I'm thinking of is Ruby Red Shoes by Sawyer Brown.  I thought of this song because I have some really great red shoes that I like to show off (even though they kill my feet!).

I took some pictures last night and here is one of them. 

Another song I was thinking of doing is Tall, Tall Trees by Alan Jackson.  Thankfully, it's stopped raining enough to go outside after work and take some pictures (keep your fingers crossed that it stays that way).

It obviously wasn't that sunny outside when I took the picture.  I've applied Pioneer Woman's Sunlight action to the picture and then a vignette.

Can you tell I've become a bit addicted to Photoshop?  :)  I'm trying not to use it too much though b/c I don't want to become dependent on it to make good pictures.

I've also made a new little logo for myself.  I'm not sure which one I like better.  Comments would be appreciated.

So which picture should I submit?  Does anyone have any ideas for other songs I could illustrate?