Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Side by Side Photo Project

This is the introduction to a new weekly photography feature, Side By Side.

My good friend Ross and I embarked on a little photography project nearly year ago to the day, inspired by two photography loving friends The Minty Forest who posted a photo everyday for a year. Its also not dissimilar to the 3191 girls who have brought us A Year Of Mornings where they took a picture every morning for a year, followed a year later by A Year Of Evenings.

Anyway, Ross and I decided we were unlikely to be able to commit to a photo every day (yeah I know we are scared of the challenge - well I am anyway - Ross managed a 365 portrait project last year!)
We decided to post one photo a week for a year and what makes it a little more interesting is we live in different hemispheres, Ross living in Washington D.C. while I was here in Melbourne. We wouldn't confer at all on what were were shooting through the week and the first time we see each others photo is when we post on Flickr at the end of the week. I just posted my week 52 today so I thought I would pick a few of my favourites from the year to share with you. Photos on the left are mine and Ross on the right and there is a description of what/where the photo is under each one.

Week 2
side by side week 2

L - left hand side - I completed my first 5km run this weekend and this sums up my state of mind the last couple of days as I stressed about whether or not I could do it!! Needless to say I did and quite easily!!
R - right hand side - The Ulysses S. Grant Memorial in front of the US Capitol (Artillery section)

Week 3
Week 3 - Side by side Photo Project
L - Ferris wheel at Birrarung Marr, Melbourne
R - Flags outside Union Station

Week 6
Week 6 Side by side photo project
L - Spray Can - As i was taking photos some kid picked up these cans and left them on the bollards along Hoosier Lane, Melbourne as he walked by. The art and the tools!
R - Leaf prints - not your typical fall colours, but these prints on the sidewalk caught my eye on my daily walk to the metro

Week 10
Week 10 Side by Side photo project
L - We put up or Christmas tree this weekend and despite a small drawback when the tree fell down and broke some of my glass baubles, its now finished and looks beautiful!!


R - First snow of the season taken from the comfort of the sofa

Week 22
Week 22 Side by Side Photo Project
L - I see this everyday on my way home from work and I am intrigued....who loves Hannah?? Random...but cute.

R - I took this from the rooftop of my apartment building, it is the intersection of H St NE and 3rd St NE, not really on the tourist route, hence the empty bus. In the top left hand corner, you can see the liquor store I frequent, oh and I did a tilt-shift effect too for that toy model effect.

Week 28
week 28
L - One of many shots taken at the amazing Fushimi-Inari Taisha in Kyoto. The Shrine was dedicated to the gods of rice and sake in the 8th century but since it signifies success in businesses. A pathway lead 4km up the mountain and is lined with these glorious Tori gates most of the way. One of the highlights of my trip.

R - I take my camera out on the weekend mornings when I walk Diego, and snapped this just as we were coming back home. I took a few which were boring, but then took one on this angle and it's much more interesting.

We both have paths in our photos going in the same direction...!!

Week 31
Week 31
L - The best of a bad bunch from my day of capturing water droplets...! The result was about 3 half decent photos and a LOT of water everywhere.

R - This is the view from the rooftop of my building looking east down H St towards downtown DC. You can also see the Washington Monument to the top left of the photo. I've wanted to take this for a while to give it as a gift to a friend so now that I've got a tripod I was finally able to capture it. Not super happy with it but it's a good intro into some long exposures. I'd like a few more cars for light trails, but it just wasn't happening.

Week 45
Side by Side week45
L - Ahh if you can't have powder, freshly groomed corduroy runs on a bluebird day are the next best thing. We had our first weekend at the snow for the season, we picked a good one. The sun shone and snow was crisp...nice.

R - Found this in an alley a few weeks ago whilst walking Diego, think it's been a while since a dog lived there.

You can see all of the photos we took here.

Year 2 starts next week - 04 October 2010!




Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Inspiration All Around

As part of the BYW course mentioned in my previous post, we were set a project to create a mood/inspiration board which both defines our style and what we want our blog to focus on.
I have to say I had an absolute blast doing this and really it came very naturally to me which was kinda exciting. I have never done something like this before, I make lots of things and take lots of photos but never really thought of doing this. Anyway, I jumped straight in and it just all fell together I raided my collection of stationery and odds and ends and the colour palette also just kinda happened. I started with my gocco postcard which is a hint toward my developing print venture. I added in some of my photos from my files, some sketches, some of my favourite stationery from Poppies For Grace my Orla Kiely bedspread, a nod to one of my BIGGEST inspirations, Japanese artist Yashitomo Nara and some travel odds and ends. Oooh and my homemade mini bunting!!

BYW Mood Board Project - #144 Explore!!!

I have received several great comments on Flickr
about this photo and it has been really encouraging. It has even helped me make some decisions about what I will be doing with my blog and what sort of thing I plan to cover. More on that soon...watch this space.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Cute as a Button

Well I am taking a online e-class on blogging called Blogging Your Way, which is run by the Holly Becker creator of one of my faves Decor8. Together with the inspiring Leslie Shewring who is the author of the Colour Me Pretty column and creator of A Creative Mint.
So I thought I might do a little catch up posting while I am in the mood. First off I thought I would post up a video I made for my Mum back in March for UK Mothers Day. I am in Australia and she is still back in my home country of Scotland so the fact I forgot to send a card in time was a little problematic. So I got my thinking cap on and thought of all the options I had to create something digitally...and well after a bit of messing around with ribbons and such like I spotted a BIG bag of buttons I have had for random craft projects...and used a stop motion photography technique to create a fun little short.It was a huge success and brought a tear to her eye apparently. (A tear of joy of course.) Watch with sound if possible cause the song really has to be heard with the motion.