Laura’s Life

This New Year, I set myself the challenge of taking a photo to represent each letter of the alphabet.  The idea was to break me out of my comfort zone and habits and encourage me to do something new, either in terms of subject matter, or composition or post-production editing.  I completed the project this weekend and these are the results.  Of course, there are way more than 26 photos here but you know what I am like - how could I ever choose just one photo per letter?

A is for Aidan and Arlo.  The challenge here was getting a portrait of both boys given the huge difference in size between them plus getting them both to co-operate with the camera at the same time:

B is for Blueberries.  The challenge here was to capture the colour of the berries accurately whilst in macro:

C is for Candle.  The challenge was obviously the lighting conditions and keeping a steady hand for a somewhat long exposure without using my flexipod:

C is also, of course, for Chris.  It is always a challenge to take a portrait of Chris since he a) always shuts his eyes at the crucial moment b) always looks uncomfortable in front of the camera, overly self-conscious or c) gets annoyed with me taking so many photos:

D is for Dice.  The challenge was shooting in macro while trying to capture multiple colours accurately:

D is also for Dominoes.  I was playing around with depth of field taking these shots:

With this one it was finding a fasting enough shutter speed to capture the motion of the dominoes toppling:

E is for Evan.  I cheated with this first one, one of my favourites ever of Evan, because I actually took it in October, prior to setting myself the challenge:

Evan is actually a very good model so the challenge with these portraits was to take one that really captured his cheeky personality:

F is for feet.  Playing around with filters and effects post-production to create a sun-bleached quality was the challenge here:

G is for Game.  The challenge was actually playing Lord of the Rings Risk in the first place … but it was also the composition:

G is also for Green and Glow.  The challenge was retaining a true green while also making the dew drops shimmer more in post-production:

H is for Hands.  This is another cheat since I actually took this photo when Arlo was a newborn but I could not resist including it in this project:

I is for Ice.  The only challenge was waiting for the perfect frost conditions to take some photos.  This ice was on our velux windows:

These ice crystals formed on the car windows:

J is for Jammies.  I was playing with a different perspective for portraiture here:

J is also for Jump.  I confess to cheating again since these photos are about 18 months old.  I just could not think of a better depiction of the word jump than these shots of Chris throwing himself off sand dunes:

K is for Kick.  The challenge here was to capture the motion whilst keeping the figure sharply in focus:

L is for Lemon and Lime.  The challenge here was thinking of something that could represent the letter L:

M is for Marbles.  The challenge was a post-production one. I wanted the marbles tolook luminescent without distorting the hands:

N is for Notes.  These are some of my family history notes. The challenge was to create an interesting composition out of a random assortment of documents:

O is for Orin.  I didn’t actually take this photo during my challenge period but I love this photo of Orin so included it:

This challenge was a post-production one - keeping the blue of Orin’s hoodie and his eyes but turning everything else black and white:

This was a composition challenge as I wanted the blue of the sea to pick out the blue of Orin’s eyes so I took a “birds eye” angle to capture both:

P is for Photographer.  The challenge was taking a self-portrait using a mirror which, therefore, meant no flash and no flexipod and so required me to have a very steady hand in a dimly lit room:

Q is for Quattro.  Taking a photo of all four boys at the same time. Need I explain the challenge?

R is for Rainbow.  The challenge was to capture this wide array of colours accurately:

S is for Spiderweb.  The challenge here was really one of focus, getting the background sufficiently blurred that the web would be highlighted against it and the dew drops crisply in focus:

T is for Trees.  This was a composition challenge. I squatted down low to the ground to make the tree trunks appear even taller and to capture the sun centrally:

With this one I was playing with post-production to create a silhouette:

U is for Underneath.  I was using “worm’s eye” perspective for a more unusual composition in all of these:

V is for Violet.  Annoyingly this is an orchid rather than a violet. But I used a violet coloured filter:

W is for Whisky.  I wanted to capture the amber colour of the liquid and also the glint of the crystal. I “forced” Chris to have a whisky one night just so I could take photos of it!

X is for XRay.  Aside from the challenge of figuring out what in the heck I could photograph to represent X, this was also the first time I had inverted colours:

Y is for Yellow.  This was another photo where I retained some colour while making the rest monochrome:

Z is for Zig Zag.  The challenge was finding subject matter to fulfil the requirement for a Z … and we don’t have zebras in Argyll as far as I am aware:

Aidan, Orin and I spent a couple of hours one weekend producing a collaborative drawing.  They chose Lord of the Rings as a subject but then went into so much detail conveying the narrative in pictures that we decided to focus on just the first film in the trilogy.  Perhaps we will produce a further two drawings sometime.

This is the completed drawing, all four sheets of A3 of it:

The prologue - Isuldur defeating Sauron and cutting off his finger, ring and all:

Isuldur and Elrond at the volcano of Mount Doom, the ring being discovered by Smiegol and his friend, Smiegol transforming into Gollum having become obsessed with the “precious”:

Bilbo finding the ring; then, some years later, Bilbo celebrating his birthday:

Gandalf telling Bilbo he has to get rid of the ring and, shortly afterwards, instructing Frodo on what to do with the ring:

The hobbits setting out on their journey:

Being chased by a Nazgul and escaping by crossing water; then going to the Inn:

Metting Aragon:

The Nazguls attacking, injuring Frodo, while Aragon fights them off:

Arwen taking Frodo on horseback to the Elf town of Rivendell:

Frodo recovering from his injury:

The Fellowship is formed:

The Fellowship sets off on their adventure, crossing snow-covered mountains in the process:

Entering the Mines of Moria, they are attacked by a tentacled creature:

Orcs attack - with a cave troll!

Gandalf fighting the Balrog:

Galadriel, a kind of fairy queen:

Travelling down river:

Frodo saying goodbye to Aragon:

Boromir trying to take the ring from Frodo and getting a log around the head as a consequence:

The Uruk Hai arrive to attack the Fellowship:

The Uruk Hai kill Bormoir:

A big battle ensues:

Legolas killing the leader Uruk Hai:

Frodo leaving by boat and Sam following him:

On a few of icy mornings, I have been taking the small trio on a drive along the canal between dropping Aidan at school and going to nursery.  The reason for these jaunts are that a herd of Highland cattle are grazing in that area and the kids love seeing them.  Annoyingly, I did not have my camera on the day that they were literally next to the car but I did manage to grab a few snaps one morning last week.  (I did, incidentally, stop the car before taking photos - I don’t multi-task that ridiculously).

This is how the canal looked in the morning mist:

A cow grazing on the bank of the canal:

There was a low-lying haar that morning that wafted across the road and licked up the side of the hills:

There is no way to segue into this next photo (which is why the title is “random photos”) so here it is: a dead caterpillar inside our packet of celery:

Evan was fascinated by it:

The boys and I went to a jumble sale last weekend and they, of course, stocked up on more weapons since they will not be satisfied until our house is transformed into an arsenal.  Here is Orin going up to bed with his sword:

I shall end on a sweet photo of Arlo fast asleep sucking his thumb:

This is a video made by my clever yet daft brother, Aaron. He definitely has too much time on his hands for a University student but I am still impressed by his video editing capabilities and his creativity.

The plot is a bit like the conclusion of King Kong if it was mashed with a soap opera and stars some bendy monkeys.

Enjoy the randomness!

As the title suggests, this is a bit of an “allsorts” of an entry with photos that don’t really logically fit elsewhere but that don’t justify a post all of their own.

My orchid is sprouting blooms all over now.  I am not only chuffed with myself with not having withered it, but I am also pleased to have a flower I can photograph so frequently:

Arlo and his superman bear, Fergus:

Evan and Orin had to get in on the act too - and Arlo was not amused:

Orin requested that I take a photo of him with Spud the seal pup:

Photos of Arlo aged 16 weeks (and weighing 8lbs):

This is Arlo’s “Put the camera down now, Mummy” face.  All the boys have one.  Arlo has developed his very early:

Evan was a bit miffed that his big brothers both had Spiderman crocs while he just had plain blue ones.  I, therefore, treated him to some jibbitz to poke into the holes of his new blue pair, all on a superhero theme, so here he is chuffed with his new crocs:

Arlo on the baby gym.  He is really enjoying being able to kick the chimes:

Aidan’s nasturtiums:

As the title states, these are random photos I took last week while experimenting with my camera on manual settings.

These are of the orchid my parents bought for me when Arlo was born.  It practically died but then somehow I (Ms Brownfingers) managed to coax it back to life and now it is blooming:

I took these in the garden one morning:

These were taken with my compact camera:

This butterfly was on the hebe in the front garden but I could not leave the kids unsupervised while I dashed indoors for my DSLR so the compact had to do, hence it is a bit blurred:

Incredibly, my orchid continues to bloom.  Yes, the woman who could make even a catus wither with a sideways glance has managed to resuscitate an orchid:

More fuzzy caterpillar encounters:

And, finally, a snail driving a convertible car.  Slugs apparently prefer trucks:

It is a rare occasion for all four of us to be together at the same time so I had Dad take a couple of photos of me, Leanne, Aimee and Aaron.  So here we are in July 2009:

The last time a photo of all four of us was taken was 1991.  This is how we looked then:

What a difference seventeen years make.

Having worked on a larger scale last week, I decided to continue to aim for more of the same this week.  I was at least in the more familiar territory of drawing someone who was both nude and completely still and that enabled me to produce a much more finished drawing in the time I had.  I have to say that I am particularly chuffed with how the foot turned out since I am usually pretty mince at drawing both hands and feet.

I just thought I would share some drawings I did on Friday night.  It was a bit of a challenge for me as I was working on a larger scale than usual, I was drawing someone who was moving (albeit just the hands since he was playing guitar) and the model had clothes on!

My first attempt was kind of blah because the light was too direct on the figure to create interesting shading and also because I could not deal with the foreshortening of the left arm.  I took so long trying to place it right that I ran out of time for getting anywhere near a finished sketch:

My second attempt (which was also 25 minutes) was an improvement since I switched angles.  This eradicated the perspective problem with the arm and also led to more interesting shapes being created in terms of light and shade:

Neither sketch is a masterpiece by any sketch but I was pleased to have accomplished something on a larger scale than I am used to.