January

 

 I took these pictures much earlier in the year, planning to post them with a lot of thoughts on new years and how we respond to them, but due to the hectic nature of my new year, I haven't had the time, so I'll just leave you with these photos, as I still am very happy with them by themselves. My year is indefinitely going to be a huge one; filled with lots of plans, lots of the unknown (both an equal parts exciting and daunting), a truckload of stress and upset and change and hard work, but hopefully lots of happiness and rewarding days as well, and hopefully the time to keep my blog updated with all that's going on, and the creative endeavours that I hope to achieve. I hope you all have a great 2016. Happy (sort-of-still) New Year! x

Photos are all self portraits taken with the self timer on my Nikon L120 in front of my bathroom shower curtain.

Light

Light is a glorious thing. Glorious in the way it shows colours, in the fact that I wouldn't have any pictures to show you if not for it - many things would cease to exist without light. The right light can make the mundane and ordinary transform into something utterly spectacular, giving the illusion of something magical. It can shine through water and make a droplet look like it contains an entire star nebula in its sphere.
It's incredibly fitting that we use variations of the word 'light' to describe people. How we can shine, glow, radiate and illuminate. How someone can bring out the best (or the 'light') in others much like the way the sun illuminates the intricate veins of a leaf or the strands of a spider web. 

Experimenting with light - particularly sunlight - is one of my favourite things about photography. I'm fascinated by the nature of some of the shadows it creates and I'm delighted by the way it's caught by single strands of hair, transparent materials and droplets of water. Different days, different skies and different light has all kinds of wonders to be experimented with and explored. 

So yes - light is a glorious thing. This post is simply a brief appreciation of that. All of the above images were snapped by me. The photo of flowers plaited into hair is of my mum and the second image is of my god-sister Jazz. All other portraits are of my sister, Ireland.

Early Morning Sights

There was a horse attempting to eat my hair as I took this photo.

All images above are taken by me, and all (except for the landscape shot with the horse) are un-edited.

This image of the sunrise and mist was taken by my mum (who gets up very early).

I've never been an early riser, but I've recently been getting into the pattern of waking up every morning at six-thirty (with the aid of an alarm). The rewarding views of mist floating above the hills and the beads of dew catching the morning rays makes dragging myself out of bed on the cold winter mornings one hundred percent worth it.  I'll make myself a cup of tea and marvel at the beautiful view that can be seen just from our kitchen window. Then I'll set off down the stairs in boots and a wool coat while firmly clutching my much-loved red Nikon in search of beautiful things to take pictures of.

It's quite amazing how different things look so early in the morning, our raspberry bushes look like they're growing sparkling rubies and the usually avoided cobbler's pegs (twelfth image) look like something out of a fairytale. The sunlight and dew drops make spider's webs visible, flowers look good enough to eat and barbed wire fences beautiful to photograph, everything is transformed.


A combination of mist, dew, sunlight, webs, flowers, succulent berries, mushrooms and birdsong make me think of children's books that were read to me when I was younger, full of whimsy and fairy feasts, enchanted forests and dancing girls with butterfly wings. These beautiful mornings trigger similar feelings to when I was read fairytales and stories by my favourite children's authors (such as May Gibbs, Enid Blyton, Lewis Caroll, C.S. Lewis and Mem Fox). It was very easy to imagine Ragged Blossom from May Gibbs' series of The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie making her self a skirt from the wattle flowers. Or the leaves and petals from the trees arranging themselves into humanoid forms as they do in Narnia. I could imagine a magic hat whooshing past and finding itself to be a perfect fit on a nearby toad, or Alice running after a white rabbit in a waistcoat.

Once I felt my fingers were about to freeze off, I walked back up the paddock, climbed through a fence and stomped back up the steps knowing I had a wool blanket and Tess of the d'Urbervilles waiting for me. I truly can't think of a better start to the day.

Tea Parties, Light, and Making Things

Here is the third (and last) shoot I did with the gorgeous Jazz when she stayed over. The first photo was taken by my mum, the photos of Jazz by me, and the photo of me was taken by Jazz. All the photos are un-edited. You can see the first shoot here and the second shoot here.
Jazz is wearing a dress that was previously owned by my grandma, the faux pearl bracelet and vintage watch are from a charity shop, as are the vintage shoes and silk scarf. The necklace (and glass bead pendant) was made by my mum.
As for me, I'm wearing a vintage watch (something that I wear on a regular basis for some reason, it's purely for decoration, as it doesn't work - which is very awkward if someone asks you the time!) And the dress was from a charity shop, it had big yellow plastic buttons on it, but I removed them, lace was added, and then I sewed on different buttons (still need to add the fourth button, and then a ribbon bow.)

The yellow dress was just one of the many things that are stacked up on benches and next to the sewing machines. With promises of being shortened, lace added, made to fit, dyed, or being turned into something else. I might come across a pair of shorts that I like and there would be the "I'll just make something similar."
It's quite hard to get on top of it - the piles of clothes, folds of material, large collections of doilies, ribbons, and buttons.
There is so much that I want to up-cycle, make from scratch or using some of the gorgeous vintage Vogue patterns my mum has collected. I found an amazing 70s Karl Lagerfeld pattern for a beautiful shirt, that was the most stunning cut with gorgeous sleeves - but is way beyond my skill level. I have to accept that for now it's just making Pyjama bottoms and cheesecloth shorts for the summer. It's hard to have patience - for both sewing something and just keeping practice until I'll finally be able to make more complex things.
I've found that while some things in sewing are quite laborious, others are meditative, and some lead to a lot of cursing, frustration, and wanting to kick something. A result that I'm happy with gives a feeling of accomplishment and prompts so much motivation to create more. Although of course, if you sew something and make a big mistake..well, cue more cursing and wanting to kick something.
Something far less frustrating is dying (clothes and fabrics, of course.) It's actually quite fun, mixing the dyes, putting it on, squeezing and scrunching. I've been getting some great colour results, especially from a pair of socks that I dyed orange, and the silk dress Jazz wears in this shoot was dyed teal (it looks great, and perfect for summer.)

Big thanks to Jazz for being my willing model, and to my mum for helping us with the tea party set-up (and taking the first shot.)

Portraits of Ireland

Photos by me. Model is Ireland. Taken in early June this year. She is wearing vintage velvet gloves, vintage felt hat, and charity shopped top.

Portraits would have to be my favourite kind of photography (especially black and white portraits.) The first two photos above are photos that I'm really proud of, despite Ireland's demands of in colour full body photos, I was sneakily taking black and white portraits! And am so glad I did.
I am so fascinated with people's faces, and I love to explore that with photography. I'm also really interested in natural effects with light, shadowing and reflections. I recently did some shoots with the gorgeous Jazz (who modelled a beautiful vintage Alice-esque dress in front of the camera for me in this post) and have some photos from a couple of the shoots with some great effects from shadows and lighting. We did three shoots that will all be posted on this blog soon.

I'm really happy with how her hair catches the light in this photo, even if you can see the washing line in the background!

Photos of Ireland taken by me in a week or two ago.

These photos are ones featuring Ireland's new fringe/bangs. I had planned a sixties themed shoot (which I briefly mentioned in my last post) but it ended up getting too late (and my sister had to leave to go and stay with our grandma the next morning) so we only squeezed in a quick shoot with me wielding the camera and my lovely willing model smiling and posing with flowers.
Ireland is still away and has been gone for over a week now - the longest we've ever been without seeing each other. I think I have separation anxiety, I'm really missing this gorgeous girl! I'm sure we'll have a dramatic running-hug when she comes home tomorrow.