#26. in progress! (week 6)

#26. Take a photography portrait course

Till now, I missed only one class of my portrait photography course...and was very cranky cause of that...

I saw what they did yesterday on the forum and have to admit – some pretty amazing photographs were made :)

A colleague from the class drew out attention to Howard Schatz last Sunday – a fine art, fashion, and celebrity photographer who came up with a simple yet brilliant idea: to place actors in a series of roles and dramatic situations which will reveal the essence of their characters. He published a book with that premise (In Character: Actors Acting) and continued the tradition for the pages of Vanity Fair. Check it out – a.m.a.z.i.n.g!

To return to the “main” topic, our assignment two days ago was to capture the dynamic of the movement in portrait photography together with hair lightning. I have to admit, I`m not quite pleased with my results... 

I could have told them to make different faces or to move more or I could have position hair light differently... Could have - didn`t - no point in crying over spilled milk... practice, practice, practice! 

What do you think?

#10. check and mark!

#10. Learn how to ski

I`m back! And guess what? I can ski! I don’t have the speed or technique of our Janica Kostelić but I can get/ski down any green and blue ski run :)

I wanted to take my camera with me sooo badly, but I decided not to because what if I fell during skiing (and that happened over and over again) and broke my camera?! No-no-no-no... and since I wanted to somehow photo-record my “journey” I downloaded Hipstamatic - a digital photography application for the iPhone with a analog touch. I loooveee it! 

So, it took us 17 hours with bus to our destination - Tignes resort, France.

All furniture in our condo had heart shaped handles :)

Everything had a “ski-mark” on it - even lamps had small skiers on top: 

After the first day of ski school (ESF Tignes Ski School), the person who invented ski-boots wasn’t my favourite person on the world (and that’s an understatement) and I couldn’t wait to sit down and unstrap them:

Since espace killy Tignes/Val d’Isère ski area offers 159 runs stretched over 300 kilometres, you have to know where you are and where you wanna go all the time (or you’ll get lost). Luckily for me, I had my own personal living-and-breathing GPS : 

All the breaks are welcomed with open arms... 

Healthy ski life :)

I really enjoyed riding in a chairlifts – you sit, relax, there is no noise but skiers and chairlift, beautiful scenery all around...

If you wanna ski, you have to eat properly... 

...and rest after lunch... 

(p.s. this is the person “to blame” for my accomplishment of this goal – without him, the idea of learning to ski would have never crossed my mind...)

...overlooking the valley:

My super-ski-woman-friends...

...and I - chilling the last day and enjoying the sun: 

Till next year... ;)

Gargamel on skis...

One of my 101 goals is learning how to ski… I went skiing once before but it didn`t went quite well… 

We went to Nassfeld (Austria) and the first day was simply beautiful – sun was shining, it was warm, we enrolled me in ski-school...on the second day, all hell broke loose – it started to snow (blizzard would be more appropriate description), fog came down, half of the ski paths were closed...terrible conditions and weather for a first time skier – and those conditions continued through all week... 

I didn’t like it at all...

      

So, why I´m ready to give it another try? Well, all my friends ski, my husband ski, and they are going every year – with or without me. Yesterday, while making a list of things to take with us, I realised something. In this story, I am Gargamel (if you ever watched The Smurfs, you know who I talking about). He is always chasing the Smurfs and they always get away – just like I’m trailing behind my friends on skies... Every time they escape him, he is yelling after them “I'll catch you; even though that’s the last thing I’ll do...”.

This year, my mantra is: I’ll learn how to ski...even though that’s the last thing I’ll do... ;)

Belly dancers and a splash of colour...

#26. Take a photography portrait course

I always wanted to go to a belly dance class. There is something extremely appealing to me in those movements, that rhythm, all that details and multicolour... But I never had the opportunity to see them perform live. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I came to portrait class last Sunday and saw two belly dancers.

The first set was the-static-one:

Our assignment on the second set was to capture the movement. I must admit, it is much harder than it looks – I have xy number of photos where the belly dancer “escaped” from the frame or she turned her back to me... 

My “secret-to-success” at the end was to shoot in a wider angle and then crop in the post processing :)   

Personally, these are two of my favourite’s ones... I really like them – can’t really put my finger on the exact reason but I just do... I "played" with shutter speed (1/5 sec) and that affected the captured mood:

Sweet oriental dreams... ;)

When I grow up...

You know how little kids have a saying „When I grow up, I wanna be a ...“ or „When I grow up, I wanna have ...“? Since I still feel like a kid (although I’m almost 30), I find myself using this sentence quite often... I also figure if I say things out loud or write them down somewhere, they might actually happen... Regarding my vision of perfect home, when I grow up, I wanna have:

• A beautiful green garden with paths for walking throughout flowers and hedges... swing bench is a must-have as well as barbecue...  
• Big enough kitchen with a kitchen island and bar stools...
• A HUGE library... at least 30 square meters with bookshelves from floor till ceiling, cosy furniture, soft lightning and massive work desk with a green table Banker's lamp (you know, like the one you see in the movies?)
• A walk-in closet... where all of my clothes/shoes/jewellery/accessories would be at one place and where I would have a vanity desk with mirror...
• A fireplace... we could sit in front of it, cuddle and just enjoy the crackling fire sounds...

I don’t ask for too much, do I? 

I present to you - Decoupage Petrage!

I did my first “photo-job” recently – a friend of mine needed photos of her arts-and-crafts for her blog/web-site in making. Her name Is Petra and we work together (so, theoretically, I spend more time with her than my husband). She is simply adorable – blond, petit, kind, shy... “all-in-one” combination. I knew she was making decoupage in her free time but I didn’t know how good she was until she made my birthday gift.

For those of you who don’t know what it is, decoupage is a 20th century word which comes from the French word „decouper“ meaning to cut out. Motive from paper or napkin is cut out, reassembled, designed and then glued to a painted or gilded surface. It is used to decorate all kind of objects – furniture, lanterns, windows, gift boxes. The most traditional technique includes applying 30-40 layers of varnish which are sanded to a beautiful smooth sheen. However, cut-outs may also be applied under glass or alternatively raised to give a three-dimensional appearance. Today, decoupage is well combined with various techniques as shabby chic or pittorico. Shabby, vintage and retro style is coming back, old fashioned furniture has become part of modern apartments, coffee bars, restaurants, even clothes.

When I asked her how she began to make all these beautiful boxes she replied:

My favourite coffee bar is decorated as comfortable living room in shabby chic pastel-coloured lavender design, inspired by Tuscany fields. As curious as I am, I have Googled a bit, found the decoupage tutorial, then bought few acrylic colours, crackle lacquer, paintbrushes and decoupaged my first glass marmalade jar in famous Raphael's angels motive with nice cracked effect. Since then, every wooden, plastic box, jar or plate tells its own story. A lot of my decoupage became special and personalized birthday gifts for dear friends.

If you like her work, you can contact her (pkadija@yahoo.com) and get yourself a unique, custom made piece of decoupage or surprise you loved ones with a gift...   

This is my surprise-birthday-present box. She found out I simply-and–utterly adore Tim Burton and his work so she themed the box with a character form his animated film Corpse Bride. Isn’t it just perfect?

Here are some more boxes she made and their purpose is various:  

Our directors’ birthday was in January so we got her some jewellery and Petra made this box: 

Back to School...

#26. Take a photography portrait course


While post processing photos from last Sunday, I realized what my biggest weakness right now is. And, of course, the hardest thing for me to overcome on this course... 
I find it very difficult to properly instruct a model for a pose that will enhance her best face and figure, and more importantly - convey my message. I have all this ideas in my head but the minute the model and I are face-to-face, all my ideas just evaporate from my head… and I have no idea how to instruct her to pose… and then I come home and bang my head against the wall wondering what happened (cause in the mean time, all of the ideas came back, of course).

So, my new mission is to overcome posing! While surfing the internet last night I found Model Posing Guides & Tips software called Model Pose 1.1 pro, lots of articles and tips and a couple of books… I also downloaded some of my favorite photos and I will dissect very inch of them… I girl gotta start somewhere, right? :)