amateur photography

Friday Favourites: Instagram Special

Friday Favourites, Instagram, photography

img_1116-018887952933539351697.jpeg What’s this? Am I abusing my new Friday Favourites system to shamelessly plug my Instagram account? Yes, it might seem like that. Because it’s what’s happening. However, I was really happy with my Halloween themed photos. Last year I had a lot of fun with my Halloween photos and this year I wanted to carry on the tradition. And this year I discovered the joy of spray blood. It was a bloody revelation. So, I got a bit carried away but I like the results. And you know the Instagram algorithm. Nobody saw them. I’m probably a bit biased because I know what these looked like before. All of the blood was sprayed onto separate pieces of paper and then I had to edit the paper out. It was fiddly and time-consuming but I think the results are quite effective.

Continue reading →

Creatively Content – #cs_colourmyworld

Instagram, photography

img_0071-01_chroma-018834349703622924431.jpeg This week’ss Creatively Squared challenge was all about adding colour to the world. Something I’m not normally good at. I prefer a minimal and natural kind of vibe. My photos are either on a white background or a wooden one. So, making things more colourful isn’t exactly my vibe. But the #cs_colourmyworld hashtag wanted to encourage people to edit their photos to bring them to life. Normally, I don’t do much to edit my photos. Well, I sort out the usual sort of things. If they’re a bit too bright or dark the I’ll fix it. But I’m not one for trying anything too much. Is that because I prefer a natural simplicity or because I’m still teaching myself how to do fancy things on Photoshop? You decide.

Continue reading →

Creatively Content: #cs_makeitextraordinary

Instagram, photography

img_20190805_192035-012875695243733997033.jpeg I didn’t really take part in last week’s Creatively Squared challenge in the end. It was a make up from the previous weeks and I’d done everything I wanted to do with the other hashtag challenges. So, I waited for the new one and it was a good one. The #cs_makeitextraordinary hashtag was all taking ordinary objects and making them extraordinary. Something that I tried to get on board with despite my absolute lack of artistic skills. As my teacher once said, I have the ideas but lack the ability to execute them. He was a dick but fairly accurate. 

Continue reading →

Creatively Content: #cs_mealsinmotion

Instagram, photography

img_0634-02-01-016625195400260907477.jpegI didn’t really take part in last week’s Creatively Squared challenge in the end. I took a few photos early on but wasn’t happy enough to post them. Which is why I almost didn’t write my weekly Creatively Content post. The #cs_mealsinmotion hashtag was all about trying to get the idea of motion into your photos. I had a lot of fun trying out some techniques but it was tricky. For one thing, doing it on my own was a bit hit and miss. I got a bit lost and my timing wasn’t great. But, in my defence, trying to sieve flour into a bowl whilst also trying to press the camera button is stressful. I really do need to get a remote for situations like this.

Continue reading →

Creatively Content: #cs_farmtotable

Instagram, photography

img_0207-014114634804749545949.jpeg I had so much fun food styling last week that I decided to keep going with the weekly Creatively Squared challenge again. This week was all about celebrating fresh food. The brief was to show the journey that our food takes from being picked to being cooked. The #cs_farmtotable hashtag really put fruit and vegetables at the forefront in their raw form. Colours had to be natural and vibrant. Showcasing these ingredients in all of their glory to prove that it worth picking them out of the ground. 

Continue reading →

Creatively Content: #cs_styledandserved

photography

img_9888-026911359289109775716.jpegIt’s been a while since we’ve done one of these, huh. I was undecided about whether I would carry on doing this series but I had so much fun this week that I had to post my pics. The Creatively Squared challenge for this week was all about food styling. I have a lot of cookbooks and I’m always blown away by the photos. But I never do much cooking and I’m really the kind of person who feels comfortable photographing every meal. So, the #cs_styledandserved hashtag gave me the excuse to give it a go. I had a lot of fun pretending I was a professional for a bit. Apparently, all that binge watching of Masterchef Australia was all leading up to this moment.

Continue reading →

Creatively Content: Week 7 #cs_inthemood

Instagram, photography

dscn9696-01-01-017739245687225524509.jpegThis might end up being a quick one tonight. In fact, this whole week might be a bit off because today my sister gave birth to her first child. She wasn’t due until next weekend and we were all kind of convinced she’d be late So, this has knocked us all for six really. But I’ll try to keep up with my schedule. And I’m starting off with last week’s Creatively Squared challenge. It was all about using lighting to create mood in the #cs_inthemood hashtag. To be honest, I wasn’t really in the mood for this tag so I didn’t go about it with the same gusto as normal. My mood is normally calm and clean, which I knew wouldn’t go down well with everyone in the community.

Continue reading →

Creatively Content: Week 7 #cs_chasethesun

Instagram, photography

dscn9696-01-01-017739245687225524509.jpegSo the Creatively Squared challenges have had a bit of an overhaul this month. From now on, each month will feature a specific topic and each week there will be a challenge based on that topic. June is all about lighting and how you can use it to change your photos. To start us off, we were encouraged to have fun with sunlight under the #cs_chasethesun hashtag. I always shoot using natural light but I do admit to editing the fuck out of my photos. It’s because I’m currently shooting on two very messy pieces of white cardboard so I need to do a lot of work to get it clean again. I don’t do much other than making the background a bit whiter but my photos always do have a slightly artificial look about them. So, I had to find a way to approach this that would mean avoiding my dirty backdrop.

Continue reading →

Creatively Content: Week 6 #cs_comfortzone

photography

img_9467-022811978533248131510.jpegSometimes these Creatively Squared challenges are harder to interpret than others. As it was #cs_comfortzone the challenge summary encouraged everyone to step out of their comfort zone. So, I tried to do just that. Until I realised that people other people weren’t really going down this road. In fact, this more than any other challenge seemed to be the most weirdly interpreted in my opinion. I know you don’t all see things the same way but a lot of the photos I’ve seen don’t make sense. I love doing these challenges but sometimes I feel like pure aesthetic and popularity is the only thing that matters. No matter what the fuck the post.

Continue reading →

Creatively Content: Week 5 #cs_warmup

Instagram, photography

img_20190521_182131-019026975233328347079.jpegIt’s been a super hot week in the UK. I’ve been so uncomfortably warm in the office. So, when this week’s Creatively Squared challenge was #cs_warmup it seemed like the perfect chance to take advantage of the sun. Now, I’m not exactly a lover of Summer. I’m super pale and get really uncomfortable sitting outside for too long. I get super itchy and have to find shade. Then there’s the fact that I burn within minutes of the sun coming out if I’m not covered in factor 1000. But, I can appreciate the sun. It always inspires me to get my camera out and take photos of flowers. If you think I spam people on my book Instagram, have some sympathy for my personal account followers. It’s all flowers, trees, and pigeons right now.

Continue reading →