Pretty Things

I'm getting addicted to this thing, and it's leading to me being ridiculously unproductive. In front of me is a long list of things that need to get done, and I'm going to get cracking on it once I allow myself this blog post. Not necessarily about my photography today- but I got inspired to post pretty things, so here you go.




(From Chuck E Byrd's Wall Art)



my favorite song at the moment:




(from Steverster's Etsy Shop)


(from Trends Ideas)

I'm really sleepy, but trying to fight if off with iced tea. Too much to get done, and work starts Tuesday so I won't have as much time to work on my thesis, which just NEEDS to get done. It's been too long. Ugh.

Inspiration

My last post talked about architectural tracings that I do with bright colors, and I said I'd update that post with pictures of them, but it's already a long post, so I'll do it here.

First off, when Mark and I were in Seattle we bought some things from a local artist. His name isn't printed on anything we bought and we didn't get a card, so I can't even give him a credit of any sort. In any case, the colors in the print below exemplify the colors that inspire me when I do my tracings.



Recycled ideas.
Reusable words.
Retained information.
Refugee birds.

I love the bright colors contrasted with the black.

Here are the tracings I've done, in chronological order.






I did that last one a couple of nights ago. Hopefully I'll have time to do more of these this summer, because they're fun.

Anyway I'm feeling ridiculously unproductive, but my thesis seems to be at a stand-still until I can meet with a professor to figure out what statistical tests I need to run on my data for analysis. Ugh.

School's out and everyone is done and most of my friends have graduated, like I should have. However, I'm staying another semester to finish up my minor. I'm also currently trying to finish up my thesis, which is taking forever- I'm not enjoying having to apply all of the statistics that I didn't absorb when I took Stats a year or so ago. T-tests and ANOVA. Gross.

Anyway I'm trying to motivate myself to take more pictures, and my boyfriend suggested I try taking pictures of things other than cats and flowers... :P I took a little offense, but it's true. They're my most convenient subjects, and they've been a means for me to experiment with my new DSLR settings. I'm thinking of getting more into architectural photography, as architecture has been one of my passions since I was a little girl. I've always loved looking at architecture magazines and drawing out floor plans. Later I'll edit this post with a picture of some of my architecture tracings that I like to do- I trace pictures of my favorite architecture in bright colors. It's fun, and it's probably the closest I'll ever get to my dream of being an architect (given my hatred for all things math-related).

A few weeks ago Mark and I went to Smith College's botanical gardens with my best friend from home, Chrisanne, and I took a few pictures of the architecture around their campus.



I've got a set of architecture pictures on my Flickr account that I've taken over the years, dating back from my 9th grade trip to France. There's a lot in there that I'd love to erase as I improve, so that's my next step- improving.

As always, Digital Photography School is my favorite resource for learning new things and getting new ideas about photography.

I also want to get into portraiture, as it's something I've never really been good at. I've taken a few portraits that I'm a little proud of, but it's another area with lots of room for improvement. Here are some:







My dad showed me his favorite portrait lens, and I really want to get one of my own some day. It doesn't run cheap, so it'll probably be a while before it happens, but it takes great portraits. It's an 85mm f1.2, looking something like this:


(although his isn't a Nikon)

Some dayyyyy.

I'm thinking I need to blog more, given the general length of my posts. I'll work on it.

And on this record-breakingly hot day, I leave you with the song that has been stuck in my head since I woke up this morning.

♪ Isbells - Without A Doubt ♪