365: Class of three six five

Here we are on new years eve. Amid celebrations of a year ending, a year beginning, a birthday and the completion of my 365 photography project! I thought it would be nice to capture friends for this last post - in a old school class photo kind of style. Some of these guys above have been around since before the project was just a seed of an idea, some are new friends made this year, tonight even - helping me celebrate. 

To those of you who have supported me throughout the project, inspired me, posed for me, encouraged me - thank you, thank you, thank you. With a big special thanks to my beautiful, loving and caring boyfriend Ben, you helped me through the tougher, uninspired days and celebrated the photographic highs with me xo.

Probably one of my biggest and best new years resolutions, I'm proud that I stuck with it, made the most of it and now have a computer chockers with photos.

The plan for 2010... there is no specific photography project as such. I'd like to work on doing a few professional photo shoots, with models and makeup etc. Basically having a concept, putting in the planning and the organisation to try and get some super shots. Because what I found this year, while I had some great ideas and results, sometimes the photo wasn't the best I knew it could be and with that bit more planning time (more than 1 day!) I'm interested in the results!

I'm also planning an exhibition. Of the 365 photography project. I'd love the chance to display my photography work from the year, I think it would be hugely exciting to see it all in a room and to share it with family, friends and as many people I can get in off the streets as possible. So stay tuned!

I will also probably be starting another blog - just to post photos and design and other creative stuff I'm into and working on - so I'll let you know where you can find that.

Lastly (I know I waffle, I'm sorry) I would like thank all the lovely readers who have followed my adventure in blogland. Thank you for all your comments and your visits. Maybe one day we will get the chance to meet! For those of you who have your own blogs I look forward to continuing to follow your adventures and finding many new ones along the way.

So au revoir for now,

Emma xo 

Almost the end

Well I can't believe it. 364 photos down, only 1 to go! How the year seems to have flown in photographs. Yet when I look back, there is a lot of pics! And a lot of interesting memories that will be remembered by having a photo from each and every day of 2009. I'm terribly excited about completing the project, for the proud fact that I took a photo a day for 365 days. I'm working on a good one for tonight - new years eve. A great time to capture the last photo of the project. So stay tuned. I'll have the last one up soon with news of what might be to come in 2010.

364: Glow

The other day while I was at the gallery I accidently used a photography trick I had forgotten all about, but hadn't really had the chance to test out yet. 

Creating a creative blur by simply zooming the lens in or out during exposure. So I popped out and bought these lovely bright flowers to be the subject of my photo and got the camera set up on the tripod (the camera really needs to be as still as possible and it's handy to have both hands free, one for the lens and one for the shutter button). Then I just played around with the ISO, shutter speed and aperture. My best results ended up being an ISO of 400, shutter speed of 1"3 and an aperture of 16 for this particular setting.

I love the result of focus in the middle of the photograph and the motion and colour created outwards by adjusting the lens during exposure. 

363: One across

Just a little trivia crossword to keep the brain ticking while I'm vegging out in holiday mode.

362: Art excursion

Today is my brother's 21st birthday. So first of all Happy Birthday Nick! We decided to take ourselves off to GoMA where the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (apt6) exhibition is on, and took a look around. It was well worth it, so if you've got any spare time these holidays head over, the bonus is it's free! 

This was part of a installation by a collaboration of artists that work under the acronym of YNG. An old combie van/hut decorated with Yoshitomo Nara's art and objects to create a sense of wonder and discovery, very cool. I loved the monkey in the passenger seat and the little rubber duck on the dash.

361: Bookworm

Being on holidays is lovely for many reasons, but at the moment I'm especially loving vegging out and being a complete bookworm for the day. It even makes for a good pic! PS Great book

360: Beer, backyard cricket and bucketing rain

The traditional Boxing Day party with Ben and his friends is on today. This involves basically: beer, cricket (watched and played), music and a good post Christmas catch up with everyone. Their current house has a super 'viewing deck' from which Liam was providing us with some great mid match commentary. It set up a great photo with the angle, the rain and the activity.

359: Christmas is here

Christmas is here and boy what a day! It's been lovely, filled with family and friends, glorious Christmas food, the after lunch siesta, pressies and games. What better way to cap it off than with an evening swim. I just had to hop out and grab my camera though when we turned the lights on. I loved how they lit up the water, and the clarity that was produced. Nick didn't mind having a few more photos taken for the 365 project. The end is fast approaching, I can't believe I only have 7 photos to go!

358: Setting summer rays

A slight contrast to yesterday's traditional (although fake) Christmas pine tree, today's photo features a palm suited much more to tropical Queensland. I couldn't resist capturing some of the warm summer light cast beautifully across everything along the top of the Kangaroo Point cliffs. Lovely colours.

357: Seasons greetings

Warm season's greetings to everyone! This year Brisbane can proudly boast the world's largest solar powered Christmas tree set up King George Square. The big star on top, made up of solar panels, lights up the 16,000 blubs decorating the 21 meter tree!

356: Rumbling rolling clouds

This afternoon an impressive looking storm rolled across the sky towards Brisbane. From my vantage point of the 14th floor at work I glued myself to the glass for a few minutes trying to capture lighting (dreaming - it wasn't the right conditions, but one day I will get an amazing lighting shot!) and the intensity of the fast paced dark clouds and sheets of rain. My most pleasing shot was when these 2 little birds flew unexpectedly across the sky, fleetingly looking for somewhere to hide I'm sure!

355: Sign language

Inspired for this one by Ben's beautiful sister Amy :)

"You. Are. Beautiful"

And thank you patient Candi for being my model yet again. I know you are rather excited to have not one but 3 full face shots after featuring in so many of my photos here, but never having to reveal your face. Thank you ladies!

354: Beads or beans

Put in a coin and you never know what you might get out of this sweet dispenser. Normally filled with jelly beans, tonight this one gave me a blue beaded necklace. Lucky me!

353: Puddles

A beautiful rainy day in Brisbane today. Oh we haven't had rain for a while. What a welcome sound! So much so that Candi and I had to get out there on our bicycles and ride through the puddles. I was very pleased with this photo - a favourite to add to the collection. The vibrant, sharp colours. The water, adding just a little bit of motion, along with the bike. Just a hint of the mischief we are up to.

352: To write love on the window

My friend Katie found and pointed me in the direction of this little window. Opposite our office is a construction site, where you walk through one of those pedestrian tunnels built along side it. This one happens to have windows included sporadically throughout and someone has gone through and added the word 'love' to a couple of the panes. Wonderful to see the word out there, a simple message. Interesting to find in such a random place. Makes an interesting composition with the frame bordering the photo, love right in the middle and the likes of scaffolding and barbed wire behind it.

351: Wee little gecko

I had rather an experimental shot in mind today and unfortunately it didn't quite work out just yet. I have to master some settings and equipment first. So I'll keep working on that one, instead I stalked around looking for a back up shot. This little baby gecko was hiding out on my tripod, so I popped him down on the table and tried to get a couple of photos. To spark up the finished outcome I've played around a lot with the levels and contrasts to give it a film photo style finish.

350: Festivity

Don't forget to take a little drive around the burbs of Brisbane at the moment and check out all the spectacular 4KQ Christmas lights entries. Winners have been announced and can be found here, if you're interested in seeing the best of the best festive displays. This pic is taken at one of the highly commended houses in Corinda. You won't miss it, the garden lights up the block! Pop on your Santa hat a take a peep.

349: Blue find peach find

I snapped these peach flowers in my parents garden, only to find, much to my excitment - the blue version in my garden when I got home! It was time for another collaborative photo.

348: Santa's down our street

The kids have been out with their chalk and are well into the festive spirit! I was delighted to stumble upon this lovely pavement illustration of Santa being pulled along by his reindeer with a sled loaded up with sacks of presents. Ho ho ho!

347: Splash splash

Bentley and I took advantage of a sunny, Aussie afternoon in the garden to get the old hose out and have some fun, while picking up some artistic piccies at the same time. This one makes me giggle, Bentley looks so curious, nose pointed, tail curled up! Wasn't long till he was under there having a cool down.

346: Rock stars rock on

A rock star like shot, taken at the Toowoomba leg of the Dest Fest tour when Rise for November were on stage. Big round lights, softly lit profile, the guitar sets the scene. Check out their myspace for more gig dates and venues!

345: Jazzy Fridayz

This afternoon I made a delightful discovery. Totally by accident I came across the Green Jam Session held at Melbourne St Green, QPAC, South Brisbane. Soothing jazz floated across the road and as curiosity usually gets the better of me I went over to take a look. In a wonderful parklike setting, stools, beanbags, deckchairs and rugs had been set up under leafy trees with little tables and tea lights. A relaxing atmosphere, word appears to have already spread as plenty of people were scattered across the lawn with a seat and a drink.

I am sad to report though, after a little online research this happened to be the last session listed. Keep your eyes and ears open if you are in the area, you never know, it may be back by popular demand or check in here, just in case.

344: Highway views

A quick snap this evening while on my way to dance class. The sunset is always quite spectacular at this particular time on this particular drive. Too good to resist picking up my camera on some days.

343: For more than just the Grandmas

We spent a lovely afternoon out of the office today, catching some rays and rolling some bowls in the Christmas spirit. No longer a sport thrown into the grandma/grandma basket, they're starting as young as 1 and a half! My work bud Amanda brought along her little girl Hailey - a real cutie, so while the sun set and the shadows grew I gradually threw less bowls and found myself having a lovely time playing catch me if you can on the green instead!

342: Hearts of light

Tonight was an experiment to carry out a tutorial set by Katie of Color Me Katie. She has this nifty little trick of cutting out a shape on a small piece of paper. Placing it over the lens of the camera and taking a photo with quite a few light sources involved. A couple of hers have been of night time city scapes or massive Christmas trees, check them out here and here - lovely! As we have some fairy lights up around the house for Christmas I decided to bite the bullet and use them as my light source. What a dreamy result, gives the room a warm and inviting Christmas feel.

341:

So I couldn't help but return to the location of photo 334 this evening, when another glorious sunset presented itself. I took on the challenge of sourcing another completely different pic from the same location and am quite pleased with the result. Interlacing wire fences like this one always come up well in photographs, especially well in this situation - as a silhouette, in front of such deep yellows and oranges softly setting over the horizon and reflecting across the water.

340: 3D type

A simple photo this evening. Just some lettering outside the house. But I thought I'd focus a bit more with playing around with some post shot effects. Levels, saturation, brightness, contrast. Quite an intense result, and I always like to feature another little bit of typography.

339: Festive celebrations

A clever little technique I've been meaning to try for a while here and what better opportunity than the Black Dove Christmas party. Basically I'm taking a photo, through a photo. So the subjects of the photograph - thank you Leonard family :) are having their piccie taken here by Phoebe, my camera focuses only on the digital camera's screen and Phoebe's arms, while the others are softly faded out in the background. Yet we still catch their full pose through the digital camera screen. Not a perfect outcome - the background is a little dark and I would have liked to rejig the composition a bit but sometimes is nice to spontaneously catch these things and I'm super happy I got a shot like this in the 365 project.

338: Idol times

...and speaking of Nick's art. Him and 2 of his friends Claire and Lachlan have opened a new exhibition of their works (Idol Times) at the Fort gallery this evening!

A super mix of illustrations, collage and paint in 3 quirky styles, the show is open until next Friday so make sure you pop along and check it out.

This photo was a wonderful surprise - I took a sneaky low shot looking up as this girl pointed out a piece of work to her friend. The angle, shadow and lighting came out a treat. Very pleased.

337: Signal where?

The inner city Snow White's poisoned red apple! Or that's what I think every time I walk past this signal box. They are popping up left, right and centre around Brisbane with some great artwork attached. If you're ever driving through Kenmore, keep your eyes open for a bright one near Woolies. My brother did it and even scored himself and award for it too. Nice one!

336: Mary-Lou

Mary-Lou was a lovely gift from friends Claire and Dave for my birthday. She came flat in a plank of wood, so one DIY crafty week night I pushed all the parts out and joined her together with little brass screws. Now she move and dances with her arms and legs. Cute! I found her friend at a shop just around the corner... perhaps Mary-Lou will soon have a friend in John-Luke?

335: Lyrical rainbows

I've always wished you could capture music in a photograph. I'd love to see any pictures people have if you've managed to interpret music into a photo in some way (Email me). Perhaps people dancing, or someone playing an instrument? My best interpretation to date is through light reflections thrown off the CD in coloured rays. Imagine the sweet tunes those colours hold.