A Beautiful Mess Photo Challenge Summary

Since September last year I've had so much fun doing 20 of the 95 A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book challenges and feel I have learnt many things about photography. More importantly I think the book has made me take more photos than I was before, capturing even more beautiful memories to look back on.

You can see the whole series below from the first to the last photograph :)

Enjoy!

Jane x

A Beautiful Mess Challenge Nineteen: Focus on Something Unexpected

My last photo challenge Create a Triptych was back in November and now Christmas and 2014 is in full swing I've decided to get back to learning to take creative photos with the A Beautiful Mess bloggers Elsie and Emma and their Photo Idea Book.

Challenge Nineteen, Focus on Something Unexpected was actually quite challenging thinking of something interesting to focus on within an already interesting scene! I like the way the girls say in the book 'find the beauty in not taking an obvious photo'. They advise you to take a usual photo then look at the things around the image to find a new focal point...

I actually like the unexpected photo better...

Jane x

Previous Posts...

Introduction to the A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book 
Challenge One: Photograph Your Pet
Challenge Two: Capture Unique Personal Details
Challenge Three: Get the Best Cell Phone (or Point and Shoot Camera) Photos
Challenge Four: Know How to Use Overcast Light vs. Direct Sun
Challenge Five: Find Flattering Window Light
Challenge Six: Take a Shadow Portrait

Challenge Seven: Take Macro Photos
Challenge Eight: Understand Depth of Field

Challenge Nine: Make Homemade Filters

Challenge Ten: Photograph a Collection
Challenge Eleven: Take Amazing Photos of Your Home
Challenge Twelve: Capture Your Daily Routines
Challenge Thirteen: Photograph Your Daily Outfits
Challenge Fourteen: Photograph Food

Challenge Fifteen: Photograph Your Reflection

Challenge Sixteen: Take the Thirty-Day Self-Portrait Challenge
Challenge Seventeen: Create a Diptych

Challenge Eighteen: Create a Triptych 

A Beautiful Mess Challenge Eighteen: Create a Triptych

A triptych is similar to challenge seventeen where two images are linked together but this one is (you guessed it!) three!

The book recommends you tell a short story, almost like a comic strip so what better way to do this than tell a story of my lazy dog Beau...

The A Beautiful Mess girls give you a few tips in the book - check the colours so that the viewer's eye travels from one to the next, vary the level of detail and communicate one simple concept. One idea in the book is to create a recipe of raw ingredients, preparation and then the final product... I'm going to do that soon!

Until the next challenge!

Jane x

Previous Posts...

Introduction to the A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book 
Challenge One: Photograph Your Pet
Challenge Two: Capture Unique Personal Details
Challenge Three: Get the Best Cell Phone (or Point and Shoot Camera) Photos
Challenge Four: Know How to Use Overcast Light vs. Direct Sun
Challenge Five: Find Flattering Window Light
Challenge Six: Take a Shadow Portrait

Challenge Seven: Take Macro Photos
Challenge Eight: Understand Depth of Field

Challenge Nine: Make Homemade Filters

Challenge Ten: Photograph a Collection
Challenge Eleven: Take Amazing Photos of Your Home
Challenge Twelve: Capture Your Daily Routines
Challenge Thirteen: Photograph Your Daily Outfits
Challenge Fourteen: Photograph Food

Challenge Fifteen: Photograph Your Reflection

Challenge Sixteen: Take the Thirty-Day Self-Portrait Challenge
Challenge Seventeen: Create a Diptych

A Beautiful Mess Challenge Seventeen: Create a Diptych

I didn't know what a diptych was before I read the A Beautiful Mess book despite unknowingly having made a few myself! A diptych is a pair of images displayed together and, as the book says, it's simple to create but it's the story behind it that takes the thinking.

Above, in the book, the girls bring out their love of craft with the cotton - in this challenge they say the key to a successful diptych is pairing something interesting and meaningful together. I didn't want another picture of myself after yesterday's 30-day self-portrait challenge so decided to display my love of cooking and cookbooks in my diptych.

I used iPhone app PicPlayPost - a new discovery which enables you (for free) to paste images together and share them on social media or via email... perfect for this challenge!

Tomorrow I'll be creating a triptych!

Jane x

Previous Posts...

Introduction to the A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book 
Challenge One: Photograph Your Pet
Challenge Two: Capture Unique Personal Details
Challenge Three: Get the Best Cell Phone (or Point and Shoot Camera) Photos
Challenge Four: Know How to Use Overcast Light vs. Direct Sun
Challenge Five: Find Flattering Window Light
Challenge Six: Take a Shadow Portrait

Challenge Seven: Take Macro Photos
Challenge Eight: Understand Depth of Field

Challenge Nine: Make Homemade Filters

Challenge Ten: Photograph a Collection
Challenge Eleven: Take Amazing Photos of Your Home
Challenge Twelve: Capture Your Daily Routines
Challenge Thirteen: Photograph Your Daily Outfits
Challenge Fourteen: Photograph Food

Challenge Fifteen: Photograph Your Reflection

Challenge Sixteen: Take the Thirty-Day Self-Portrait Challenge

A Beautiful Mess - Challenge Sixteen: Take the Thirty-Day Self-Portrait Challenge

In the A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book, the girls talk about a photograph challenge they found really rewarding on Flickr - the 365 Challenge. It asked participants to take a self-portrait every day for a year with the following rules...

• You had to be in the photo yourself in some way
• You had to take the photo yourself

Thankfully, the challenge in the book was not 365 days of photos but 30 - a modified version following the same rules. The book says how creative they became over the 365 days but I found it tough to remember to take pictures over 30 days let alone a year! 

I tried to capture something that I enjoyed or meant a lot to me every day to include in this challenge although I did have to cheat a little and use older self-portrait photos to complete it! Never-the-less I really enjoyed doing it and here are my results...

Jane x

Previous Posts...

Introduction to the A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book 
Challenge One: Photograph Your Pet
Challenge Two: Capture Unique Personal Details
Challenge Three: Get the Best Cell Phone (or Point and Shoot Camera) Photos
Challenge Four: Know How to Use Overcast Light vs. Direct Sun
Challenge Five: Find Flattering Window Light
Challenge Six: Take a Shadow Portrait

Challenge Seven: Take Macro Photos
Challenge Eight: Understand Depth of Field

Challenge Nine: Make Homemade Filters

Challenge Ten: Photograph a Collection
Challenge Eleven: Take Amazing Photos of Your Home
Challenge Twelve: Capture Your Daily Routines
Challenge Thirteen: Photograph Your Daily Outfits
Challenge Fourteen: Photograph Food

Challenge Fifteen: Photograph Your Reflection

A Beautiful Mess Challenge Fifteen: Photograph Your Reflection

Well this challenge was a lot harder than it looked! One of the A Beautiful Mess girls favourite ways to take a self-portrait is to photograph their reflection using a reflective surface. Naturally, I used a mirror to do this challenge which is what the book recommends.

One of the tips; look into the lens is interesting as I've read from others (Alexa Chung) never to look into the lens. I agree with the book - you want to be looking at the lens rather than at yourself in the mirror! I couldn't quite angle the camera properly, another tip in the book, I think I need more practice! 

Another thing the girls recommend is to try looking in different directions, which I did try but felt a bit silly! One of my favourite tips is not to forget that you can edit out the camera which I was able to do although I would have liked more space in the overall picture.

After many, many attempts, here's the final picture...

Jane x

Previous Posts...

Introduction to the A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book 
Challenge One: Photograph Your Pet
Challenge Two: Capture Unique Personal Details
Challenge Three: Get the Best Cell Phone (or Point and Shoot Camera) Photos
Challenge Four: Know How to Use Overcast Light vs. Direct Sun
Challenge Five: Find Flattering Window Light
Challenge Six: Take a Shadow Portrait

Challenge Seven: Take Macro Photos
Challenge Eight: Understand Depth of Field

Challenge Nine: Make Homemade Filters

Challenge Ten: Photograph a Collection
Challenge Eleven: Take Amazing Photos of Your Home
Challenge Twelve: Capture Your Daily Routines
Challenge Thirteen: Photograph Your Daily Outfits
Challenge Fourteen: Photograph Food

A Beautiful Mess Challenge Fourteen: Photograph Food

As a food lover and someone who loves to cook, I was really excited to learn a little more about how to take great photos of food from the A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book, although I do disagree with their statement of sometimes it's inappropriate to take pictures of food... I do it all the time! I do agree that, like the girls, food is a big part of my life. I remember occasions, like holidays, by the food I eat and the new restaurants we discover. Some people may say that's a little sad, I don't!

The book gives five tips on photographing food... I especially love the 'food styling isn't just for food stylists'. I long to take photos as beautiful as the ones I admire in Sainsbury's Magazine or the food section of my favourite Red. The girls remind you to add colour through napkins, remove clutter and to take a moment to look at the whole frame.

Also, I tried to remember the tips of trying different angles and to get stuck into the food before snapping away!

The above includes gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies adapted from a recipe in Nigella Lawson's cookbook Kitchen, Coconut and Crab Rice and Flourless Chocolate Cake from both of Sophie Dahl's gorgeous cookbooks and a beautiful purple cabbage... the beginning of a stir-fry!

Previous Posts...

Introduction to the A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book 
Challenge One: Photograph Your Pet
Challenge Two: Capture Unique Personal Details
Challenge Three: Get the Best Cell Phone (or Point and Shoot Camera) Photos
Challenge Four: Know How to Use Overcast Light vs. Direct Sun
Challenge Five: Find Flattering Window Light
Challenge Six: Take a Shadow Portrait

Challenge Seven: Take Macro Photos
Challenge Eight: Understand Depth of Field

Challenge Nine: Make Homemade Filters

Challenge Ten: Photograph a Collection
Challenge Eleven: Take Amazing Photos of Your Home
Challenge Twelve: Capture Your Daily Routines
Challenge Thirteen: Photograph Your Daily Outfits

A Beautiful Mess Challenge Thirteen: Photograph Your Daily Outfits

I decided to carry out this challenge everyday for a week to get a range of different looks and what fun it was! The A Beautiful Mess girls gave a few tips in the book for taking the best outfit photos. One tip, try different poses was really useful, especially when, most of the time, I was photographing myself. I took note of the tip to take close-up shots too in the following...

I didn't quite get the knack of taking my own photos when no one was around but I'm sure I'll get better at this during the book's 'Self-Portrait Challenge' later on. What this challenge did make me realise is, as I work from home (which I love!), I'm often in my exercise clothes with no make-up on... healthy but it doesn't make for particularly fashionable pictures on our blog!

My next challenge is 'Photograph Food' which I am really looking forward to doing.

Jane x

Previous Posts (they're mounting up!)...

Introduction to the A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book 
Challenge One: Photograph Your Pet
Challenge Two: Capture Unique Personal Details
Challenge Three: Get the Best Cell Phone (or Point and Shoot Camera) Photos
Challenge Four: Know How to Use Overcast Light vs. Direct Sun
Challenge Five: Find Flattering Window Light
Challenge Six: Take a Shadow Portrait

Challenge Seven: Take Macro Photos
Challenge Eight: Understand Depth of Field

Challenge Nine: Make Homemade Filters

Challenge Ten: Photograph a Collection
Challenge Eleven: Take Amazing Photos of Your Home
Challenge Twelve: Capture Your Daily Routines

A Beautiful Mess Challenge Twelve: Capture Your Daily Routines

Although, in this section of the book, the A Beautiful Mess girls don't give many photo-taking tips as such, they do remind us how the little things in life are as important as the big and how nice it is to capture remember them for the future.

I was struggling to think about what to capture for this challenge, silly really as obviously a daily routine is something I do every day! Katie reminded me of so many things like walking Beau, sipping on green tea, using my iPhone and iPad or doing my beloved Tracy Anderson exercise DVD but I went with the following... my French make-up box.

This unusual make-up box was brought for me by my parents who, when visiting a favourite Provence market of theirs, said it reminded them of me (not sure that's a compliment but I still love it!).

Putting on my make-up is something I do automatically most mornings but taking this photo made me stop and think about how gorgeous my little tin box is. Stopping to really look at it bought back happy memories of holidaying in the South of France with my parents and getting glammed up for nights out with friends. It also reminded me that I want to learn French but that's another story!

Tomorrow I'll be starting the week long challenge of 'photograph your daily outfits' - should be fun!

Jane x

Previous Posts...

Introduction to the A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book 
Challenge One: Photograph Your Pet
Challenge Two: Capture Unique Personal Details
Challenge Three: Get the Best Cell Phone (or Point and Shoot Camera) Photos
Challenge Four: Know How to Use Overcast Light vs. Direct Sun
Challenge Five: Find Flattering Window Light
Challenge Six: Take a Shadow Portrait

Challenge Seven: Take Macro Photos
Challenge Eight: Understand Depth of Field

Challenge Nine: Make Homemade Filters

Challenge Ten: Photograph a Collection
Challenge Eleven: Take Amazing Photos of Your Home

A Beautiful Mess Challenge Eleven: Take Amazing Photos of Your Home

I love my house and have lived in it all of my life so it, and my village, will always be my true home no matter where I travel. In their book Elsie and Emma of A Beautiful Mess remind us to take the time to photograph this special place - it's certainly something I've not done before as I'm always taking pictures when I'm travelling away from home!

I followed a few of the tips from the girls including clean up (!!), try both wide and close up shots and style photos with a few staged areas. They did recommend starting with one room in your home so I picked one of my favourite rooms... my office filled with Kikki.K stationery from Australia.

Unfortunately it was not a nice sunny day with lots of natural light (as recommended) so after experimenting, I decided I liked the close up shots best, plus it meant I didn't have to tidy up as much!

Tomorrow I'll (aim!) to 'Capture Daily Routines'.

Jane x

Previous Posts...

Introduction to the A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book 
Challenge One: Photograph Your Pet
Challenge Two: Capture Unique Personal Details
Challenge Three: Get the Best Cell Phone (or Point and Shoot Camera) Photos
Challenge Four: Know How to Use Overcast Light vs. Direct Sun
Challenge Five: Find Flattering Window Light
Challenge Six: Take a Shadow Portrait

Challenge Seven: Take Macro Photos
Challenge Eight: Understand Depth of Field

Challenge Nine: Make Homemade Filters

Challenge Ten: Photograph a Collection