A Beautiful Mess Challenge Ten: Photograph a Collection

It was easy picking which collection of mine to photograph (I have a few!) for this challenge - my Vogue magazine tower!

I've been collecting each monthly issue of Vogue magazine since 2004. I also add to my collection on my travels so have American Vogue, Chinese Vogue and French Vogue to name a few. One of my favourite issues was a gift from one of my best friends - the August 1987 UK edition to celebrate my birthday!

The A Beautiful Mess photo book advised me to try different angles and at different times in the day to capture the collection in different light. Unfortunately, it was pretty gloomy all day so I couldn't catch any natural sunlight on my collection...

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

A Beautiful Mess Challenge Nine: Make Homemade Filters

When Katie bought me the lovely A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book for my birthday, as I flicked through, this page stood out as one I couldn't wait to try... homemade filters!

Homemade filters add a new dimension to photos without using Instagram which I usually do. Three of the girls favourite ideas are lace, sunglasses and clingfilm and vaseline - I decided to go all out with the last idea although I couldn't use my iPhone as with other challenges so used our Nikon Coolpix P7700.

I secured the cling with a rubber band and smeared Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream (I didn't have any vaseline!) over the centre of the lens leaving a small area for the camera to focus, as advised in the book.

Here are the results...

I was surprised with the results, in that it worked so well! It only took a minute but gave a really different feel to the image - almost an eerie, dreamy look which I like! I'll definitely be playing with more homemade filters in the future.

Jane x

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

A Beautiful Mess Challenge Eight: Understand Depth of Field

 

What is 'depth of field'? As Elsie and Emma say in the book, it 'refers to the amount of your photo that is in focus.' Deep depth is if all of the photo is in focus, shallow is if the subject is in focus and the background blurry.

As I've decided to use my trusty iPhone camera for most of the challenges, I can't use a manual depth of field control but there's an easy fix to manipulate depth of field which I'll be doing with my subject Beau!

In the first photo I photographed Beau directly against the wall to create a deep depth of field...

In the second, Beau patiently (with the help of a treat) moved forward away from the wall to create a shallow depth of field with the wall blurry in the background...

Maybe I should have used a human model for my first venture into testing depth of field but I couldn't resist his little face! I definitely like the effect of the shallow depth of field better with the black and white background blurred into the back making Beau's eyes really stand out.

I'm very much looking forward to challenge nine where I'll be making homemade filters!

Jane x

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

A Beautiful Mess Photo Challenge Seven: Take Macro Photos

For this challenge I decided to extend it past one day and challenge myself to take a macro picture everyday for a week. I thought about a number of different daily activities but decided on photographing something everyday on my walk with my labrador Beau as, after getting this far in the challenge, I know that photographing outside is always better on an iPhone.

To be honest, I'd heard about macro photos but never quite knew what they were, the A Beautiful Mess girls said in the book...

'Macro photos are extremely close-up photos of features or objects.'

A few key tips in the book were to pick a sharp point of focus with the rest of the image being blurry, choose a subject with lots of colours or textures and it's ok if you can't tell what the picture is!

Seven Days of Daily Walks in Macro...

 Jane x

View 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

A Beautiful Mess Photo Challenge Six: Take a Shadow Portrait

Shadow portraits are a fun, unique variation on usual photos, especially if you don't fancy your face in the shot! The A Beautiful Mess girls give you a few simple rules in the book... take shadow pictures in the early morning or late afternoon, remember that shapes are very important as you can't capture details and try to capture the environment around you too.

I took the rules into consideration when taking this photo of myself and Mark with my iPhone camera. Of course, being in Autumnal England, we had a window of about five minutes to take the picture before the sun went in again!

 Although we did a number of poses, trying to create different shapes, I liked this simple one the most. I took it in late afternoon on the freshly mowed grass because the vivid green looked nice against our dark shadows.

Jane x

View 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

A Beautiful Mess Challenge Five: Find Flattering Window Light

As a (very!) amateur photographer, I wouldn't normally position my photos to directly focus around a window so I found this part of the book interesting and, although it was a little hard, the subject was explained excellently by Elsie and Emma.

One of my oldest friends Lucy, has got a gorgeous window in her country kitchen so after our morning exercise session I got her to pose in front of the window for me. The book says to look for natural light when photographing indoors and get the subject to face the window or stand adjacent to it. We played around but found standing adjacent was better without the morning sun blinding poor Lucy!

I found positioning this shot pretty tough. In order to follow the rule as stated in the book 'the more light on the subject the better', Lucy's whole face would have had to be facing the window and it wouldn't have given a natural shot. I'm looking forward to more practice with this challenge! Although the light isn't on Lucy's beautiful face and eyes, it catches her golden locks which I really like and also makes her skin look illuminated with lovely colouring.

Thanks for modelling Lucy!

I'll be taking a shadow portrait for challenge six!

Jane x

View 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

A Beautiful Mess Photo Challenge Four: Know How to Use Overcast Light vs. Direct Sun

I was looking forward to this challenge as, to be honest, I have never really considered the light when taking photos that much before. I normally just snap away which is why I'm finding the book so valuable!

The book gives some great examples of pairs of photos taken at the same time in direct sunlight and the other in shade and the difference is amazing and I found the same when comparing my pictures.

The weather was perfect so I asked Katie nicely if she'd model for me testing both direct sunlight and shade. In the bright sun the colours of Katie's clothes completely changed making them become distorted with light bouncing off them. The picture in the shade turned out so much better and the lack of blinding sun made it much more comfortable for Katie! I like the way her hair caught the wind whilst I was making Katie laugh giving a lovely, natural smile.

 Tomorrow's challenge is 'Find Flattering Window Light'...

Jane x

View 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

A Beautiful Mess Photo Challenge Three: Get the Best Cell Phone (or Point and Shoot Camera) Photos

For Challenge Three, I took into account the key tips from the book when taking this photo of my fiancé Mark's wellies whilst on a walk with our dog Beau...

• Capture as much light as you can
• Get close
• Experiment with apps

I don't carry my camera during 'routine' activities such as walking Beau (maybe I'll start!) so this challenge prompted me to use my iPhone to record lovely moments. Following the tips I picked a time when the sun was shining onto Mark's wellies, got up nice and close (in the stream!) and used Instagram to edit the photo afterwards as mentioned in the book.

So far I'm enjoying the challenges... tomorrow's is 'Know How to Use Overcast Light vs. Direct Sun' and I need to ask someone nicely if they'll model for me (Katie?!)

Jane x

View previous posts...

My introduction to the A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book

Challenge One: Photograph Your Pet

Challenge Two: Capture Unique Personal Details

A Beautiful Mess Photo Challenge Two: Capture Unique Personal Details

I'm working through my challenges as they appear in the book and 'Capture Unique Personal Details' is under the 'Capture Your Favourite People' section so although I would have photographed me 'scrapbooking', I decided to think about what the people around me enjoy.

The book says that personal details are the things that remind you the most of each person which got me thinking about my dad's first love... cycling! But, I couldn't forget about his love of reading and writing which he has passed onto me too.

Although this picture is a little 'staged' as my dad's cycling stuff and books are scattered around the place, all the items in the picture mean a lot to him... cards from friends, the Tour de France, the very first book he wrote on education and two bike statues that I spotted and bought for him.

I need to think about lighting a little more as the light reflection is not quite right but I can do that in tomorrow's challenge - Get the Best Cell Phone Photos!

View my introduction to the A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book and Challenge One: Photograph Your Pet here

Jane x

A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book & Challenge One

I admire the bloggers Elsie and Emma who are behind the blog, A Beautiful Mess and Katie surprised me with their new Photo Idea Book for my birthday hot off the press from the States (it's not available in the UK yet) and I love it!

Within the 200 plus pages are 95 inspiring ideas for photographing your friends, your world and yourself. They recommend you pick your favourite challenges from the book and get on with them so that's what I'm doing! I have decided not to use Instagram to edit my photos although I usually do (see my profile here) unless recommended to do so within the book. On our blog, over the coming weeks, I'll post the results... I am no David Bailey but I'm looking forward to improving as I go along (hopefully!).

A Beautiful Mess Photo Challenge One: Photograph Your Pet

My first challenge 'photograph your pet' is one I knew I'd enjoy despite it being hard to find a time when my Golden Labrador Beau is calm! I waited until the evening although the book does say natural light is best, it wasn't possible for me. I tried to capture the true personality of Beau as the book recommends so when I saw him sneak onto my bed for a little sleep, which he naughtily does a lot, I grabbed my iPhone 5 for some photos! A key tip from the book is to take lots of photos and that was very useful. Here's my final photo for challenge one...

I love the white light in the room and also the colour of the throw with his colouring. I adore his nose and paws so tried to focus on capturing them.

Tomorrow's challenge is 'Capture Unique Personal Details'