Katie and Jane

Thursday 3 October 2013

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

Wednesday 2 October 2013

The Best Things in Life... in October

As usual, Katie and I love reading the 'contributors' section at the beginning of every issue of our favourite monthly magazine, Red. We also enjoy answering the questions ourselves - here's October's musings...

Katie

Best Things in Life...

The Red Network – Red magazine is one of my favourite reads and we’ve been to the Red Network events since they launched last year. This month’s event was one of the most inspiring with a panel including global fragrance entrepreneur Jo Malone and the inspirational model scout turned interior designer, Fiona Ellis. The subject was creativity, and the mission – how to turn it into a business. Stay tuned to hear their wise words of wisdom in a blog post coming soon.

Tracy Anderson – As the nights get darker earlier, I find it means less time or less motivation to get to the gym after a busy day, apart from if it’s a spin class. Having been inspired by Jane’s total dedication to the woman in question I decided to purchase Tracy Anderson’s The Method DVD, and I love it! From the comfort of my living room, (apologies to those living opposite!), I can now embark on her tried and tested techniques of waking up the accessory muscles to improve overall shape and body structure. Oh and Cheryl Cole uses the DVD at home too…so it must work.

Sophie Dahl – I have acquired a range of cookery books over the years and now and again for a special occasion, or if I’m bored I’ll reach for a recipe and give it a try, but I did feel I wasn’t really putting them to good use – and they take up quite a bit of room when living in a small apartment! Not any more, thanks to trying a delicious beetroot soup one day made by Jane, I decided to get Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights by Sophie Dahl. In this gorgeous recipe book I have found an every day cookery companion providing easy, simple, but delightful dishes to inspire my weekly meals. I would very much recommend the Spinach Barley Soup, Indian Sweet Potato Pancakes and the Hangover Eggs.

My First Pair of Jeans Were...

Mint green. I had a delightful denim waistcoat to complete the head-to-toe look, and the must-have accessory? Kickers boots!

My Favourite Thing About Autumn is...

Bonfire Night! It’s my favourite night of the year and we always like to go to Kenilworth Castle to watch the firework show which is created with a different theme each year. I love the bustling atmosphere, the walk from the local pub that everyone takes together and wrapping up warm, and every year without fail there’s always a section of the firework display that conjures up a gasp from the crowd. Tickets are on sale now from the Kenilworth Round Table here.

Jane

Best Things in Life...

My A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book and my mini photo challenges. Katie bought me the book written by my two favourite bloggers and doing the challenges within it has made me think about taking better photos and I'm loving the results. See all my challenges here

Alpro Soya Milk... yes that's right, my new love is soya milk! I've been drinking it for two weeks now and I can honestly say I would much rather tea with soya than tea with normal cow's milk now!

Wrapping up warm and walking my dog across the fields in my village. To see the Autumn colours appearing is fantastic, the farmers have harvested so the whole landscape has changed and luckily we've had lovely weather - crisp winds and clear blue skies.

My First Pair of Jeans Were...

A perfect fitting pair of Lee jeans in a deep denim bought when I was around 13. I wore them to death until a spilt bottle of hair dye (oh the glamour!) ruined them for good!

My Favourite Thing About Autumn is...

Our annual stay in our favourite tiny, traditional cottage in the Cotswolds. We pack up the car (dog included), stock up of amazing treats at Daylesford along the way, rush in and light the log fire straight away! The long weekend is spent walking the Cotswold Way for hours (and more often than not getting lost!), cooking lovely food and reading. As soon as the leaves change, I get excited as I know what adventure we have coming! I think Autumn has to be my favourite season.

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...

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

Challenge Nine: Make Homemade Filters

Tuesday 1 October 2013

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

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

Instagram App Review - Beware it's Addictive!

I am not ashamed to admit I am slightly addicted to Instagram which actually makes a nice change for me as in the past it was all about Facebook, followed closely by Twitter and Pinterest. I feel, along with Pinterest, Instagram is one of the more positive social media platforms, or it is at least when you follow the type of people I do (lifestyle, wellbeing, dogs!) so I don't mind being an addict!

I wanted to write a review of the app, I know Instagram (owned by Facebook) isn't new, it's been around since 2010 and there are 150 million active users all over the world, but, it's relatively new for me and will be unknown to many others!

Instagram allows you to create a profile and follow users in a similar way to Twitter. You can then upload or take images which are editable through the app with photography features such as filters, blurs and changeable light gradients. You can add a caption to sit with the photo, similar to the way you would on Facebook with hashtags being important on Instagram to categorise your images and make them easily searchable. The photography features make any photo look a million times better (trust me, I know!) and once posted it gets added to your profile and will appear in your followers feeds.

It's a really simple app to use and I think it's because of that simplicity, people love it. The interface has a handy menu at the bottom with five options; home (similar to a newsfeed), explore, upload, see notifications and view and edit your profile.

Explore allows you to search for other users to follow and discover new images from a feed that is automatically updated by Instagram.

Upload is exactly what you expect but what's nice is if you haven't got the photo you want to upload on your camera roll, you can easily take a snapshot and edit it straight from the app without losing any quality. It's also the place you can then go on to edit and caption your images.

Profile gives you a live preview of your Instagram profile and it's the area you can make amends to your profile too. You have a handle on Instagram, mine is janelw171, your real name (should you wish), a small bio, profile picture and one external link.

In terms of the social aspect of Instagram, I enjoy keeping up with my friends but also love getting inspired every day by those Instagrammers I have never met and choose to follow. I do find the following aspect could be improved as it's very easy to 'like' a photo but a longer process to follow someone. Although, it's great to find likes from people who have discovered your photo through one of the hashtags you've used in your caption rather than following you.

A little tip - follow people with caution as, unlike Twitter where skimming through the newsfeed sometimes without even taking any of the tweets in is easy, the newsfeed on Instagram is much more overpowering so I only want people I have a real interest in filling it!

Obviously Instagram is very visual which means, if you follow the right people, it's nice to check into the app to see some fun, inspiring images to brighten up your day! I do see it more as a place for mobile snapshots so use my Pinterest account for sharing less original or personal images.

Here's a few of my favourite Instagram photos...

Score: 8/10

I love... the simplicity of the app, the app icon and the filters (especially useful if you are no David Bailey like me!)

I'd like to... see it be easier for people to follow people as, although liking a photo is simple, to follow someone it's a longer process

Hope to see you on Instagram soon but be warned, it's addictive! In the meantime check out my 'A Beautiful Mess' photo challenges here - I'm having so much fun completing them!

Jane x

Monday 30 September 2013

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

Challenge Seven: Take Macro Photos

Sunday 29 September 2013

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...