52 weeks - Week 3

3/52 - Off to new adventures

Hi everyone, 

Yesterday I showed you my Before & After for my image "In the early morning hours. This blog post is about my image "Off to new adventures" for week 3. 

The theme for week 3 was Books. I had several ideas but they all included either other people or at least help from friends which I couldn't get at the time of the day I wanted to shoot. Then, one morning during the week of the theme, when I was riding home on the underground from my boyfriend, I had the idea that I wanted something to come out of the book or something like that. In the end, after thinking for a little longer, I thought it would be really cool if I could have a plane or helicopter made of paper fly over a book. 

When I arrived home, I searched online until I found a manual to make a helicopter or plane and found this video manual here. It took me a long time until it was ready - much longer than I had thought. But in the end it worked! I still had to choose a book that I wanted to use in the photo and after having given it some thought, I decided to use one of the Adventure Series books by Enid Blyton. I have always liked her books and this series in particular. Whoever has read the books, will know that the main characters get saved by a helicopter more than once. 

So I went outside and started shooting - despite the fact that it was much brighter and sunnier by that time (Do you guys dislike shooting in bright sunlight as much as I do?) Again, several dog-walkers stopped and watched me, probably wondering what I was doing there...

I went home and started working on my image straight away. I cropped it, added the paper helicopter from another photo I had taken at the same location, added some clouds and shadows and changed the light and tones. 

I hope you like it!

All the best, 
Andrea 

If you want to see this photo on Flickr, go here.  

52 weeks - Week 2

2/52 - In the early morning hours 

Hi everyone,

In my last blog post I showed you my image for the first week of my 52 week project. I am currently in week 5 but still have to take that image since I have not found the time to do that yet.

The theme for week two was "Red". While I thought about and sketched several images for this theme, in the end I went for a different approach and that rather spontaneously. I woke up early on the day I took it (it was a weekend and there was no need to get up really) but the moment I started waking up, for some reason I started thinking about the theme and I just couldn't go back to sleep.

I had bought a bunch of roses the day before and they seemed just too beautiful to not use for a photo so I eventually decided that I would use the roses. From this decision, it didn't take a long time to decide on a dress and a pose which would work for my photo. I was extra lucky because when I then looked out of the window, I saw that there was fog outside! This is quite a rare thing in the city so I quickly packed my stuff, grabbed my camera and went out to shoot.

I set the focus by back-focusing and then twirled around in my dress with my roses for quite a while and was looked at funnily by people walking their dogs early in the morning. When I was sure I had the photo I wanted to use, I took photos from all around the spot I was in to have enough material for an expansion later on. I often use the Brenizer method which I can only recommend if you are working with a 35 or 50 mm lens. I also made sure I had a few images with the roses in different spots.

Then I went home and worked on the photo for a while, first expanding it, then adding the moving part of the dress from another photo I took, adding the roses and then working on light and tones.

I hope you like it!

All the best,
Andrea


If you want to see this photo on Flickr, go here.

52 weeks - Let's get creative

Hi everyone, 

As some of you know, I recently started a 52 weeks self portrait project. This particular project (there are many different ones) is set up by fellow photographers Nathalie Donado and Ella Ruth. They have set a theme for each week of the year and you then have to come up with an idea of your own of what the theme inspires you to do. 

At the moment we are in week 5 (although I have not yet taken my week 5 image since I only just posted my image for week 4). The themes for the past weeks were:

1/52 - Camera
2/52 - Red
3/52 - Books
4/52 - Flowers

The next theme will be Hats. I already have sketched several ideas I have for this particular theme but yet have to find the time to take it. And let's be honest, trying to convince yourself to go outside in these freezing temperatures to take a photo takes more of an effort than in summer. 

If you want to follow the works of the other photographers who are also doing this project, head over to Tumblr or Flickr.

The image included in this post is my interpretation of the first theme - Camera. I will post the other three images I already took and posted on Flickr/Facebook for you to see soon. 

Have a lovely day!
Andrea

New Blog

Hi everyone, 

This is my new blog - "Visual Stories". 

I started taking photos on a regular basis at the beginning of 2010. Well, that is not entirely true. Actually, I started taking photos a long time ago when I was still a teenager but since 2010 I have been taking photos with a DSLR (Go Nikon! - JK, Canon would have been an equally good choice! But as it is, I chose Nikon) and editing with Adobe Photoshop. I would be lying if I said that I actually knew what I was doing from the beginning (because who really does?) but with time and a lot of practice, I eventually mastered the mysteries of digital photography and then later digital post-processing. What was initially Chinese to me (focal point, aperture, numbers like 1.4 etc.) all made sense after a while and even helped me create my images in a much more controlled and easier way. 

Now, four years later, I am as passionate as in the beginning and I want to share with you on a regular basis what ideas and stories are the background of my photos, how the photos are taken and/or edited and what steps are necessary to create a photo that can be mind-blowing to a viewer.

I will also be sharing behind-the-scenes photos from some of my images, unpublished additional images and stories from Flickr meetups. 

Hope you enjoy my blog, get in touch if you have any stories to share or questions to ask and I will be happy to help if I can. :)

All the best for now, 
Andrea