Autumn Leaves

This week had been more about art then photography - a couple of reasons for that. Firstly its dark a lot of the time now and work has been pretty busy, secondly the new Exploring with a Camera challenge has been exactly that - challenging! the topic is 'printed aspect ratios', and contains some really useful info. I have read it a couple of times now and nearly understand it but it's a work in progress! 

So I have been indoors painting a mixed media piece I am calling autumn leaves - see below

I can see as we get nearer to Christmas there will be less and less time for art and photography. Its my turn to host the family Christmas which is both a lot of fun and a lot of work! Still I am going to try and work on another picture this week.

Christmas lights in the West End

I had to go to a meeting in London on Wednesday and took the opportunity to try out the  camera on my new phone. I took a couple of general views of the street and then some of store window displays.

 The puppets, sleigh and swans are from Liberty's,  my all time favourite store. If you are in London and haven't been there go and see it  - an arts and craft building full of gorgeous things (most of which I can't afford but looking is free!).

I honestly can't remember which shop the model with the the baubles was in - more interested in composing the photo than noticing who the window belonged to!

Weekend on Wight

Just got back from a fab weekend on the Isle of Wight. The weather today was absolutely stunning for November. While I was out and about I managed to take a couple more photos's showing  opposing lines which I am posting below.

Those two were taken yesterday  when the weather wasn't quite as good. But today we went for a walk up on to Headon Warren with its stunning views of the Needles rocks.  My interest was caught by a number of huge toadstools which I would normally associate with woodland rather than coastal heathland. I am adding a couple here and also some to the autumn photo set.

Exploring with my Camera 2

At the weekend I headed  over to Kat Eye Studio to check out the latest challenge. The new theme is 'opposing lines' which are interesting but harder to find than 'found texture' particularly when the sun is in short supply. As it happens I was in East London on Friday visiting the Westfield shopping centre which overlooks the new Olympic stadium.  I took a couple of pictures while I was there that I felt demonstrated the opposing line theme  ( below) is that lucky or what!

I have to say the shoppping centre was a bit of a disappointment - lots of shops but 'same old same old' I guess no young creative businessess can afford the rent!

The next set of pictures were taken on holiday in Sicily in June and are the result of my trawl though this years photos trying to discover somthing that would fit the theme.

welcome to my new workspace

I got my new workspace sorted out and am really pleased with it. One real bonus is that I can follow lessons on the computer and paint at the same time without being too worrried about getting paint on the screen! This week I have been concentrating on painting rather than photography creating my goddess on the Willowing course. I am having a lot of fun with it, which has surprised me as I really didn't think figures was my thing, never mind faces! It also seems to be going a lot better than I expected and I am learning lots of new techniques - still time to mess it up though!

I have decided to concentrate this year on trying out as many different styles and techniques as possible, even if they don't initially appeal to me, in the hope that  I will be able to take what fits best with me from all of these ideas and create a style of my own.

New workspace with embronic goddess!

I have also added a couple of new photos to the autumn 2011 collection - do take a peak.