sneak peak

time, originally uploaded by avalilly.

Here's one of the first shots from my photoshoot with the lovely Abby from friday.

It's a shame I've been so busy, because I just want to come home and work on these! I'll have more up soon though.

Still in love with the location. <3

27/52

au naturel, originally uploaded by avalilly.

27 of 52! I'm getting closer. So slowly, but surely.

Yes, square crop. Not excited about it, but it really was the best way to resolve it. I will probably play with this some more, maybe do a before after for ye all to see what it went through to get to here. It's been suggested to try making the texture wrap around my shoulders, which could be interesting! I'll have to get out my digital paint brush and see what I can do. Textures can only do so much on their own.

I may or may not have scrubbed a few layers of skin off in the shower trying to get the red and the spirit gum off my forehead. I forgot I had spirit gum remover. D'oh.

make-over

So I gave the blog layout / template a make-over. Let me know what you think!

Before it was just the simple template with plain grey for the background. I apparently haven't changed it since blogger implemented their new design for customization, so I was pleasently surprised at how much easier it is now.

The only thing I'm definitely changing in the near future is the header image. It's not sitting right where it is now, so I'll either tweak that or make a new one entitrely.

Anywho, I feel a lot better about it now. After making my website and tumblr (which will probably get a new look soon too), I felt way too plain. This looks much better, I think.

I've got a photoshoot lined up for tomorrow that I'm really excited about, so hopefully I'll be able to show you photos from that soon!

Have a happy thursday~

RMGexposed

Saturday, November 13th was the evening of the RMGexposed event at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. I had been working for the previous twelve hours, so I wasn't very much feeling the spirit of mingling and meeting new people. I just sort of made my way around the exhibition and took some quick photos of the set up and the crowd.

I loved their installation in the lobby. They had these giant balloons strung up and had photographs from their permanent collection randomly projected on to them.

This is my print that I donated for the silent auction after being a selected finalist in the juried competition. I didn't realize the starting bid would be $75, but then I noticed the first bid on mine was $110!! I was so surprised, but it felt pretty awesome! I should inquire to see how much it ended up going for.

Overall, I was quite impressed with the gallery and the turn out. There were SO MANY people who attended. I had no idea such a lovely place existed in downtown Oshawa, but I'm glad I know now. I'll have to go back more often.

Also, this awesome store donated a bunch of furniture for a lounge set up. I believe it was called Brush Strokes. They had some really nice stuff out. I took a photo of this lamp at the reception desk because I aspire to own it someday, I just need to track it down:

How cool is that? It's a cityscape on the metal face of the lamp. If you look at it from above, the shape of the lamp shade is: (). So fun. Definitely going to have to make a trip to that store and hopefully not have to cry about how much I can't afford beautiful things.

'Til next time~

30th annual juried art exhibition

As promised, here are some photos from the group show I was recently a part of at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington. The show ran from October 17 - November 7, 2010. I didn't take any photos at the opening reception as it was a bit crowded, so I just went back on another day when there were less people around to take these. 

Room #1:

Room #2:

I was very excited to find out that the jury had selected my piece to be a part of the show. Then I found out they awarded it with the VAC Award of Encouragement! So much love.

I'm very happy to have been a part of it.

can anyone recommend me some new camera gear?

My dslr is going to be 2 years old on Dec. 26. Last year I bought it a 50mm lens to keep it company. I was thinking maybe a new friend might be nice.

Unlike last year, I’m really not sure what I want to try though. I was thinking of looking around for maybe a nice flash, since lighting equipment seems a bit frivolous at this point considering I don’t have a definite space I shoot in. The Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash seems pretty radtacular, albeit a slight bit pricey for my poor ass…

Aside from my 18-55mm and 50mm I’ve only tried a couple 70-200mm lenses and I don't feel that I’d need them for my own work. I only use them for action/sports photography at work and it’s not really my thing personal work wise.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated! I’d put them on my christmas list, but I know it’s not something the fam would go for, and I like to work towards/make my own big purchases myself. Plus it’ll give me something to research! =D

Thanks pals~

26/52

apprehensive, originally uploaded by avalilly.

So 26 of 52 is the half way mark. Considering I started this on the first week of 2010... lol.

The moral of the story is, if you have a scheduled plan of sorts, stick to it. I missed one week because of my final finals of university and felt like I failed... and then I didn't take another self portrait until a month later. So it's definitely gotten casual. That's okay. I'll probably still keep going either 'til I get to 52 or until the end of the year just to see how much I did do.

I think I just don't like having to do things, so I enjoy it a lot more when I'm just taking photos because I want to. I do like the challenge though.

I'll try harder, I promise.

e-newspaper

Random thing, but my cousin was in town briefly while travelling with her new job and so I met up with her. She is travelling with a couple of people across Canada to teach artistic robot making in schools. They got me to take a photo of them in front of their crazy robot beaver bus and now it's in the Milton news... online?

http://www.insidehalton.com/community/milton/article/894826

That's the article there.

So I guess I have a news photo credit to my name. Something like that! Sounds like a fun adventure.