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.

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.

25/52

warmer climate, originally uploaded by avalilly.

Alexander McQueen designed a gorgeous monarch butterfly inspired dress for inclusion in his 2011 spring/summer collection. When I say inspired by, I mean it's entirely comprised of monarch butterfly wing patterns. It's awesome.

Thus, I had this terrible urge to own feather monarch butterflies. They're a little more cooperative than the real kind. I've actually been meaning to find some for various other reasons as well, but I guess that was just a good kick to go out and get them. It's strange how reminders show up like that.

They'll be a fun prop to play with for now until I get around to making something out of them.

24/52

condolences, originally uploaded by avalilly.

That's me again, hanging out on the ceiling. I'm having fun with these. They are incredibly time consuming, what with getting the furniture to stick to the ceiling and all, but it's worth it in the end.

I may have to print these out soon and see how they look when they're all tangible. I guess with being digital and all, it's hard to tell if my computer screen is hiding anything I may have missed. Sooo many pixels.

23/52

the colour noir, originally uploaded by avalilly.

Bit of an impromptu shot this week. While working on the website in the dining room, I noticed the lovely light/shadow combination on the floor happening from the blinds. I figured, why not try and use it somehow. It's probably the fastest shoot I've ever done. The above image is from near the end of the set and the below image is actually the first one I took.

here, originally uploaded by avalilly.

It's more of an outtake, but I kinda like it. The hair spilling through the frame is probably the reason. Sometimes it pays off to be spontainious with these things. I'm still horribly behind in this project, but this made me feel a little better about it. It's definitely more of a "52 portraits done whenever I felt like it sometime in 2010" thing.

Also, my cat parked on my stomach and lay there judging me for the entirety of this shoot.

22/52

up, originally uploaded by avalilly.

This is the lovely overgrown garden I mentioned in the previous post that I found while on a bike ride. It looks like this on both sides of the sidewalk. It's fantastic. I'd like to shoot here again sometime, as I didn't try as much as I could have while I was there. The air was so incredibly humid it felt like I was swimming through it. It's uncomfortably difficult to want to shoot photos while MELTING and having the entire world stick to you.

However, I think the weather realized it's now September (WHAT!) and has cooled off substantially since then. I hope these flowers stick around. I'm not really sure what they are... coreopsis maybe? I've only seen yellow ones before. There were so many different colours!

I need to get myself a good photo buddy. I think it would make me much less timid to do outdoor shoots. Not sure if being known as that girl who runs around by herself with camera equipment all over town is a good thing!

Hope everyone is enjoying what's left of summer!

21/52

a little light reading on the ceiling, originally uploaded by avalilly.

Finally got motivated to try another upsidedown, life on the ceiling, crazy editing fun times photo. Oddly enough, because I really wanted to go outside and take photos by this house I discovered on a bike ride the other day, but didn't leave the house to do so. I'm super hoping they don't change their garden anytime soon, because I'm going away for the weekend and would like to take photos there once I'm back and ready to!

Anywho... this photo. It is probably not finished. I think I'll tinker around with it some more until I feel like it's arty enough for my taste. I am excited to keep this going though. There's not much summer left and I must enjoy as much of it as I possibly can and shoot as many photos (to catch up!) before it disappears. Just because.

I do enjoy fall, I just also enjoy bare legs and summer dresses.

20/52

Oh blog, how I have neglected you.

Finally got around to pretending I'm still doing this project properly. Sigh. SOME DAY. PERSERVERENCE.



geisha, originally uploaded by avalilly.

This "week's" shot inspired by the shot below (also by me!):

heart shaped lipstick, originally uploaded by avalilly.

I was told it looked sort of like geisha makeup, which sounded kinda cool, so I thought why not give it a swing. My lovely friend Laurie bought me the parasol back in first year for secret santa. It's a lovely prop. I need to figure out how to display it proper. There's an alternate shot on my flickr photostream if you're interested.

My BenNye aqua cakes finally got their turn, very minimally, in the first shot. They're like putting water colour paint on your face. It's quite interesting how they work. I need to do something more elaborate in the future with them though. I enjoyed the small 'pop of red' for now though.

Anywho, I've got some new stuff to upload eventually. I did photos for my cousin's little boy's 5th birthday. He's adorable and hilarious. Got a few rounds of headshots in for some new people as well. Tried doing more theatre stills, didn't turn out quite as nice as the last one, but it was during a practice run so it wasn't lit the way it would be on stage. However, I got to get up close with the actors so the shots are more dynamic than last time!

This weekend I am off to Ottawa for another photo job. Can't wait, I haven't been there since my grade eight grad trip. Should be wonderful!

19/52

sleep tight, originally uploaded by avalilly.

Hmmmmmmm. Yah, I still don't know how I feel about this one. I was happy about it until I started editing and then I just had mixed feelings. Ah well, it's something.

I have another for the 52 project in the works. It's just... there's so much editing involved when you decide to pretend you live on the ceiling (think week 15). It should be a fun mini-series though. I just... have to do it. Blahhh.

On the plus, I am nearly finished another large drawing. Soon, my pets. Soon.

17/52

printemps, originally uploaded by avalilly.

I should really shoot outdoors more often. So many more (easy!) pretty options. Get a little flower bokeh going and voila, a decent photo. Unfortunately, there's people outdoors. Most of the areas I've been interested in going to shoot at end up being somewhat popular for nature walks or whatever it is people like to do outside. I really don't like when there's other people around when I'm doing self portraits, everything ends up so terribly awkward!

This is just in my backyard though, so it wasn't too bad. Follow the flickr link to find two more crop options. I really hate having to crop. I like to have the composition made in camera, but sometimes when you're dealing with variables like, say, not being able to see the composition while you're in front of the camera, sometimes it's necessary.

Sqaure crops are a general pet peeve anyways. Unless you're shooting with a square format camera where you have to compose for a square frame, most people don't balance them right and it just bugs meeee!

16/52

delicate, originally uploaded by avalilly.

Slowly but surely making up for past weeks. I had to be sneaky about this one, I highly doubt my mother would have approved of the fact that I was wearing her beautiful orchid flowers as a hat. 'Twas kinda fun though. Now I have a strange urge to seek out an orchid hair pin or whathaveyou.

Follow the flickr link for a couple more alternates.

15/52

I'm not normal, originally uploaded by avalilly.

So behind. Should probably stop hanging out on the ceiling. It takes up too much of my time... time that could be spent getting caught up on this 52 weeks project! (This was a much longer edit than anticipated.)

Coming soon: a shoot with Astrea for Miranda Scott jewlery and my first set of couples photos for some lovely friends of mine (I'm really excited about these)!

14/52

falling without knowing, originally uploaded by avalilly.

So, I'm a bit behind on my 52 weeks project. I should be able to catch up over the next week though.

I think this is my favourite one of the project so far. I've never tried anything like this before, so I'm happy that it [eventually] turned out! It was frustrating to shoot, but the photos are pretty neat.

There's something wrong with the autofocus on my camera I think. Both my 18-55 and 50mm seem to have trouble focusing, especially on something as simple as a figure infront of a plain background. I had to get a friend to stand in for me so I could manual focus on them and then I just tried to stay in one spot for the rest of this shoot.

Hopefully, it's just in a bad mood...

13/52

unbearable lightness of being, originally uploaded by avalilly.

I'm not generally a big fan of overexposure, mostly because it seems anytime someone gets access to photoshop or the like for the first time they just find the brightness/contrast tool and go to town with it. I attempted to achieve this look as best I could in the camera, so there wasn't that much editing to be done.

At the last minute, while about to pack up the camera, I noticed a couple decorative hair pieces sitting on the ledge by the door, so I popped one on and managed to get this in just a few frames. I always find it strange when that happens, but I've made it a rule that once I think I've got the shot I want in the camera - take a few more just for safety. You never know!

I may make this one of my business cards.

12/52

secret heart, originally uploaded by avalilly.

Follow the Flickr link and the original shot is in the comments. I cropped it down since it seemed more coy without the eyes in the frame. I also need to fix the smudgier one of the kisses...


This week is going to be a mad dash to the finish it would seem. I thought classes were ending sometime around the first week of april. It would appear I was mistaken... everything is due at the beginning of next week! Argh.

On the plus side, I am feeling more confident with my drawing series (I actually HAVE a series!!), so I'll hopefully be able to show them all together soon. It feels so strange, but I'm going to be done school soon... anything I work on now is going to be because I want to...

11/52

olde, originally uploaded by avalilly.

ingenue, originally uploaded by avalilly.

I'm not really sure which one to make my official weekly shot. I like them both. The boy-type preferred the second one, I like it a lot too mostly because I generally reject photos of me from that angle. There's less awkward shadowing in the first one though.

PS: that's a new hair colour! Finally tried a real dye... if you consider semi-permanent real. It'll wash out in about a month or so, but I like it. Looks very red under sunlight. I think I still prefer my natural shade though.

10/52

pale, originally uploaded by avalilly.

I just noticed all I've really been uploading here is my 52 week project as of late. I think I'm a bit more back on my feet as of this week in terms of having time to focus on me again though, so I'll try and get some more variety up in here. I have a couple art show related things to post, another film, some headshots, and work from my red lipstick photoshoots!

Life gets a bit crazy sometimes though.

9/52

sequin wave, originally uploaded by avalilly.

Didn't really have a plan for this week's portrait, so I decided to just play and see what would happen.

I really don't want to be in school anymore. I want it to be over so I can just work on what I want to work on... but I know even that won't happen, because I have to go be a real person and get a job and then that'll be getting in my way. Maybe I'm just craving a change.

My birthday is tomorrow!

8/52

it won't do, originally uploaded by avalilly.

Since I was busytimes last weekend, I didn't have time to do a valentine's day-esque photo, so I just did it this week instead! I sort of wanted the cinnamon heart to be a little bit more prominent, but I think I kind of like how small it is. It's like a secret heart. While processing, all I could think of was this song:




<3

7/52

production designer habitat, originally uploaded by avalilly.

Last week's photo. I was busybusy times on set, so I just snapped this really quick at lunch time since I didn't have time to do a planned photoshoot of any kind.

'Tis the set I designed and built in the sound stage at York! I now want tinfoil stars and christmas lights everywhere in my life.

I'll upload a selection of production stills once I catch up on all the work I've been neglecting to do in liu of this film~