18/52 - graduated!

I graduated from York University's specialized honours BFA in Visual Arts program this year. The ceremony was June 14, 2010. Oh the excitement to be finished! It's nice to be able to work on whatever you want whenever you want... but I have to be a real person now, so it's kind of scary too!

cap and roses, originally uploaded by avalilly.

I decided to add this to my 52 weeks project. Seemed fitting as an important week and oh how behind I am in it... let's not talk about it.

Since then I've gotten a bunch of random photo jobs, which is awesome because I've almost completely covered the cost of my big ol' Canon Pixma Pro9000 mk II purchase from last month. I need to figure out a way of selling prints online now that I'm able to print everything myself. Once I do that, I'll pass along the info on how to order, if you're interested!

jay

Last week I did a photoshoot for my cousin's little boy Jay. He's turning 5! He is a hilarious, adorable little guy. I've never worked with children before, so it was an interesting change. There's a lot more deal making that has be made in order to get a shot! For example, I had to play "rock". This involved throwing rocks into the river. Then he would smile for me to take the pictures! Haha.

jay: 5 years, originally uploaded by avalilly.

hat, originally uploaded by avalilly.

stone's throw, originally uploaded by avalilly.

walk on, originally uploaded by avalilly.

jay, originally uploaded by avalilly.

look what I can do, originally uploaded by avalilly.

It was a fun way to start the day, that's for sure! And yes, that is infact a custom t-shirt. Cute idea!

jameson and lysanne

Jameson and Lys recently celebrated their 6th anniversary. He originally approached me to do these photos back in the winter, but I think it would have been too cold running around downtown toronto finding fun things to take photos near. This was my first try at any sort of relationship photos, so I'm happy with the turn out! Plus, they look so great together. Made my job easy!

I blinked to see polite ghosts fading quickly, originally uploaded by avalilly.

jameson and lysanne, originally uploaded by avalilly.

jameson and lysanne, originally uploaded by avalilly.

jameson and lysanne, originally uploaded by avalilly.

jameson and lysanne, originally uploaded by avalilly.

jameson and lysanne, originally uploaded by avalilly.

jameson and lysanne, originally uploaded by avalilly.

jameson and lysanne, originally uploaded by avalilly.

In case I happen to upload any more from this shoot, you can find them here: set!

lost things

Stumbled across this earlier. I absolutely adore it. Had to post it, if not for the sake of never losing it! I would love to make something like this some day. <3

makeup monster birthday

cereal and face, originally uploaded by avalilly.

Just wanted to dedicate a post to my favourite lil makeup artist, Katie Melanson. Today is her birfdayyy. She is far away in another land though, studying makeup artistry at Vancouver Film School. We all miss her muchly, especially me because who else would I randomly stick lucky charms on my face with, or make Astrea and Jamie come over so we can make them model for us, or dedicate copious amounts of our lives to being malmas.

Happy birthday, makeupmonstermelanson! Have a wonderful day... and then come back 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.