playing

i've been so intrigued by {and smitten with} some of the work of an artist i recently discovered... santiago vasquez. so much so, it had me searching through my recent photos to see if i could use any to create something along the lines of what he's been doing with his photos.

if you've visited here before, you may have seen some of my "double exposure" posts, and you'll know my playing with that isn't anything new for me. but the part i have not really played around with {at least not that i can remember} is the repetition. i've seen a lot of photographers who seek out repetition in their subjects and photograph it as it is. but i love the way artists like vasquez take a photo {one that bears no repetition within the image} and repeats the photo itself. i wanted to incorporate both the overlapping and the repetition in these.

in the case of vasquez's work, his repetition produces some interesting imagery... i think so, anyway. i've been quite fascinated with triptychs in photography and film lately {something else i've been playing with and will post soon}, so his work really caught my eye. especially this piece and this piece.

anyway, my images today are the product of his inspiration!

as i played around with these, i noticed that several of my end results were turning out to look like insects or butterfly-esque things with wings... thus the "wings & things" title i put on my image {which you can see the original of here}.
.

{i love the way the image above looks on a black background. it's like a giant science fiction insect getting ready to prey on the forest!
same for the image two above that one... you can see it larger on a black background as well, here.}

.

.
i don't know... i just thought that with the interesting lines in the trees and foliage, these repetitive, mirrored and/or overlapping panels made these photos doubly interesting... or at least more so than when they were just single photos.

here is one where i turned it on its side, then played around with overlapping layers as well as different photoshop layer modes...
.

.

i did like the original photo for this one. but i was kind of crazy abot the colors, textures and shapes happening in the center after i started overlapping this photo onto itself. it's a lot different than most of the others, but i wanted to include it, as it's one of my favorites. it reminds me of stained glass.

below are some more results of my playing. but instead of playing in post-production, i the playing as i took the pictures... from that same photowalk shoot at morton arboretum from a few weeks ago.
.

.

had it not been for this santiago vasquez piece, i'd have forgotten about these tree shots that i had every intention of posting at some point. on these, i moved my camera up and down as i took pictures of the woods to get this effect of movement. they actually look like paintings more than photos. but i still loved how they came out.

whether during or after, it's fun to play around with photos sometimes. i don't really consider myself an artist... not in the vasquez sense, anyway. but i do like to play and let my creativity run free sometimes.

wanting isaac to explore his creative and artistic side, i have to remind myself to do the same. everyone has to color outside the lines at least a little from time to time, don't you think?

anyway, with that, here's one last image...
.

.

i simply took my favorite photo from that day and sliced it up. then i flipped some of the slices and repeated them.

this being the last full day of winter, i figured i'd pay homage and respect to the season with these snowy pics before it's over... in hopes that it won't be cruel and linger too much longer. overlapping photos are okay. overlapping seasons... not so much. =)

today's commute to work {and play} + some photo cards {so it's sort of like two posts in one}

i found it sort of ironic that today's project life 365 challenge was "daily_commute", because mr. b. stayed home today. so it happens that both our commutes look like this today... a walk up and down the hall from room to room. thus my shot of a view from the end of our hall where the bedrooms are, looking down toward the dining room on the other end. it was taken at about 10:00 this morning. YES!... we slept in!

normal tuesdays would have mr. b. getting up at 5:00 am to get ready for work and the twenty-minute commute that gets him there, and they'd have me typically in the scene pictured above. but today is a rare, though quickly trending, treat. his hours have been getting cut on-and-off as of late. thirty-hour weeks when they're slow. back up to forty hours if the work load picks up again.

it's not so grand for the bank account. but it's a big blessing in disguise in regards to getting some work done around the house, because it means an extra day off. saturdays and sundays slip away much too fast and sometimes get filled up with activity outside the home {like last weekend when our entire sunday was spent with friends and family at brunch and dinner out and house-warming visits in between}.

so we cherish his extra days off because, as is evident by the unpacked box in the hallway and the not-yet-hung artwork and framed photos leaning against the walls, we still have lots of settling in to do.

in fact, this very hallway is the one spot we've picked to work on today. our project is to tackle the hall closet {see door knob in shot above}, painting white the inside walls and covering the shelves in hopes of transforming what was once a terribly dark, mint-ish green color to bright white like a linen closet should be.

just like the landscape outside that is currently getting covered in what will end up being around ten inches of snow, this closet is getting a major white-wash. so how appropriate that the photo prompt for today should be commute-related. my every-day is waking up and walking down that hall to make my coffee for the day, then trekking from room to room to work on things that need to be done. sometimes that entails chasing isaac down the hall when he's trying to get away from me or running towards me after hearing key words like "diaper change" or "bath-time".

but today, this hallway is not merely the "roadway" that gets me to work. it's also the destination.

before the painting began, we emptied the shelves and removed them, opening up the tiny room to something quite enticing to a little toddler boy... a little fort or secret hide-away. it even has two step-like shelves built into the floor, so isaac felt compelled to climb and use them as a reading nook while dada got the paint tray ready.










didn't i tell you? awful green, no? couldn't wait to get that thing painted over with layers as bright as our snowy lawn.

* * * * *

speaking of the white-wash outside, it's the reason mr. b. chose this tuesday for his day off. {how nice that they at least get to pick which day they want to take off when hours are cut!}

last week, when we got a significant snowfall, i got the car stuck on three different up-hill streets in our neighborhood, including ours. our front-wheel drive is no good in this weather. terrible handling... the worst of any car we've ever owned. i am so glad that he is able to be home safe with us today and not having to deal with his normal drive in what would be a most abnormal, long and potentially dangerous commute.

anyway, in celebration of the beautiful snow that it coming down so swiftly outside, i thought i'd re-add a few of my favorite shots from my photo-walk post a few days back, but this time with quotes i found about snow or winter. i've been working on these for some potential photo-cards that i've been asked to make for a friend's boutique. these are rough drafts, as some of the typography will likely change. but it's a start...

















no winter quote on this one. just a quote i love...





this next one obviously won't be a card. i just wanted to make a "moving picture" and thought i'd add it too.

in case it's difficult to read, the above quote says "there is a privacy about it which no other season gives you. in spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself." ~ruth stout

here are a few more photoless quotes i thought worth including because they made me smile.

~

"to shorten winter, borrow some money due in spring."

~w.j. vogel

"i was just thinking, if it is really religion with these nudist colonies, they sure must turn atheists in the wintertime."

~will rogers

"winter is the season in which people try to keep the house as warm as it was in the summer, when they complained about the heat."

~unknown

"winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home."

~edith sitwell
{yes!... i quite agree!}

~

well, as long as i'm at it, i thought i'd also post my favorite photos of the two friends i went on that photo-walk with.

carrie's...   

amy's...

we now all have our photos from the walk added to a group pool on flickr.

it was so much fun to see their shots... many that looked much like mine {because we all had the same idea}, but many that were so different too. those were the shots i'd see and think "why didn't i think of that?" that's what makes this fun!

finally, i am adding a shot they each took of me as i was photographing that day. i've converted both to black and white, but loved each of them even when they were still color.




i so loved the way carrie's shot is composed. and i'm smitten with the way amy caught sun flare in the background of her shot. two really great shots that i'm really honored to be a part of! it's fun to see what you look like while taking pictures... a rare window to a view we never really see as photographers. so i was glad they took these. we all had fun with shooting each other shooting that day.

* * * * *

well, now it's 5:00 pm, and the shelves are done... almost. everything is painted. but it wasn't all work and no play. i took time out here and there to do this post {which i started shortly after i shot my "daily commute" photo}. and then there's isaac...




pretty much all he did today was play. his starring role?... the lamp that came alive.

with that, i better get back to work before the boss hubby fires me! i've still got three more shelves to cover with contact paper. then i'll finally have a place for all our blankets and sheets and such. hooray!

but before i go, would you like to see the {almost} finished product?...

a much-improved transformation, wouldn't you say?

these days

it finally snowed... appropriately so, on the first day of winter. there's that.

then there's this... i realized today {as the glistening clumps of ice on our trees caught my eye} that it's been over a month since i took a single photograph. november 20th was the last time my camera recorded anything through its lens.

and those shots were not even photos for myself... but for a sweet friend who asked me to take some pics of her kiddos, hoping to get something frame-worthy to give to her in-laws while visiting them over thanksgiving. {will share some of those below}.

other than that, no photos of anything... not even isaac. SHOCKER. me? not take pictures of isaac? for over a month?

i've even surprised myself with that, to be honest. surprise that teeters on disappointment, because i hate the thought of not having recorded him in some way for such a large chunk of time... especially right now when he is changing so rapidly.

i'd have felt this way anyway, but even MORE so when i saw this {which instantly had my mind up for me to be a part of... with not even the slightest hesitation}.

truthfully... i had the same thought, after seeing the released photo of olivia, as that of the person who started the olivia project when she saw the photo. i was also quite sure that the photo was from a professional shoot {you can just tell}, and not just some random pic downloaded off of someone's phone. it made me sad because, also like the founder of the olivia act, i could tell the photoshoot was done recently. it was a sobering thought. but it also solidified why i take pictures... not just of my own son, but of other families... for other families... the kids and their parents.

so... if you are a reader that lives in the chicagoland area {namely the northwest suburbs} and have a somewhat local family in mind who you would like to see get this 30 minute family photo session {from me at no cost}, please nominate them by leaving me a comment and some info as to where i can contact you. or contact me via the e-mail link at the bottom of my blog.

i'd so love to take part in this act/movement that is sort of sweeping this online community of photographers everywhere. i love the idea, and couldn't be happier to give back this way.

that said, i realize i need to get some pics of isaac very soon, too. there were multiple reasons i chose to set my camera down for a while. but all it takes is five minutes outside on a sunny, wintery day while isaac naps to get some pics of the freshly fallen snow and the icy branches reflecting the sun before i want to get back into it. i do miss that little electronic contraption!

the last time i took photos of isaac was late october...


and again shortly afterward in early november for some early christmas cheer...

tell me that's not one handsome little guy right there. go ahead. just try!


if you think he looks different {i.e., all grown up} in these, imagine how he must look a whole-big-giant-month later!

it's bitterly cold here today. in all honesty, i have not so much as stepped out of my house for almost two weeks now... lots going on to keep me here. so it felt good to get out for a minute or two, even with the plunge into arctic-like temps.

other than my post from a couple days ago, my blogging has migrated to the back burner just as much as my photography has. but i'm certain that before my break at some point, i mentioned something about major things in the works for our lives. unfortunately, it's still too soon to spill the beans. so i remain hush-hush for a little while longer.

hah! i guess i could have just made a short post that said... "these days... can't tell you much." ...and then been done with it!

i can tell you this... i'm enjoying my home. i'm enjoying sweet isaac who says "no-is" for nose {while grabbing my no-is... OUCH!} and says "BUMMM-berrrs!!"absolutely any time he sees any numbers anywhere, especially when he walks past the bathroom and is reminded of the multi-colored foam numbers that he gets to play with during bath time. {oh, my gosh... he is a NUMBER FIEND if i ever saw one... and i LOVE it!} he knows every number up through ten and every letter of the alphabet... having finally just conquered "W", which sounds a little more like "dubwah-wah". {that darn lone, muti-syllabic letter!!}

wish i could play audio of it all here for you. it's the cutest thing ever. yup. ever.

on thanksgiving day, he chipped one of his upper front teeth on that cast-iron tub of bumbers. i nearly cried. but i've come to realize... not even a chipped tooth can dim that brilliant smile of his. in fact, it might just be even more endearing now. hardly a day goes by that i'm not gobbling him up every chance i get.

well... i think that's mostly it. that's really just about all of what these days are right now. we look forward to christmas and new years and a boy who's one year older than last, with one year more of awareness and experience under his belt... christmas is going to be that much more magical this year because of it. CAN'T WAIT!

i leave you with my girlfriend's sweet little ones... the couple pics that actually {sort of} turned out. {they're quite wiggly at that age!}...

see what i mean?
 
love those kids! love the hats!... one of which is courtesy of yours truly.

i'm sure i'll be back on here at least one more time... to say merry christmas. but just in case i don't make it back before tuesday... MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!