Memories, dreams and reflections 2011–part 1

Ashley over at Ramblings and Photos has set an interesting photo quest as a way to reflect on the year.  She has a list of 25 items and invites us to share photos that fit the categories between now and the end of the year.

The idea appealed so I decided to play along.  I want to print them out so I created a  8 x 8 page with a collage and brief description.

I’m doing the items on the list in no particular order.  I’ll create and post one page each week.

Anyone else playing along with this exercise?

Photo art from the archives

For Photo Art Friday this week Bonnie proposed that we all look through our archives and post a piece from the past that deserved another showing. 

I thought it would be fun to show my first use of a texture and blending modes – the texture was from ShadowHouse Creations.  I created it as part of creativity bootcamp in response to the prompt ‘hush’.  I still really like it and haven’t lost the interest in applying textures.

I also came across this image which for some reason I have never posted.  I know it has a linen or canvas texture applied but don’t know which one.

Do you have the 1st instance of using a technique that you now use all the time?

Istanbul–I believe

Last week I had my third work trip to a big city for a workshop.  I know that I was in Istanbul but the suburb and our hotel could have been in any large city.  There were lots of tall apartment blocks, busy roads, lots of cafes (including Starbucks) and some corner shops selling basic supplies.  There was a school and yellow taxis and buses crammed full of people.

One clue that this was Turkey was the flag flying in the school playground.  And form my bedroom window on the 16th floor, in the distance I could see the shape of large domes and turrets of the large mosque on the hill in the middle of town. 

Unfortunately I did not have any free time on this trip so did not get into the middle of town to see the bazaar or historic sights.

So I decided to have just 2 pages for Istanbul in the photo book I’m creating with some Biograffiti templates.

I haven’t shown the text because it has details of the people at the workshop.

I included some photos taken from the plane on my flight back as they show the snow capped mountains and a glorious sunset.

That’s it for my trips this year but I will continue this album next year as I’m likely to be running workshop in more big cities.

abstract pixels

Another fun play session for Photo Art Friday.  I was inspired by Carola Bartz’s piece last week where she inverted the image so I opened up several photos and inverted them all.  One photo of flax leaves – now in shades of blue – attracted me because of the lines.  I found that the change in colours freed my eye to see the image as abstract rather than an object. Then I flipped it horizontally and then the 2 images vertically to create this kaleidoscope effect.

Thanks to Bonnie for encouraging us to experiment and play with photo art.  Check out what everyone else has been up to here.