January Colours

I’m joining in the latest of Stephanie Levy’s online courses – this one has a seasonal flavour. And this week she encouraged us to take a walk around our neighbourhood paying particular attention to colour. Well, I am always walking and snapping, looking at colour and pattern . But it is interesting that when you really focus on one element the subtle differences seem even more pronounced. I was surprised how many variations I could even find amongst the brown shades ( a colour that I have been known to call “not a colour” ). Luckily the day I picked for this was one of those crisp bright winter days. Others have been posting lovely snowy images but if it had been white here there is no way I would have managed this route as there is a steep hill at both ends of the town.

Also, wee reminder that there are only two more days to pick up a bargain at my Etsy shop before I close the doors. I will be discontinuing a lot of that range in their current format – although some images will find their way over to my other shop at www.rhiannonconnelly.com A few people have been asking me more about why I’ve decided to do that , so will address that in the next post.

January in Pictures

This is how South Queensferry looks on the first day of the year – the participants in the Loony Dook marching down the High Street , led by the town crier.

And Queensferry on a quieter day.

Looking back at the town from the harbour.

Wintery skies on the edge of the town.

Although I’ve taken this month quite slowly on the blogging front that doesn’t mean that there has been no picture taking going on. Here’s a little round up of the year so far – part two tomorrow.

And a wee reminder that my Etsy closing sale is running until Saturday.

Instagram – 7 Vignettes

It’s that time of the month again – 7 Vignettes time. Every month from the 1st to the 7th Instagram is full of vignettes done to themes put forward by Jen Bishop ( @interiorsaddict ) . I’ve missed doing the last few as I was travelling or otherwise unable, but this month I made a point of joining in again.

Some of the themes seem really difficult, but it is interesting that something will usually occur quite quickly once you get going. I enjoy the challenge and working with a word I didn’t choose. The sense of community around it is fun but even more than that, it pushes me to refine my styling skills. As I am in the process of doing new product shots that is very useful. If you fancy joining in next time keep a lookout for the #7vignettes tag on Instagram.

If you’d like to be in the know when the new range launches you can subscribe to my studio newsletter here.

August Break Day 22 – Instagram Fun

A while ago I submitted a few Instagram pictures to a contest that the Dutch interior magazine 101 Woonideen were holding. The idea was to send pictures that showed colour in the home. I was delighted to see that one of them was chosen and here you can see it featured in the magazine. It’s a favourite magazine of mine , so that was a lovely surprise.

And just a wee tip off – I know my birthday is on Sunday, but since that is not a great day for online goings on I am holding my annual 50% off day on Friday ( tomorrow). Although I do a few different offers over a year I only ever do the 50% off day once – the offer will run for 24 hours. To take advantage of it use the code HAPPYDAY – please let me know if you have any problems with it.

The Instant Lab – A new way of working ?

There was a much awaited delivery yesterday. For months – nearly a year, I have been following the progress of the Impossible team who set up a Kickstarter campaign to develop and manufacture an “Instant Lab”. The idea was to be able to take an Iphone photograph and transform it into a Polaroid style picture.

Given that I have largely replaced my Polaroid shooting with Iphonography that was too interesting to resist, so I became a backer. A nice aspect to Kickstarter is that once you back a project you receive their updates and learn more about how the project is coming along. The manufacturing hiccups and other issues along the way. The downside of course, is that sometimes extreme patience is required. The Impossible team met quite a few different production issues and each time the delivery date was put back again.

But this week we finally got our shipping notices and yesterday I had the Instant Lab in my hands for a first try out. How exciting ! Will this be something that becomes a part of my creative work flow ? Or will it sit collecting dust on the shelf ? Only time will tell. But I am keeping an open mind about the kind of projects I could use it for.

I did a few test shots yesterday. The first was using an already very manipulated image and it came out looking quite different. The second one that I show here is a more or less “straight” shot from the phone – of quite bright pink gerbera, so the film has lightened and softened it quite a bit. I think it will require a bit of playing around with settings to get the kind of results I’d like – although there is also something quite nice about the unpredictability of the method. I haven’t had a go at manipulating them yet – I have a hunch that this film is not going to be great for that, so I will need to find other techniques.

As for actually using the Instant Lab – it all worked pretty much the way the instructions said and although it is not tiny, it would not be too big to take out and about. That is the way I’d prefer to use it, as a way to be working away from the studio. So far I used the film they supplied with it, but it will also work with all previous Polaroid/Impossible films so that will be my next experiment.

If you would like to keep up to date with my experiments and other behind scenes snippets you can subscribe to my Studio Newsletter here.

All Roads Lead to Leiden

Oh the Internet is a funny and tangled place. A day or so ago Ama an Etsy friend from Leiden posted a picture that a local blogger, Louise, had taken of her market stand during one of Leiden’s many festive weekends. Of course, I had to pop over to the blog to read the review and reminisce over attending the same event last summer. On reading a bit further I discovered that the same blogger had just been featured by Tina,a London blogging friend who has a regular challenge post. And the challenge this time was for each of them to make a video about their respective towns, Leiden and London. So hop over here to see both of their videos.

In the meantime I have finally felt like piecing together this Ixxi that I designed with images from ” A Leiden Year”. I know it sounds a bit soppy, but I felt too sad about the end of the Dutch adventure to pin it up before now. It really felt that I was reconnecting to a part of my heritage again , only to see it come to a halt. Well, there are good sides to every change, of course, but I do plan to hang on to those strengthened Dutch ties with more regular visits – and with a bit of luck there will be another period over there in the future.

Day 8 – My Windowsill Laboratory.

In every place I’ve lived there is usually one spot that becomes my favourite place to shoot. And in the South Queensferry house it is this windowsill. Quite often I work at a table right alongside, which I like because I can see the comings and goings in the street outside while I am working on the computer.

The sill is nice and broad and so can cope with quite a big vase of flowers and the painted wooden surface adds a nice element to many photographs. Every week I choose some new flowers, often from the really lovely little florists ( Bees Flower Shop – drop in if you are passing ! ) just along the street and then arrange a still life for the windowsill.

Before leaving Holland I did a bit of a mad shop of all kinds of little vases and props , which seemed a bit excessive at the time ( not to me, but you know, to some other folks ! ). Now I’m very glad that I did build up this stash as I’ve been able to make a lot of different colour combinations , and so far no bunch of flowers has failed to fit in with one or two pieces.

Of course these images show up in my Instagram feed quite often, but I’ve also been shooting with other cameras and some images will be appearing as prints before long.

Day 5 – Colouring Wednesday

Wednesday is one of those days. Its not the start of the week with a full complement of days to fill. And its not Friday with the weekend right after. Its just there, right in the middle, with the potential to feel a bit flat and colourless. I want to change that and provide a bit of a colour splash – to cheer myself up, if noone else !

You can take the girl out of Holland, but you can’t take Holland out of the girl !

The garden is giving me a helping hand with this today. After endless winter and no bulbs coming through when you’d expect them, the other side of the coin is a flurry of growth and colour all at once. Masses of tulips and all kinds of flowering bushes ( that I do not yet know the names of. I need my garden expert auntie to visit and remind me of them all ! )

Even though the flowers have emerged, the weather still thinks it is the end of winter, so my little photo essay had to be timed in between showers of rain and sleetiness. Come along now spring, we are all waiting for you.

I love the pale pinks and greens of these clematis that are going to come into bloom very soon.

Not quite blue sky but heading in the right direction I hope.

Day 2 – Instagram Fun

I had a moment when I stepped back a little from Instagram. They were bought out by Facebook and I feared that the cosy and friendly space would change. It did change a little and there are periods with a lot of spam ,but on the whole it has stayed more or less the same. ( When there seems to be a lot of spam on the go I switch my profile setting to private for a little while, which seems to help a bit ).

Instagram and the whole iphonography idea has really helped me over the last 18 months or so. When I was first in Holland and without a proper base to work from , the one thing I was able to keep going was taking photos with my phone and using Instagram to share them and be inspired by other work.

Recently there have been a couple of very nice additions to my experience there. One was to stumble upon a community called #7vignettes. Once a month, for 7 days there is a theme and everyone shoots something inspired by that. It was set up by an Australian woman ( @interiorsaddict on Instagram ) and there are a lot of Australians in the group – it has been particularly nice to see vignettes showing the opposite seasons to my own. I didn’t manage to post this last time around but plan to do so again next month as it was just so enjoyable, both the shooting and the friendly community.

Instagram has also been great for keeping in touch with the Dutch connections I made over the last year and through this I stumbled upon a little contest that the lovely interiors magazine 101WoonIdeeen was holding. They invited contributions showing some colour in your house – of course, I couldn’t resist. There were over 500 submissions and twenty images were selected for publication in their August issue – I was really delighted discover I was one of the 20 !

(Incidentally, you can also view Instagram images online at http://www.instagram.com – my name there is @rhiannonmc )

Notes from the East Part 2 –

A few thoughts about Travel – The way you’ve always done something is not always the easiest, or even the cheapest.

Sometimes, its ok to go for the “grown up’ option.

Twice during the trip on arrival a car was prearranged and waiting with a name board. ( Even if it did say Mr Rhiannon ) This is not something I’ve done before as I usually think I’ll be perfectly able to work out the local transport. But I have to say, that when arriving late in the day, or somewhere that is going to be trickier to work out, it made for a very relaxing arrival.

In a similar vein, I’m usually a very budget conscious traveller. ( I had to be, to get round those 12 cities ) But now and again just a little bit extra can pay off. If you are on a train in Eastern Europe, the chances are it won’t cost too much to upgrade to first class. If you are doing a very long journey, as I was, it was well worth it for that extra little bit of comfort. Although the one downside is that you miss out on some of the local hustle and bustle of people using the long distance train for shorter hops.

The picture on this post is from Sibiu. This is one of my “12 Cities” so I couldn’t resist a quick stop off en route. It just reminded me how much I like this place and that I should come back soon and spend a bit longer here. Why do I like it so much ? Hard to put my finger on – its just a nice place to “be”.

As with most of the other images in this series it was taken with my Iphone – and I am hard at work behind the scenes to complete the Iphonography course . I don’t yet have a completion date, but if you’d like to be tipped off then you can subscribe here.