Project 52 #3 Still Life magazine cover

The assignment for week 3 of Project 52 was to shoot a stillife to fit a predesigned 8x8 magazine cover. Still life isn't something I've done before, so I thought I would give it a go. I gathered up some bits and pieces from Emily's room, and set them up on the kitchen table, which I covered with some white stretch fabric.

And here's the result:

I did struggle with light-it's still gloomy here in Scotland, so this is shot with the halogen lights of the kitchen on, and then I draped a silver emergency blanket over a chair and shone a head torch onto it to bounce some light onto the objects. Overall, I'm quite happy with how it turned out, and I think I could get to enjoy still life photography!

Project 52 #2 Street Portrait

#2 Street Portrait
Originally uploaded by pampossum

So for Project 52, assignment 2 we were to ask a stranger to pose for a photo. I have taken photos of strangers before, usually street performers during the Festival. I wasn't looking forward to this assignment, because I feel uncomfortable about this type of photography. I think it is intrusive to ask a stranger to pose for a photo. I know they can say no, but still it makes me uncomfortable. Also I find the idea of having portraits of people I don't know on my computer a bit disconcerting. I'm ok about street scenes with people going about their business-it's the portrait stuff I don't like.
Anyway, I came across a large group of young people all dressed up in costumes in the city centre. I thought they were performers of some kind, When I chatted to them they turned out just to enjoy dressing up and descending en masse at different locations. So I figured this was a bunch of people who didn't mind being the centre of attention, so I was happy to ask some of them to pose for me. The photo you see is Lauren.

2011 A-Z Challenge #B

So we are onto the next letter 'B'. I was going to do BOKEH-and set up some shots, but I didn't have time. So yesterday I met up with some other Edinburgh photographers to do the BURNS walk-a walk looking at places in Edinburgh associated with Robbie Burns, Scotland's most famous poet. (Auld Lang Syne, for one).It is Burn's night on the 25th January. So these photos are from that walk:
1, The Writer's Museum

 2. Beer barrels in Ladystairs Close

 3. The Burns Window in St Giles Cathedral

 4. Deacon Brodie-Burns was thought to have lived where the Deacon Brodie Tavern now stands. This photo also has some nice Bokeh!

Project 52- #1

In addition to my A-Z 2011 challenge I have joined Project 52 at Lighting Essentials. I am hoping this project will help me to develop my lighting skills. For the first assignment we had to write a mission statement, and take a photo from around our home to illustrate it.

 Here is mine:

2011 A New Challenge

Well, I finished the 52 walks in 2010 challenge-although my blogging did get behind!
So this year I have started a new challenge A-Z 2011. This is a fortnightly challenge-a letter every two weeks. So for A I decided on Angles. I 'm looking around when I'm out and about for things with interesting angles, as well as maybe taking photos from unusual angles.
Here are some:

 

Week #52 St Mary's Loch, Edinburgh

Week #51 Christmas Market Edinburgh