N E W // moodboard.

a moodboard for the living room. i want it to be simple, clutter free & comfortable. of course everything is black, white or grey. i'm sure a little colour will be incorporated at some point, but i want to keep it a natural as possible. 

one // two // three // four // five // six // seven // eight // nine

self portrait.

as soon as the words "self portrait" are uttered, i shudder. i don't like my face - i pretty much don't like anything about me, but we'll not get into that - so the thought of having to take a self portrait and to then have that in my portfolio is incredibly daunting. i had fifteen minutes to think of what i was going to do and go and do it. i knew i didn't want my face in it, but since i don't like anything else about myself, i wanted to incorporate movement, unwillingness and secrecy.
i tried one shot with a slow shutter speed, but you could see my face and the movement made it even worse than it already is, so i decided to go the opposite route and try fast shutter speed. i ended up with three images that look good on their own - one is even my profile picture on twitter - but together, they incorporate the movement i wanted to show, just more peacefully.
i'm glad i didn't cop out of this assignment & used my imagination and what i've learned so far to create this self portrait.
i'm incredibly inspired to see how i can grow and change and become more confident in my photography during 2014; i'm thinking a few photography challenges may be in the works. you know what i'm like though, i'll post my aims for the new year and (hopefully won't) fail at the majority.

inspired.

is anyone out there?

recently, i have been incredibly inspired. in all honesty, it stemmed from tumblr; sometimes my blog just looks so good and it makes me want to create and gets the cogs moving. there are also some things in the works that are making me incredibly excited and it has made me realise what a blogging rut i was in. i didn't even think about blogging, let alone worry about the fact i wasn't. 

but now i am full of ideas and pinning everything that grabs my eye. i'm hoping to start a new ~series~ next week, if the things in the works come about, that will be so exciting and so completely new. 

i hope you're all having a great week!

one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight

in the woods.

today i went to delamere forest with some friends to get some shots for our unit on aperture using a film camera. as well as taking my film camera, i also took my dslr and obviously had my phone on me. 

not suprisingly - but somewhat dishearteningly - my favourite shot was of these trees - my absolute favourite, especially when there are hundreds of them - that i took on my phone. 

it makes me a bit uneasy that i would chose to take photos on my phone rather than my dslr, but i guess built in cameras are really good now, although i do think the real reason is i can edit my photos using vsco on my phone, whereas on my laptop, i only have iphoto to edit.  

black and white.

for the past few months, i have been completely obsessed with black and white and minimalism and everything it is that i am not. i still regret painting my bedroom a light blue (almost white) rather than plain white - the same way i regretted painting it a yellowy white instead of plain white two years ago. when will i ever learn.
one of my new year's resolutions is to love what i have. to stop spending and appreciate what i already own. this was inspired by my love of minimalism, too. i want to declutter, without being wasteful, and get rid of everything that i don't need. easier said than done. i never know when i might wear that dress i've never worn in three years, or there will be a day i really feel like using a body spray i haven't used in 7 months.
it's a slow process and i've starting the purging by clearing out my wardrobe. if i haven't worn it in a few months (bar summer clothes that will go in a box until next year) it's going. same with body butters and body sprays. i may even go to the extremes of getting rid of a few of my bags, which i know will be super duper hard for me. but one of the best feelings is having a clean room - fresh bedding, hoovered floor, dusted mantle/top of wardrobes, deep cleaned room. and it's nice not to wake up and stub your toe on the corner of an empty box that was meant to be cleared out three days ago.
without realising it, a few months ago, i started to declutter. i took down all the posters and photos in my bedroom. i felt crowded and didn't like the way my walls were so busy. i took them all down and only left up my beatles poster, cos, they're the beatles and they will always have a place on my wall, and my bon iver print. but i left it blank until i ordered some prints (black and white) from seventy tree. and now, apart from a few notes, tickets from my favourite films of 2012 (batman, hobbit & perks), a leaf from autumn and a little a5 poster of joseph gordon levitt (which i am considering taking down, we'll see) my room is clear, yet it still looks crowded. i'll probably never be able to be a minimalist, as i'm too much of a collector - everything has a memory attached to it, somehow.
i love how black and white is so crisp and clear, the way it says so much while being so blank. i'm very particular about colour, anyway. if i like a green; i like that green, not the general term of green. i've always been drawn to grey as a colour, overall, it's probably my favourite. no, it is my favourite. and then there are colours i do not like; pink, purple, tomato red (but that doesn't curb my love for cherry tomatoes oh my word).
the main fuel for my black and white fire is honestly instagram. there are so many wonderful feeds full of minimalist instagrammers, which does not only fuel my love of all things black & white and minimal, but also caters to my love of interior design. i could honestly just browse through instagram all day (which i sometimes find myself doing). another huge contributer, is jonathan safran foer's work of art 'tree of codes'. not only is the poem inside amazing, but the cover is to die for. but i am trying to start expressing my new found (okay, not so new any more) love in my own life.
the one thing my love of black and white will never be able to outdo, is my love of the sky. the colours and shades of blue take my breath away on a daily basis. it's one of my favourite things.

are you a colour fanatic or monochrome fiend?

♡