Halls Emporium @hallsemporium - Tumblr Blog

This sidecut was from one of the nights I was experimenting with long exposure photography with freeway traffic. I didn’t delete this out of focus photograph because I enjoy what’s referred to as “bokeh”, those out of focus elements that make up the circles. The colours and how they are scattered make for a beautiful abstract.

#365sidecut

On the drive to Drumheller to see the Dinosaur museum last year I had to take a moment to capture the foggy snow covered field. I grew up on an acreage in Northern Alberta so scenes like this are nostalgic and calming for me. The field is sleeping until spring.

#365sidecut

Sometimes I look back at my college work to reinvigorate my creative mind and remind myself of techniques I’m capable of.

This particular photograph is a portrait of my friend Cayley, a dancer/musician/artist here in Calgary. I don’t remember the exact specifications of the assignment, but I do remember the look and feel was Gwen Stephanie inspired. Much time was spent in the mall finding the right garments. I also may have gotten a slap on the wrist from the college for spray painting my backdrop in an unventilated room.

#artschoolthrowback

In addition to enjoying photography, I really enjoy the use of Photoshop to either simply enhance a photograph, or to create surreal effects sometimes better known as compositing, the art of mixing and or manipulating photographs to create something that didn’t originally exist.

Now that my 365 project has wrapped, I want to delve into the art of advanced photoshop work again. Back at Alberta College of Art and Design instructors like Hutch and Cathy Simone really showed me the ropes and I miss those assignments.

Above is an example of one of Hutch’s assignments. He gave us the centre image on grey and simply titled the assignment “Make Me Beautiful”. On a lark I decided to take the photograph in two directions to make contrasting images. I’m a bit out of practice, so I do have some knowledge refreshing to do but look forward to my sharing Before/After images. Trying to think of a name and hashtag for when I post these as well...hmmm... open to suggestions!

#photoshop #compositing

The one day I thought it would be interesting to set up my lights and try to get some shots of #GACK. There was a lot of cat toy dangling to keep them engaged - this particular shot just has such an interesting movement from Grace along with the punch of colour from my friend Byron Coathup’s painting

#365sidecut

One of the self written rules I made was that I was only allowed one photo of my cats Jack and Grace in the project. Why? They were too damn cute and easy to photograph! I likely could have done a 365 of them alone.

Jack and Grace, formerly known as #GACK on my Instagram feed had to be relocated to new homes earlier this year, but I did make point of posting one photo of them in the official 365 before they had to go.

This is a photo of Grace, such a beautiful cat.

#365sidecut

Some days of the 365 I shot other photo’s that were just as interesting and very close contenders for the final chosen photo of the day. Now that the project is over, I’d like to share these as what I’d like to call #365sidecuts

#365sidecut