Day 20: Bokeh

This was without a doubt the most challenging theme this past week. I thought that all the Christmas lighting all over the malls would make this easy to produce. That was not the case. Then I wanted to create rain drops bokeh by sitting inside a car while it was raining (and it rained a lot this past week) while blurring out street lights or whatever lights there were. That also didn't work. 

In the end, this is what I did:

Bokeh, is simply an effect achieved by blurring out portions of a photo to emphasise the parts that are in focus. Sounds simple enough right. I've been studying other photographs and watching youtube videos on this subject and I must admit, I'm still learning. Here's a good article explaining what Bokeh is.

At this point, I don't have a camera with a sensor that can allow me to isolate the subjects, however I'll continue to work on this by placing the objects far from each other. Maybe I'll even get some Christmas lights. 

There's no point in waiting for the right conditions, do what you can with what you have. Just get started :-)

Day 19: Something Orange

Colour therapists have said that the colour Orange increases food cravings, it's no wonder that when I went in search for orange objects, I had to resist the urge to take pictures of fast food outlets like 'Steers' and'Chicken Linken'. 

Close up of shades of orange from a recent abstract piece

I wonder how these look at night.

Recycling bins

Pastels

Day 18: Your shoes

Taking these old beauties out for a stroll...

Day 17: Technology

So often when we think about technology, our thoughts are filled with computers, tablets PC's and other gadgets that generally fall under the Information Technology bracket. Technology encompasses so much and dates back millennia. In essence, technology is the knowledge, skills and tools to do something, create, solve a problem or perform a task. That's not only really broad, but shows that wherever we are, not matter how remote and rural or urban, we're surrounded by some form of technology.

Day 16: Long Exposure

What I had in mind for this challenge was me standing on a bridge over a highway or near the side of the road in the evening while capturing the cityscape with car swishing by. 

That didn't happen, so one evening I tried leaving the shutter open while in a moving car. I think I would have been able to achieve what I envisioned had the car been stationery and the roads not bumpy. Maybe next time I'll just stop on the side of the road, throw cautions to the wind, not think about how conspicuous and dodgy I might look and just do it. Anyway, this is what I got:

One evening, during the many power cuts we've been having in our area lately, I grabbed the camera and a Nokero solar light bulb and gave light-painting (a form of long exposure) a go. This was quite fun I must say.

Light around my guitar.

The shutter on my compact can only stay open for 4 seconds, therefore I took the letters individually and joined them together.

This made me think of the song "(What's so Funny 'Bout )Peace, Love and Understanding" written by Nick Lowe.

Day 15: Silhouette

Day 14: Eyes

Day 13: Yourself with 13 things

Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. I would have added the DVD's of the movie adaptations as well as the Bram Stoker's Dracula DVD if I had them with me. I love vamps. The Nosferatu full movie is still on youtube.

Slash. Yup. Slash! Probably would not have picked up the guitar if it wasn't for Slash. Maybe not. In any case, my obsession for guitars began around the same time I started pasting Slash posters all over my notebooks. Coincidence?

Annie's book, a gift from Paul. I love the work she did for Rolling Stone magazine. She has an amazing ability of creating timeless portraits. Speaking of Rolling Stone, I have a thing for 70's music, hence the book. 

I love colour and stationery. I saw this pack of felt tip markers and had to have it.

Homegirl bottle-top earrings. I love these earrings. The idea was conceptualised by Onica Lekuntwane, a Johannesburg based graphic designer who formed "Homegirl". I love that their accessories are made from recycles material and are quite unique.  You can find more of their items on their site www.homegirl.co.za

Shake The World Millennium Bracelet
These bracelets come in 8 different colours which represent the 8 Millennium Development Goals set by the UN. The green bracelet is for Goal 7 which is Ensuring Environmental Sustainability. Not only is this in line with the work I do, it's something I'm incorporating into my life. Plus the bracelet looks cool.

Day 12: Sunset

Admittedly, I took this a few months ago. This picture does very little justice to the actual experience.

Day 11: Something Blue

This challenge made me realise that apart from the sky and sea/other bodies of water, this cool primary colour of tranquility is not as abundant in nature as I once believe. That being said, It can be found in quite a number of places like for instance

Street signs.

Some doors

I don't have a lot of blue things in my house apart from these coasters I made using ceramic tiles and some abstract photo's I took.

and this DIY T-shirt scarf

Day 10: Childhood memory

The Radio with a cassette recorder. 

We've shared so many moments together, like the way I used to rush home after school when I was still in first grade just to listen to my favourite Brenda Fassie tape. Then there were the late nights when I'd press my ear really close to your speakers with the volume really low and instead of sleeping, I'd wait for a good song to play just so I can record it on cassette and praying that Mom doesn't wake up. Dubbing CD's on cassette so I could listen to songs repeatedly so I'd be able to stop-rewind-play-stop-rewind while writing lyrics. Cassettes were easy to replaced and the CD's wouldn't get scratched. 

This particular radio was a part of my life through varsity. I taped my music selection from the "5fm music power half hour" (that tape still exists) back in the day. It may be collecting dust but it still works. 

CD Walkman.

One of my favourite possessions as a kid was my walkman, yup the old school cassette walkman. I loved it. At the time, the idea of being able to carry music around and listen to it privately was genius. It allowed me to get even closer to the songs and gave the illusion of an intimate bond being formed between the musician and the listener, or rather that's how I felt. 

The CD walkman came into my life way later. It came to me at a time when I was discovering a lot of new music. It belonged to a friend of mine who let me use it, in fact I used to use it so much she let me keep it. This was about 4 years ago. I am grateful and I still use it every now and then just for fun, besides you don't see any of these babies around anymore.

Posters, stickers, logos.
When I stopped putting up posters on my wall, I stuck band names and photos on notebooks.

Linkin Park

There was I time when I was willing to amputate my toes myself just to see this band live. I would picture myself in the crowd every single time I listened to their "Live in Texas" album. Then the years passed...and the feeling faded, then the announcement came that they'll be performing in my city.

I wasn't excited. I didn't get the tickets. They came too late. Mike apologised though so its cool, haha. 

My sister on the other hand got tickets and asked me to go with her. Cool. The opening act hit the stage and it suddenly hit me, I was going to relive my childhood memories. Wow. I'm so grateful to Penny. The night was magical. Awesome. Explosive. Pure Joy.

Day 9: Someone you love

This one was easy. There are so many people I love and am grateful to know, have met or have in my life. I love you all. Mwah.

Paul.

My sister, Penny.

I love you guys so much. 

Day 8: A bad habit

Procrastination: my Achilles heel. Father time and I have never seen eye to eye. One some occasions I get away with it, on others, not so. I learnt a valuable lesson in the most painful way possible about the dangers of procrastinating: There is never enough time. The best time is the present. There are no guarantees whatsoever. You never know when its too late until its too late.

So, if you want to do something, get started. If you miss someone, give them a call or visit them. If you have a creative idea you would like to start working on,start. These pieces of advice are for me and anyone else who's struggling with something similar. 

Here are some bad habits:

I usually recycle. I think that's a good habit. However, for some odd reason I forget to take my recycle box to the recycle station at the mall whenever I go shopping and end up with piles of bottles and newspaper that compete in size with the trash can. Not good.

Then there's the sweet tooth:

And finally, time wasters:

"I'm only going to play one game of bubble burst" said no-one ever.

"I'm only going to pin one item on Pinterest today" said no-one ever.

Luckily bad habit can be broken, or rather replaced with good ones. Quoting Leo Babauta "The key to forming a new habit is starting each day". Here's a good article from ZenHabits.net about forming new habits title The Habit of Starting. It's never too late to change ones habits, however that doesn't mean one should wait. The right time is now.

Day 7: Fruit

Waking up in the morning has always been a struggle for me. I'm not one of those lucky few who can jump out of bed in auto-tuned song like a scene from Glee. I'm working on this though (the waking up bit) by adapting the art of "waking up in stages" (yup I made that up, need to come up with a better name for it).

Think about it, being woken up by a shrill is not the best way to start a day, hence the grumpy long dreadful walk to the shower. What I do is set my alarm in stages and place it where I can't reach it to hit the snooze button. What makes this work though is the alarm sound; instead of the usual loud beeps, I downloaded natural sounding notification sounds from Zedge such as birds, water and forest, then I make sure that only the last alarm is set to vibrate.  As artificial as these loops may be, I think the introduction of sound wakes me up slowly and pleasantly. It's almost like having someone open the windows and curtains while you're sleeping, eventually you are aroused. This obviously may not work for everyone and I'll admit that sometimes I reach for the snooze button anyway.

So what does all this have to do with lemons? A lot. I've recently introduced lemons to my morning ritual. I've realised that the way one starts their day is extremely important, hence the waking up alarm thing. After my morning Yoga practice, I drink warm water with lemon while taking some time to mentally prepare myself for the day. It's refreshing and relaxing. Some of the benefits of lemon water can be found on this site. I'll be honest, this doesn't happen everyday but I'm working on it. 

This kiwi fruit shot happened by pure chance. The kitchen door was open and the late afternoon sunlight streaming into the house and onto the counter got me jumping gleefully while shouting the words "natural light". I love how the kiwi fruit looks, there's just something about its texture.

Day 6: From a low angle

Day 5: From a high angle

Day 4: Something green

Words associated with Green include: life, growth, nature, eco-friendly, balance, fertility, Heart Chakra and creativity amongst others. Here are a few green items:

"Green is the prime colour of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises"- Pedro Calderon de la Barca.