Jaz Design

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Project 365 2010

Jan 11

Posted by Jaz in Creativity, Photography | No Comments

I figured I’d only do this once a month, but all my other blog topics I have lined up required too much thought and I’m still getting over a migraine!

I’ve made it 11 days :) I’m pretty pleased. I know there’s a way to go yet, but I’m really enjoying it so I intend to keep it up. I’ve also been doing well with my January goals (to be explained at the end of the month), though I will say they involve reading design related books at lunchtimes and I’m really enjoying reading New Media at the moment. It’s a very academic book which I did read bits of while I was at university doing my dissertation, but now I’m reading it cover to cover, and it’s totally waking my brain up!

Anyway enough chat:

For those of you that don’t know, a brief reminder/explanation…

What is Project 365?

Project 365 involves doing something every day for a year. It doesn’t have to start on January 1st, and it doesn’t have to be photography, though from what I’ve seen it does tend to be something creative. One photo a day, one sketch a day etc. The idea’s been gaining popularity over the years and I see more and more people doing it. In 2008 I managed to keep it going pretty well until the April and it petered out into June.

There was one guy who took one photograph a day for 18 years of his life. He was pretty cool, go check him out for some inspiration.

For an even more in depth explanation, check out this article on Fuel Your Photography.

How do I join in?

Just start! Whatever your passion, just go with it. If you want to share it with the world there are a variety of ways! flickr, tumblr, deviantArt, a blog… just get snapping and get sharing!

There are bunches of groups on flickr dedicated to Project 365. I joined Project 366-1 (2010) because many of the same people from the group I was in in 2008 are there. They’re full of helpful advice and suggestions about how to keep it going, and there’s weekly competitions which are pretty cool too!

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Happy New Year

Jan 2

Posted by Jaz in Creativity, Goals and Self Improvement, Life, the universe, everything!, Photography | No Comments

I hope you’ve all had a very lovely holiday time. Ours was the usual, eat too much, drink too much and feel bad afterwards. I got given rather a lot of chocolate this time round, more than ever, quite a lot of it has disappeared now into the bottomless pit that is my stomach… I got some really lovely gifts, including all of Friends, Bones season 2, a Postsecret book, some Snoopy stuff, PW’s cookbook, money for a bike helmet, new crockery & hand towels for the bathroom (I must be an adult, I was really excited about this), and a bunch of other really cool stuff.

It was also our first Christmas at our flat instead of a parents’. Lunch was good and not as much hard work as I thought, but that may be to do with not cooking a whole turkey… I also managed to watch every single Wallace and Gromit short & film over the festive period.

For our Xmassy pics complete with snow, Snoopy, Playmobil advent calendars, check them out on Facebook here.

There’s a slew of 2009 review & 2010 promises in my Google Reader today, but what’s one more eh?

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Photographing Fireworks

Nov 10

Posted by Jaz in Grand Events, Photography | No Comments

November the 5th is Guy Fawkes Night here, a celebration of the downfall of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. I am beginning to wonder if now it’s just an excuse to get together as a community, gather round a bonfire and watch some fireworks. Which is awesome, and why not?

Fortunately for us we live just off the local park where our town’s firework display is held. Our balcony produces an excellent view of the show – and easy access to warmth! I must admit to not being much of a fan of standing outside at night at the beginning of winter, bonfire or no bonfire.

This year I decided to try and take some photographs, having such a good vantage spot.

f/3.5 Exposure 1/8 secs ISO 200 Focal length 18mm

I used my Pentax DA that came with my camera, simply because I couldn’t decide on a different lens. I’d read some articles (listed below) about what to use, but uncertain about where exactly to focus, I went with old faithful. Next time I want to experiment more, I’m sure my prime lens could get some fantastic results.

More pictures and tips after the jump!

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Why You Should Use Less Plastic…

Oct 26

Posted by Jaz in Goals and Self Improvement, Life, the universe, everything!, Photography | No Comments

It was Blog Action Day on October 15th. The day has passed, but I still though I’d blog about something related – our effect on the environment.

Now please don’t switch off just yet.

Whether “global warming”, or “climate change” is actually happening, or would happen regardless of us makes no odds. It is no excuse for being wasteful. There’s little to no effort to recycling, so why set such a bad example of values to your kids etc? It’s not good to waste things, just because you can! Odds are, that wastefulness is hurting someone or something somewhere. Like the ocean and it’s inhabitants for example.

So, where does our plastic end up?

Photograph belongs to Chris Jordan - http://www.chrisjordan.com/

Photograph belongs to Chris Jordan - http://www.chrisjordan.com/ It has not been Photoshopped.

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Tilt-Shift Photography, Miniature Faking, etc

Sep 28

Posted by Jaz in Creativity, Inspiration, Photography | No Comments

Big Ben - Pseudo Tilt-Shift

Since my Big Ben “pseudo tilt-shift” got featured in Abduzeedo’s Daily Inspiration the other day :D I thought I’d talk a little more about “tilt-shift” and what I’ve learnt in the last couple of weeks.

What is Tilt-Shift Photography?

Really and truly the popular thing at the moment is actually “miniature faking” via digital post-processing – I don’t think there’s many people out there with the lens required to acheive this effect out of camera.

Wiki Says:

Miniature faking is a process in which a photograph of a life-size location or object is made to look like a photograph of a miniature scale model. Blurring parts of the photo simulates the shallow depth of field normally encountered in close-up photography, making the scene seem much smaller than it actually is.

Show Me Some Examples

Did I tell you, I simply love this effect? So do a lot of other people at the moment! For more examples of beautiful tilt-shift photography, check out these links!

How can I Make a Miniature Fake?

Firstly, it’s good to think about your angle when taking the picture – above is better. It implies that what’s below you is smaller than you, and is how you’d look at a “toy town”. I had the advantage of being on the London Eye, so up nice and high. You can get the effect from any angle, but above just seems to emphasise it all the more.

Taking it into Photoshop

To boil it down as simply as possible, select an area with a gradient in quick mask mode, use lens blur on the selected area and then boost the saturation. For a detailed tutorial, this is the one I used to get started.

Boosting the saturation is important, because it gives it that lovely vibrant “toy” effect that we’re looking for. I usually tweak the curves and other things, whatever looks good :)

There are also websites out there which will do this for you, though I prefer greater control.

So, show me your tilt-shift miniature fakes!

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Jaz’s Birthday & The London Eye

Sep 14

Posted by Jaz in Creativity, Grand Events, Life, the universe, everything!, Photography | No Comments

Ok, so my birthday was like a month ago, but I never did talk about it and I would like to!

My birthday this year fell on a Monday, so the weekend was filled with a party with my friends and a party with my family – lots of good food, good conversations. I had a fantastic weekend!

For the actual day it was just the Mister and I, he took me up to London for a trip on the London Eye – having never been.

You can find some of my photographs on flickr. I thought it was a great experience. Would love to go up at night as well! We were fortunate enough for it to be a mild day, with some cloud cover but lots of sun, so the views were clear, but it wasn’t too bright.

Big Ben - Pseudo Tilt-Shift

I’ve fallen in love with the pseudo tilt-shift effect and so thought I’d try it out with some of them, since I was looking from above and all :)

I got a ton of presents. I love presents. I can’t help it, everyone loves presents. And I loved everything everyone got me this year. Such great choices! Some things I never knew I needed until I had them (I’m thinking of the book about how to make felt animals – see below)

This is a small selection of my presents, I still have one to cash in (shopping!) and any money I got went on the Great Devon Trip to see Muse. These are the ones I hadn’t found homes for before remembering to take a photo!

birthday presents (5)

In that black box is some incense. I’m halfway through the “Logo Design Workbook” now. The notebook has become my art/design notes book.

birthday presents (16)

Check out the TRADITIONAL SHERBET at the top there. So much better than the plastic packaged stuff. I’m eating it sparingly, trying to make it last as long as possible. I’ll probably keep one forever. The earings were made by my friend Michelle, you can buy more of her excellent jewellery on her Etsy page.

birthday presents (12)

The Cute Book is the felt animal thing. I love sewing. It’s not something I ever make time for, but for some reason I just love it. I took textiles at GCSE as a result. I didn’t know I needed this book until I had it. I’m now in the process of making my first lizard, something more than one person has asked me for. Getting the felt involved a trip to a Hobby Craft and my God was I in heaven there! SO MUCH ART STUFF. I nearly had a heart attack.

claddagh_ring

And the Mister was so kind as to replace the cheapo Claddagh ring I accidentally put through the wash, with a nicer, more expensive silver one :D

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Growing Plants – A Learning Experience

Jul 27

Posted by Jaz in Goals and Self Improvement, Photography, Really Random | No Comments

Before I got my apartment I knew I wanted a balcony. I didn’t know why, I dislike going outdoors much, there’s always a risk of spiders, or bees, or being active. I think I knew that living in a town centre was going to wear on me, despite my dislike of going outdoors often I love nature. When I was living in Portsmouth the lack of green and trees used to drive me bonkers.

The End of the Rainbow

The view from my balcony, with a very very long lens. You wouldn't know I was in a busy commuter town centre would you?

As it is, our apartment just overlooks the central park, so I see trees from my balcony, and the hills during winter (see photo). There’s still flats directly opposite, but the nature’s there. And, we have a balcony. I was lucky enough to be given some plants, some grown from seed and so all very young. This terrified me somewhat, but I was amazed at how much I enjoy looking after them. I’m not doing brilliantly, but I really enjoy going out to the balcony, watering the plants, checking them, not knowing what to do when I find something wrong… ahem.

If you’re living in a small apartment, don’t have a garden etc I highly recommend just getting one little plant, herbs will gladly live on your windowsil and you can use them! I find tending to my plants very grounding and enjoyable, and I know very little about it.

More pictures of my little plant family, and Fuzz Lightyear (because he’s amazing) after the jump! To note, some of the photos are also on my flickr and you can visit them by clicking on them!

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Photographs!

Jul 2

Posted by Jaz in Photography, Really Random | No Comments

I’ve been on a flickr uploading spree. This is pretty much my year in pictures thus far (up until May at least). I’m thinking of having a flickr cul actually, there’s a lot of pictures on there which I don’t think represent my best. I’m also beginning to accept that I’m not on the ball at all for Project 365 this year!

Jan 1st: Lovely new year Jan 2nd: Christmas! Jan 3rd: Paper Moon Jan 4th: Winter Trees Jan 5th: Deck the Halls Jan 6th: Doodles Jan 7th: Liberty City Jan 8th: Pirates of the Caribbean Jan 9th: Fairwells Jan 12th: Spider Jan 20th: Birthdays Jan 30th: Inspiration Feb 11th: Rainbow Feb 9th: Birthdays! Feb 3rd: The Great Snow Feb 2nd: The Great Snow Feb 1st: The Great Snow Feb 25th: I love pancakes! March 1: Fuzz Lightyear March 13th: Red Nose Day March 15th: Valentines March 22nd: The Grand Hotel March 25th: Catan April 25th: Strawberries April 28th: Rainbow Skies Snow Day 2 Snow Day 1 M&Ms Galore

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Photographing food for a healthy lifestyle?

May 31

Posted by Jaz in Goals and Self Improvement, Life, the universe, everything!, Photography | No Comments

IMGP0808-450Inspired by something someone said at work about photographing everything you eat I’ve decided to keep a food diary in this way (starting with a week and seeing how it goes). I feel that this will help me to realise just how much crap I’m eating, and make me think twice before having that second or third cookie.

We also likened it to what they do in the weightloss TV shows, where they take all the food a person has eaten in a week and dump it on a table. I imagine looking through my photographs is going to be something like that!

My CC blog for yesterday is up here: http://caloriecount.about.com/users/jaz_desig n/307162.html

I don’t know how successful it will be, but it can’t hurt. More awareness of what one is eating can only be a good thing. I know I tend to mindlessly eat, not enjoy my food and not realise how much I’ve actually eaten. Seeing is believing they say!

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Mallorca

May 6

Posted by Jaz in Art, Grand Events, Photography | No Comments

Just before Easter the Mister and I spent a week in Mallorca. It was beautiful, a fantastic chance to relax and take lots and lots of pictures and try the beautiful Mahon cheese. There’s an album of these pictures on my flickr! There’s also an album of sandcastle pics on facebook.

In other photography news, I finally finished my black and white film I had in my SLR and now have those to upload when I get a minute (mostly photos from The Great Snow and a day in Brighton). I’m also planning to sit down and sort out my Project 366 photos (though I think this year didn’t start out so well with that as last year).

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