Project 365 - 2011 by Amy Davies

Day 29 - 29th January 2011

My bodacious friend Lottie was down for the weekend so she stepped into my amazing corridor studio for a few photos this morning. We messed around with a few props, but I like this portrait the best, nice, natural smile and interesting styling.

It’s interesting comparing this shoot with my Jennifer shoot. I’m not used to photographing people so it’s funny how different people can be. I think Jen was more at home with the camera at first and, perhaps because she’s a photographer herself, had some very definite ideas about what would be good to shoot.

With Lottie I had to think for myself, and I have to admit it was very, very difficult. I think it’s something that will come with practice (I hope) and I still have the utmost respect for fashion and portrait photographers who can get the most from their subject.

I’ll add some more Lottie portraits to Flickr soon, when I get a moment to edit!

Day 28 - 28th January 2011

I had originally vowed not to resort to taking hamster pictures until at least January was up. Then Jon suggested it would be funnier if there was one a month - then when it’s finished you can play spot the hamster!

And as usual, on matters of comedy, at least - I think he’s right.

So here he is… (the hamster, not Jon).

My Arcades Project was featured on Guardian Cardiff today - find out all about over on my Cardiff Arcades site.

Day 27 - 27th January 2011

Today not so much excitement as yesterday as I was back working in Bath and couldn’t visit the arcades again…

On my way back home I spotted this great new display in a shop down the road from the flat featuring lots and lots of lemons! I don’t want to include LOADS of Hipstamatic pics in this project, but I knew this display would look pretty cool with it.

I took other pictures of the display too - but I like the white whiteness of these shoes!

Also today, I set up my Cardiff Arcades Project website and I’m getting lots more support from fellow Cardiffians - it’s very definitely going to be cool! Check it out: http://cardiffarcades.tumblr.com

Tomorrow my awesome friend Lottie is getting here, so over the weekend we’ll be doing lots of portraits - can’t wait!

Day 26 - 26th January 2011

It’s funny the power of Twitter isn’t it. Last night I posted a picture taken in the Morgan Arcade with basically an off-hand comment that it might be cool to start a project on Cardiff Arcades.

That same night, someone from Your Cardiff got in touch saying they’d like to help, and today I had more of a chat with them, and they’re going to help me get the ball rolling by putting out an appeal for shopkeepers to get in touch if they’d like to get involved with the project.

This morning I also spoke to Adam and Helia from hack/flash who would also like to get involved and perhaps turn it into something bigger than my initial off-hand, concept idea.

So there we have it, less than 24 hours later and I’m definitely, definitely doing this project. In fact, I’m very excited. And I’ve also found a way to get around my shyness of speaking to strangers. Get the strangers to come to me.

Already I’ve had an offer from one of the local shopkeepers to be photographed, and I’m hoping a few more come forward. I love the Arcades and I want to see them thrive even in the difficult economic climate and increasing pressure from the big stores on Queen Street and in St David’s.

Once I’ve photographed a few, I’m hoping that my fear will subside a little bit and I’ll have the confidence to shoot more.

This photo is taken from my first real ‘shoot’, so to speak. Castle Arcade is my nearest arcade as I live above it - in fact my flat can sometimes pick up the wireless signals coming from some of the businesses in there… I only spent about 15 minutes in the arcade but I’m already hooked on this project, and I got a lot of shots I’m happy with in just that short time - just imagine what it’s going to be like after a few weeks and more time is invested in it…

I can’t wait to get started! Here’s some more pictures from today’s shoot - and hopefully by tomorrow I’ll have a mini-website set up with some more details.

Are you interested in contributing? Drop me a line at amydavies87@gmail.com or on Twitter at @amydavies and we’ll sort something out!

Day 25 - 25th January 2011

Well it’s been a whole month since Christmas - how did that happen?

There’s not too much of a story behind today’s shot. After lugging my camera to work and back (and having to say goodbye to that lovely 35mm lens…) I ended up taking this shot in one of the arcades near my flat.

Cardiff isn’t signposted as the city of arcades for nothing, as the Victorian and Edwardian shopping alleys crop up everywhere. Luckily for me, there’s about 5 of them in my local vicinity - this shop is in the Morgan Arcade.

Heading into the Arcades at night is great, there’s not loads of people about to give you odd looks, and no shop-keepers to worry about either.

This shop is great, and they really think about the displays, I’m not quite sure what kind of shop it’s trying to be though as it seems to sell clothes, home accessories and other random things - in fact I spotted a couple of things in there that I might go and check out as potential props…

I’m not entirely sure why I like this shot so much, I think it’s the way the ‘hand’ is right at the edge of the shot, and the texture of the fake door behind it also adds something.

I’m thinking of starting an ‘arcades’ project - assuming it hasn’t been done more than a million times. I’d really like to take portraits of the shopkeepers of the independent shops in there, but that’s not something I have the courage to do just yet….. we’ll see…..

Have you got any tips for asking strangers to pose for a portrait?

Day 24 - 24th January 2011

Today marked the last in my run of 3 day weekends - boo hoo I hear you all crying, but it’s going to be tough going back to work on Mondays, something I haven’t done since the boring old days of December 2010…

Anyway, back to today’s shot. I once again had a successful day off, managing to bake these beauties. I’m not that good though, I didn’t get round to taking the photos until after 4, when all the available light was all but gone. For shame.

The good news is, these cakes, which, as I’m sure you’re mightily interested, are apple and blackcurrant cupcakes, made with clotted cream and almond flavouring, are, even if I do say so myself, amazing. They taste like amaretto!

Wonder if anyone will agree at work tomorrow….

Day 23 - 23rd January 2011

This is taken in Zizzi as me and Jon finally took advantage of the tastecard my sister got me for Christmas - which basically allows you to 50% off food in lots of restaurants - this is what is commonly acknowledged as a GOOD THING.

This is Jon about to tuck in to the final course… as you can see he was very excited about it too!

This is the final weekend I have with the 35mm lens I have on loan so I thought I’d make the most of it - I will definitely miss it when it’s gone, I’d never be able to get this photo with my 50mm as I was sitting too close.

Oh well - another day off tomorrow, maybe I will go on a big photowalk to say goodbye to the lens…. we’ll see…

By the way, we also saw 127 hours today. For anyone who believes that they are too squeamish to see it, or for anybody that has seen it and looked away at the pivotal moment, I say, get a grip, you can see far worse on a documentary or a typical episode of Casualty…

Day 22 - 22nd January 2011

Today I spent some time on the other side of the lens - an unusual experience for me, but one I didn’t hate at all really - at least not like I thought I would. This is from my point of view, obviously, at Cardiff Castle where we did the shoot.

The photos were being taken by Adam from We Are Cardiff for a guest post I’m doing there. We wandered around the castle grounds whereupon he got on the floor, knelt down in the mud and generally did other silly things us photographers tend to do to get the shot - a few odd looks aside, he did an ace job!

Also, as an added bonus, because they’re installing a lift in the castle’s quarters, and you don’t get the usual free roam of it, we got bumped up to a free premium tour where I managed to see some rooms I’d not seen before and learn some stuff about the uber rich Marquis of Bute (the man decorated an entire room in his holiday home — a castle — with gold leaf…).

Look out for the We Are Cardiff post soon - and hopefully I’ll also spend some more time with Hack/Flash (the group organising WAC) to get involved with other projects that will no doubt feature in the 365…

Day 21 - 21st January 2011

Today’s shot was taken in a cafe near my work, and as you can see is a rather elegant chandelier.

I really like the dramatic tone of this piece, and it’s in part inspired by somebody’s work I saw the other day, a project of ‘Almost black and white’ - as in pictures that have been shot in colour but have black and white tones - there is no black and white conversion on this piece.

I didn’t quite realise it’d work so well as this until I saw it flash in front of me on the rear screen of my camera, and on getting home and looking at it large I definitely felt it worked really well. This was one of those moments that made me glad to be carrying my camera around with me everywhere these days!

I upped the contrast in this a touch to get it so dark and moody, and now I’m hoping I see more opportunities like this as the year goes on so I can create my own set.

Day 20 - 20th January 2011

The sunny weather is still here, but it’s returned to being extra chilly today - I don’t mind though, it makes looking out of the window on the way to work extra special as the fields and trees are frost-covered.

Anyway, now I’m procrastinating from talking about the shot. I ventured out to Bath town centre this lunchtime and lurked around on a bench near some of the open air exhibition for a while hoping somebody interesting would come and stare at the pictures.

I didn’t actually have to wait long for this lady, who seemed to be looking on in disgust at every single photograph (maybe this was just her natural expression). I liked her pink card though - wonder who that was for.

Well, what a beautiful day! The sun is finally here, and apparently it’s going to be sticking around too - yipee!

Since Wednesdays are my working from home day, I decided to spend my lunch break in the castle, I think it sounds pretty cool to say you spent your lunch break in a castle, but maybe that’s just me.

I took this from the Norman Keep where I was set upon by two tourists to take a photo of them - so it looks like I took their photo of the day too! Anyway, back to this photo, I liked the graphic properties, rounded curves and the lone bench. There’s about 12 million photos of the castle around, I didn’t want yet another one of the same old ones. But give it time, I’m sure it’ll come - that’s what happens when you live only a few metres from a castle.

Come to think of it, this is my second photo this month with a bench in it - a theme starting?

Day 18 - 18th January 2011

Well the sun was out at last today (hurrah), so I finally felt it safe to venture from the confines of the great indoors.

One of my resolutions this year is to try more street photography. It’s funny that when I had my  bridge camera a few years ago I would go down to the local shopping street and use it all the time.

I don’t know what’s happened since then exactly but I’ve been doing that less and less, and I feel that the less you do it, the more out of touch, and more importantly, more self-conscious you feel.

So this year, I’ve decided enough is enough. Employing some of my old tactics (pretend to be taking pictures of something else before and after the shot you want works particularly well, if they ‘catch’ you, just smile and carry on also works well too) I’m keen to get out there more and see things in a different way.

In that time since my bridge camera I’ve also had the opportunity to look at and study tonnes, and tonnes, more street photographs so I think it’s become a little easier for me to spot something interesting that’s going on.

Now I’m not going to pretend this is up there with some of the fantastic images I’ve seen over the past couple of years, because it isn’t, but I do like it. I came across this scene and found it amusing, the old couple seemed to be very disappointed that Ben and Jerry’s had closed down (perhaps it is just being refurbished, I didn’t have time to investigate…). If it closed down, this is surely a very personal effect of the recession for this old pair!

I’m not entirely happy with the composition, but as with lots of street photography, you don’t have time to worry about that, you just have to shoot. I also wanted to convert to black and white, but found that when I did the woman’s hair faded into the background and she got lost a little.

So here’s the final picture - here’s to many, many more in 2011.

Day 17 - 17th January 2011

Today I attempted to have a successful day off, and I think it was half successful.

I baked this cake, any day when I’ve managed to get round to baking a cake is a success in my eyes. I also managed to finally blog about last week’s cake…

Didn’t get round to completely spring cleaning the flat though (surprise surprise).

Back to work tomorrow…… hopefully some people there will like the cake.

Day 16 - 16th January 2011

I’m afraid I’m back to the hipstamatic again today. This is taken in one of the shops in the Royal (I think - give me a break there’s a lot) Arcade in Cardiff.

I went in search of indoor but outdoor inspiration today, it was still raining, but I wanted to take a picture outside the confines of my own walls.

So I came across some great potential shots in the various little shops of the arcades but I can’t bring myself to start snapping with my SLR in those places, especially when there are shop attendants nearby. I’ve been told off for photographing in shops before and it’s left me scared.

Maybe I should make it my resolution to either not be scared and do it, or ask permission and see what happens. I could always pretend to be a photographer/stylist for an interiors or food magazine (by the way one of my many dream jobs…) scouting for a prop.

Anyway, back to what I actually shot. With your iPhone you can obviously be a bit more subtle and just look like you’re emailing someone or something. And I do still love the Hipstamatic - a lot.

These are candles, by the way. And it’s Rossiter’s, that’s the shop - so if any reps from Rossiter’s are reading, let me in to take photos and have some free advertising to my massive audience yeah?

Day 15 - 15th January 2011

Today’s shot was inspired by a mixture of the Wizard of Oz, yesterday’s portrait shoot and the still remaining disgusting weather.

We were going to watch the Wizard of Oz this afternoon but LoveFilm sent us a dodgy disc, so that was that plan out of the window, this is my dodgy tribute to it instead, sadly I don’t have any ruby slippers though. This is about as close as you’re going to get to a self-portrait from me I should imagine, I’m nowhere near as brave as Jen, and thirdly, I still didn’t fancy venturing out much thanks to the miserable weather.

So there we have it, some shoes. I have to say Jon was very amused as I sat on the floor with the tripod and remote release taking pictures of my own feet!