The Selfie.

I went back to Rookwood Cemetery on Tuesday in the hopes of continuing my series, but I didn't have much luck when it came to being inspired. I did, however, find something that I liked: 

This little...hut, shall we call it? Well, it sits on the edge of the cemetery, surrounded by older-looking graves and just a little way up from a gravel road. There's a tiny amount of graffiti inside, but what caught my attention was the way that the multiple windows allowed the light to enter the interior. I decided that I wanted to do a portrait shoot there. 

So today I went back and did just that. 

I used myself as a model, as I usually do. (I rarely schedule these things since I only shoot when I feel like it.) I took a black, straw-looking hat of my mother's that I found, thinking maybe I could go for a witchy look. I wanted something dark. And I got something completely different. 

I actually played around with the chosen photo quite a bit before finally deciding on the final image. Here was my first attempt: 

As I said, I wanted something dark - and I guess I'm going through a phase of making art instead of just photos. But ultimately, I decided I didn't like this as the final shot. I went for a black and white film look: 

And while I do like this (and the first one, somewhat), I kept going back to the colour version. It's very rare that I prefer a colour photo over a black and white, so I thought, why not? Let's go with the colour. 

I'm always looking to improve my colouring of photos, and I'm currently quite happy with this one. So here's the final shot that I decided to go with: 

There was a previous version that had less contrast, but I decided I liked this one better.

The Necropolis.

My photography is lacking a whole lot these days, though it's not quite as abandoned as this journal. Here are some photographs I took a few months ago at Rookwood Cemetery. They were going to be the beginning of a series for me, but I never got around to adding to it. 

Instant.

A co-worker recently introduced me to a game called Life is Strange, which I played from start to finish in almost one sitting. I took many things away from this game - a new respect for storytelling, a fascination with the Chaos Theory. 

And a renewed love for instant photography. 

I have always loved Polaroid. Their instant cameras, their film. I have one of their old cameras, and I've run a single pack of film through it, so I know it works. But I've never run another pack through it simply because the film is so expensive. ~$30 for eight exposures? No thank you. I just can't afford that. 

So when I fell in love with instant photography again, thanks to this game, I did some research. I worked out what the cheapest instant film was, and then I worked backwards and found a camera. 

I now own a Fuji Instax Wide 300, and I am loving it. 

iPhonography.

I keep telling myself this: I am going to start taking my camera everywhere. I intend it to be either one of my DSLRs - likely my 7D, because I am scared of my 5D Mk II being damaged or stolen - but then I let myself settle on taking my little point-and-shoot instead. No big deal, right? It's still a camera. It still has manual settings. It's still photography. 

Sometimes I get some nice shots. Often I groan and wish I had my superior camera by my side. And always, always do I find myself slacking after two or three days. 

So I'm starting smaller. Most people have their phones on their person when they're out walking these days. I don't - not really. It's always tucked away (safely?) in my bag, out of reach for those spur-of-the-moment things. The only thing I really carry on me is my iPod NaNo, which has no camera. And seeing as it is inconvenient to go searching through my bag for my phone just to take one little photo, I never do it. 

So I'm going to start carrying my phone on me, and aiming to take more photos with it. 

Any photography is better than no photography. 

A co-worker put me onto an app called VSCO Cam, and I am finding that I really like the control that it gives me. I can choose which part of the photo I want in focus; I can choose where I want true exposure to be determined from. And the presets and tools that it gives you make editing easy. I love that old, faded sort of film look, so I'm having some fun there. 

I'm hoping this will kick my butt into gear quicker. 

Getting back into shooting shows should hopefully be one of my next steps.