va-va-vintage

i've been rather into fashion photography lately.
consequently, photoshoots with friends have ensued.
this is a vintage photoshoot with friends from earlier this month!

kelp! i need somebody.

well hey there.

i've now relocated myself to the lovely and damp vancouver, where i'm receiving a higher level of education.

how nice.

it's a little embarassing how enthusiastic i am about living here. being previously landlocked in calgary has led me to view the ocean with an almost reverent romanticism: the first week i was here i went to the beach every single day. expect tons of pictures of the water.

on a related note, on my way here, we did a family road trip and stopped in victoria for a couple days to visit relatives and go to my dad's favourite restaurants. one morning while we were there we went for a stroll along this crazy sea wall, and i got a little obsessed taking pictures of the kelp floating alongside it. i had this idea that i could make an abstract project of it, since i don't often take abstract pictures.

here's what came of that:

vegans and vests

the scene is this: a lovely summer afternoon. four lovely friends congregate so that one of the aforementioned lovely friends can cook them all a delightful vegan feast. they are all wearing vests.

sound like an indie movie?
or a hippie collective?

yeah, okay. moving on.

maren (aforementioned cook who has her own fantastic and hilarious vegan blog which you should check out right now!) asked me to take pictures of all the food. of course, i agreed. i've been a little obsessed with food photography ever since spain. luckily, all the food was delicious (and photogenic, but i'll let you judge for yourself on that).

first things first: pureed kiwi smoothies! sprig of rosemary courtesy of maren's herb garden.

sundried tomatoes and sunflower seeds, ingredients for...

olive, tomato and sunflower seed tapenade! we drizzled balsamic reduction on the sides because we're artsy like that.

maren has cute kitchen decorations.

homegrown basil!

main event: portobello stackers! other ingredients include forbidden rice, tomatoes, spinach, onions, alfalfa sprouts and artsy balsamic dots.

and again from a different angle.

doesn't maren rock?

final project

hey, it's been a while. things have been a little crazy since i've gotten back from spain, so i haven't had time to post my final project, as promised earlier. but now there is time! so voila! (also, if you've been following my spain blogging, you've probably seen most of these, but now they're all unified around a theme! how lovely.)

negative space

art is often about finding a delicate balance: between positive and negative, controlled and spontaneous, dark and light, humorous and serious. in photography especially, contrasting two opposites is often what produces a remarkable image. for my project i decided to upset this delicate balance – after all, breaking the “rules” of composition in a deliberate and comprehensive manner is sometimes more interesting than following them.

specifically, i chose to focus on the way that negative space can bring out the positive in the subject. sometimes things are defined by what they aren’t, rather than what they are. this is a fitting metaphor for travel: we often compare a new place to our home, finding striking differences and thinking about what we have or don’t have at home. this is not a bad thing; differences often underline similarities. finding the humanity that we share despite cultural differences is a beautiful and meaningful part of travel. this is the underlying metaphor in all of my photographs, which, by surrounding the subject in space, allow for discovery of the subject and their small, unexpected beauty. in my pictures, the subjects are defined by what is around them; this parallels the traveler’s experience.

pigeons: a typical barcelona sight.

medieval cobblestones in girona.