Swirls and lines...

 

Believe it or not...I didn't set out to create a nest design! I was doing a series of swirls that just evolved into what you see above. I created about 10 of them...and then ripped them up! I love the contrast of the circular lines ripped into straight edged shapes.

Such beautiful collage fodder!

The ones below arn't ripped along the edge of a ruler like the ones above. I love the organic shape they have. I also enjoyed the 'bad' light I was taking the photos in. It makes them look 3D!

The pic below is the type of segement I ripped away close up. I reversed the colours of this one on the computer...which gave me an idea! Next time I decide to 'swirl' I'll pull out the black paper and a white pencil instead...

The second photo reminds me of leaves, piled below a tree, waiting for the wind to take them away. Looking at them piled up I had another idea...why not take a pile and leave them below a tree in a park? I could go back later and see what remained, a bit like the bundles a lot if us did for the disentegation collaboration? Someday, I'm going to do that!

The Black and White Zine's online!

The wonderful Alicia from Altered Bits deserves a medal for putting together another wonderful Zine. You may remember the sneak peak of my entry that I posted about a month ago. The Black and White Zine is now on Yudu and on Alicia's blog. Please go and check out the zine and the art from artists who wer!e lucky enough to be able to take part. Alicia has done a great job

This is the front and back of my submission. Created using 2 old book signtatures as the base I am not quite sure if it is a pile or a collage! I went back to my original nest concept...of society being a nest, which you can read about in the zine if you wish!

Also online is the TLC Xpress Newsletter for which I have written an article about blogging...it's called To blog or Not to blog so please go and check it out here. My article also features the work of John Mora and Mick Mather....thanks to both of them for allowing me to borrow their images!

A sneak peek...

Here's a sneak peak of what I've been up to lately. I have been doing a 'piece' to submit for the Altered Bits Zine. The theme is black and white and although I did find it hard I enjoyed the challenge. I'd choose white paper yet it hardly ever still looked white when I put next to another white and the same was said for black...I swear that feather really looked black! Without giving to much away.. I will say I went back to my original concept of 'Society is a Nest' which was something I really wanted to do.

I've also been paper making again! It's drying as I speak and I'm trying to keep the cat off it. She's not to impressed that there's paper in her usual spot in front of the heater! It was a lot of fun dipping my hands into a paper making vat again...and I've gotten a book out on paper making and book binding from the library so I am rearing to go as soon as I've got a good stash of paper! Watch this space...

Black and White Birds

I was sitting at a picnic table when this sparrow popped up next to me. I already had my camera in hand so I slowly turned around desperately hoping I wouldn't frighten it away. I'm using an SLR which was set to 'full sun' and 'dynamic focus area' instead of the most ideal setting which would have been 'shade' and 'closest subject.' That would have allowed me to blur out the people of the bench behind the bird focusing entirely in the bird. I was a little bummed that I didn't have the time to change the settings but as it turns out a bit of fiddling with the contrast, light fill and tone took these images from warmish, brightly coloured photos to something a bit more suited for later use in my collages!The 1st and 3rd images look quite good 'large' if you want to take the time to click on them and view them in the next size. These will be printed on to paper or transperancy paper at a later date.

Portrait of a Nest

Portrait of a nest is a series of photographs I did today with the aim of creating images specifically for use in my collages. I don't have photoshop so I created these images by using a white sheet for the background and the black and white and 'contrast' functions on Picassa. I am especially pleased with the bottom image!
I made these eggs a while back by rolling lumps of air drying clay into egg shapes. I would love some real eggs to photograph (they're on my wishlist!) I have to nests that my kids found me, they were so excited to find them because they knew I would be stoked. Which ofcourse I am!! This nest is actually the thrush nest that featured in my 'baby birds' photo a few months back. The mother thrush was kind enough to leave it for me when her babies had outgrown it :)

Daisy

The fading light of a hot summery day cast the shadow of another wild daisy onto this one.

Spiders Nest

Even scary spiders create nice, safe, strong nests for their babies. Protecting them and providing a place of comfort and shelter. This realisation broadens my thoughts on nests and society as spiders don't come to mind as being the nurturing sort! They make great nests though. I got carried away and took many of photos of the various spider nests that I found which you can see here. I even found a Sky Tower nest!

For anyone who's a new visitor here and is wondering what on earth I am talking about please use the tags or search function for find my 'society is a nest' collages for the International Collage Exchange. If I am loosing my mind the process started a long time ago:)

Seed Pods

Another black and white I know...but black and white lends itself so well to some images! Actually this is more shades of grey that either black or white but it was taken in colour and converted on the computer.
I'm really enjoying this photography buzz I am on and have added 2 more images to my "nature lines" series.
Thanks for the feedback already recieved on this! Much appreciated:)

Berries

NZ Silver Fern

I don't usually post the same photo in more than one place but I really like this one! It doubles as my 2 things challenge entry because the theme this week is Black and White! This is the underside of the native NZ silver fern...the top of it is actually green! I used the black and white editing tool to make this B&W not shaddows and silver.

I have been developing a nest inspired photo series lately...watch this space!

Blurry?

Well, it should be! I was playing around with my macro function on my new camera for the Thursday Challenge them "Tiny" and accidentally put my camera onto "night" instead. It resulted in a happy accident which looked similar to this. I then repeated the 'accident' several times seeing what else I could do, a wee bit lomo a wee bit odd but strangely fascinating!