Selfie Pinspiration

I know, I know. Everyone is on Pinterest. I am not that late to the party ..I've been there for quite some time now. Since embarking on Project 366& my weekly self& pup portraits, I cannot thank Pinterest enough. I know, it's only halfway through February but I'd have already been out of ideas for myself, my dog& my other five days through the week. I usually start by looking up some great pins, imagining how I'm going to recreate the look, get the setup going& then end up with a shot that look nothing at all like the image I was trying to recreate. I am not sure what that means ..does anyone else have this problem? I usually think my end result is a lot less spectacular than the one I was originally looking at but, oh well. That all being said, I pin lots of photos to Inspiration boards& hope for the best.

Last week, I officially failed one of my resolutions. I lost track of the days& managed to forget to do a self-portrait. That sucks. So, I made sure not to forget this week by getting it done first thing! I was sort of dreading it but I took off my lazy clothes& started playing dress up. First, I found the purple birthday skirt I got from Meg& used to make my dog a ballerina. So I put it on .. don't judge. I got everything ready& snapped a photo.

Linked with Tones on Tuesday

Okay. So this wasn't my first shot. It wasn't even my first outfit (..or my last) but the first 20 aren't worth mentioning ;) I kind of like this shot for some reason which shocks me because I didn't like in camera. Another one of those times I'm glad I learned to never delete things until they are uploaded. Since I didn't originally love this one, I decided purple skirt just wasn't really working out for me. Time for my third outfit change. I opted for my jean dress from Le Chateau. It is prettier than you would think a jean dress would be. Seriously .. just keep scrolling& you'll see it!

Linked with Sweet Shot, Communal Global&

Sweet Violet& Tutorial Tuesday! Check them out :)

Neat, eh? I actually love this shot. The best part is that the background is just my regular wall with a texture overlay. I grabbed the martini glass from my bookshelf& channeled my inner socialite. I don't even really know what that means but I know they only drink fancy things ..hence not just picking up the entire vodka bottle like I had planned from the start!

Self-portraits have become so much more fun than I ever thought. I love planning& shooting them ..even when getting the zoom& focus right makes me want to cry. I just think it's a great learning experience because you never know when these skills might come in handy. Terrorists attack& the only thing keeping me alive? Photojournalism& some snappy action portraits!

5 weeks of me

So far because, yup, I made a few promises this year& at the end of the first month, I'm still holding firm to them. I am managing a photo a day. One photo a week of myself& one photo a week of my pup. I am also managing to do a micro-journal where I jot down some of the positives& negatives of my day at the end of every evening on my day-by-day calendar. Which is from Someecards so no matter how crappy my day was, I'm usually laughing by the time I switch my day.

I thought that I would really dread having to do a self-portrait once a week but, oddly, I'm finding it really fun! I can do weird things& have 100 retakes because it's just me. I don't mind looking like a tool a few hundreds times to get a good shot. I do strange things that I wouldn't ask other people to do. An example? My self-portrait for this week. I just took it today.

The setup for this was hilarious. I had my tripod straddling the toilet& the legs of it were on shoe boxes. I completely set up the camera before I got in the shower (foresight ..I am getting it!), I got an entire shower first to get that steamy effect& then proceeded to hit the shutter button a few times& make weird faces. If I ever decide to post the outtakes from some self-portrait sessions, people may never speak to me again!! I have to admit that I am having a blast taking them& learning lots in the process. This one came out pretty decently when you consider I had absolutely no idea at all what I was doing.

I hope everyone is having a lovely Tuesday! I have been super busy& neglecting the blog world slightly but I promise to make more of an effort. I need to get myself together for another scavenger hunt& catch up on a few of my favorite blogs! If anyone else is doing a 366 Project, give me a shout out in the comments ..I'd love to know a few other people suffering through this with me ;)

Hunting again

This week we're looking for five more prompts! Go me for getting back on this train. I took a break from photo challenges after Top 11 of '11& Memories, Dreams& Reflections! I am now sitting here watching a Lakers game& editing the photos for this post. Don't forget to check out the other entries! Now, let's move on to the prompts.

1. Stacked Up- Okay. I had to use chocolates because I couldn't think of anything else worth stacking. Cue that giant bag of gold coins Mom got at Costco just last week. Turns out they are good for something more than just making us pleasantly plump! I love this photo in black& white way more than color ..mainly because the color of the shelf clashed with the coins.

2. Winter Wonderland- I am doing a self-portrait a week for the entire year. My game plan is to have 52 really fun& creative portraits of myself so I'm really pushing to get creative. Yesterday, I built a snowman& dressed like it was summer outside. Then I set up the tripod, kicked off my shoes& took some photos. This is, hands down, one of my favorite photos I've ever taken. Not even just of myself but of anyone. Best part? I never would have convinced anyone else to do this.

Also linked to Show Off Your Shot :)

3. Sweet- I love, love, love candy canes. When I saw this prompt I just knew that I had to use them. The key question was how to make it look creative& fun? Yeah. I'm really striving towards being a more creative person this year. I like to think it's even working out for me two weeks in. Final result? Makes me smile ..I can't decide if it is because I like candy canes or I like the actual photo ;)

4. Hole- I'm going to be honest. I had no idea what to do for this one. I tried a few creative photos with the pup but he didn't want to play along& I'm really tired. Instead I'm going to use another photo from my Project 366. Don't worry though, I just took it today when we out for supper so I'm still totally playing by the rules! Does this count ..these lights have holes in them?

5. Frozen- Where I live, everything is frozen. Welcome to winter on an ice-olated island (I'm so clever). It really sucks when you're someone who hates the cold weather. I'm trying to really embrace it by dressing very warmly& still being active. The boyfriend even managed to get me to go for a walk the other day. During that walk, I took some photos because I actually remembered this prompt. Wow! Apparently I'm even breaking my awful habits of procrastination. Some frozen apples ..I also used these as a photo of the day. Just call me a pansy when it comes to reusing photos. I won't mind.

Anyone else participating in the Scavenger Hunt? Is anyone else doing a Project 366& just recycling photos from the last week of that for this particular challenge?! In my defense, I did take two new photos just for this. And the apple photo was taken with this challenge in mind ..okay, I can't justify my laziness. I promise to be better next week! I hope you guys all had a delightful weekend. Mine was completely lovely. Now, I'm curling up with the last half of the Lakers game!

Friday the 13th

Happy spooky Friday, everyone! I spent the day dressed in a skirt& tank top while building a snowman outside& then taking a self-portrait with him. Week 2 of a photo of me a week for an entire year is accomplished :D I braved the chilly weather& got a really fun self-portrait. Want to see it? Just click here! This evening I have grand plans of enjoying a few vodka-pineapples& baking with some girlfriends. My camera is coming along with me so I should have some pretty fun photos for the next post. Any photo that occurs after 12AM may also end up being my photo of the day ..so just a heads up for you ladies! Tomorrow, after a fun evening of drinks, I have to be at the pool for 9AM for a full day course. I can only imagine how fabulous that is going to be. I'll also have my camera with me for that. I probably won't take any photos though because I'll be too busy pretending to learn ;) Then I have a belated birthday supper with family tomorrow evening ..where there will be more photos taken. Jeeze ..maybe I should pack my extra battery!

This guy will be there. He never turns down a good meal ..then again, neither do I so I guess we're pretty evenly matched there. I am excited because we're going to a little place that has my favorite dessert in the entire world- crème brûlée! Yum. This is only place on our island that I have found that makes it. I'm sort of hoping every single person at dinner orders it for dessert then gives them alllll to me.

In fact, if it wasn't for that guy up there in the photo, I never would have tried crème brûlée. It was his brother, David, who made it for me for the first time. I sort of wish David would move back here& then become my personal dessert maker because I love fancy desserts but have no idea how to make them. Okay, enough daydreaming about my post-supper snack tomorrow. I have things to do ..like pack up my vodka& pineapple for this evening! Enjoy your weekend, folks. I hope it is completely fabulous!

Glittery self-portrait

So I promised myself that at the end of 2012, I would have 52 new self-portraits. Not just regular self-portraits though. Nope. These were all going to be really cool& creative. I was going to really expand my horizons for these bad boys. I started pinning like crazy. I made an Inspiration Board ..I was SERIOUS. So, once a week I have to take a photo of me. That means that I needed a photo by yesterday. Cue panic mode. Thankfully, when I was purchasing my red balloons to float my dog away, I also bought some star glitter. I had pinned a few photos of people blowing glitter into the air. Brilliant. My turn!

Okay. Probably not the greatest& I definitely want to repeat the whole glitter thing. I had about 10 minutes to shoot& edit this though because my boyfriend was waiting for me to hang out. Sorry, boyfriend. I cannot fail this early in! Failure is not mine yet!

Tips& tricks for this photo:

1. Tripods always make life easier. Use it. If you don't have one, lay your camera somewhere stable where it won't fall down. Because that would suck.
2. Stand a tall object where you'll be, then focus the camera. If you're using Autofocus click it to Manual after you have it set. 
3. A remote would be awesome. My Rebel XS is too lowly to be able to use a remote. I use 10 second timer. Then I run!
4. In a situation like this, you should use burst mode. You set how many photos it will take after you wait the first 10 seconds. 3 frames worked the best for me.
5. Click away& pray.

 So, it definitely isn't a perfect attempt but it also wasn't bad. I took, uploaded& edited the photo in 11 minutes altogether. Mission accomplished. Now taking suggestions for this week's self-portrait! I am going to set aside a day when I'm not nearly as busy as I was yesterday. I think I'm really going to enjoy my once-a-week selfie! I also promised myself I'd do a photo a week of the puppy so if anyone has any clever ideas for him, I'm open to hearing those as well ;) I hope everyone had a lovely Sunday! I'll post a few photos from my photo session yesterday at some point through the week. Stay tuned .. they came out pretty great!

Also -linking this up with www.rocktheshotforum.com because they are having a self-portrait link up with some pretty great prizes! If you have a fun self-portrait (or take one before January 27), be sure to check out their site& link up! Should be really fun.

Goodbye, 2011

I have nothing interesting to say about 2011 or about a new year. I have no plans for tonight, I have no resolutions& in general, I don't really think January 1st is nearly as big a deal as people make of it! I am going to try to tackle 365 once again this year. I'm going to try to get one shot a week of the pup& one shot a week of myself. Self-portraits are an art. One I want to perfect. I attempted last night. I managed to get the one right below. Decent but I'm no self-portrait genius by any means. Also, I really needed a shower& maybe even some makeup. Oh, well.

Today DOES mean, however, that there are only a measly 12 days until my birthday! Oh, my birthday. How it is my favorite part of the year. Cake, presents& being all about me. I hate having stranger's attention on me but I'll take it from friends& family on my birthday. So much fun. Today I'm going to go for a run (may as well end 2011 on a good foot, right?), purchase some helium balloons& then take some photos. I bet you're intrigued now, aren't you?!

Also, keep an eye out for tomorrow's post. Linking up with Ashley Sisk for a top 25 prompts post! Some of them you guys have never even seen. I'm sneaky like that ;) Enjoy your last evening of 2011& don't forget to ring in 2012 the right way ..
If you're single- drunk& making out with someone you will only have a hazy recollection of tomorrow. If you aren't single- make sure you kiss the right person!