Photo a Day – May 2014

Hello there Buttoneers! If you have been following me on Instagram or maybe even Twitter, then you may have seen that for the third time this year I have been taking part in Fat Mum Slim’s Photo-a-day Challenge. 

Here are my Photo a Day – March 2014 and Photo a Day April 2014 blog posts.

I am still really enjoying these photo prompts and how they push me to think creatively every day. I am really busy at the moment but with this photo challenge in the back of mind I am safe in the knowledge that I will have at least a month’s worth of photos by the end of the month with very little effort. As most of you know, especially if you follow me on Instagram, that I love to document the everyday and the little things in life that make me smile or think differently.

This challenge is really opening me up to not only think creativity in a different medium (photography) than I am used to (beyond by holiday snaps and blog photographs) but how I now think about composition and what those prompts mean to me.

I am a total photo-a-day addict now! haha! 

Here is my May 2014 in a Photo-a-Day…

Photo a Day – March 2014

Hello there Buttoneers! If you have been following me on Instagram or maybe even Twitter, then you may have seen that for the first time I have been taking part in Fat Mum Slim’s Photo-a-day Challenge. 

I really wish I had discovered this (I know…I know…I must have been living under a rock…) at the start of the year and at the start of this blog but, I got there eventually. I thoroughly enjoyed this little challenge and loved how it has made me think outside the box and in a different medium than I am used to. I got into a routine of taking the photograph through Instagram on my smartphone in the morning and this way I didn’t forget to take one.

I loved that by just taking a minute of two out of my day, I was documenting the world around me and some of my favourite things.

The challenge to think of a new and creative way to compose each photo prompt was the fun part! Some prompts I struggled with for a while, some I knew instantly, but mainly I was proud of my photograph and took time to play around with composition and negative space. The best part is that it only takes a few moments of your busy day and yet you can not only feel a part of something by following the hashtag #fmsphotoaday, but keep the creative juices flowing! 

Here is my March 2014 in a Photo-a-Day…

A New Way of Scrapbooking?

Hey Buttoneers – Before you read ahead I just wanted to state that I am in no way affiliated with ‘A Beautiful Mess’. I am not being paid to write this, I am not sponsored by them or know any of the people who own or write for their Lifestyle Blog. I just love the App and wanted to share it with you! All photographs are my own.

This is my Favourite! ©ElistonButton. All Rights Reserved.

Wowzer! I recently downloaded the new photograph editing App that it hot on the iTunes market at the moment called ‘A Beautiful Mess’ after the Lifestyle Blog of the same name. I had read a fair few reviews and other creative entrepreneurs had written about it so I am naturally intrigued. I am a faithful Instagrammer (search @racheleliston) I instagram all of my iPhone photographs as I love the square format and the ability to totally ‘save’ a blurry of quick snapshot that you are unable to retake. the square was perfect for the scrapbook (I promise to share soon).

So, I was naturally a little dubious amongst this intrigue that another, similar photograph editing App could satisfy my inner artist.

Creating My Own Wall Art.

I was creating my first mini scrapbook of a holiday I have just got back from and found myself, as I usually do, getting pulled towards a new project. As I was sifting through the hundreds of photographs I took in France, I came across one of my favourites. Not only was it one of those photographs that you take and every time you look at it it transports you back to that exact moment, but it was one that I just loved for its simplicity.

Berck-Sur-Mer Plage, France. Original Photograph (click to enlarge) ©ElistonButton. All Rights Reserved.

I haven’t played around with my graphics tablet for years. Arm in arm with a new version of Photoshop, I knew just what I wanted to add to make the stand alone scrapbook page grab my attention and really feel complete. I opened the file in Photoshop, connected up the graphics tablet and played around with hand rendering my own handwriting as a font. This got way too complicated and I was in danger of losing interest and finding a new project (I am a bit fickle with projects, I flit around lot!) and then it dawned on me that I should just write directly onto the photograph. This looked awful and I had to re-print my photograph Finally, I had it, I combined the handwriting with the graphics tablet and tried writing directly onto the photograph , but this time digitally…