WALK AROUND QUÉBEC + VINTAGE EFFECTS

Reviving this blog with a little walk around my new neighborhood. I'm so lucky to have moved to such a photogenic city as Québec City in Canada. Also having great base material I finally had the chance to play around with some fun Photoshop tutorials. I LOVE the App Afterlight, so I was actually pretty pumped to whip up some similiar effects myself. Find the tutorials I used here.

The photo above is a little cute store (look at those flowers! Are we talking gorgeous here, or not?) I found about a block off the main street. I'm actually pretty in love with the filter even though it might be a bit over the top. But nothing like some crazy light leaks..

While exploring the Parque des Champs-de-Bataille I snapped this photo. The park really reminded me of the opening scene of 'Lady and the Tramp' where everyone is happily dancing and walking the streets with a blue sky above and candy colors everywhere. Yepp - that movie has really stuck with me ever since I was a kid. Québec has these almost british looking streets everywhere and I love that. When people say Québec is the most european city in northern America they certainly have a point.

Now to the artsy part of my day. The 'Musée de Beaux Arts' is part of the park I mentioned. Aside from all the constructions work that is going on around the area right now it is really a beautiful place. Hence the first photo. This filter I think my favorite because it has that actual old-photo vibe to it whereas most other filters just enhance the colors. This could be an old puzzle that you find on fleamarkets (or your attic if you have awesome grandparents haha). 

Being the biggest rebel in town I entered the museum without giving much about the entrance. There for sure was a sign with admission prices - but I didn't see it, so I just went right to the exhibtion. I got through three stories before a security guard told me (very politely!) about the fact that I would actually need a ticket to look at all the art. A ticket for 18 Dollars. Well okay great for everybody else. Sometimes you just have to play a little stupid I guess. After all I got a free tour which is great but I would only recommend spending those 18 bucks if you're really into art. 

If you want free (yes for real this time) art walk down Réne-Levesque-Rue-Ouest. There I found this gem. Two huge dragons. Very colorful, very pretty. The effect didn't turn out exactly as I had wanted but still nice. 

Because giving every photo it's own editing is a lot of work I also taught myself how to create a Photoshop-Action with the help of this page. A real time saver and I'm especially in love with the dreamy vibe this particular photo gets from it. The action is a simple mixture of the former tutorials. Again look at the fence, look a the house - SO european! Perfect!

So yes, lovely vintage-greetings from Québec City!

Love, Tabea

SHOUT OUT FOR RANDOM PHOTOS!

Blogger are  overall pretty amazing at sharing about their life through photos - some even take better daily life photos than blog-post photos. I don't know what it is, maybe the age old curiosity thing, that makes people wanna have insight into other's lifes. I'm not sharing too much personal stuff here, probably because I'm scared of stalkers. Haha, no, but sometimes I wonder whether certain bloggers actually have stalkers ... They have fangirls for sure ... so who knows?

Well I don't want to talk about fans, stalkers or creepiness (no offend to anyone - I consider myself a bit of a fangirl, too, sometimes). I'm just fascinated by how bloggers document their daily routine. I take pictures for this blog regularly. But the other day I wanted to put up some more personal photos up on my wall and naah. I didn't have any recent ones that I really connected with at first. So today I wanna give a shout-out for random photos! They are personal, lovely and great memories. 

I took this picture during my biology class. It just captures the moment so perfectly. We use a lot pencils in that class to draw things and well ... sometimes I like to put my head on the table. Just for a minute. Haha! Moments like oftentime get lost in the daily hassle. Also I could take a picture excatly like this one any time during my school week - there wouldn't be much of a difference. 

But 'not much of a diffrence' is still a difference.Just a few weeks ago the seniors at my school graduated. That made me realize how precious our school time is and within less than a year I won't be going to school anymore. So by taking picture more frequently I can hold on to those moments for a bit longer. 

Also, our days might often seems quite similar to each other, people aren't. And neither are cats. So I'm a big fan of 'living-things'-photography. I don't do it often enough though. Taking selfies in front of my mirror is one thing, but with other people I just find it uncomfortable sometimes to take photos. It's not a common request around here to take a photo that is not all smiles or even take random photos in general. I often hear things like:' What are doing? Are you taking a picture now?'... Makes me feel a bit awkward. 

On the same page I think it's so important to find new angles for photos. It takes a lot of practise to realize quickly, oh this is a picture-moment and immediately find a cool angle to snap a great shot. That's why I love the pciture of my cat above. It's sorta unexpected.

These last two photos kinda show the difference between 'real life' and 'real nice set-up' pretty well, I think. The first one was taken while walking up the stairs from a subway station in Berlin, the second one is once again my night-stand. I happened to have all these notebooks flying around and I thought: 'Well this is cool, let's take a picture'. So I actually arranged them to look like this - tried to make it look like a coincidence though, such a ganster! 

As a photographer of any kind, I think it takes a lot of courage to do what you like. Simply because others aren't used to cameras being around them for no appearend reason. So let's pull ot the iPhones and DSLRs and what-nots and make people feel comfortable, so we can feel comfortable snapping away every moment of our life! And soon I hope to have more meaninful photos to frame and decorate my room with!

Hope to encourage!

Lots of Love, Tabea ♥

CHALLENGE 365 + INSTAGRAM WALL DIY

I'm really into all kinds of challenges this year! So much fun to see how the results get better over time, how one overcomes obstacles in terms of keeping up the dedication and then: Enjoying the memories you made. For 2013 I wanted to try the 'Challenge 365 - A Picture A Day' - challenge. There are so many little moments during everyday life that are worth capturing.  I've tried to take pictures everyday in late 2012, but I have to say especially as a student it is kinda hard to find interesting pictures on a daily basis. Phones are prohibited in my school and after school I usually spent my days at home. 

But then I came across this cool app called Project 365. You can set yourself a reminder which will pop up everyday at a set time and tell you to take a picture that day! I set mine for 4 pm, right when I would come home from school. Once you took a picture (via the app or just with your normal camera app) you can put it up in a calendar and add a description. So much fun to look back at the end of the month! 

These are some of my favorite pictures from January til May. I have to be honest with you though. There have been days when I cheated. Yepp my bad, but sometimes I just forget to take a photo. Then I used a picture taken earlier or later which kinda represents that day. Sorry to myself for cheating on me! Haha! 

Happily snaping away photos is great - but I even went a step farther and printed them out. Like for real - photos that you can actually touch! So retro maaan! Being a hispter like this I put them up on the wall over my bed as an 'Instagram wall' - can't get much more hipster than this! Okay let's leave the hispter alone - picture wall are great, whether the photos are squares or not! 

Here a quick tutorial on how I got the photos from my phone to the printer.  

Open Photoshop. 1) Open a new file, the size of the sheets you're planning on printing on. Mark a square and fill it with a light shade of grey (I recommend a light color, since some of it might come out when you print along the sides of the photos). 2) Copy and paste that square six times and drag all of the squares in place. 3) Open your picture and change its size so it'll fit the grey squares. You might have to experiment a bit. My pictures had to be 1007 by 1007 px. 4.) Drag and drop them into them right place. PS will automatically add a new layer to your file, so you can move around the pictures seperately later. Lastly - Print!

I adhered the pictures to the wall with double-sided tape. So far all of them stayed in place just fine. When taping them to the wall, take breaks to wash your hands. For some reason they get kinda dirty and you might leave small smears of grey around the photos. Just a tipp!

This inexpensive and relatively easy way to display photos really adds personality to a space I find. So nice waking up, looking at some great memories. 

We're kinda too far into the year to start a 365 challenge, but why not a 180-days challenge? Or a 3-months summer photos challenge? The possibilities are endless and making memories is always fun! So get out the cameras and phones and snap, snap, snap away! 

Lots of love, Tabea ♥