Judy's at Old Spitalfields: May the Fourth Spectacular

When I heard that this month's theme for Judy's at Old Spitalfields was sci-fi, due to the fact it was being held on Star Wars Day (you know, May the fourth), I was pretty excited! I even bought a brand new skirt for the occasion. 

It was a great fair! I've been to a few of them now, but I think this was one of the best. So many lovely things, very stylish people (keep your eyes peeled tomorrow for a street style post) and a nice warm day. Perfection! 

You can't get much more space-age than this, can you? I desperately wanted one of these lights but, unfortunately, I don't think the tube would have been able to cope. Shame. 

Whilst chatting to the very lovely stall holder, she convinced me to snap a candid shot of her partner-in-crime. I promised I would post it, so here you go! 

One more light photo just because they are so beautiful. Is it normal to find vintage lighting beautiful? 

A lovely vintage radio from Mabel on the Table. I have no idea why I didn't buy it. I think I was preoccupied with taking the photo. Sigh. 

More vintage goodies from Mabel on the Table. We all need a vintage bell, right? Right? 

I wish I'd tested him to see if he really did talk! Walking Talking Toby Robo from Old Pony Vintage.

I always love the travel paraphernalia at Before Brasilia. It makes me wish I was a 1960s air stewardess a la Catch Me If You Can. The men who run the stall are so lovely. They remembered me from February too. It's always great when stallholders remember their previous customers. 

I wonder how many of these travel tips are still relevant today? It would be interesting to compare. 

If only I could have got this rocking horse on the train. I would have snapped it up in the blink of an eye. I really hope it goes to a good home! 

Finally, no trip to Judy's at Spitalfields would be complete without a stop off at Betty Lou's Bakery. 

I'm not even kidding when I say they are the most delicious cupcakes I have ever tasted. Yum yum yum! 

There's a lot more happening for spring! See you there? 

4th May 2013

 Top: Primark
Skirt: Boohoo

Happy Star Wars Day, guys! I had a great day at the sci-fi themed Judy's Vintage Fair. Be prepared for a mammoth post tomorrow! I thought it would be fun to dress for the occasion, so I bought this silver lame skater skirt. It's so obnoxious. I love it! 

I was kind of channelling Barbarella for this look. I've never actually worn my beehive with my hair down but I really like it. I'll definitely be trying this again! 

Book review: Girl, Interrupted

Girl, Interrupted- Susanna Kaysen

When I bought this book, I knew very little about it other than it had a dark subject matter. I assumed it was a novel, so I was surprised to find it was autobiographical. I don't tend to read many autobiographies- especially those which focus on difficult past lives- so I don't think I would have read it if I'd known.

However, within the first couple of paragraphs, I was surprised. It was written a lot more poetically than I expected. Kaysen is clearly very articulate, which I found interesting due to the correlation between mental illness and creativity. 

As somebody with some understanding of mental illness, I found her insights interesting, particularly when she began asking what defines insanity and what separates the sane from the insane.

Although I did find it interesting, I didn't feel that there was a huge amount of substance to this book. It held my attention throughout, but there was nothing that particularly sparked my curiosity or inspired me. A good enough book, but something I'm unlikely to remember well in a couple of years' time. 

Uncomfortable

Jenni at Story of My Life has the most amazing project idea for May: A blog every day in May challenge with a prompt for each day. I blog every day already, but I love the idea of having a prompt to explore.

I won't do every day- Some days I post twice as it is, and I think adding a third daily post would be a tad extreme- and I might mix them up a little if I miss a really awesome prompt because of this. 

So the first prompt is What makes you uncomfortable? I have a fair few neuroses, so brace yourselves!

The sound of scissors snipping
I have a horrific phobia of Edward Scissorhands. Seriously. This manifests itself in all sorts of ways. I'm afraid of any sort of disembodied hand imagery (such as these jewellery holders), whisks, bushes shaped like animals... I did manage to force myself to listen to the soundtrack since I love Danny Elfman, but there is no way I can cope with that snip snip noise. It sends shivers down my spine! 

Seeing someone I vaguely know on the bus
This is awkward for everyone, right? You went to school with them 10 years ago but you don't talk to them today. Do you say hello? Smile vaguely? Pretend you haven't recognised them and stare out the window? I always plump for the latter!
Socks
Taking this prompt literally, I hate socks. Tights, I can cope with. For some reason, though, as soon as I put on socks, my toes get all clammy and stick to each other. Not pleasant! 

FF XXXVII

Gorgeous Teen Vogue shoot! 

I don't even drink but man, these are awesome! 

I am absolutely in love with the amazing Daily Dishonesty

 

Vicious, the new ITV comedy starring the fanastic Sir Ian McKellan, is seriously hilarious. I imagine Rich and I will be exactly like the protagonist couple when we are in our retirement. Only not gay.

This beautiful bedroom. 

This gorgeous Current Elliott x Mary Katrantzou shirt at Trilogy Stores is what dreams are made of! 

Word of May: Inspire

Source

This is going to be a fun month, I think. My word is "Inspire" and I'm planning to inspire myself every week. Luckily for me, I already have lots planned so it should be easy to find inspiration. I hope I'll be able to keep some of these goals going every month.

1. Visit somewhere new
2. Meet someone new
3. Visit an exhibition
4. Find a piece of inspiration in every magazine I read
5. Read 4 books

Source

5 tips for creating amazing blog photos

Ok, I hardly think I'm a photography expert. However, I do think I've picked up a few things over the last 18 months or so of blogging and I thought it was time I shared these with you.

1. Lighting, lighting, lighting!
This is the most important thing to get right. Even if everything else is a struggle, get lighting right and your photos will be good enough. 

The first thing to bear in mind, and I cannot stress this enough, is always take photos in natural daylight. This doesn't mean going outside- I rarely go outside to take photos- and doesn't mean using sunshine. In fact, I find shade is usually better than direct light. Just so long as you take your photos in a bright room with a source of natural light, they will be clear.

Here I've taken photos in artificial lighting at night, and with a flash. As you can see, the artificial light gives a yellow tone, although this can be sorted out with white balance (more on this later). Flash is terrible for photos because it washes everything out, makes the photo flat and gives really harsh shadows. 

This photo, however, is using natural daylight. See the difference? 

Summary: Use shade in a room well-lit by natural daylight. Always.

2. Understand your camera
If you know your way around your camera, you will be able to increase the quality of your photos massively. This is especially true with DSLRs- There's no point having one if you don't understand it. See those dials with letters on the top? A lot of it is confusing but here's the key two: A is Aperture and S is Shutter speed. Very basically, aperture controls how wide the lens opens, and shutter speed is how fast the shutter goes off. The wider the aperture, or slower the shutter speed, the lighter the photo. I generally only use S mode to shoot. The problem is that a slow shutter speed makes the photo blurry, so you need to stand still!

An easy way to steady the camera is to hold the lens underneath and tuck your elbows in. Or, even better, use a tripod and a remote so you don't even need to touch it. They're really cheap on Amazon. 

White balance is very handy too- It stops the photo looking yellow in artificial light, and blue in daylight. Have a fiddle with the settings and see the difference it makes. In the photo above, I've used the incorrect white balance in daylight. As you can see, it's pretty blue! 

Summary: Use A or S mode, invest in a tripod to keep the camera steady and use the correct white balance settings. 

3. Focus
Focus is essential. Take photos that are out of focus, and they will not be clear. The key thing to remember is keep the camera steady, and focus on the main object. Even camera phones offer the ability to focus on different parts of the photo- Just tap on the area that you want to focus on. Good lighting helps with this too.

However, you can also get interesting effects with focus settings. I love to zoom my lens in, lean close to the subject, and shoot. This is what creates the blurred effect in the background of the photo above. Alternatively, focus on the background, and the foreground will be blurred. Sometimes this looks great. Sometimes, like below, it really doesn't! 

Summary: Make sure you focus on your subject, unless you're going for a more creative style. 

4. Composition
In design, there is something known as The Rule of Thirds. The principle is that any photo is split into three sections- both horizontally and vertically- and the focus should only be in one of these. Try to fill too many, and your photo will look cluttered. Understanding this principle means you can achieve some interesting compositions that are more interesting than a straight photo.

As you can see, the second photo below is a lot more interesting than the first.


It's also important to consider your background. A busy background will make the photo difficult to process and distract from the subject, whereas a plain, neutral background makes your photo a lot more clear. As you can see in the photo below, it's difficult to focus your eyes on the subject.  

Summary: Apply the Rule of Thirds, and keep a neutral background. 

5. Editing
If you take a great photo to begin with, there should be minimal editing. However, all photos need a few tweaks to get them to their full potential. This is what I do in Photoshop:

First, I edit out anything unsightly. Weird bits of dust that have picked up the light, annoying fly away hairs, the odd blemish. I never alter myself massively, but I do sometimes edit out temporary flaws. 

Next, I alter the tone and contrast. If necessary, I alter the brightness. Sometimes the white balance isn't quite right, so I neutralise the colour if necessary. Then I apply my curves layers.

Curves are amazing. They're basically layers that apply all sort of different effects to the top of your image. Think Instagram filters. You can buy some, but there are also lots of free ones out there on the internet. Just Google "free Photoshop curves". They really add depth and interest to photos.

This is the end result: 

Phew! That was a pretty long post, but I hope it helped some of you. Do you have any great tips for photography?