2019 Photography Challenge

Urban Environment, July 2019

I take a lot of photos every day, as do many of us. I’m always keeping an eye out for inspiring, interesting or amusing sights. I already have an ongoing project, the Lost Collection which I first began 13.5 years ago: I looking for ‘lost things’ to photograph and add to my collection which! However, towards the end of 2018, I started thinking about a more purposeful and short-term photographic project.

I had been seeing a lot of monthly photo challenges floating around on social media, and I decided that could be a fun thing to do. However, none of the shared lists I had seen appealed to me wholly, so I wrote my own 30-day list that I intended to roll over each month. In addition, since I would be using my phone, I would use my favourite camera app, the Hipstamatic, and apply a different combination of lens, film and flash effects to each monthly set.

Some of the subjects I chose included obvious cues: self-portrait, nature, urban and domestic environments, clouds, sunsets/sunrises, animals etc, but I also included some prompts that would encourage lateral thinking, such as time, inspiration, nostalgia, literary. One of my prompts was the phrase, ‘Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue’ – quite broad, but sadly I managed only one ‘borrowed’ item! In November I even added an extra degree of difficulty and used fashion as a general theme for the entire month, which was fun.

With 33,000 photos on my phone, I only recently managed the Herculean labour of downloading my camera roll in its entirety, and finally finished collating the last few months. You can read a bit more and view the entire portfolio here – each month is separated into its own gallery.

Upside-down, February 2019

So Not A Princess is Moving!

Greetings dear readers, it’s been a very long time indeed since I last posted. What can I say – I just needed a break, even before the pandemic played havoc with all our lives. (You’d think with all the extra time on hand during Melbourne’s numerous lockdowns I would have being posting more, but no – I was not so inspired.) Considering I have not been posting for years however, I am pretty chuffed that people are still reading, and some of you are visiting direct – thank you so much, that’s very encouraging!

I have some news now though: So Not a Princess is moving (insert fanfare of trumpets):

As of 6 January 2023, my erstwhile domain name will be obsolete, but both the Style and Sketchbook blogs will survive intact at helenaturinski.com. Those of you with an eagle eye may have noticed that SNAP is already directing to the new domain name.

This website will briefly continue to look like this until the migration to Squarespace’s upgraded platform is completed, but when the transition is complete, you will still be able to click through to the blogs from the homepage.

There may even be – gasp! – some new content for your viewing pleasure. Until then …

Scarier than Darth Vader

I have never read Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Like many though, I have seen the Disney animation. It was one of the first films I saw; reading a little about the synopsis makes me realise I retain absolutely no memories of it. What I do remember is being very cross because my sister made me go and see that instead of the original Star Wars with her and my cousins, citing that I was too young for violent science-fiction. (I was even crosser when I saw a boy about my age exit the cinema, having seen it and clearly suffering no ill effects.) But however childish I thought it was, I am sure I must have enjoyed The Jungle Book.

I am amused to compare some stills from the film with the cover art of this nineteenth century publication. That tiger looks scarier than Darth Vader. Compare its animated counterpart:

Cuddly, right?

I think I need to take a trip down memory lane and rewatch some of these childhood perennials. 

This may be the last calendar picture I share for a while, as I recently found a vintage perpetual calendar in a thrift store, and plan to try using that next year. I rarely write on the actual wall calendar, using my phone diary as a planner, so it seems a little pointless to have one, apart from enjoying the pretty pictures every time I turn a month over. I expect I will often forget to move the paper cogs on the perpetual calendar however, but we shall see.

Happy December!

Choo Choo

A while ago while browsing in an op shop, I stumbled across a selection of adorable cat postcards in a box of random stationery. They look like risograph prints by the texture, or Victorian chromolithographs, both of which I love. 

I had never heard of Jetoy before, a brand that featured pastel coloured illustrations of cats in all sorts of situations; they were too funny and sweet not to purchase the whole collection. There’s just something heartwarming about a cat’s big eyes – they look so innocent and trusting. 

It transpires Jetoy is a Korean stationery and lifestyle brand that was launched in 2001 in Japan. The creators were inspired when they saw a languid cat in the yard of a beautiful villa, taking nap in the sun. “It looked haughty, cocky, but lovely, warm, happy. The cat seems to be a dreamer like us....” they say on their whimsical website. Furthermore, Jetoy is a planet existing “on the opposite space far from earth”; the cats that live there are called Choo choo. They came here for a visit a long time ago, and decided to stay!

You can visit their website and browse their products. Meanwhile look out for more when I share some additional cards here.

Black and White Gold

Day 14: DarknessI had not planned to do a black and white photo challenge in July, but on the first day, when I was post-editing a potential self-portrait using the random button in the Hipstamatic app, I suddenly hit upon this combination, and immediately thought: YES, THAT’S IT!

This black and white film is not completely devoid of colour, but is only desaturated to a high enough degree so that strong colour comes through visibly, but light colours mostly wash out. The film also haves a random dark vignette in adjacent corners which can look bad on light photos, but on shadowed images it can work well, and also particularly nicely with the Tinto 1884 lens, which is based on antique Tintype cameras and creates a shallow depth of field. On the other hand, the Triple Crown flash always brings sharp definition and contrast, and in this instance, it does reduce the Tinto blur a pleasing amount without any additional editing.

Day 28: LiquidBy chance I photographed the man serving me at the coffee merchant – I buy Columbian dark roast beans – for my ‘darkness’ subject, and then exactly two weeks later for ‘liquid’ I photographed it percolating through my Italian espresso pot. I call it black gold.

Check out July’s full gallery here.