still/life #004

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I don't know about you, but December absolutely slipped through my fingers. Here I am, three days from Christmas, having once again been over-enthusiastic about my catering efforts (did I really have to make the icecream from scratch?) and gift wrapping aesthetic. I am not apologising for the latter.

It's strange to be posting from the Southern Hemisphere - my feed has been full of Winter Solstice posts, while I sweat it out here in unbearable humidity. My nights haven't been candlelit or filled with ritual, but the long summer skies have stretched into the evening, and every night I wait for a storm to break the still air. To escape the heat, I ventured to the nearby town of Woombye where the local cafe serves excellent iced mango matcha.

Woombye is the town that time forgot - a pub, rural store, small supermarket, laundromat and a rarely-open post office. The independently run library sits pride of place in front of the bowls club, flanked by palm trees. Disco baubles hang from a bush between the mechanic and cafe (we’re a festive little region). There weren't too many people around, but it was nice to be a tourist for a day and snap whatever drew my eye.

FESTIVE BONUS:

As aforementioned, I'm departing a little from my still/life format this week, to bring you some holiday card experiments. I've always been fascinated with the tactile - destroying or altering a print before re-photographing it. Something to do with bringing the digital violently into the physical realm. I didn't want to overthink it - sometimes the best experiments begin with whatever you have on hand, so on a balmy summer afternoon, I rummaged through my art box for thumbtacks, pencils, tape and glitter stars, dumping it all unceremoniously on the deck table, before pouring myself a drink and destroying my images one by one.

Experiment #1 - Pinhole Light Photos

Inspired by Amy Friend, and Daniele Buetti, these little sparkle light photos were created by punching holes in various patterns, and shining a light through the photo paper (via a makeshift lightbox), before re-photographing them again.

I blu-tacked the pinholed photos into place and turned on the LED light. It lit up beautifully, however the photo paper was a little thin and slightly reflective. I dialed down the exposure to ensure that the lights came through, but I suspect I would get more vibrant results with better materials. Note to self: skip the cheap matte paper next time.

A quick video I made:

I then re-edited the images with my signature grain to give them a more nostalgic/romantic feel:

Experiment #2

In the event that the pinhole shots didn’t work out, I figured that I could simply add some Christmas flare to my non-pinholed images. I picked two - one of the baubles from my photo walk, as well as a rogue pine tree that I stopped to photograph on my way home. I scattered glitter stars (in what I hope was an artful fashion), and re-shot them.

I then added a festive message in Canva, and narrowed it down to my three favourites. Personally, I think the glitter stars worked better for seasonal cards, but I look forward to honing the pinhole light technique in the future and creating something more intentional.

MY GIFT TO YOU:

As a thank you for all of the support you’ve shown A Certain Slant this year, I’d love to share these with you. ♡

Download full-res images here.

In the meantime, I’m off to soak raisins for my icecream and pour myself another drink. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

See you before the new year. ♡