Words of Wisdom

Youth is wasted on the young.

Thursday 8 April 2010

Team Up Thursday: Shadow

I feel as if I am in a bit of a shadow world at the moment. The usual routine of school and work is on hold for the holidays; I have a lounge room full of pre-teen boys talking about banshees and personality credits in some X Box game; Himself and I continue to struggle with finances and the idea of moving into a smaller place and my mum and dad are selling up their holiday house here in Australia and clearing out all its contents! Some of these will end up here which means we have to clear out contents as well.

It's not conducive to a relaxing holiday.

And so, for Team-Up Thursday, JoLyn and I give you: 'Shadow'.




Mine on the top, JoLyn's on the bottom.

I am loving the creative process that JoLyn and I have settled into. Each week one sends the other an initial photo and we work from there. Sometimes she puts them together, sometimes I do. Sometimes we re-crop and re-colour on the basis of the other's shot. Sometimes we re-crop the other person's shot to go with ours! While some pair-ups leave the choice of photos to chance, we are being quite deliberate about making ours work together.


When I started to think about the 'shadow' theme, I had all sorts of ideas about weird and wonderful shadow patterns but, as always, the 'best laid plans of mice and men' meant that it rained VERY heavily where I am and snowed in Utah!!! The grey and overcast skies meant little chance of capturing anything fresh and new; however, fortunately, JoLyn had taken a series of excellent shots of her amazing 'freerunning' son, A, the week before.


And, once I'd seen this, I knew just which shot I would grab and crop!


This is my daughter (in the red shorts), my stepson and my niece jumping for joy on Kangaroo Island last year!

I particularly like this diptych. I like its graphic quality and the way A's shadow is stretching out towards the three ink blots above him!

And just for good measure, and because JoLyn likes to know how shots came about, here are the rocks near where the above photo was taken.

They are called, appropriately, Remarkable Rocks and I think with all the weird and wonderful play of light on them, they could easily represent our 'Shadow' theme too.

What do you think?

Visit the flickrpool or Melody and Megan to see what other Teams have been up to this week. As always I recommend a trip over to AmyJo's to see how she has interpreted the letter H this week.


POST SCRIPT: I can't believe I have posted about this the very week I find out that there is a RULE about collaborating!!!!!! Seems JoLyn and I will have to rethink our strategy!!!!! JoLyn...I am so sorry....I am SUCH a BAD influence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

14 comments:

joa2307 said...

I love these shadow shots - and you are right, they work so well together. I hope there arn't any rules, and if there are - this diptych was was worth breaking them for. Well done!

HipMomma said...

NO! DON'T rethink how you do it! (Sorry, didn't mean to yell at you.) I was just gonna comment how unique it is how you two choose your pics and put your dip together. We all do it differently and I love your method, all the thought that goes into it. You collaborate together and that's how you play the game. There are no rules. I'll stop lecturing. ;)

Love the shadows, and how you cropped them to emphasize the shadows. It's works. Great job, team.

Arizaphale said...

Whew! Thanks gals!

stephanie said...

Great shadows! I'm with Melody...don't rethink it. I love reading your process and love that every team does it differently!
That rock...AMAZING!

Cara said...

I love how they bottom shadow looks like it is throwing the top shadows. I like how you showed the pre-cropped photos as well, really neat.

JoLyn said...

Shoot--I guess these two free spirits made up their own rules!! It's working though don't you think?!

I love your rock photo--so cool! and you are right. I love knowing the whole story! I am having so much fun working with you, Ariz. I hope we don't have to change anything!

~Kristina said...

Shadow shots are some of my favorites. Great topic and super depictions.

Megan said...

this is my fav yet from you two! fabulous...and NO, don't even think about "rules." i was just kidding in my post, there aren't any rules:). mel & i just send each other our photos blind, so we don't know what's coming. i love that you two have gone a different route -- that's what this game is all about, to inspire creativity!

Joanna said...

So glad you showed the original photos showing where the shadows came from. Thats fun to see and then to know how you cropped them. Nice job!

Jessie said...

Love them both and love the crops. AWESOME!

Amy Jo said...

Law breaker! I love these two together, and seeing them before and uncropped was cool as well. Our process is much more boring. We have a spreadsheet.

Again, after seeing those rock photos I may just pack up and haul my brood off for a visit to see you. Thanks for the link!

Puna said...

This is so cool! I loved them both. And I don't remember your site looking like this either:)

Unknown said...

love hearing the methodology you go through and LOVE seeing the "whole picture" too. nice work!

Maggie said...

These work so well together! I LOVE these shots -- so fun!