In which there is sushi and wildlife

I made these! My own crafted rolls!

I haven't got any more outfit photos, but I thought I'd do another 'life shots' post today. The coolest thing I did recently was take a sushi making class (thanks in-laws!) with my husband, and it was so fun. I was worried that it wouldn't really cover much and also that we wouldn't get to eat much. But nope. We made so many things, and we had so much to eat that we filled a box to take home afterwards and had the rest for breakfast the next day.

 I was seduced by an incredible book today. I had been saying recently how one of my ambitions is to own every year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year book. And also all the Portrait Photographer of the Year books too. And maybe some of the Astronomy Photography of the Year too, because wow, those books are brilliant. And then in front of me in Waterstones was this dreamy temptation: 50 Years of Wildlife Photographer of the Year, the best of the best. So you know, I got it. I love having a job.

Yes, this is a photo of a photo, taken in the evening. It does not do the actual photo justice.

The stunning book inspired me to do a little more revision of my own photography skills, because I want to be able to record the trip to Japan in a way I'll be proud of and not a series of out of focus crowd shots. But then reading the Wildlife Photography book, it's amazing to remember that these guys* are not just great photographers, they're determined and dedicated photographers. So many of the shots in the book describe great lengths people went to in order to get the shot. Some say ten years of studying polar bears for one of the greatest shots in all of history. Or maybe just 6 months camped out in a hide in a protected forest, waiting at the beautiful waterfall for a tiger to drink, and pause and look into your eyes. It's the stories of how the pictures are taken which add even more depth and awe to the images.

 

However another bit of my mind just can't understand and is going: "How? How could you spend 3 months travelling with elephants to take the perfect shot? Who is paying you for this? How do you have the time?"
For some of them they are gamekeepers, or park-keepers or scientists or documentary makers, but all the same I struggle to understand how it happens that you can give your life to that shot, to take the 80,000 that leads to the photo of the century. Every time I go to one of the photography exhibits I wonder this same thing, how can you spend so long aiming for that one shot? But also, it is acceptable not to be brilliant because we all make choices and we don't all have that time.

 But there we are, I guess I'll have to meet one and ask them. Any ideas?




*I did notice in the book that nearly all the names mentioned are men, with few exceptions which is a little disappointing, and may go some way to answer something about my question of 'who?' and 'how do they have time?'

In which I have a birthday (almost)

When I went to Edinburgh I persuaded my boyfriend to take some pictures of my outfits. However he kept taking pictures of my face instead, forgetting the point that it is supposed to be a secret identity. However I have a couple of redeemable photos.

I mostly wanted to show off this skirt. I feel that at the moment I wear the same thing every day. I love this skirt and wear it all the time. It is really comfortable and I love the shape and it goes with pretty much everything. It also looks fairly plain but has just a little bit of detail to make it feel special. Hope you guys like it.

2 Outfit possibilities. The skirt was a charity shop find. Both tops are actually from Dorothy Perkins.

Oh and tomorrow is my birthday! However I had a mini-birthday today. Well basically my family celebrated it with me with the traditional lasagne dinner and I opened my presents. I always have lasgane on my birthday. For as long as I can remember it has been my favourite thing. Anyhow, it’s pretty much like today is my birthday, apart from the fact that it isn’t. I got some pretty sweet things that epitomise my mix of girly and geeky. My boyfriend got me all the Step Up dvds (girly, but we both love dancing so also romantic) and the Bleach films (geeky). My brother got me Fable (geeky) and my parents got me orange nail varnish! Woop. This is exciting because I specifically asked for it when they asked what I wanted and am happy even if it is one tiny thing. They also got me some tea bowls and are getting me a mini-photography studio. Not a room. It’s like a white tent with bright lights. Hard to explain but it will allow me to take more photos like this:

I haven’t been able to take bright crisp photos for a while because I actually did it by borrowing my friend’s lightbox. Soon I will have my own! I will be able to take photos of everything, so long as it is small. I will take my mum’s cakes and my sister’s lego and I will photograph it all. Mwahaha. Ok, photography isn’t evil, but you get the sentiment.

Oh and this doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll be any better at outfit posts, but Dad also found a tripod when I mentioned that it would be useful. He was all “Oh I’m sure we have several.” I mentioned it before. My family are hoarders.

In which I ramble about prawns, graveyards and photography.

You may remember last week I was feeling so proud of my photography? This week it all seems to have fallen apart. I have tried so hard and yet my camera is refusing to focus properly. It keeps putting the focus on the wrong things. Its so frustrating when I'm trying to put things up on Etsy.

The photography standard is so high there it's intimidating. I spent hours this weekend trying to photograph one necklace!

Finally did it! Sometimes trying to own an Etsy shop feels like too much hard work I have to say. However Christmas soon so hopefully some sales of shiny things.

In other news I went to see a play this week based on The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (oh yes its him again) and it was fantastic! I was so impressed, especially as the theatre was almost built for the performance. It was next to a graveyard and they did a couple of scenes outside and a few in the attic of the theatre. It made me feel all in love with good theatre again. I know I talked about how much I love theatre before as I reviewed my fringe experience. The thing is that with all the student protests there seems to be a backlash against the arts and some people seem to think they are useless. Well. Seeing a brilliant play of a brilliant book where everyone came away impressed made me just want to stick my tongue out at them all, or turn their science and law degree certificates into paper finger puppets.

Also going to have a brief Art Nerd moment. I suddenly feel that Dave McKean's drawings (above) look a lot like John Piper work (below).

This picture is massive and totally irrelevant to my blog post but I just love his work. So there.

I haven't mentioned it much before but I am also massively into cooking. I used to be fairly bad I believe but in the past few years living away from parentals I have got a lot better. I say this today because I made a meal I was so proud of.

Onions, mushrooms and garlic cooked with some basil. Then a little bit of chopped tomatoes thrown in (not the whole can) and stirred round. Wait a bit and then added double cream and red wine.

While all that was cooking I also had some spaghetti on. Poured the spaghetti into a wok full of sauce and stirred that round. The put it on a plate. THEN add a box of pre-cooked king prawns and some spinach leaves to the top of the meal. It was so amazing. For some reason the photo is terrible, (I said Im having a photography fail) and doesn't show how pink the whole meal looked and the shinyness of the prawns. But there was no way I was going to set up a light box and tripod when I could eat it all up. Nom nom nom.

I promise you this is not going to turn into a cookery blog. I just wanted to share this beauty with you. My blog entry is a little all over the place this week, even a little bit of politics in there. However Origami Girl does have to eat and have a bit of fun. Besides it's good to talk about other things than my superpowers occasionally.

Next week though I'm going to update you on the pyromaniac-creating local scientist.