a beautiful mess.

Uuummm I am in love. With this blog. ------> bloginwhichiaminlove The chick who owns it is like, everything I want to be! I mean look at her hair!

Going red-head is definitely on my list of things to do.

And her blog... it's everything my blog wish it could be. Plus some cupcakes. (Cupcakes meaning awesome here.) 

I am super drawing inspiration from here and just love it! So I had to share :] Check it out! 

Maybe someday, when my hair is red and I own my own vintage boutique, my blog will be as lovely as this one. Until then...

Re-Imagining

My sister introduced me to an incredible photographer today, Brooke Shaden. I appreciate her work to a very high degree. Photography has lost a lot of it's true meaning in the world. So many people point and shoot at any random object and the blurry result is "art." Don't get me wrong, anyone should be able to enjoy the creative expression that is photography, but the true art form of it is being lost, buried under MySpace photos and Google. 

"Having and camera makes you no more a photographer than having a hammer and some nails makes you a carpenter." -Claude Adams

So here I want to share what I believe is an expression of true art. Shaden doesn't conform to any patterns or trends in her work. You can see that she is passionate about conveying a story or message and does so in a way that pushes the envelope, going beyond any commonly accepted boundaries. I find it refreshing. Enjoy :]

Brooke Shaden

"Within the space of a square frame, I try to build a world that is undeniably separate from the one we live in. What fascinates me about any artistic medium is that it can pull the viewer out of a logical and common world, and place them within a space that is more alive. When I use a square frame, I hope that the viewer will forget that they are looking at a photograph and instead see an alternate reality, one that mixes painterly qualities with surrealism and fantasy. Why focus on what the artistic medium is when the subject and concept are pulling us deeper and deeper into a world that allows us to escape our reality in exchange for a fantasy? It is my goal in photography to make beautiful that which others find disturbing, to take a simple concept (be it birth, death, or something in between – life) and mold it into something complex and magnetic." -Brooke Shaden

"In reality opposites are one; art shows this." -Eli Siegel

   

I'd actually wear my glasses if these were them...

I WANT THESE. That is all.

Ray Ban

Gimp

I love Photoshop. In fact, it is like an extension of myself. Hard to image life as a photographer without it... until it deleted itself from my computer. Poo. So since I am a poor college student and cannot afford the so very glorious thing that is CS5, I researched free photo editing software and found Gimp. I've heard of it before, but never needed to look into it until now. Users credit it as being the "Free Photoshop," and the name fits well. There are many similarities. So I stayed up until 1:30 last night playing with it, and ended up editing a photo of my sister (very roughly I might add). Despite the funny name, I'm pretty impressed since it's not Photoshop. I think Gimp will do just fine for now :]

Gimp

www.laurenelisephotograpy.weebly.com

cosas pequeñas

"Why not walk in the aura of magic that gives to the small things of life their uniqueness and importance? Why not befriend a toad today?" -Germaine Greer

thelastofdays

borboletra

unendingmasquerade

chpsauce

Why We Worship

I love this, a lot :] So simple, yet so powerful (not to mention one of my favorite artists ever)!

Into The Light

Bonjour, Saluti, Hola :] You can call me Lauren, for that is my name. I've been long musing over the idea of blogging and finally am doing so. My sweet Jesus has given me a heart to love, and with it I have learned to love many things. Thus, this blog. The idea of loving something great, whether small and irrelevant, or grand and useful, and not sharing it seems... pointless. 

 "We're made so that we love

First when we see them painted, things we have passed

Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see;

And so they are better painted — better to us,

Art was given for that;

God uses us to help each other so."

-Robert Browning

So here am I, to bring anything and everything that makes me smile, into the light :]

"Photography is painting with light."