Welcome to the latest edition of the Photography Styling Challenge, the first one in the New Year. Are your resolutions already forgotten? Just kidding!!
This month’s concept is Chaos. To make it interesting, there is also a constraint to use 3 items from last month’s Order shoot.
Let me start with a chaotic shot of my handbag and its contents. I have used almost all the same items last month for the Order shoot. Do check out the link to jog your memory. I added few more items by dumping the contents of the wallet and the cosmetics bag.
1. Ladies’ Handbag
This is exactly what I do to find stuff buried in the dark depths of my bag. And it happens far too often for my liking!
I hope I satisfied the constraint of using at least 3 items from last month.
And now for some fun shots.
2. Gift Wrapping Madness
I was wrapping gifts for Christmas (by spreading everything on our bed, which is really how I work), when I had this sudden urge to try styling some chaotic madness. And when I say I ‘styled’ this shoot, I use the term very lightly! I threw some random stuff on the bed and chucked the rest of it under the bed.
Here are a few shots.
The shiny bags didn’t help me one bit. They reflected light every way and gave this weird disco ball-ish effect. But I think the bright, preppy colors are sort of fun and the perfect antidote to this cold January morning.
Chaos is all around us. But this month’s concept made me realize that capturing chaos in a tasteful manner is really very tough. I cannot post a photo of my kitchen sink or our living room by the end of the day, without probably disgusting you and driving you away from my blog for ever!
I am really intrigued to learn how it can be done. So before you go, be sure to check out the other posts at these participating blogs.
As always, please leave your feedback, let me know what I could have done differently, and be sure to check out next month’s post on the concept ‘Patterns‘. That should be fun!
You can still join in the fun! Click on the Photography Styling Challenge button in the sidebar if you’d like to take part in future challenges.
To see all my previous challenge posts, please visit my Photography Styling Challenge page.
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Lovely shoot, Anjana! I especially love the bag part because I love your bag!! My sisters-in-law used to call mine the bag of mysteries, loosely translated to: big bad chaos!
I so badly wanted to do a chaos shoot on Christmas day but it was such a circus at our uncle’s place, with all the mass gift unwrapping that my camera got lost somewhere!
I hope you have wonderful month! 🙂
Thank you, Vaish! I do love carrying big handbags filled to the brim. Haha…
Glad to know you had a wonderful Christmas. I couldn’t get any pics on that day too, as Boy was too excited ripping open his presents and it was just too much chaos 😉
Hey Anjana, lovely pics. I like the Christmas theme that you went with. Makes me all tingly inside even though Christmas is way over hehe.
Thank you, Dillon. I am a sucker for Christmas stuff too!
Happy new year, Anjana! I had actually considered doing a gift wrapping station for my Order/Chaos themes, but it seemed I couldn’t round up the right materials for it. Shooting shiny objects are a royal pain the arse! I can actually see your reflection in the silver gift bag in #1! Hahaha. Some things I would have considered when shooting would be 1) turn shiny surfaces away from the camera, 2) remove them altogether (if possible). Also, I am noticing that your images tend to be much brighter on one side where the window is, but kind of darker on the other side of the image. Have you tried propping a white board or reflective surface on the darker side to deflect the light so your photos are more light balanced?
Thank you, M.
Shooting shiny surfaces are a real pain! I laid down some of the bags, but finally decided to leave two bags standing and thought “Oh, well!” I could have bought non-shiny bags too, but then it just would not be me!
My faves are actually the last two snaps, but if I didn’t include the other pics, no one would understand what they were looking at. Hence, the overall shot with shiny bags and all.
I totally understand what you are talking about one half of the photo being brighter than the other. That is something I need to learn how to correct.
Anjana! Greetings. Happy 2014. So, I have been a backpack devotee for years now, a University habit I can’t shake. For Christmas I received the Noodlehead Supertote sewing pattern and I am terrified of the layers I am going to accumulate in that sucker. Your first photo speaks to my fears. I like the wrapping chaos, but I wish it spoke more truly to the pure and utter mess that is wrapping presents. Maybe I’m doing it wrong. Paper cuts, tape everywhere, curling paper covering everything. I do think the lighting is great on the gift station photos. Good work! My post is up after a minor technical glitch.
Happy New Year to you too, Nicole!
A girl’s handbag holds many secrets, right 😉 haha…
I did get rid of too many distracting stuff from the gift wrapping photo session. If I included every mess, I found it distracted from the photos. So, what you see is a sort of ‘contained’ chaos!
Love the pictures Anjana! Honestly, I find them too pretty to be chaotic! But in the end, as you said, it’s all about styling… yours is a very stylish chaos!
Thank you so much, Supriti!
Though the gift wrapping session happened as part of daily life, I am glad I could use it to practice some ‘styled’ chaos shots.
Hello Anjana, a very happy new year to you!
Chaos it is. I love the gift wrapping theme, the cute wrappers, ribbons and the disorder in all. I can totally understand when you say those shiny bags made it all the more difficult… I too get similar results especially with shiny tableware n cutlery. You still nailed it though. I like the last but one pic the best.
Thank you Namrata, and a very happy New Year to you too!
Thanks for your feedback.
I know what you mean about photographing shiny surfaces! But I am glad you liked my attempt.