Lovely Vertigo

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Weekly Inspiration :: Vol. 3

I spend a lot of time on the internet scrolling, clicking, reading, watching, listening, and exploring. I am hugely inspired by what I find in my web travels. So these weekly inspiration volumes are to collect some of my favorite things that have inspired me throughout the week.

– None of these are made/taken by me. You can find them on my tumblr: www.lovelyvertigo.tumblr.com –

1) I just love this photograph: the perspective, the colors, the composition! 2) I am currently re-designing my room, and my decor style, I've decided, is "simple, comfy, and a little funky". I love clean, simplistic Scandinavian design, rustic, cozy accents, and pops of color. Ooh la la! 3) Whimsy. 4) One of my favorite Einstein quotes. 5) Mother Nature is magnificent! 6) Ahh, sweet simplicity. 7) As a self-identified film nerd, I wholeheartedly agree. 8) I have a boundless love and fascination for our big, beautiful, inexplicable universe. Rather than looking at the scope of space and feeling insignificant within it, I feel humbled, and curious, and inspired whenever I learn about the vastness and majesty of space. 9) More words to live by.

Song of the Day:

Tearing Me Up, Bob Moses

Photoshoot :: In Some Way, I'm There With You

As I began typing this post, my little cousin Olivia was soaring through the air on the way to her new home. I say "little"--Olivia's been taller than me since we were tweens and, if I'm being honest, I look up to her as much as she might look up to me. We've spent our lives growing together, and I'm so proud of the intelligent, passionate, radiant human being she's become. It seems like not so long ago that we were singing Beatles songs in silly opera voices and making each other laugh with obnoxious fart noises--and look at us now! Well...okay, we still do that sometimes.

My point is, I love Olivia more than I describe. She is honestly my favorite person in the world, and, as I've mentioned before, my number one inspiration for portraiture. I'm so glad we had time for one more cousin photoshoot before she moved away to start her fantastic college adventure--as always, it was a day filled with creative inspiration, meaningful conversation, delicious food, and hilariously immature jokes. Oh, I'll miss you, cousin. :)

"When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too." — Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Song of the Day:

London Thunder, Foals

Preview :: Memory So Bright

"How beautiful to find a heart that loves you, without asking you for anything, but to be okay."

Khalil Gibran

Song of the Day: Forest Fires, Axel Flovent

Photography :: Be Square

This summer, I brushed the dust off of my camera and set out to find my magic again. It had been a while since I was able to truly dedicate time to photography, since I was so busy during the school year, but I feel like I've finally gotten into groove. During the school year, I relied a lot on Instagram as an outlet for my creativity. I started out unsure about cropping all of my pictures to squares, but I soon started to enjoy the compositional challenge of fitting all of the elements of a photograph into a different frame than I was used to. Even though the latest Instagram update now allows for landscape and portrait style posts (hallelujah!), my affinity for square composition continues to have an effect on the way I compose photographs.

A few weeks ago, my friend Carson and I wandered around San Diego, capturing as many of its underappreciated corners as we could find before the sun set. Visiting San Diego with friends and a camera in hand has become one of my favorite things to do. Hopefully there will be many more photo posts to come, but for now, here are the square pictures I took that day with Carson...

"Magic comes from what is inside you. It is a part of you.

You can’t weave together a spell that you don’t believe in."

— Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

Song of the Day:
Love Songs for Robots

Photography :: Olivia

So much of what I've learned as a photographer has come from working with my cousin Olivia. When we were younger, we had all the time in the world to be our creative little selves; we began by taking pictures in front of my peeling garage door with my old Sony point and shoot camera, grabbing assortments of dusty old books with cool covers and umbrellas and other odds and ends to develop a story, a feeling, and having ridiculous amounts of fun as we brought it to life. She was the beginning of my love of taking portraits; fabulous on camera, gorgeous beyond words, and with a bright creativity perfectly complementary to my own, Olivia has been, and probably always will be, my most favorite person in the world to take pictures of.

"Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself."

Henry Miller

Song of the Day:

Slip, Elliot Moss

Izzie Boldy Goes to Europe :: COMING SOON

At it turns out, I'm terrible at that whole "save the best for last" thing, at least when it comes to sharing pieces of my own artwork that I am proud of. This particular picture, taken in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome at what Captain Jack Sparrow would dub, "The opportune moment" is one of my favorite photos from my entire trip to Europe. It has taken me a long time to look through all of my Europe pictures, but I'm almost ready to share them with you all! For now, I thought I would share this picture because...well, I got excited about it. Just look at the light! I kept waiting for the chorus of angels to start singing. . .