Asja

Shooting and posing

May 212013

During last week or so, while on my short (and sweet) blogging break I was either taking pictures or posing for them, but mostly doing both at the same time :) Me and Arlen embarked upon yet another photo adventure together, this time he is armed with even more (analog) gear, this neat Nikkormat being just one of the additions to his camera collection.

He also tried bringing this Yashica rangefinder to life but haven’t finished the repairs yet. It will be cool to shoot it when it’s fixed.

However this photo of me wasn’t taken either with Nikkormat or Yashica but with Arlen’s trusty Nikon N80 using Fuji Superia 400 film. It’s actually photo of me posing for a self portrait on a really lovely location (and by lovely I mean dilapidated, decaying, textured, rusty and crusty location- hey, you know I love textures!).

IMG_0014-horz

I took a series of self-portraits with a digital Canon mostly because shooting selfies with an analog camera can be quite difficult and because I wanted to add more new photos for my book and all of the images in it are digital anyways. I took quite a lot of photos and currently I’m in a process of editing them.

Until I finish editing my own pictures here are two more pics from the photo shoot, both taken by Arlen:

IMG_0012-horz

Taking a break

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May 092013

taking a break

Hello everyone! Just wanted to let you know I’ll be taking a blogging break for a bit. I want to focus on work and some awesome things going on in my life right now, so this blog will be going on a short break from now on. If you start missing my work you can always search through the archives, for example browse through illustration or photos section of this site, or visit my flickr. Also, if you have any inquiries or just feel like saying hello, don’t hesitate to write me at asja(at)asjaboros(dot)com.

Little red book (work in progress)

book, personal, photos, work in progress 7 Responses »

May 062013

book screen capture cover
For years on one of my HDDs I’ve been keeping a folder titled Little red book. It is filled with with hundreds of self-portraits taken over last five years. I made the folder to collect some of my favorite selfies and it served a purpose of being sort of a virtual visual diary. I can’t remember why I named it Little red book, I guess it just sounded cool. Last few days, as I was backing up some of my files I found the folder again and an idea dawned on me- why not put together a little book of self-portraits? Most of the pictures I took during last five years are digital and I haven’t been making many prints ( I don’t think I made any prints of my self-portraits at all, maybe just a few at a request of my family :)) so it would be nice to actually have some of them printed, to have them on paper.

As I was going through photos I took over last five year I got a bit sentimental. Shooting self portraits has been a big part of my creative expression over the past 10 years. I was thinking I should maybe put together a book of selfies taken during the past decade but most of my pictures taken from 2003.-2008. are stored on DVDs and CDs and my laptop refuses to read them. But if a freind borrows me her computer book of 10 years of selfies might still happen. Even if it doesn’t I’m still satisfied with putting together selected images from last five years.

computer screen

Anyway, I’ve been very consistent in shooting selfies all through my twenties, it’s how I learned about myself and about photography as well. Now, I feel my attitude towards photography as well as my interests are changing and putting together this little book feels very cathartic, like I’m releasing a part of my personal history and making room for new experiences! It feels great.

As you can see from these screen captures, this booklet is still a work in progress. It’s a bit challenging to pick out favorite images from thousands and thousands I took over the years so by the time I’m done with selecting photos and editing this book might look completely different than current selection :)

I’m planning to finish this fun project till mid June and then I’ll write another post about it or maybe present it in a short video so you can see how it turened out. I’m not planning to make this book public I’m doing it just for myself to have as a memento and a reference point for future photo project as well as a reminder of my very humble, modest , sometimes awkward but very fun beginnings in photography :)

book screen capture002

One fit bunny (t-shirt design)

illustration No Responses »

May 062013

one fit bunny
Since I’ve been working out a lot lately I thought it would be cool to design myself a fitness inspired t-shirt. This was my first attempt and I quite like. Most likely I’ll be making more fitness inspired designs soon!

fit bunny tshirt black-horz

As usual, t-shirts are available here.

May 3rd

personal, photos 3 Responses »

May 032013

Yesterday I started going through my photo archives looking for images to use in a photo project I’ll write about more soon. Every time I browse through my archives I get surprised by amount of pictures (usually totally mundane pictures) I took over the years. For example, here is a selection of photos I took during last 9 years on May 3rd.

MAY3RD2005 2005.
I can’t possibly remember why I took a picture of not so pretty plant that day.

may3rd2006 2006.
This was taken few days before moving into my new apartment. This is all the furniture I had. At least I arranged it so nicely :)

may3rd2007
2007.
Back then I shot mostly film. I can not tell for sure if this image was taken on May 3rd but it was in a folder called LomoSuperSampler May 3rd, so yeah it could be (and yeah it was taken with Lomo Supersampler and it’s a double exposure).

may3rd2008
2008.
Succulents at a friend’s house.

may3rd2009
2009.
Self-portrait, an outtake from 365 project I was doing then. It was (obviously) raining :)

may3rd2010
2010.
A really big mug I acquired around that time. I got it because I liked houses pattern on it. Now I keep my paint brushes in it.

may3rd2011
2011.
My favorite gnome vase. Well, my only and therefor also my favorite gnome vase.

may3rd2012
2012.
Some stuff I thought look neat together: a mask I painted blue, necklace by Isidora, one of my photos and an old shirt that I totally worn out and threw away since this picture was taken.

may3rd2013
2013.
Irises. A photo that was taken solely with a purpose to make this post more complete :)

New abstract patterns (and a new online store)

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May 012013

As you probably know, I’ve been making a lot of patterns lately, some of them are composed of flower shapes, some of them feature woodland animals but I’ve been also making a lot of very simple abstract designs. After giving it some thought I decided to open a separate Society 6 shop just for my abstract patterns that I so very imaginatively named Asja Boros Designs :) I will be continually adding more patterns to it soon, here are a few you can find residing in my store at this moment:

May flowers

it's a rug It’s a rug!

Breezy waves

Dots and leaves

Chubby pattern

Links of inspiration (short and sweet edition)

inspiration, links 2 Responses »

Apr 302013

Hello, hello! I had taken a short, unplanned and completely unintentional blogging break but now I’m here again to share some of interesting, intriguing or inspirational bits and pieces of information gathered from all around the web. So if you are already in the holiday mood (hey, it’s public holiday in Croatia tomorrow- International Worker’s Day) and want to procrastinate a bit, let’s start with some videos!

TAKE MY PICTURE from GARAGE Magazine on Vimeo.

Take My Picture is a short documentary about rise of popularity of street fashion blog and all the craziness followed by it. I remember when I “discovered” a first street style blog back in 2006., hel looks and even though I was not into clothes or fashion I really enjoyed it because the concept of it seemed so fresh and interesting. Fast forward 7 years and street style blogs are a huge trend that are definitely re-shaping our view on fashion, for better or worse.

Kevin Russ | A Traveling Photographer from Max Monty on Vimeo.

I’ve seen many wildlife photos taken by Kevin Russ all over the internet but only in this short documentary I found out they were actually taken by an iPhone. Wow! Makes me loathe iProducts just a little bit less (but just a tiny bit). Also his story inspires me to pack up and go on a long trip (or maybe I’m just craving vacation) but, anyways this video is definitely worth watching.

How Sam Abell Makes a Photograph – From The Atlantic ‘First Draft’ Series from Ross McDermott on Vimeo.
I always love hearing about process of taking photos so I truly enjoyed this 10 minute interview with Sam Abell, a National Geographic photographer.

Speaking of National Geographic I like FOUND, a tumblr that is a curated collection of photography from the National Geographic archives. In honor of 125th National Geographic anniversary, the blog is showcasing photographs that reveal cultures and moments of the past. Many of these photos have never been published and are rarely seen by the public.

Over the weekend I started listening to Art Marketing Action Podcasts from Alyson B. Stanfield because I heard so many great reviews about them. I even downloaded iTunes to be able to listen (and that means a lot) and yes it was worth it. Alyson gives great business advice to any professional or aspiring artist and after listening to some of her podcast I fell simultaneously inspired and pissed off (because now I have no excuses not to implement some of her ideas :)).

Well, that is all for this short but sweet links of inspiration edition. I wish a lovely holiday to my Croatian visitors and a wonderful day to everyone else as well :)

Last days of April

photos 3 Responses »

Apr 232013

Did you know there is a Swedish indie pop band called Last Days of April? I actually remember their debut album way back in late 1990′s (I was a cool kid back then). I also remember one of their songs I liked, Fly Catching. Give it a listen if you will :)

But, hey this isn’t supposed to be a post about the said band or my taste in music, I just wanted to share some photos I recently took . So, here we go, here are some pics I took during last days of month April on my walks not far from the town where I live…

clouds
Let’s start with some field’n'clouds. Oh, look at that cloud in the middle, so cute and chubby and friendly, that’s a cloud that wouldn’t rain on anyone’s parade :)

green field
Another field, nice and green.

spring weeds Some more greenery.

spring stuff
blue and yellow A splash of yellow…

skies
…and a piece of bright blue sky.

bloom
Blooming apple tree. (This is how it will look in September.)

lens flare bloom

Some sweet ride I saw on my way back home. I hope I wouldn’t need a driver’s license to cruise around in this mighty machine.

cat and bread

Ok, so this is a photo of a cat and some bread on a window sill. I was wondering why would someone put pieces of bread and a cat on there and came up with this solid theory: okay, so person who lives there is a gourmet chef wannabe who wants to learn how to prepare Pigeon breast with beetroot crème fraîche, a recipe that requires a pigeon. Since he can’t buy one at a market he decided to catch one himself. So, first he put some bread on his window sill hoping to capture a pigeon when it comes to feast on bread crumbs. Very soon he realized that catching a bird with your bare hands is pretty challenging but he refused to give up. He remembered that cats have a reputation of being amazing bird killers so he employed one to help him catch a pigeon. All that cat has to do is attack an unsuspecting bird when it lands down on the window sill to get its daily bread and bring it to the aspiring chef. Then the chef will prepare a delicious bird dish and share it with his feline friend as a reward for pigeon murder. My theory makes perfect sense , right? Well, I sincerely doubt it will come true because that cat looks too lazy to even move :)

Squirrel forest (pattern design)

illustration 2 Responses »

Apr 222013

sqirrel forest pattern
I hope you haven’t got too bored with my pattern designs by now, but if you have, you will be happy to hear this is the last one in series and I won’t be posting any new patterns for now (well, at least now this month anymore). This, latest (and last) pattern features a little squirrel that resides in colorful forest and is very good friends with wolf, fox and deer :)

squirrel forest final
This squirrel (and so do I) wishes you all happy Monday and a wonderful week!

Links of inspiration (awesome photographers edition)

inspiration, links 2 Responses »

Apr 202013

Sometimes when I feel looking at some lovely, dreamy pictures I check out photography category on frankie magazine website. Here is a little compilation of some of the most inspiring photographers I’ve discovered that way:

Jacinta Moore
check out her blog: bawkbawkbawk and her flickr.