Fairly early on in my year here I came across a collage someone had done of 26 separate shots of various things, each letter-shaped, to create a fantastic alphabet shot. I can't remember who this was, but I've seen a fair few since (posted below).
Ever since I saw that first alphabet I knew it would be something I'd try out before my year was up, and having recently been reminded of it by @deens and @cazink 's ongoing projects, I've just realised that time is quickly running out! I've only got 41 days left of my 365 project and if I'm to do this, I'm going to have to start it pretty soon! I think it looks great all on one calendar page (like @deens has it) so maybe I'll wait until March the 1st. I really like her B&W - it's very striking, and @cazink has kept a bold primary colour theme. I'd like to keep my letters uniform in some way too, but don't want to "copy" anyone's idea...so I'm open to suggestions and further inspiration! Any ideas anyone?! Who else has done this? Feel free to post them below.
@lluniau - If you are running out of time, why not take photos of different letters and numbers to make up a phrase or a saying on your calendar? Instead of just simply following the alphabet???
I think they're fantastic and like you don't want to directly copy. My idea was to take shots as I come across them rather than looking for them and then post as collage or straight into my album3 over a few days. Having said all that, the only one I've come up with so far and already posted in my 365 is R :o)
@bobfoto That's a good idea too...although I'm stubborn and determined by nature(!), and would much prefer to have a choice of all 26 letters to set out a phrase (rather than the other way round!). I'll have to think about it, but it's definitely an idea worth thinking about if I struggle! :)
@lluniau At this rate it'll be another 5 years before I've done the whole alphabet :o) I don't think I'll use this R either. I'll want to start from scratch and consider my editing a bit more carefully.
Thanks for mentioning me, Elin! Honestly, it was quite tedious to start with but now I'm seeing letters more and more and wish I could 'redo' some of the beginning ones. I'll keep taking them as I find them and store them somewhere for later use. I found this site, for inspiration: http://www.alphabetphotography.com/
Would be great to see someone do one purely on neon sign letters.
Good luck! It's fun and start looking for them now so you've got ideas for when you get started.
@lluniau@deens - Nadine is spot on here... if you train your eye to look for certain things, then these will come easier with practise. Its like spotting Koalas in the wild, some can see a dozen, and others can see none on the same track.
@deens Neon signs is a great idea, but not where I live unfortunately (or maybe fortunately!). I looked at that website, and although it's good for inspiration your letters are FAR FAR FAR better than theirs. Some of theirs are so similar to each other and the words difficult to read (e.g. A, N, M in the same word looked almost the same in one example I just saw now!). Yours are far clearer. But it's given me the inspiration that once I get my alphabet I'll be able to put them together in any order similar to what @bobfoto suggested - e.g. WELCOME by the front door, for example!
@bobfoto I'm starting NOW, so that hopefully by 1 March I'll have found at least A,B and C! :-s
@deens I just love your alphabet series Nadine and once I get going I'm taking inspiration from your B&W. I think it's really effective. I've just been out and taken few shots but don't think any of them will make the final cut. I'd like to go with natural occurrence as far as possible but we'll see how easy that turns out to be once I get going with it :o)
@psychographer Thanks, Lisa! I find the B&W makes it easier to distinguish the letter from the background, and it creates uniformity. One thing I wish I had done from the start is stuck to a specific crop. I'm not sure how I'm going to put them all together in a collage when they're all different aspect ratios. Unstaged letters look great but are less easy to find. You may have to start early and build up a letter library if you want to go that route. Good luck, and have fun doing it!
I love the alphabet ones too...I want to do it as well but I haven't started either. I did however find an S the other day in my curly fries that was so obvious I had to take a pic before I continued eating, so I think I might just start collecting them as I see them & decide how to post it later.
How brilliant - I had decided to start on March 1 and do an alphabet as I loved seeing someone's alphabet month too, although I was planning on taking photos of letters I saw around. I am making notes as to ideas for March now and have no ideas at all for some letters! They are already jumping out at me (D for Dell...!) I'll try not to look at any of your ideas just yet, but will look out for them as the month goes by - how about tagging them with something uniform like 'alphabet' so we can appreciate each others? Good Luck!
@lluniau Some of us have just completed a "Found Alphabet" challenge. Just type in the tag Febalphabet and you'll see some really creative letters. I'm getting ready to take mine and put them in collage form before Feb. is over.
Thanks for the mention Elin, I have to say that I wish I had chosen a different style but once started I am bound to it to the bitter end lol, this combined with a stomach flu/me relapse has made me abit absent recently but you have spurred me on to get the Z sorted! :D
good luck with yours too x
@cazink Strange you should post this now, as I was literally just posting this (relevant!) comment on Lisa's X photo!
Well...believe it or not, I had a few different options to choose from last night (the same A, having undergone about 7 different processing) and my final conclusion was that I'd choose ROJ's favourite to post here, but that I'd keep all the originals for future adjusments so that if I end up liking the collage enough to have it up somewhere (probably the WC!) then I'd have an opportunity to play around with colours etc!
So if you've still got your originals you could just process the whole batch a different way for a completely different outcome (if you REALLY wanted) - although I quite like it the way it is. Very different.
@olivetreeann D'oh. It seems I missed that thread (I was pretty busy at the beginning of the month, so I guess it disappeared from the sidebar before I could see it)! I thought it was a bit of a coincident that two of the people I follow were doing an alphabet at the same time, I didn't even think to check to see if there was a reason behind it!
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http://www.alphabetphotography.com/
Would be great to see someone do one purely on neon sign letters.
Good luck! It's fun and start looking for them now so you've got ideas for when you get started.
@bobfoto I'm starting NOW, so that hopefully by 1 March I'll have found at least A,B and C! :-s
http://365project.org/smevvy/themes-and-comp/2012-02
How brilliant - I had decided to start on March 1 and do an alphabet as I loved seeing someone's alphabet month too, although I was planning on taking photos of letters I saw around. I am making notes as to ideas for March now and have no ideas at all for some letters! They are already jumping out at me (D for Dell...!) I'll try not to look at any of your ideas just yet, but will look out for them as the month goes by - how about tagging them with something uniform like 'alphabet' so we can appreciate each others? Good Luck!
good luck with yours too x
Well...believe it or not, I had a few different options to choose from last night (the same A, having undergone about 7 different processing) and my final conclusion was that I'd choose ROJ's favourite to post here, but that I'd keep all the originals for future adjusments so that if I end up liking the collage enough to have it up somewhere (probably the WC!) then I'd have an opportunity to play around with colours etc!
So if you've still got your originals you could just process the whole batch a different way for a completely different outcome (if you REALLY wanted) - although I quite like it the way it is. Very different.
Thought you'd enjoy seeing the final product Elin- have fun doing yours!!