I love making new friends, and photographer-friends? Even better.
Kidding (kinda), I love you all.

I met the awesome Nadeem Rifai when he visited The Art Beat to see my work. He’d sent me a message me a day or two before the exhibition complimenting my work, and it so happened that he was in town visiting family that week so he said he’d come! Not only is he a great photographer, but we also have a lot in common. And I know he hates this, but I have to say it: he’s also really really nice (sorry Nadeem!).
He had to leave two days after the exhibition was over, which sucked, but we’ve been talking about collaborating on some projects, and also brainstorming ideas together. But since we can’t really work on much while he’s a gajillion miles away (he’s in the States lol), we decided to start a 52 Week Project! Every week, one of us will choose a theme, and we both have to shoot something based on that. And every week, we’ll try to change it up so we don’t just choose normal themes and work with them. We’ve decided that some of our challenges will include:
– Exchanging ideas (I shoot and edit his idea, he shoots and edits mine)
– Editing the other person’s shot
– Shooting and editing something according to other other person’s style

If you guys have more challenges for us, let us know! We’re both super excited to do this and are willing to try almost anything.
Last week’s theme was Household Object. It took me forever to figure out what I’d like to use, and finally settled on a chair, then built up the scene around that. I knew I wanted to try something a little challenging, so I decided to have a girl sitting on the ceiling. I’m not sure if I got it right, but I ran out of time, and there wasn’t much I could do. When I decided I wanted a girl on the ceiling (and a chair on the wall), the first thing I thought of was: Alice In Wonderland. My sister had the PERFECT dress for it! I knew I wanted a chandelier just to mess with the perspective even more – so I got up on a ladder to shoot the chandelier up close. Which was hilarious cause it wasn’t that easy to take pictures while being on a shaky ladder, and the ceiling was HIGH. I had to do it twice. First day was just to test the perspective and angles, then I shot it again the next day to get the right shot.
I’ve been working on and off on this image since Friday and it’s finally done!
This is what I started with (don’t laugh!)

And this is the final image

 

Nadeem decided to use toilet paper, and came up with this (awesome) self-portrait!

Next week’s theme is: Backlit
We decided that the deadline is tuesday; so every tuesday I’ll be posting a blog post about the 52 Week Project with mine and Nadeem’s pictures and letting you know what the next week’s theme would be. I’m super excited to be doing this!

I’m also considering posting something like a step-by-step tutorial of how I edit my images. Either that, or videos of the editing process. What would you guys prefer?

You can find Nadeem at:
Facebook
Instagram
website

 

2014-2017 52 Week Project 52 week project amani alshaali fine art photography friends inspiration nadeem rifai new friends photography photography challenge