INTRODUCING RASA AND ERNESTAS WITH PHOTOS NEAR A LAKE

In autumn I did a photoshoot of my friends in Nørresundby, Denmark. They showed me an awesome place with a lake surrounded by a lot of green areas. Perfect to take a blanket and sit there for hours with a bottle of wine and probably in their case a lot of very good Lithuanian food. Oh yes, they make awesome food! I especially like those small sandwiches with carrot, cheese, and garlic, which are great snacks.

Anyways, coming back to the photoshoot, Rasa once told me that they do not have any photos on which they both look okay. They have known each other since forever (or at least since high school time) and we decided that this was a good time to do something about it.

We waited some time to find a day, in which the sky would be nice and creamy to create an interesting background for the photos. As we all know, autumn is not perfect when it comes to cloudless skies, but there was that one day....

It was a really good time, we laughed a lot and I also learned a pose or two from them, which I have never seen before. But the most important, to me, is that the pictures show their relation, that can be sometimes serious, but most of the time is just joyful and about having a good time together. 

QUICK LOOK INTO THE HISTORY OF LOUIS VUITTON AND ITS NEWEST CAMPAIGN

Lately i started to look for new ways to study Danish other than going to the language school. To do this I got a subscription for the Danish magazine Costume. In the december issue they were celebrating the 160th anniversary of the introduction of the Louis Vuitton brand (six pages in one magazine makes a good foundation). The company associated with luxurious goods went a long way from designing travelling bags, through periods when Marc Jacobs collaborated with Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami, and Yayoi Kusama to give the company colourful breeze and to the 70's flare served by current creative director of LV, Nicolas Ghesquière. I have noticed something very interesting about the photos from the SS15 campaign. But first of all, let's make a little summary of the brand and its founder, Louis Vuitton.

WINTER 2014 AND END OF THE YEAR

Year 2014 finished in an interesting way. I spent some time with family and friends and I had a short holiday at the south of Poland learning how to ski. One thing that I can say about skiing is that if you want to learn it you should first make peace with your mind. It is ok to fall and allow yourself to kiss the snow (sometimes lie flat on it, a multitude of times). Without failing it is difficult to learn anything.

Lesson learned! 

It also seems as if this can be taken to everyday life. We tend to try to do everything in a perfect way, spending hours on details which only a qualified eye can notice. This year I want to focus on progression, not perfectionism. Learning from doing, not reading about doing. I believe that it can bring more in 2015.

The video below is an example of executing my new thoughts. It is a compilation of memories from my trip to the mountains. I realise that it is not perfect, I could come up with a list of things to change, but why? I like the general feeling of it and as a video summarising my winter holidays it is aaaaall right.

I would like to hear the most challenging goal from your 2015 resolutions.

AUTUMN TART WITH HAZELNUTS, HONEY, AND ORANGES

I was making this tart with hazelnuts, oranges, and honey (recipe originally from polish MakeCookingEasier but I changed it a bit). It is perfect for an autumn evening, especially since the hazelnuts were from a big hazelnut tree in the backyard of my mom's house. Whenever I come to visit she always packs me a lot of good stuff from her garden or pantry.

But coming back to the tart, it has that specific butter-ish taste to it and smells like oranges. Christmas is coming! It is better to wait until it will be cold, but I of course could not resist to try it right away :) You will find the recipe below.

MOODBOARD

Last week I watched this video where the idea of creativity was presented in a quite surprising manner. Creativity is often described as producing something original. It is also the ability to take inspiration from different areas and connect or remix them in a new, sometimes unexpected way. But it never crossed my mind to think of creativity as ideas having sex. How weird is that?

I am sure that some of you guys, when going to primary school would own a notebook filled with photos, quotes, and things reminding you of something. I for sure did and it was one of the most interesting things I did at that time. Not mentioning all of the magazines I destroyed before my family were done reading it. But besides that, it was a great tool to sort out the thoughts and find elements matching each other in some strange manner, which I was not conscious about at that point of my life. In todays post I wanted to write about moodboards, a tool which may help with ideas development as well as their presentation to the other people.

Before elaborating more about moodboards, I wanted to share one tip if you struggle with being too literal in your works. For example, I have seen a great number of photos in the theme of pin-up girls and for some reason, in a lot of people's works you could see a girl wearing clothes in a polka dots or checked pattern. This is probably because they used the very first association with pin-up girl they could think of. A very good exercise is to think of it more in depth. Take the theme and challenge yourself to come up with at least 10 associations. You would be surprised of how different aspects you can come up with, which can make your work more subtle and not so literal.

As an example I want to show a moodboard for my next black and white photo session. The atmosphere is all about minimalism, simplicity, and impact. Those are the dots, which I plan to connect in the close future.

Sources: pillows / package with plants / mountain / desert / plant and its shadow

STRAWBERRY DRINK

Summer is a perfect time to get creative with different fruit cocktails. I discovered a recipe for super quick strawberry drink. The recipe is for two people. Check it out, it is worth it!

• 250g of fresh of frozen strawberries
• 10 mint leaves
• 3 small spoons of sugar
• water
• Sprite (optional)

Blend strawberries, sugar, and mint leaves together with a glass of water. Pour the liquid into two glasses and fill them up with Sprite or water.

PHOTOGRAPHING FRIENDS

When my friend Jola came to visit me in Aalborg I could not resist taking some photos of her, especially since she brought with her those stunning earrings. I wanted to capture her in a classy, elegant way. She just started a new level of her life. We were happy to celebrate her wedding in the end of June together with over 200 people where she was a beautiful bride and she and her husband just rocked the party. I felt especially grateful that I was asked to be a bridesmaid. You just want to be close to those people, who are important in your life during one of the most important days in their lives.

I have known Jola since forever so we spent our childhood together. If I would show you her photo from those times, you would not recognise her. Generally speaking, she would not allow me to show those photos :) She went through a huge transformation. This is one of those things you happen to get from such a long term relationship, you get to see how people change, even though the connection between the two of you stays the same.