chimera of cameras

parhelion

Amalia — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:30:54 +0000

“No matter where we are, we’re always touching by underground wires.”

I think that “The Past is a Grotesque Animal” by Of Montreal is one of the saddest but most brilliant songs.

***
Extremely busy week at work, but on a project that I like. No time for cathartic sewing or photography, but I am about to pick up a new/old camera my dad sent me in the mail in exchange for my digital camera. Good riddance!

sparkling life

Amalia — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:15:38 +0000

A few photos from my vacation, where I was stung by a wasp and slightly sunburnt in the same place (and only there. Sunscreen is wonderful.)

More to come, blues and sunlight and summer flowers. Here in SF it’s cold and I really need a scarf that doesn’t cause me to itch like the animal allergies I have. We have bright, warm lunches outside and then cold walks home in the fog at night- the best of both worlds, but everyone seems to hate it besides me. My stoutness protects me from cold bones.

don’t be a square

Amalia — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:28:46 +0000

Last week I posted recent film favorites in landscape format, so now here’s part two of my recent favorites, in squarish format, by various people on flickr. Photo & name link to the photo!

by Maggie Lochtenberg

wide open

Amalia — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 03:35:33 +0000

A collection of some of my favorites on flickr, landscape size. I like quasi-symmetry so it starts and ends in dreamy black and white. The photo & artist name links to the photo on flickr.

by johan van der sloot///

Yummy.

giveaway trinity results!

Amalia — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:42:28 +0000

Long awkward video starts now.

giveaway results from Amalia Sieber on Vimeo.

I sure do say “anyway” and “so” and “anyway, so” a lot. Urggh. Tongue-tied! I’ll be emailing you winners soon to get your addresses and double-check your winning choices :D

(Lee, Kenta, Clare, Rachel Reagan)

(Due to the fact that I’ve gotten over 1000 spam comments this week on this entry, comments are now closed.)

oh deer, fade to black

Amalia — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:50:26 +0000

Wow. It is certainly hard work editing 5 variations per photo of my Fade to Black. But I love all versions, so here is my second installation. (If you missed my first f2b series, here it is.)

(Final peeling result and putting the two halves back together.)

The left is about an hour after I shot it, which darkened quickly since it was so cold. The right is by the time I got home and got everything ready to scan at first pass, almost completely dark!

These two images are the results of peeling the photo, which halts the darkening. The left is a BW “negative” and has a matte finish, and before it dries after peeling, it’s easily distorted. So don’t touch it or you will lose proper sharpness and shading- you can kinda see my handprint in the tree area =| The right is the clear negative that holds the color after peeling. I love how watercolor-like this half seems!

If you haven’t entered yet, don’t forget about my print+polaroid giveaway! It ends on Tuesdayyyy.

alternahair

Amalia — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:54:11 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve done something cool to my hair. I saw this Vogue spread months ago featuring Abbey Lee Kershaw and decided to do it sometime in the summer. Here we are. Since I couldn’t find a pink I liked, I mixed 2 oz of Cotton Candy and 1 oz Red Passion, both by Manic Panic. (I was hoping to buy Special Effects but my Sally Beauty Supply is limited.)

(Past Amalias have sported bleached tips for 2 years of high school, dark brown tips for hs graduation, shaved head, mohawk, pixie cut. Finally after 2 years of growing out, long but two-toned hair turned dipdyed pink.)

giveaway giveaway giveaway I’ll say it thrice

Amalia — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:43:12 +0000

Mmm. So back during Spring ‘Roid Week I mentioned I’d be doing a print giveaway, not mentioning when. People have probably forgotten by now, because that was in May. Yikes! But since I’ve finally gotten 100 shop hearts on etsy [http://www.etsy.com/shop/amaliachimera] and it’s my birthday next Wednesday, I’m doing a three-parted giveaway. Giveaway trinity. People have been really generous to me on polanoid and flickr so I wanted to give back.

The prrrriiizes!
As I said, this is a giveaway trinity, so your one entry actually gives you three different chances to win.

Winner One gets the choice of an 8×8 or 8×10 print.

one, two, three, four, five
six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve

Winner Two gets to choose one set of two 5×5 or 5×7 print- duos – they are paired by the duo.

one, two, three, four, five, six

Winner Three gets an original Polaroid! Not a print.

one is a variation of this, two, three
four, five, six is a variation of this

The rules.

1. As your entry, tell me your favorite book.

You only get one entry, but you can tell me about however many books you love! I love books so I’m always looking for new recommendations.

2. Tell me what photo you would pick for each giveaway. Look to the above photos for what you can choose.

**A couple more things- this ends next Tuesday night, July 27 at midnight PDT, and I’ll draw the winners on the 28th (my birthday!). As on the 30th I’m going back east for a week, I’ll send them before I leave- therefore you MUST leave a valid email in the required field, not in the comment, so spammers won’t steal it. Only I can see your email and will never use it for anything but if you win.**

fire walk with me

Amalia — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 01:38:22 +0000

Burning photos is incredibly cathartic & fun.

pimp my ride, part 2

Amalia — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 02:51:15 +0000

Well, I love Liberty of London. If you love patterns, florals, or sewing, no doubt you do, too, but the hefty price tag is usually a deterrent for me buying any. (At $35-40 a yard, you better get a lot of use out of whatever you end up making…) After seeing a few bikes covered in fabric on the internet and finding out I would only need about a yard of fabric, I was sold on finally using a Liberty print for something.

All of my friends have bikes, so I often feel kinda weird sitting silent during the many bike discussions. Now although I will never care about bicycles to the same extent as many people in here in SF, I at least want one for shorter (read: not my 6 mile trek to work) trips like biking to the beach and for groceries. And I want it to be pimped.

Photoshoppery on this Public Bike helps me visualize if this will look good. After doing this with a couple of patterns, I’ve most likely decided on Grey Hall Drive from Liberty of London? That is, unless I find a cool cheaper one. (Or with the help of dear readers.)

I originally thought along this line, since Sydenham Palace is a map, and therefore makes sense on a bicycle. Especially one as beautifully illustrated/color-paletted (yeah I just made that a verb) as this one! But I’ve already decided to use this fabric for pillowcases when I get around to making an awesome bedspread set based around sea blues and deep greens.

But if I can’t find a good way to protect the fabric (cleaning something matted to the frame would be difficult..oh so difficult), I may just go with a Bianchi with no modifications besides switching to a nicer saddle. Classic, not covered in brand stickers, nice frame, nice color combination, since pale aqua is my favorite color I love it. The red tires are cool but a little difficult on the eye so if I could change that, I would.

And, for extra credit: a beautiful Italian style-bike made in Germany. I love the chain cover and the brown saddle! But it’s not sold in the US and also is a fixie (I can’t do single speeds no matter how simple it looks), so no chance of me owning one.