Regaining my perspective

Since my last day as a photography student I feel very disconnected from it. I have buried myself with work in order to save up to travel. I am desperate to see the world and document my journey. Who knows I may even have something half decent when I finish!

I have had the opportunity to photography for an article in the Farnham herald. It was a corporate shot so didn't take too much creativity but seeing the imagine printed with my name underneath was a great feeling. It has given me the bug to try and gain more work like this. Normally my imagines aren't see so knowing many people may read it and look at my image is great.

I am going to try photograph this week locally; maybe at night. Try get some atmospheric images with the frost starting to lay now. Maybe once I have found something of interest I will post it for feedback :)

Long Time No See

Wow it has been a long time since I last posted on my blog...feels like since finishing the course I have little to write or record about. I'm sad that the course is over as I feel like I'm a little disconnected from photography at the moment. I will still continue to strive to meet my aim of working within the industry and bettering my skills. I just think I need to pick up some momentum again to start new ideas and work independently.

I hope that over the next coming weeks I can go out with my camera and just start to collect a number of interesting images which combine to create an over all message to the person looking at them. With the idea of travelling I also aim to document and maybe one day get my work published/commissioned into a book so that more people can see the images I found so captivating. Lets hope that this time next year I can say I HAVE DONE IT!

Exhibition Nerves

The weekend is drawing in quickly and before I know it, it will be the day of hanging our exhibition. I feel I have everything ready but am sure I will have forgotten something crucial. My images are printed and framed images are bubble wrapped ready for transportation. I will need to use card to secure my A0 troll images on the morning of the hanging so that the weight of the images do not rip through the pins used to secure them.
I have been very happy with the look of the prints and especially the extras; such as postcards to sell and business cards to place for passers by. With just last minute things to organise such as drinks; price lists and information boards; I think we are very much on track....

Now just to wait for the big day!!

MCA Student Awards

Tonight I went to the MCA awards for student of the year. Three people from each year group are nominated and then the tutors choose one person to give the award too. I was so so surprised to hear I had been nominated and even more so when I went along and won!

I could not be more chuffed with the situation. I never would expect to be picked for something like this. I feel that every one of my group have pushed and bettered their photography this year and so the awards is deserved by us all. I just am gratfeul for the tutors for thinking im worthy of the student of the year award. So thank you!

Busy Busy Busy

Since our final day at Uni; I have been really busy organising exhbition work. I finally completled all my printing and framed the images ready for hanging too. I thought about having new business cards made to place in the gallery and went with some more of my contempary still life images on the front.
I like simple and classy so left the back with simple font with white back ground. They are luxe business cards so made of good quality paper/card with a red colour seperating the two. I am very excited to see the finished look. Would really recommend looking into http://www.moo.com/ if you are looking into creating some of your own!!
I also used this company to make post card sized prints to sell in the exhibition; they will be good print quality but by making them smaller in size they are perfect for a momento and also cheap too :)
Now that everything is ALMOST sorted I am very excited to see the exhibtion up and running.

Snow White

Last week I went and watched Snow White and the Huntsman. I am a little bias as I am a Kristen Stewart fan but I loved the film. I felt the adaptation fom the childhood novel I know so well was fantastic. They kept many parts to the tale the same but with more depth to the story. I watch a lot of films which are quite intense and really demand your concentration; so it was really nice to go to the cinema and be able to follow the story line easily and just enjoy the twist they added to the orginal tale.

I would certainly recommend any film fans to give it a try!!

End of An Adventure

So this week is the last week of lecturers; before handing in all our final work. It has been an up and down two years, with many challenges put in my way. However I have stuck with it and now it's the end of my University Course. I am kind of sad to say bye to something that has been part of my life for so long and consumed so much of my time. However I have a lot of plans and hopes for what I do next.

I will however continue to work and practice my photography skills constantly and hope to soon earn enough money to start a small collection of lights for a kind of home studio.

Any new images will be posted onto my blog and maybe in the future I can even look into starting my own website to promote my own imagery.

Watch this Space!

Finally Reading

I am not a big reader; I am often doing other things that mean I am pushing way time to sit down and get into a good book. It's not something I have normally worried about but coming up to the end of my course I thought that perhaps I should start sitting down and spending more time reading in some form.
I was really taken by the Hunger Games film that was recently released and so thought more about looking into the trilogy of the books by Suzanne Collins. They were on special offer recently in a local book shop so I took the opportunity to buy them and to prompt myself into reading them. To my surprise once I started the book I couldn't put it down! Now for someone who starts a book and never finishes them...this is an improvement!
Now I am on the second book very quickly and the fact that with every page I don't know what is happening next; i'm gripped. These books have opened my eyes to the imaginative world that writers can delve into and take us with them. I am ashamed to say that I really wish and should have read more over the years but this trilogy has certainly opened my eyes to the world of writing.

Check these out! You maybe surprised ...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hunger-Games-Trilogy-Box-Set/dp/1407130293/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337415851&sr=1-3

Portfolio Printing

On thursday I sat down to tackle my portfolio prints ready for my deadline on the 19th May. I was using Hahnemuhle Art Rag paper for the first time and very nervous due to the expensive of the paper!
It was a good eye opener in terms of the need to get work printed in a few attempts as possible, so training your eye to look at everything.
The only issue I did have was that the Matt paper did not work well with all of my images. I was very disappointed with a number of images, but extremely pleased with others. In all it was an eye opener as to what paper works best with what.
For warm temperatures in you image or portraiture, then the paper is brilliant. It is definitely something I would recommend trying.

Hanging

On thursday we had to hang our 'channels' work. The challenge wasn't as hard as I had expected but seeing the time it took to hang work simply with pins; made me realise the difficulty we will face when coming to hang our exhibition work. Especially as some of my work is framed and needs to be arranged in a grid format on the day.

Here is the start and finish of the hanging process on thursday. I wish now looking back I had taken the middle image (scientific) in a portrait format so that it would have flowed in the same way throughout the work; however I am very happy with the images produced and the final outcome of the prints.

Picking up the peices

Today I heard a song by Paloma Faith and I am not a regular fan of her music but this was something different. I watched the music video and was in awe. She had taken a cinematic approach by using the idea that the man in the video had forgotten she was standing by his side and that she could easily have just a been a wax work waiting to melt away.
Why not take a look for yourselves and see what impact it has for you :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijel4Vcqd9g&ob=av2e

Burger Shoot

For my university assignment I was shooting burgers... yes cheese burgers!
I have found it more exciting than I first imagined I would, I have done a variety of images some of which are shown here. I later printed them out on A2 premium paper so they could be pinned in the college gallery space.
I hope you all like them! Why not try something different and experiment with the ability of photography.

Time to Frame

This weekend I need to start looking for some frames for my exhibition work. I am printing a main part of my work myself; on B/W pearl photo paper; and then framing them all in a style of box frames. Eventually making up a grid of around 3 images tall by 4 images wide. I think the frames need to be of a kind of black or dark wood affect; with the width that brings them out from the wall.
Perhaps something like this?

This is from a particular company called 'Framed London Prints'.
Or perhaps I should go for something a little slimmer like the frames from 'Best4Frames'

I like the idea of the images being brought out of the wall so I think the wider the better; I just now need to find a reasonable source to get the frames and wether to go for dark brown or full black. I also need to see about mounts and whether the images work with the paper being full bleed with just the frame around them; or to use the mounts inside the frames? This would however minimise the amount of the image you would see; and any frames larger than A3 would take up a lot of space in the gallery.

Surprising New Genre

For part of a University assessment last week; I had to take part in a dance shoot. Now I am somebody who is very much focused on Still Life photography and swaying from that genre is very hard. Perhaps it is because I am not quite so open minded as others; or perhaps it is because I feel my skills lie better with still life?
Either way I had to do my own part of the shoot. After helping set up the studio with my class mates it came around in no time. The nerves I felt were terrible because I feel as though I have been taken as far out of my comfort zone as physically possible. However; I was surprised by how well the shoot went. I felt that the dancer was so open to helping me in any way possible, I really couldn't have asked for a better model. (Thanks to Sophie!)
Together we got some fantastic photographs, they were much better than I ever expected and it opened my eyes to dance photography. After I wondered why I'd felt so worried; but once I looking back I probably enjoyed it a lot more than I had anticipated. I hope that it isn't the last I do within this genre.

Here are some of the images I took:

New Arrival

Today was the day that my photo book arrived. I was very excited to find my books waiting for me when I got home today. The anticipation and nerves as I opened the package was exciting. I just hoped that they would be to the high standard I was hoping for. I wasn't disappointed...
The soft cover book works well with the over all petite feel and design of the book. If it had been a book of larger quantity then perhaps a hard back cover would have worked better but I think my decision was right in this occasion. The printing looks good and Blurb haven't let me down. The images themselves are the main and only focus in the book rather than having any large text etc distracting from them.

Thank you Blurb; I am very very happy with my product!

Published

My book has finally been made and sent off for making with 'Blurb'
I was really happy with the overall making of the book and final layout etc. I am the sort of person that is hesitant of taking the option to send off the book incase I change my mind after submitting it. However after showing the book to a number of people, I was happy to bite the bullet.

Here is the cover for the final book... I am excited to see the finished product!

Why make things over complicated?

I watched a film called 'Sucker Punch' last night... but I didn't get it? I tried my best to understand why the film seemed to move between realism and fantasy. Was it because the girls in the film wanted to escape the reality and so created this fantasy world to try and conquer that or have I missed the plot completely?

I think it is easy to make something over complicated and become too far from belief. I personally as a photographer and film enthusiast prefer my films and images to be something that tackles reality. I am not someone who would enjoy a sci-fi film or something similar; so perhaps this is the reason why I do not understand it. However; maybe it is my lack of optimism for these films which prevents me from opening up and taking them for what they are?

All I know is that; if someone wants to shed some light on the plot, then I would be more than happy to listen.

All things exhibition

After much talking it through; and speaking with my college lecturer; I have decided what work I shall hang in the end of year exhibition.
Some of the work will be big A0 prints in a series of work and others will have a larger quantity but be smaller prints. I am now at the point where I think everything that needs to be done has become apparent. There is a lot of things to still think about and consider. Such as how to label the work? What promotional material will each photographer display at the exhibition... Things such as this need to be thought about before hanging the prints.
I personally know how and what I want to display with my images but I need to find relevant stands and holders to do this. This is going to be my next task.
I have decided to send just three images to our prints and print the bulk of my final assignment work myself. This way I feel it's my own personal touch to my work; and also gives me full control of the printing.
Now I just have to get started...

Video Insight

I know I speak a lot about the work of Tyler Shields; but this I think is interesting to all aspiring photographers...

Found at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaJ_SKvYtRM

This video gives a glimpse into the typical day of Tyler Shields; and the pure dedication he goes to; to ensure he gets the best work he can. I like looking at a lot of these videos that he does...explaining how he gets the model into character, showing them ways to act but ultimately allowing them the freedom to act as they wish.
Why not check out his website if you like more of this link posted... www.tylershields.com 

Small Changes.Big affect

After my last change to my blog; I still wasn't completely happy with the finished look. So I thought I would play around and see what more I could do with it... I came across a template that was pretty simple but I liked it a lot. I changed the colour scheme to my personal taste; but ensured it was still eye catching.

I have included the before and after of the blog to see what you all think but personally I am pleased with the blog right now... I may change my mind at a later date and alter the text font and colour once again.

Channels

I have started on my channels assignment over the break from Uni and started to edit and see which categories the images they may fall into.
I need to continue to push and progress through this assignment to better the final image choices ready for hanging in 3 weeks time.
Here is just a sneak at some of the possible final work I am interested in hanging.

Final Decisions

I have looked further into my book making process and finally decided to use 'BLURB'. Personally I found the software the easiest to use and it offered me flexibility with the layout and size of my final images.
The book size selection has also been good. I looked into soft and hard covers; to see what they could offer me. I personally like a smaller book out of the large, small and square books on show. Because my images are showing my trolls in an intimate setting; making them kind of mysterious and hidden away. I only have a collection of 11 images so my choice of book would give it that more personal touch.
I hope to play around more with layout and send the book off to be printed asap.

Book Making

Now that I have edited and finalised all my images for my book, I need to start piecing it together. I have looked around at many different websites, to find the software that will help me make a book I am 100% happy with. I firstly looked at 'BLURB' and downloaded the 'booksmart' software to have a play around with some ideas. I found the software difficult due to there being SO many options available to you. I find that when I have too many options, it becomes too hard to decide on just one.
Next I looked at 'PHOTO BOX'. I've used this software before for a book, and I found the website simple and easy to use...however for my book; their layout options do not seem to fit my criteria. I want a standard and regular centred picture on most pages; but this website does not allow me to do this. This is my dilemma as I think out of photo book websites these are the two best...
After much debating, I think I am going to try and persevere with BLURB purely because their software seems to offer me more options than the other. I hope that the production can be made easily and without trouble; and over all that I will be happy with the final book.

From Within...

Last week I took my new ideas to Ben and Chris's studio to try and create as many interesting and different images I could from my ideas. My first part of the shoot was for my book production. I talked about wanting to shoot dam trolls for my images, because of their eeriness. I wanted to try some moody lighting and my original idea was to shoot on a simple black background. However; the closer I got to the shoot I decided on trying to create a forest scene... This is because as a young child I always believed that trolls wound be living at the end of my garden. Silly I know but I can imagine a lot of children maybe think this; so why not photograph upon this idea?
Here is a sneak peek at one of those final images:

Sustainable Fish Book

Recently I was helping with a London Photographer 'Jonathan Pollock' assisting with the images for a charity book, due to be released.

It was the first main body of work that I felt I had participated in for the greater good; in terms of the fact it wasn't being released to make money for the company, but being sold for the proceeds to go to charity. I thought it was a lovely idea and I was so excited to work on it. The book is being called the 'Sustainable Fish Book' so I would love for you all to check it out once it is released. The book contains many varieties of fish recipes made by well known chefs across the country; and actually helping the home economist yo make them was very exciting too :D I was so happy with the images and even got sent a few to keep for my own records too!

Time For Change

I have been unhappy with the layout and overall look of my blog recently and have therefore decided to make a few changes. I felt the back ground was too brash and just overall distracting to the main points within the blog so I have changed it to something more subtle but still added some touches of colour to keep it bright and fun. The text has also changed. Before I was using 'PT Sans Caption' for the majority of all the writing placed on the blog; except the main title. Now I have kept the 'PT Sans Caption' but also added Arial and Calligraffitti too. I hope the changes will improve the blog and still make it appealing to those viewing it.

The Start Of Something New

With in the last week of the easter break I have some studio time booked; to enable me and a close friend to try and grasp hold of new ideas and turn them into some eye catching photography. This will possibly be displayed as final work within the end of year exhibition...who knows?

I feel like recently my ideas have been strained but I hope with plenty of preparation that the current ideas I hold; will turn out better than I can imagine. I am hoping to stay within my still life genre but rather than take on more beauty and fashion items, look at fast food and turn that debate into an eye catching selection of work. Once I have an idea; then I feel like I get bombarded with different variations that I could try; so this is the opportunity to embrace it and try turning out as many images as possible...in the hope that at least one is exhibition worthy.

Bigger And Better Things

This week I had some work experience; helping on a John Lewis shoot incorporating Dualit products.
This one was so different from what I had previously experienced with Jonathan Pollock before and I was excited to try something new.
The shoot consisted of a whole chrome family of products from the Dualit range. We had a large set with white floor boards and stacked crates and coloured boxes to hold the products inside. The overall look of the shoot was amazing and it inspired me to try bigger and better things on some future shoots some time. The images are going to be distributed all around the UK in John Lewis shops and I cant wait to walk down the street and see them hanging from the windows.
Being able to assist on large scale shoots such as this one; just gets me more excited to hopefully work in this industry one day.

A New Sequel

Since a young age I have always been gripped by the cinema! I find the never ending stream of new releases fascinating and even when films that are of no interest to me; I still wonder how the idea started for the writer.

This week I am determined to see The Hunger Games. It's a big release globally and there seems to be a lot of hype surrounding it so I think its worth a watch. Some people are talking about it being as big as the Twilight Saga...if i'm honest I think it has the potential but the Twilight films will always be in a league of their own.

I always go to the cinema and sit there waiting for the film to start; thinking how much I would love to be involved in it somehow. The creation of someones small idea, turning into a blockbuster hit, with so many people seeing it, amazes me! I guess when I go and see this film I will be thinking it all over again.

A Tangled Web of Wire

Today I constructed a photo shoot to try and continue my portfolio development. I was trying to continue with my theme of desirable objects. I wanted to try and include the style of lighting from Oliver Trillon; so therefore I brought several coloured gels to try and create a stage lighting affect. In the end I used just red and blue lighting in the final images but I felt as though this worked well in the end.
The wire was a final touch of the image; and my way of expressing the idea that music should be protected from the rising number of illegal copying and poor replica's of such music accessories just like these Beats Headphones.

Here are some of the final images from my photo shoot... I also used these in a trial for our exhibition poster and was really happy with the outcome of this.

I liked the image I used; along side the style of font and layout. I hope I can input some of these ideas onto our final poster. I am really excited to see the final product of our collective exhibition

A Stroke of Genius

This weekend I visited Tyler Shield's Beyond The Gates exhibition in London. All I can say is WOW!
I was so inspired before even going to see his work in person; but when I got there the size and quality of the images was stunning. There were plenty of images I recognised from my constant scanning of his website and so I felt as though I knew and understood the work I was looking at.
If I have the amount of money spare that it would cost to buy one of his prints then I would certainly jump at the chance to hang one on my wall.
As well as being taken in by the work itself; It also really helping in my planning for our own end of year exhibition. I was originally going to place my images on foam board before mounting on the gallery walls. However after looking at the way Tyler Shield's work looked in large black box frames completely changed my mind. With the type of images I can imagine displaying I think having these striking frames would help to draw them out from the already white walls.

Time For An Exhibition

This week feels like it has been my most hectic. Our entire group went to visit various gallery spaces on tuesday to see which ones would be perfect for holding our end of year exhibition.
With the options being Guildford House Gallery, Farnham Maltings or South Hill Park we set off tuesday morning to visit as many as possible. South Hill Park surprised me a lot! I loved the grand house that the art centre is set in and the grounds surrounding it too. We managed to get into the currently closed gallery space and it was impressive. The space was modern; large and professional. I was a little daunted by the large space we have on offer and creating enough good work from my collection to show there; but I hope over the coming months I will feel that my work is worthy of the wall space.
Guildford House Gallery had the ideal location but the gallery itself was just too small; which was a shame as I like the idea of holding the exhibition there. But after emails and talks about where to hold it, we decided on South Hill Park and to our surprise; there was one week left in June available. We were very lucky as the arts centre is booked up a whole year in advance!
I can't believe that it has been two years already and we are coming to the end of our course. I am terrified by the idea of displaying our work for everyone to see and judge. Including any relevant commercial photographers who may be invited and actually come to the private viewing. There is nothing more than I want, than to be able to hold my own stand alone exhibition one day and prestigious photographers come and cast an eye over my work, but getting to that point is going to be a long and hard battle as the commercial industry is ever growing and harder for new photographers to get into.

Trolls

So this week I was informed that we had to have decided what we wanted to shoot in order to present a book at the end of this module.
I am normally the type of person that tries to take my projects on board and photograph objects or still life that can help build up a commercial portfolio. However for this particular project I have decided to photograph something fun and completely different from all my other work... Dam Trolls.
For those who are unsure of what these are then I have included a picture of one in this post. They were very popular when I was younger and I did have a few if I remember correctly. Although looking at them now; I tend to find them very creepy and strange. I cannot imagine someone collecting such an object; but people do and they can be worth a lot of money together. So this is why I have chosen to make a collection of all the dam trolls I can get my hands on and present them as quirky and unique objects making up an easy/fun style of photography book.
I often see so many serious pieces of work but never as many fun and just edgy styles. Why not explore and have fun with the medium of photography, you never know what you may come up with!

Experimentation

This week I have been focusing on my work for my body parts assignment. I have stuck with my idea of writing on the human body and tried to create meaningful words and phrases to work along side the body part that I am photographing.

I was really happy with my outcome in the end as they have tone and meaning about them; rather than the images just looking plain and as though I had purely taken them to meet my brief.

These are not my final edited images; but the start of the finished project. I need to make a few slight changes to some of the photographs to make sure that the phrases and the beauty of the body is the only thing attracting the viewers attention.

I think looking at the work of Tyler Shields and Tasya Van Ree have meant that I could push my work in a direction that I wouldn't have originally thought of. I am looking forward to printing them 58x58 cm big and allowing them to fill the gallery space with everyones work combined as one whole project.

A New Angle

So this weekend; I need to crack on with my body part assignment. I find this topic of photography very hard to work with as I struggle to work with lighting, when I am not completely in control of it. Maybe this is why I like the studio so much. Either way I have to start my work asap as we have such a short deadline. I have decided to take inspiration from the work of Tyler Shield's and I am going to start by using black body paint to write on particular body parts of my models. I haven't yet decided if it will be controversial wording or something a little more subtle. Either way the words will be painted on in bold black paint; to describe or entice the viewer. I felt that it was something new to take on as I normally have a very narrow view when it comes portraiture and body work.

These are just some of the images I have been looking at and using to plan ideas for my shoot. I like the idea of lips because it is something very sensual about a woman. I think it can tell you a lot about the person without seeing the whole body. I am not yet sure how they will feature within my work but it is something I am certain to play around with. 

Trying Something New

I have been doing a lot of still life work with a brilliant photographer in London. He does a lot of advertising work and I wanted to try my hand at it in my own way.
I used the idea of advertising a product; in this case it was nail varnish but trying to put my own spin on it. Rather than presenting the product just in its normal state, I wanted to try include the liquid that was contained in the pots somewhere within the image.
In the end after much planned; I came up with this concept for my final images:

Tyler Shield's

Wow after a rather hectic week; I managed to sit down and look through some of my favourite photographers work; to see what was fresh and new on their websites.
As well as looking at photographers in the Still Life genre I also have an ever growing interest into the work of Tyler Sheild's. He is a controversial Hollywood photographer, with a variety of images ranging from portraiture to still life. I wanted to share a few of my favourite images by him, to show exactly how on edge his work is!!

These are just a few images I like; but there are plenty to look through on:
 http://www.tylershields.com
I am surprised I like this kind of work; but I think when you look at his website as a whole, it is edgy and new and really pushes the boundaries of what is socially accepted within Photography.

Fashionista

I am not a big fashionista if I am totally honest; but when it comes to Jeffery Campbell shoes; I am the biggest fan!
I brought my first pair last month and although they are not my usual style (trainers,trainers,trainers) I absolutely love them. This is why I wanted to incorporate them into a still life shoot; where fashion is put on a pedi stool and heightened so that people buy into the constant change in styles.

I liked the idea of a designer brand being the fashion object in this shoot, as even people like me; who are not constantly up to date with the new trends, still have that one object that is up there with the rest of them.

An industry Leader

I have been looking a lot into the work of a brilliant Still Life photographer called Dennis Pederson.
His work is so inspiring; and fresh...I always seem to be drawn back to his website for research for my own images. I actually was lucky enough to get a days work experience with him last week and i cannot describe to you how much of an insight it was into this fast paced industry.
Not only was he extremely welcoming towards me; but his whole team showed me something new and bettered my knowledge into photoshop and lighting. He gave me a lot of advice into how to get started with my career after University and how he himself started out with simply a camera and one light!
I wanted to include some of his photographs on my blog; because of how much of an inspiration he has been to me and my work. Here is the link to his website if you want to see more of Dennis Pedersen's work!

www.dennispedersen.com

Portrayed by Fashion

I have just started some recent still life work; trying to look at the concepts of Fashion. I did my first portfolio images on the idea that fashion has painted us in the way they want us to look...and we the consumer simply take on their ideas to cover up the real person we are inside.
Yes, this may be a one sided viewpoint; but I wanted to look at something that is adopted by everybody and make it a little different and inspiring.
This is my favourite image from the shoot; due to the capture of the dripping paint as the perfect moment. As the creator of the photograph; the image itself has a powerful meaning to me...but as a viewer who may not know my original concept, it could just look fun and individual; which I am happy with.