Mini Icebergs...

So, the snow here has been quite bad recently, so much so that it has caused snow/ice to form on the river and cause little Icebergs, here are some photos I took of them.

P.s. I hope everyone had a good christmas and hope everyone has an amazing new year!

Icicles...

This is a photo of icicles that are hanging off a gutter that was pulled down off my house when snow was falling off the roof with the sun behind it.

The really shallow depth of field (1.8!!) make the background of this image really blurry and the sun into specks, this also makes the icicles show up more because if the background was busy they would be harder to see.

I love this time of year because everything is so pretty and I love cold weather, I can't handle hot weather. And, also, because of christmas of course. I hope everyone has a really good christmas and an amazing new year :)

A walk in the snow with the dogs...

This morning I went on a walk with Neil and the dogs and got some lovely photos of them in the snow.  They love the snow and Kate kept scooping her nose under the snow whilst she was running to eat it! Here are some photos I got...

Love this photo, not too sure what's going on?!

Sally, Kate + Pixie

Just a wee edit...

I downloaded Adobe Lightroom today and have been fiddling with it to see what I can do. This is an edit I did which I am really quite proud of.

Portraits...

Here are a couple of portraits I shot a few weeks ago for someone for their make up portfolio, I took a few of my own of the models when I had the chance, these were my favourite of them all.

Day out in town...

Here are some photos I took on a day out in town to the German Market.
These first ones I took on the way, some street performers. The first, drummers and bagpiper were in the semi-finals of Britains Got Talent.

This next guy was juggling fire, knives and a football.

Now, here's the German Market photos.
The sweet stand!

Fried potatoes and pork, delicious!

Snow days...

These past few days have been mental because of the amount of snow that's been falling (granted, it's not as much as other places, like Kelso!) and it's been wreaking havoc with trains and buses being cancelled and people not even being able to get out of their drives!

Here are some photos from the comfort of my sitting room.

The first image is my favourite because of the colours and the amount of snow and also that it's not in focus because it adds to the feeling of it and makes it look a bit heavier than it might be.

This second image I did with a slower shutter speed to catch the movement of the snow.

I just sat for ages looking out the window taking sneaky pictures of passers by.

English Heritage...

I start a new block at college next week which includes; fashion, documentary, social and advertising.
I have already been thinking about the fashion block and with thanks to Georgina Benton (http://twenty3twelveuk.blogspot.com/) have came up with the idea of doing English Heritage as that's what is in fashion just now (tweed jackets, satchel bags, leather riding boots and sheepskins/wools). Here are some examples of the clothes I am thinking about using.

(Below, this might actually be riding gear but this is one of the looks I will hopefully be doing)

Rock, paper, scissors...

Sport For All brief - so I decided to do an unusual sport for this. I googled "unusual sports" and a whole list of really weird activities came up like; Extreme ironing, bed racing, cheese rolling, dwarf throwing, pea shooting, shin kicking, toe wrestling (eugh) and worm charming. So I decided to do rock, paper, scissors  and here's the outcome :)

Portraits I'd LOVE to try..

So this blog is more about portraits I'd like to try. I loove more abstracty, fancy dress type portraits.

This is one of my favourite photos of all time, I'm not sure who did it though as I found it on google. I love the petals around her eyes and acting as her mouth. Also love her make up and the view point it was shot at.

This is another one I really like,  but, I would have painted her face white and used brighter pink petals. (Her eyes are amazing)

I really like the idea of this one as well, would love to try putting flowers on someones head as their hair and maybe some petals on their face (might be too much though) and paint their face white.

This one gave me inspiration to paint someones face like a sugar skull tattoo, I love them and I think it would make a really good photo.

I love these images from Alice In Wonderland, I love the outfits they are in. Also their expressions are really good because it shows their personality in the film.

Digital Darkroom

For this unit this year, we have to edit 5 images to a way that suits them using masks, layers, adjustments, colour corrections and more. I haven't got all 5 yet, I have 4. Here's what I have so far, before and afters:

Photojournalism, brief 8 - Representation and Reality

This was a biggy as some of the final images were put into an exhibition at the CCA, Glasgow.
We had to submit 5 images or more and were given a choice of subjects to chose from to focus on, these were:

 • immigration & asylum • women • war & conflict • self-determination • racism • miscarriages of justice • eviction • poverty • social exclusion • workers/unemployed rights • mental health & social care • young people • human trafficking • indigenous cultures • environmental concerns • global policies & local consequences • LGBT rights

Obviously some of those subjects were really not going to be chose because of danger and basically because they were unrealistic for students to be able to shoot, for example, human trafficking!

I chose environmental concerns:

This first one is about litter although it could also be about health issues. I like the composition in this one, it complies with the rule of thirds which means the cigarette packets position compliments the image.

This is my favourite image of this brief, and maybe of this year so far. I love the grungy/dullness of it. I think it really shows the environmental concerns and portrays the brief correctly.

Graffiti - although this is not damaging the environment, it is making it look awful if it's not done well and done in certain places.

This next photo is an abandoned building, I think it must have been some sort of entertainment building because there was a stage and loads of seats. As with the graffiti, this isn't doing any damage to the environment but it's such an eyesore and could be put to good use.

This one didn't work out as planned, I'd walked past this place a few times and every time the ashtray had been overflowing with cigarette buds, but, just my luck, when I went to take photos of it for this, it had hardly any in it. I don't think it's a bad photo though, just wasn't what I had hoped for.