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.

Photojournalism, brief 7 - short deadline

This brief was given to me on the Wednesday and I had to have handed it in on the Friday, with all research, contact sheets, ideas and final images shot in my worbook - stress! But, I got it done!!

Everyone in my class got different headlines, I got - "20 year old world yoyo champion"

In one of my images I wanted to show the yoyo in focus and the model in the background, out of focus, but still able to see his face and expressions.

Action shot. This one shows the "champion" doing what he does best! I thought it better to have him actually doing it rather than just have it dangling to look like he's doing it. As you can see, this works better because of the expression on his face and you can see movement in the yoyo. This was a lot harder than it looks because you have to try and get the yoyo in frame and with him moving it was harder to focus.

Photojournalism, brief 3 - Evening Times

This brief was made and delivered by the picture editor of the Evening Times newspaper. She gave us the choice of 5 briefs to choose from, the one I chose was about how Glasgow was a rainy hell hole full of chavs. We had to submit 3 images, a portrait, one with something in it in which you could tell it was glasgow and another general image. This brief was rushed tbh.

For this, Lucienne and I went on a wander before the shoot to find suitable locations for the images. On the shoot we used a Canon 5D Mk2, a Canon 580 speedlight and a Canon 430 speedlight.

This is the portrait shot, this shows the "chav" and also shows it's Glasgow because of the "Byres Road garage" sign on the wall.

For my second image I chose this location because I found it quite hard to find a location with a derelict/rough place and a location where you could tell it was Glasgow. In this one there is a derelict building lit up by the 430 speedlight and a sign saying SECC, City Centre and Edinburgh on it. Also, in this image, it's raining so also supports "rain soaked".

My third and final image shows graffiti in a derelict building. Although in this image you can't tell it's Glasgow, it shows a pretty rough image and along with the other images in which do show Glasgow, you can probably tell! This image is lit with the 580 and 430 speedlights.

Photojournalism, brief 2 - Scottish Foodies

For my second brief, I had to take photos of food that portray Scotland for a magazine, whilst my photos don't really portray Scotland at all they had the title of "Indulge yourself - sexy foods", we had 3 images to submit.

My first final image is the front page image, we had to bare in mind that this image would have to have the right composition to support the magazine title and magazine contents down the sides (or wherever you want to put them). I chose this image because I love the shallow depth of field, making the lights in the background appear blurry and having the strawberries in focus.

My second and third final images had to be supporting images to the cover, so they had to flow well.
I chose this one because I like the composition, how the strawberries and chocolate fill the frame and and how there is a mixture of bar and melted chocolate.

My third and final image is basic. I'm not as keen on this one as I am of the first two, I don't like the gradient background and I don't like how simple it looks - to me, it looks boring.

Photojournalism brief 1 - Sick Man

My first brief I got from Photojournalism was called  "Sick man of europe" suggesting that Scotland is the unhealthiest place in Europe, we had to support or contradict it - I decided to support it. We had to submit 2 final images and here were mine:

The first is a pile of burgers from McDonalds, I love the depth of field in this image because it really makes you focus on the front burger whilst making the background look busy.

My second final image is of someone standing on scales that say "fat". I think this works because it's obvious the image is about weight/health and I think the two images support each other well.

So I decided to start a Photography blog...

I decided to start a Photography blog because I really want to document the type of photography I'm into and to keep record of it for the future and for others to see my tastes. I also want to document my college work on here too, to let people see what I'm capable of and what my style is.

My first blog will be about portraits I would like to try and who my inspiration is.
This first image, I really like, because it's really high key and over exposed but this adds character.

These next two are something I'd really like to try as well, I love how everything is white and high key. Also love the way they are styled and their make-up.