Week20 Norway

I arrived in Norway yesterday to stay with my sister for a week, I had pretty much been awake for 24 hours as my 2 year old niece wouldn't let me nap!! The photo above is the most amazing view from my sisters front porch, imagine waking up to that sight every morning :)

Today we all went to the reptile park in oslo, which kinda looked like it was in someone's basement! but had a great range of snakes and lizards, even a crocodile and a parrot.

The lighting conditions were pretty dark and I didn't want to disturb the creatures by using the flash and so I used a slower shutter speed of 1/10 to 1/20, a high ISO and I put the exposure up to compensate.

I had a great time in Norway, I always do, espcially cause I got to see my sister again but also that I met my new baby niece Thea (pronounced Teya - the Norwegians don't pronounce their h's like we do!) to be honest thou, I think I will be going back to England for a holiday!!! not used to the early mornings and active days enforsed on me by my wonderful two year old niece, my sister bless her did try to keep her from coming in my room at rediculous o'clock..... you see, she does doesn't quite understand the whole lie in concept!! hats off to my beautiful sis thou, she is a great mum with two adorable babies :)

Week 19 C.A.P documentary project

These are some of my final images for my documentary project based on a community, I chose to explore the community within a gym and people working out, which lead me to also show the community within a group of friends and how they help each other and work together to get the results they want.

I actually found it really intimidating because although I love documentary images, I have never myself done a project like this and haven’t got much experience with photographing strangers. A tip the Platon gave me, when we visited him in New York, was sometimes its good to admit that your nervous because it makes the sitter feel more comfortable as they may be just as nervous. I used this valuable tip for my shoots and I definitely feel it helped, as it was a good icebreaker.

I used Photoshop to edit my images, as the original files were far too busy with too much colour causing the viewer to get distracted from the main message. For this reason I decided to do them in black and white and then play around with the levels and curves.

Overall I am happy with how I have managed this project, the shoots were all very successful and the post production was fairly simple too, I am really pleased with all my final outcomes as I feel they display the community within both the gym and their group of friends working as a team very well.

Week 18 Gaia underwater fashion

This week i finished my Gaia project, Overall I am very happy with my final outcomes, for my ability I feel they have come out better than I thought they would.

I found it extremely hard to get access to a pool to shoot in, I got no responses from my emails, and people I knew with pools didn’t have them working over the winter months. It was proving near on impossible to find somewhere and I really started to panic as the deadline was creeping up. I decided then to phone around loads of hotels in my local area hoping someone would let me shoot in their pool, after many no’s finally someone said yes, and I was actually taken back and then didn’t know quite what to say. I got a few more details together and called the manager back and arranged a day where the pool would be at its quietest.

The pool itself was perfect, for starters it was empty, painted blue with no tiles (much easier for post production) and the roof was all glass so the light was fantastic.

To push my idea even further and to link it back to the original Gaia theory, I wanted to make it look as though my model was swimming in a flooded street. I took some photographs of houses and high-rise flats. Online Photoshop tutorials are really helpful and so I used some to help me to make my images look underwater.

The camera I used was not totally ideal for this project, but I still feel I got some pretty good images from it. I would definitely like to take this idea further, the manager of the hotel was really nice and helpful and so I feel she would allow me access again. I am going to try and produce a personal project with hiring out casing for my Slr camera.

Week17 Frank Herholdt

Today I travelled up to London for a day's work experience with fashion photographer Frank Herholdt. I was pretty scared for a few reasons, the first was having to get to london, negotiate the tubes and find Frank's place by myself!!. The second was not knowing what to expect when I got there and whether Frank would actually like me!!!

I had absolutely nothing to worry about, I got there really early that i even had time to find a cafe for a cuppa to help calm my nerves. Frank was lovely too, he lives in a converted pub and the shoot was in his kitchen, so i got to meet his family who were having breakfast, which i helped to clean away before all the models turned up.

It was such a long, but fantastic day. Frank had two other assistants that day so I helped them clear the room and bring equipment up from the basement, I didn't actually set anything up, and im kinda glad cause I didn't really wanna be responsible for any breakages!!

There were 6 models for this shoot, and to get them to all look good there was a hair stylist, two make-up artists, fashion stylists and jewellery suppliers. Frank's kitchen was pretty busy to say the least!!

I stayed in the kitchen area for most of the day and made sure it was kept tidy and that all the models and guests had drinks and food offered to them. I didnt sit down for about 7 hours!! and boy did i feel it the next day! but i learned so much, having never assisted before or even seen a fashion shoot, I felt totally inspired by the way everyone all worked together and how Frank directed. Frank's wife, who is also a photographer, also played a big part with the smooth running of the day, proves the saying that 'behind every great man there's a great woman' :)

Frank has offered me to go back and assist again, he is also going to show me some of his retouching techniques, which of course i have agreed to, I think that experience is going to be invaluable.

Week16 baby Thea

My new baby Niece was born today!!! This is the first ever picture that I have seen of her which was txted to me by my Brother-in-Law and I can honestly say that I could smell the baby smell straight away (is that weird?)

My Sister lives in Norway and has done for the last 5 years and I only get to see her once or twice a year :( but its great for snowboarding holidays :) she lives in such a beautiful area, half way up a valley, about 15 minutes away from Oslo town centre. The winters are fresh and snowy and the summers are gloriously hot. When I went last winter people were landing small planes onto the fjords and only a few months before they were swimming in the water!!

I'm going out to see her and the new little bundle of joy in a few weeks and I literally cannot wait. I know though, that I will be absolutely knackered thou cause I have to leave my house at 2am for a flight at 6am. I then land in Oslo at 9am then have an hour coach ride to my sisters and I know I'm not going to be allowed to sleep cause my other 2year old Niece won't allow it!! she is just excited about me coming and hasn't stopped going on about it for days.

Week15 Nick Dawe

I came across Nick's work when i was searching through my AOP (association of photographers) book. I am currently looking into arranging some work experience for April and so have been searching for photographers work who grabs my attention and inspires me. Nick's work instantly 'wowed' me. I have chosen these two images from his website, I find them both very simple but packed with meaning and interest.

Nick infact emailed me back, and I am hoping to be working with him soon, if not in april then at some time in the future.

Week14 Zena Holloway

Another project I have going on at the moment is based around the theory of 'Gaia'. after spending a lot of time researching into the subject (as I had no idea what it was all about until now) I discovered that due to human actions, like pollution, deforestation etc the world is at threat of not being able to stabilize its system. One thing in particular I found, which always seem to appear in the news also, is the rising levels of the oceans. This gave me inspiration to create an underwater fashion photoshoot.

I took a few, easier ideas to my lecturer, but he seemed really keen for this underwater idea, which got me even more excited to do it..... a few implications however... what equipment do i use and where am I going to shoot? well a fellow student actually has an underwater compact camera, so I have that sorted (phew) I have also emailed a few sports centers and asked around for anyone with a pool.... to no avail at the mo... but i believe perseverance will pay off, I have never really done any fashion shoots before, so to combine this with water is going to be interesting to say the least.

When researching this idea I came across photographer Zeena Holloway. I find her work mesmerizing, the models look so elegant, suspended in this dark space and with their long hair and dresses flowing effortlessly. She also has illustrations drawn onto her images, which adds extra aesthetic interest. I would love for my own images to turn out this good, but I somehow doubt that, I do not have the funds for the best equipment and the facilities to shoot in. but if all goes well with my first attempt, I may well experiment further sometime in the future.