Lame or not so Lame? Word brief cont....

Well I have now finished my images for the word brief. The first two I have put on here already and I’m really pleased with how they have turned out. However, the last image concerning the word Broken is another story altogether and even though I’ve spent three days pretty much solidly shooting, re shooting, messing about in Photoshop and asking people about it, I’m still so unsure. Basically my idea is either ok or so lame it should be taken outside, shot and sent to the glue factory.

I wanted to do a still life for this last image as the other image for the word broken was figurative. When you think of ‘broken’ you most commonly think of objects, broken things, and so I’d have been off beam somewhat if I hadn’t addressed broken things for this brief. When I first went into the studio I took a whole load of broken crap with me and made an aesthetic display, which I shot up close with lots of moody shadow. When I got it into Photoshop however, I just couldn’t make it work for me and I think this is because it had no real meaning behind it. So I took the decision to reshoot and came up with the idea of a kind of Vanitas still life.

I’m still nowhere near 100 percent sure about my still life but at least there is meaning behind it and I’m happier than I was before. When you look at it you a meant to see the word broken in the broken items displayed but it is more than that. It represents a moment in time violently interrupted shattered- but the rest is up to you to decide. Is it the actual death of a child? Or more a metaphorical reading of a childhood interrupted by a violent occurrence.
Any crit welcome too. Gay or not too Gay?

First attempt

Second and current image

Broken

Today I made a conscious effort to really get going with my second image for our ‘Word’ brief. The word I chose myself for the brief is ‘Broken’ and for a while I’ve had an image in my head that I want to capture of an elderly woman grieving. Old people are often considered broken down and this along with the emotion of someone grieving is a double whammy of broken that I wanted to capture. I set off to my first old people’s home and they were very friendly. They introduced me to an elderly lady called Pat. She wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for the shoot; she was plump and had a very smooth face. However, beggar’s can’t be choosers and I told her I’d be back tomorrow with my camera.

I got on with the rest of the stuff I had to do that day, which included picking up some meds from the pharmacy, I suddenly realised the pharmacy was right next to an old people’s home, plus I also had my camera on me. Bingo. So I decided to try my luck and went inside enquiring if there were any residents there that wouldn’t mind being in my photo.

Well, it must have been my lucky day as I was introduced to Edna. Edna was a star- I mean literally! In her day she was a famous tap dancer in London’s west end and had one the most glamorous lives you can think of. She also had the most expressive face and could really act so she followed my direction perfectly. While I was shooting my images Edna told me about her husband, who died from Alzheimers. She spoke about how they were in love their whole lives and how she looked after him until he died. It was really moving to hear. She also spoke about her son who she clearly doted on and who doted on her. I nearly fell off my chair when she told me he was in his 70’s and that she was in her 90’s, 93 to be exact!

Anyway here are some of the images from my shoot, Broken:

Noise Brief; images attained under duress.......

Well onwards and onwards......the weekend was filled Valentine’s Day and my relentless need to get some images done for the Monday Noise Brief meeting that we have been working on for uni. There were three of us photographers who went out over the weekend to get some suitable shots for the two online magazines we have conceived and developed as a group.
Unfortunately my patient boyfriend suffered the brunt of this exercise and was forced to contribute to the project considerably.

Some of the images required bubbles and naturally I needed someone to blow the bubbles in various places around Liverpool and Blackpool so I could capture a decent bubble/ urban landscape image. Unfortunately I got a little Nazi like in my demands for bubble blowing and for this Mark I am sorry and I do understand it is difficult to blow bubbles into the shot when the wind is against you: These are two of the images I collected:

Another set of images required us shooting them in the sand dunes and this began with what seemed like an endless, freezing walk to the sand dunes at the south promenade, Blackpool. Alas, the freezing walk was not enough, no!... to add to my boyfriend’s misery I made him remove his coat so I could get the images I needed.

All said and done, the images have turned out ok and between us three photographers we have enough images for our first presentation. So thank you so much Mark, you are fabulous.

Mark :)

Some other images ftaken for the brief:

A Taste of Torture

More images bellow......

Well, the last few days have been more than a little stressful. In fact being a big girl I’ve even been reduced to tears at times. My year had to submit the first of their Word Brief images on the word Taste via the college internet, Moodle. I initially had a great idea for my Taste image but it involved being in the studio, an area of photography I’m not at all familiar with.

I did all I could to help my situation with joining other people’s studio work and seeing how they set things up. People were very generous and I certainly learned some things but knowing how I work I realised I wasn’t going to really learn anything until I did my own studio and made my own mistakes. So I booked a studio in the one week where it was almost impossible to get in there and that was a major feat all of its own. I had planned my shoot down to the last detail, model (my mate Francesca) props, food to feed Fran, people to use for hands, and I even got my lovely friend Andy who knows the studio inside out to be there in case i fuck up.

Anyway, the day of the studio was also an important day for another project we had going on; the Noise brief where we had to submit as a group four A3 board for presentation to show exactly where we were going as a group. So this day was going to manic.

All things considered I hadn’t planned for anything to disrupt proceedings and yet the worst thing possible happened: Vomit, head pain like no other, blurred vision and the inability to even get into college. I cannot describe how it felt, I’d have atteneded my shoot with disturbed vision and massive head pain if I could have just stopped vomiting but I literally couldn’t leave the bathroom.
Anyway I didn’t get my studio and all attempts to do a shoot in another studio of ours the next day didn’t happen either as I couldn’t get everyone together. So by the eve of my deadline I was a little teary to say the least. But then Myrddin and the gang at number 132 Palatine Road saved my ass!!!
I gate crashed my housemate Myrddin’s shoot and stole Hannah for my model as well as Pete and Daniel. Not only did I get to do my shoot but the location and items I found in Tom’s place gave my shoot the edge it needed to pull off the Torture element and I couldn’t be happier with the results. My only problem, in the end, was choosing the actual image I was going to submit to uni. Enjoy some of the images from

A Taste of Torture:

Seeing some results

Well i'm getting back into the swing of things at uni after a couple of weeks absent. I'm hungry to see some real results of my own after seeing lots of work from other people which has been really exciting. I've been in the studio today and have enjoyed seeing how Ashleigh conducted her shoot, which was more amusing than anything else; Myrddin enjoyed a sausage dinner while Miriam was photographed looking like she was enjoying a sausage dinner of her own :)

Anyway I began two days ago getting myself on track by attempting to process some medium format film I took before I had to go home. Myrddin offered to help me learn to process the black and white film. It was tricker than I imagined in the pitch black trying to thread a medium format spool and I definitely need more practice. Myrddin had to help in the end but even then, half way through the processing, I could feel the film had come off the spool and I was lucky any of the photos came at all. But they did and I attach them here. I’m pleased with the feeling of the images- they came out as I had imagined they would which doesn’t happen that often!:

Where's your camera at?

Since I arrived at Blackpool I've been learning about so many things in the world of photography. In the next week I am looking forward to learning about lighting when I set foot in the enigma that is the fashion studio. Thanks to some fab people I've been given the chance to see up close how it all works which will be so useful for a studio virgin like myself.

There is one thing however that still eludes me and the only way I can see me getting to the bottom of it is asking. So, I really would love to know what cameras everyone owns?

I came to uni with a Nikon D40X and i'm beginning to see how this is probably the lowest spec camera that people are using here. I would love to know what you use so, if nothing else, I can prepare myself for my next big buy. Anyway........spill the beans lovely people and tell me where your camera is at?