31/12/2010

This week I have finished writing up both my Principles and Practice sketchbooks as well as the Digital Darkroom research.

I found an interesting blog about what makes a good portrait where I have collected several quotes for my essay.

Next week I intend to: Start back at Uni! And so start arranging reshoots of certain parts of my Principles and Practices Unit now that we have such a large extension.

24/12/2010

First of all, Merry Christmas! This week I've been at home but have managed to get some sketchbook work done. I've written up everything that's currently in my Digital Darkroom (Surrealism) sketchbook as that is the closest deadline looming. I've also written up most of my Principles and Practices work.

In terms of the essay I was looking to start, I've read one of the books I took out from the library for the holidays but I didn't get much from it. A few useful quotes possibly, but nothing very insightful so I will start on the Mary Allen book next, "Portrait Photography: How and Why".

Next Week I intend to: Read at least another one of the books so I can begin getting my quotes together in order to begin planning my essay. I'll also write up everything in my sketchbooks that I can whilst at home.

17/12/10

I didn't get much work done at the beginning of this week as I went home to see my family and do a bit of Christmas shopping! I did intend on doing some sketchbook work but alas...

However, I did spend a few hours working on my Surrealism piece which included photographing one of my pet rats Mo, which was a lot harder than I thought. I used lots of cheese to try and get her into the right position which wasn't really working but I ended up with a few photos which might be okay, not exactly what I wanted but still - it's very hard to direct a rat when she has no idea what you're on about and just wants to run around the floor.

Here is what I've come up with so far:

It needs a bit of work but I'm no good with Photoshop so will have to speak to the tutors about it! I'm a bit happier with this than I was when I did it so maybe I was being a bit too critical at first.

Next week I intend to: Go back home for Christmas as I've been in Bournemouth working and get some sketchbook done. I also have four books to take home with me to start planning my essay, which I'm mentioning for the fourth time.

10/12/2010

This week has been extremely stressful, with the colour processing machines being flooded and closed for days and then the colour darkrooms being closed on top of the snow from last week has led a lot of people to be a bit more behind than they had planned and thus a mass of stressed first years!

Luckily I managed to put all my film (5x4 and 120) through the machine first thing Monday morning after my Photoshop class. I showed Paul my shoot for the Surrealism brief and he seemed pleased with what I had done so far (at least he said he was) The colour darkrooms were shut so I went home a little earlier than planned and got a bit of sketchbook work done.

The darkrooms were reopened Tuesday and I managed to get my high and low-key printed up as well as my 5x4 location. After a lot of panicking and rush, we now have a 2 week long extension after Christmas so I'm sure I will try and re-shoot a lot of my work.

Next week I intend to: Go home and have a well earned rest! Of course sketchbook work will follow and I should also plan the essay I have mentioned three times now...

03/12/2010

Very late blog as I have had no internet for over a week!

I'm quite proud this week that I managed to do so much that I set myself! However, it wasn't all with a positive outcome.I did manage to print up both my high and low key images, only to realise that they were BOTH soft on the eyes! So after all that they weren't really good enough to submit at all and I had therefore wasted the day printing. However, on Friday I managed to re-shoot my high-key and low-key as well as attempting 5x4 location! I think with my first attempt at medium format I had the wrong lens and therefore was unable to focus at such a close range as the second time round I found it easy and couldn't believe I could have missed their eyes before as it's so clear!

My highlight of the week was my shoot in a top hotel suite for half of my Surrealism brief. The morning started extremely unsuccesfully with all four models cancelling last minute one by one. Although I only needed one model, I tried to cover my bases by booking in four and yet this still managed to go wrong! Luckily, through an agency I often work with outside of Uni projects I managed to get hold of a potential model that needed testing and so I had her free for the day in return that I shoot her some portfolio images which I was interested in anyway so it was a great deal for me!

My housemate came along on the shoot to assist and I also had a stylist ready with an assistant who were both absolutely amazing at what they were there to do. The model, Courtnie was spoilt with hair styling and make-up as well as several changes of outfit for her portfolio along with the beautiful setting.

This is an example of the kind of image I needed for my surrealism, only with a larger gap at the right side where I intend to place the giant rat. Overall I feel this shoot went very well, as did the entire week minus the slip-up at the beggining!

Next week I intend to: Develop and print my reshoot of high and low key, as well as 5x4 location. Scan my negatives for the surrealism project and make sure I get a tutorial to go over what's currently wrong or right with my work. I still havn't started planning my essay or even looked at the test on Blackboard so that will need to be tackled this week.

26/11/10

Welcome to the first post of my photography blog. This will consist of a weekly post every Friday of all things photography related that have inspired me or that I have created myself over that week, whether it be personal work or project work for my course.

This week began with our usual Photoshop based class where

we are currently learning about digital image manipulation and composites. For my surrealism project, I have been

inspired by my pet rats that I must use them in some way!

Joint with my new found love for Ellen Von Unwerths photography style the idea I came up with was to do a lingerie/fashion based shoot in a top hotel suite and to then add the rat in at an increased size to act in place of a man, the narrative is based around a woman who has gone back to a hotel room with a rich man (/rat) thus posh hotel suite/champagne etc.

These are some Ellen Von Unwerth images that are inspiring me at the moment. I'm unsure yet whether I want a particularly prominent vintage element of style in the images or not.

I also developed the films for my 5x4 separation of light and medium format high and low key images. Luckily these all developed fine and I'm particularly happy with my low-key images. However, my high-key really were not great so I re-shot them Thursday night but have yet to develop them. I also re-shot my digital unit this week for the ambient, fill-in and flash lighting set ups. As well as that, I got a few books out from the library about portrait photography in the hope of starting my essay.

Next week I intend to: Develop my latest attempt at medium format high-key lighting, print both high-key and low-key in the colour darkroom, use the Nikon Cool-scan machines to scan in some of my negatives, begin planning my essay structure, shoot my large format location images as well as developing and printing them and finally shoot my surrealism project on Wednesday at the hotel suite I have booked. A very busy week!