Photoshoot Practice with friends

Last weekend, I had dinner at my friends house, but also used this as a good practice taking some portraits later in the evening. We had a funny time, putting on crazy makeup and using different materials to make backdrops and experimenting with different lighting and spotlights. I also played around with the colours in Photoshop afterwards.

All photos in the set on my flickr page here .

Christmas Holiday time

Well, the mad rush up until Christmas has now gone and the actual day went just as fast as it usually does! I actually quite like the days after Christmas until New Years, its always a fairly relaxed week. Yes, you do tend to eat a lot with the leftovers from Christmas but hey!

On Boxing Day, I took part in the obligatory walk, which this time took me and the family to the seafront. The weather was really lovely, with a bright blue sky and the sunshine which I havn’t seen lately for all the white skies full of snow or sleet. Took some photographs too.

I got thinking about this time around Christmas when the TV is constantly on (although programmes this year have been disappointing) and how its good to just read a book sometimes!! This year I have really got back into reading again. My friend Rachel lent me a book about werewolves called “Bitten” and it was a little hard to get going, but was good in the end and she advised me that there were some more in the series too. I have also read a fair few books this year about people getting around the world by bicycle or motorbike, which were really inspiring and made me want to travel! Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s journey ‘Long Way Round’ has been a favourite of mine for a few years now, and a lot of books I’ve read have been along the same lines, I really enjoy the accounts of other countries and traveling itself as a topic.

I read the book written by a man named Mark Beaumont, and he cycled around the world on a bicycle alone and trying to beat the World record for the time taken to cycle alone around the World. Very good read, and particularly interesting when he rode through countries that tend to be left alone by tourists. I read two more books that were similar and written by a man named Ted Simon. His books were actually the inspiration for Ewan and Charley’s journey, and he travelled twice around the world by motorbike (once in the seventies and once around the year 2000). I also read the professional cyclist Mark Cavendish’s book, as I heard good things about it and admire him as a sportsman. The book did not disappoint! It was very informative about the road to becoming a professional cyclist and the background to many things such as the British programmes for cycling and everything that goes on in races such as Le Tour de France and rivalries between the other cyclists. Mark’s personality definitely shone through in this honest and really interesting book of his, with some hilarious moments and recollections!

The last book I read was by Bear Grylls and was his account of climbing the highest mountain in the world; Mount Everest back in 1998. It really was one of the best books I have read in a while and his writing style was excellent for me. I couldn’t put the book down, and each time I read it I was closer to the top with Bear and his colleagues as they struggled against ridiculous conditions with the altitude. I’ve just started “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” as well, and enjoying it so far.

I used to read A LOT when I was younger, then I sort of just skipped it in my teenage years, only reading books expected of me for English lessons and A-level English. No idea why this was but I’m glad I’m reading again now

Inspiring New Finds

I always seem to find some really inspiring work on Coroflot, mostly illustration based stuff. Today, I stumbled upon two really great illustrators who use old, colourful printing styles and most of the illustrations have a nice idea or comedy behind them. The first illustrator whose work I noticed, was Oivind Hovland, and his skeletons in the cupboards image. It’s really funny!

See more of Oivind’s work on Coroflot or his website.

The next illustrator whose work attracted my attention, was the charming and colourful pattern-based work of Christiane Engel. Her work is really fun and  interesting, and quite conversational as in many pieces she uses lots of words and sometimes makes notes around her illustrations. I really like these two pieces, particularly the drinks pattern which works well on the black background!

See more of Christiane’s work on Coroflot or her website.

 

Snow in December…

…is always exciting. When I was younger, I would see all the Christmas cards and stereotypical images of Christmas with snow and wish that it would happen for real! So it’s a nice thing when you see a proper, heavy coating of snow outside. I meant to post this after the first snowfall a few weeks ago and here we are now, in the middle of the month and more snowfall and ice has caused chaos around the country!! It really is mad, seeing as most of my childhood years had hardly any snow, and now we have loads!

I particularly like this one photo that I took (at the start of December) as the orange leaves are still on the trees, creating a nice contrast between the white snow:

More drawings

I really need to do more updates than just one post a month! I’ve been keeping up the drawing but also trying to adapt and change it a bit to make it more exciting. Yet again I’ve been drawing models and faces, this is another issue I’d like to address: to draw more varied subjects and use some different software or techniques!

Anyway, firstly a sketch of ‘I Blame Coco’ who is Sting’s daughter, and for this I used purely pencil to draw a black and white photograph of her. The second illustration is of the Polish fashion model Monika ‘Jac’ Jagaciak. I really loved the vibrant green eyeshadow that she was wearing. So yes, the new plan is to expand the subject areas that I’m drawing, haha.

Night Photography : Inspired by Jim Richardson

I recently enjoyed reading an article in a photography magazine (Photography Monthly) about night time photography, as it is an aspect that I particularly like, having taken lots of photos at night in New York. An American photographer named Jim Richardson had focused an entire project on the issue of light pollution and night photography in general, and some very beautiful photographs of his were featured alongside the article! One in particular I found incredible; an aerial shot of Chicago with all the lights and buildings, but partially covered by clouds in areas. All this surrounded by an amazing orange glow! Jim had two different aspects that he wanted to capture – ‘the beauty of the night skies and light pollution’. He also wanted to get across the message that most of the worlds population (maybe 80% of it) will never experience the truly full starry sky and being able to view the Milky Way, because of the ‘barrier’ of light pollution that our towns and cities provide at all darkened hours of the night. He has also highlighted that there are many negative impacts for animals and wildlife, as well as psychological effects on humans too. Here is the Chicago photograph that captured my interest and the rest of his brilliant photographs are on his website:

So, I felt inspired to try and take some photos at night time, hopefully of the stars and sky as well. I was in luck as it had been a sunny day with a clear sky and very crisp and cold, so I was guaranteed some stars. However, there was a full moon which lit up the sky and took away from the stars quite a bit. Oh well! I took some photographs from the South Downs looking towards Gatwick, where plenty of planes were taking off or landing. The orange glow from street lights was everywhere which I was hoping to avoid for star pictures (I guess you really need to go very far out away from any lights/towns to get no glow)… so in the end I just took photographs of general night scenes, one of which was a windmill that looked very surreal against the sky. Later on, I took some more photos focusing on the cars and the light trails that they left behind with the long exposures on the camera. I was quite happy with the results, although focusing was difficult! It was good for trying out different ideas and settings on the camera. Anyway… here are some of the photos I took, the rest on my flickr!

Black and White Photography

I finally got it together and went to Clock Tower Cameras shop to get my black and white photos developed, as before it had taken absolutely ages with Jessops. Turnaround was quick and I got them back in about 3 days! Even though black and white developing costs a lot more, you really do get good results nearly every time (well I think so!). Mainly taken in France and a few in England, here they are… (more found on my flickr page here).

Tour of Britain – London 18th Sept 10

On Saturday I travelled to Newham in East London, on the DLR and through Canary Wharf and the skyscrapers. The route was set around this area, with the riders having to complete eight laps of the course. I was so excited to watch my first professional cycling race, having watched the Tour de France for years and always wanting to be a spectator for once! Saturday did not disappoint. The fact that there were eight laps made the race really exceptional from a spectators point of view, with so many opportunities and view points from which to watch the race and take photographs from.

On arrival, we walked to the Start/Finish which was, of course, busy with lots of people and I wished that we’d arrived slightly earlier, so we could have looked at the team buses and everything getting ready. However, we were standing by the road from which the riders and team cars entered the course from, meaning I managed to photograph a lot of the riders very close by! Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas, as well as Andre Greipel and Lucas Sebastian Haedo. The Sky Team car was right in front and the bikes looked very flashy indeed! Soon it was the start of the race, and huge cheers went up as the racers threw themselves into the first lap. We moved around the course, and found some good spots for each and every lap, including the end of the run next to the ExCel exhibition centre, by a chicane of barriers further on, under and above an underpass, up a slip road and then near the finish. I took a great deal of photographs, some of which are below!

I really enjoyed the whole day. The accessibility of the race and sport as a whole is something that is so brilliant, you can get up close and cheer on the riders as they come past, even if it is at lighting fast speed!!

See all my photographs of the Tour of Britain at Flickr here.

La Vuelta a España

I’ve become a much bigger fan of professional road cycling lately. I had always watched Le Tour de France every year since being very young, but never followed any of the other races throughout the year. Now I can watch so many more, and won’t have to wait all year (although now is nearly the end of the cycling ‘season’)!! I’ve been watching the Vuelta a España, otherwise known as the Tour of Spain for the last week, and it’s been very exciting, and very different to Le Tour, with different riders and landscapes too. I created a kind of typography form with the words and made these two little image/banners in honour of the Vuelta, haha Which works best? Traditional red and yellow Spanish colours or contrasting purple/green?

I’ve also been looking at lots of photos taken by a really great photographer, famed for his photography of cycling in general, and usually taken whilst on the back of a motorbike during the fast pace of the race! His name is Graham Watson and you can see his stuff here.

Inspiration – Mats Ottdal

I was on Coroflot yesterday browsing other members work and stumbled across this amazing designer, Mats Ottdal from Norway. I loved every single piece of work on his website, incredible and amazingly high-end detailed design work. Something to strive for (!!!!!!!!). His work shows use of clever typography based pieces and playful packaging designs with lots of colour.

I really liked this piece – very nice to look at…

Go to his website to see all the great work here: http://jeksel.com/