The first term at university has gone really well!

In my critical practise module I got a low 2.1 in the grading criteria being covered in my presentation; not bad considering I had to go first in a group of 14 people and in my visual assignment I got two high 2.1 and a low First in the 3 criteria being covered.

I got described as having a 'good work ethic' from my sketchbook; staying awake from the Wednesday at 10:30am and not sleeping until 2am on the Friday seems to do me well so I can't complain! I want to try and improve my work ethic though from having to collect all of my research then putting it together in the end on a mad all-nighter and to try and put in a sketchbook as I go along so I'm not in a manic rush to get it all done.

I am now back in Peterborough and I'm planning on starting a new project based around tragedies which have happened in Stanground, where I live, to keep myself motivated. I'm tempted to do this on colour film too so I can use the colour darkroom!  

Other updates:
My student finance has at long last been sorted and money they owe me has been paid, so hopefully it's smooth sailing now.
My theory test for driving has been booked for the 27th of this month and my instructor thinks I'm ready to be put in for my practical once my theory's been taken!
I also have accommodation next to sorted for next year and I shall be living with 4 other photography students; 1 in my year and the others currently in the second year.

I'm currently having a bit of a problem with my critical module... my task is to produce a 5 minute presentation...

I want to just have two or three slides including:

• my aims
• the picture
• the end

and I'd just keep the image up whilst I spoke about it however... I don't know if that'd go down well against the university grading criteria or if they'd complain and expect more slides...

anyone got any tips or advice?

This image by Helmut Newton is the image I've decided to analyse for my first module in Critical Practice and I will be producing a 5 minute presentation based on it. I'll describe the image, talk about the connotations it's giving the us as the viewer and potentially photographic techniques Newton has included. 

University Update

This week we've touched upon what we have to do for our first module in Critical Practise which is to produce a 5 minute PowerPoint presentation analysing an image of our choice from about 20 different pictures ranging from:

Stephen Shore

to Annie Liebovitz

In our Powerpoints we have to look at one or more of the different analytical techniques and ways of interpreting images we've learnt about over the past few weeks such as the following:

• Structuralism
• Hermeneutics
• Feminism

As for visual practise, so far we've been asked to create images which deal with 'The thing itself', 'frame', 'time', 'vantage point' and 'detail'. This week we've had to create images which represent 'formalist', 'straight', 'document' and 'equivalent'. All of this along with research has to be collated in a sketchbook which is proving harder than it should be as I can't break myself from wanting to shove everything on a folder like in college!

I shall try to keep uploading images and posts updating on my projects and modules so far as I go along!

It's been a long time since I've uploaded any new images onto here so I'm going to upload one picture dealing which I took dealing with the 'detail' as described in The Photographers Eye by John Szarkowski.

This Wednesday we've got another guest lecturer coming in to give us a speech and luckily we get the photographer Laura Pannack. Previously we've had the picture editor from GQ magazine James Mullinger and the documentary photographer Kalpesh Lathigra.  

I'm excited for this lecture as it's a photographer whose name I've heard of so it'll be good to see the person behind the images I've previously seen in college!


Some images by Laura Pannack:

So, however many months after my end of year exhibition I've discovered that I can upload videos from my iPhone up onto here so I'm now uploading my exhibition (better late than never) and in the coming weeks I'll be taking a few videos on my phone from my weeks around Nottingham and university!

University Update 02/10/2012

The first two modules for my degree are:

•  Critical practise
• Visual practise

 I managed to get to grips with the printer in the library and found out where the photography section of it is in here; it's a very large and confusing building! I am also content with where all of the university buildings are and how to get to them by myself using public transport which is always a good sign.

Next steps for me now are to purchase the books I've been asked to get for my course and to continue attending my lectures and wait for some proper work to begin! I'm also planning on signing up for some sports clubs and societies including Burlesque dancing and the Rock/Alternative music society!

This Friday me and my flat are going to be visiting the Goose Fair which is a popular event in Nottingham so hopefully some pictures will be taken there!

I'll be updating again once I've been to my visual practise lectures and when I have some more information.

update!

Once again it's been a while since I've posted on here however I've got a lot to update on!

I've moved away from Peterborough and I am now living in Nottingham about to start my photography degree at Nottingham Trent University!

All of my photography equipment has moved in from home so I have two shelves covered in the stuff.

My induction for the course starts on Monday then the week after my lectures begin.

I shall be posting more regularly again when I get tasks set and have more photography related news to post about!

Dream Walking

Everybody dreams; when we sleep our imagination runs wild creating scenarios which can be surreal and fantastical. They can even relate to what goes on around our day to day life or induce a feeling of ‘Déjà vu’. However bizarre or ordinary they are, we tend to vividly remember parts of them or have no recollection at all. 

For me photography is an outlet for my own dreams and imagination to become a visualised reality in which I can share with other people. I aim to manipulate natural spaces and transform them, questioning reality. My work is there as a reflection of my own dreams in a finer detail bringing them to life. 

Being inspired and influenced heavily by the work of the American photographer Brooke Shaden whose work explores death and surrealism, I have been inspired for my series of images using every day natural scenes; turning them into dreamlike realms from my dreams. 

After not posting on here for a while and for abusing my blog I'm going to give you all a massive update on what's been going on.

The members in Awkward Noise and Three Point Four managed to pull it all together and get the exhibition up and ready and the preview evening went down smoothly on Tuesday 26th June with a lot of familiar faces and good feedback was received! I will upload all of my images in the series being exhibited in the next few days.

It's also the end of the academic year and a final last minute rush to get all assignments handed in and up to the right grades which hopefully will be done.

All in all, it's been a very busy and productive past few weeks!

This is my latest photo shoot towards my exhibition images which will be on show in two weeks time! Like usual, edits and final images will be uploaded when I can.

So I have realised I've not posted in a while so I have a few more images for my exhibition to show and also today I've been planning how I'll be placing my photographs on the wall and where.

This is a rough idea for now but to give you an idea:

I did a shoot yesterday with Joanne as well; below is an unedited JPEG image from what I was doing!

Doing some more editing for my final images from a previous shoot; this will be included in a video going alongside the exhibition so that'll be uploaded on our blog/website when it's complete!

So far so good with editing my images from yesterday; this is the best one from my set so I've chsen to use this as a final one. My only problem with it is the wristbands on my model however I've been told there aren't such a problem so I'm going to leave them be and concentrate on the rest of the image (even though still irritating me).

I may even be tempted to reshoot this image but to expand the book pages out further and to attach the pages to a piece of material so they won't blow away and make it easier for me.

Today I did a shoot with Joanne Cream and Tara Tilley at Crown Lakes in Farcet. The shoot was towards my final major project and was inspired by the photographer Kirsty Mitchell.

This is a picture from today with no editing done to it as of yet so I'll be uploading edits within the next week!

The exhibition date for the Awkward Noise Photographic Collective has been confirmed and the preview evening is at 7pm on Tuesday 26th June 2012.

Take a look at and follow our Awkward Noise blog!

We will be posting regularly our ideas and images so we will keep you updated with what's going on right up to the exhibition date!

Yesterday myself and Joanne went and did some more image-making for our final major project; she was reshooting for her 'Home Project' idea of people and their hobbies inside a net house and I was testing with another idea for my series based around sleep and dreams.

The image above is an example image from what I did yesterday so I will be editing and uploading final versions soon!

The second image is a closer edited version from my shooting last week. Once I have final edits towards my exhbition and website then I will create a post with all of my images in sequence on.

Until then, I'm almost on 2000 page views so thank you all for looking at my posts!

This is one of my images taken yesterday without any editing doing to it; my aim with the images from yesterday was to create a calm feeling picture of a girl in a nightdress 'sleepwalking' not realising where she is.

Edited versions will be on here as soon as I start!

Today I did another shoot towards my final major project, images will be on here tomorrow! I'm also working on sketches for visual ideas towards my project which I will also put on here once I've got them finalised.

Coming together as a group today in college sorting out different pages to help promote our exhibition:

Like our Facebook page here.

Follow us on Twitter here.

Working on our website page also which will be up and running within the next week!

I have started working on one of my ideas for my final major project which I took yesterday so this is just a test shoot. It still needs a fair bit of work doing to the image still but this is the basic idea behind it... I am also considering adding in a model to my scene also holding a clock but that's for another day. I will be uploading a final image of this also once it's fully edited and if I do reshoot then there will be more images from that. If anyone has any opinions on how I could improve this then please let me know.

Below is another image which I am still in the process of editing which will be going in my series based around sleep and dreams. I have previously posted this but just to give you all an idea of what will be going in my series, I've put it up again!

And now some lyrics of a song which I am very fond of at the moment;

You're perfect yes it's true, but without me you are only you.
Your menstruating heart, it ain't bleeding enough for two.
It's a midlife crisis.

Faith No More - Midlife Crisis

Yesterday I experimented with one idea for my final major project, I will edit my images and upload them as quickly as I can but as a hint it involved my clock and tying it lots of times to trees!

Also, here are two of the final edited images from my day assisting Danny Sambuca last week with the lovely Danni Bambi Broughton modelling and Claire Nice doing make-up!
(Just to be clear, both images belong to Danny and all credit goes to him!)

It was a brilliant day and it was great fun assisting him; definitely something which I am going to try and do again in the future!

After assisting Danny with his photoshoot yesterday it's given me back my motivation in photography so I'm now planning some shoots for this next week.

One of my ideas is to do a girl in a nightdress in a forest surrounded by clocks; as my funds are pretty low I had to settle for a very cheap wall clock (see below)

The one I've got is black on the outside rather than white... if the black clock doesn't work then I'll be back shopping for a white one but for experimenting with the photographic techniques and editing processes, my inexpensive black one will do! Next thing to find is a vintage looking night dress! 

Had a really fun time assisting Danny Sambuca today in a location fashion shoot at the derelict dairy building in Peterborough, I will post images of the outcome when they're all finished with later on today!

This is the very beginning of the editing to this picture I have taken to go towards my Final Major Exhibition! There's a before and after close up and then a zoomed out one to show how it looks.

My group decided on the name 'Awkward Noise' for our exhibition so we will be promoting the event which will be showing our work a lot in the next few weeks!  

Two unedited photographs from today with Joanne in Whittlesey for my Final Major Project; in my series I'm going to be exploring sleep and dreams in a fine art and surreal way. I shall be uploading edited images before the end of the week and explaining where I'm going to go from here. 

Going to be doing some shooting for my final major project today! Also I'm going to try do some more work on my documentary piece so I'll be getting some pictures up within the next few days!

This is a very small preview from the beginning of a documentary piece I'm undertaking based around the Polish community in Peterborough; a young woman who works in the Polish shop on Broadway.

I shall be uploading potential ideas and some more images for this series over the weekend! 

The past two days have been spent looking on the streets of Peterborough for interesting and unique characters to take photographs of in the style of Lee Jeffries. The top image is of Peat which is close to completion. The second image is of my grandad which I am yet to convert to black and white but it's a look into the early stages of the editing process I've been going through.

These are another two images of sitters which are in the process of being edited! Final edits shall be uploaded before the end of the weekend.

The past week has been spent formulating a narrative and visual ideas behind what I want to do for my final major project; after having presented my two pitches it was evident I need a reason for doing what I want to do and not just for the sake of it so I've looked into my chosen photographers work and have decided I'm going to explore dreams in my work.

I'll be uploading some sketches of ideas in the next few days!

Here are my two entrants for the D & AD student awards which I'm going to be entering in the very near future. I need to work on my 200-400 work rationale for it and wait for uploading to be back up and running then I'll be all good to enter!

For the past few hours I've been doing some editing to my photographs from Saturday evening, this is the image which I have put my time and effort into. This is how it looks with my ordinary adjustments changed and some use of the spot healing brush tool. I am going to keep this image as a final one which I may add to my portfolio and continue a series.    

For the D & AD awards the brief is about creating a 2D image appear to be more 3D; as my initial plan of taking a white polystyrene ball and positioning it in multiple places in my image like that of Brooke Shaden fell through as I couldn't find the right props so I decided to use some new skills of mine and use Photoshop to create light orbs. This meant my image won't be the same as hers and will have my own touch to it. I know the orbs don't look very realistic and I probably need to add more to make it look more fantasy-like however this shall be for later on so I can give myself a break from it and so I can go back to revise it.


I have also decided I am going to continue this as my own project but rather than using balls or Photoshop created orbs, use something else which I am currently not going to let onto as the floating object! 




Lyrics from a song I currently enjoy an awful lot:

I don't mind it, I don't mind if you're overrated. Or if you're staring at the edge of the world.But keep in mind that I'm a sore eye, with blurry vision.But I can see yeah it has to be you love, that I've been dreaming of.And if we climb this high, I swear we'll never die.

Of Mice & Men - My Understandings  

Two unedited JPEG images from my picture taking today towards my submission for the D & AD student awards 2012 inspired by Brooke Shaden.

They've turned out fairly well for what I had in mind however it got very dark quickly and my images didn't turn out as clean as I would've liked them to so I may just use these as environmental portraits rather than for my actual submission then re-shoot! 

Today I had my interview at Swansea Metropolitan University and it went extremely well. 


They commended me for having a portfolio box and archival sleeves to show my work in and really liked my images! They said I spoke about my work really well too and the only thing they'd give advice with would be to put more into an ideas journal as it's one thing they require in the course in terms of coursework. 


They gave me a conditional offer and said I should have no problem achieving the grades I'm predicted with my standard of work. 

Final edits from my Bunny test shoot! Next step will be to look for props and different outfits and locations. 

Above are two final images from my shoot with my friend Tara for one of my assignments around the word 'glitter'. These were shot in a studio against a white background using a single beauty dish. 


Below are two images also from this same assignment but with my friend Luke with a different approach. These were taken in my model's house against a plain wall with a flashgun attached to my camera.

I have also edited two final images from my first Bunny test shoot which I will upload later on today so I don't spam with lots of posts and images! 

Above are two unedited images from my picture taking yesterday! I'm going to sort through the images properly and come up with at least 2 final ones which I will expand upon in the future. 


I also had a go at creating a GIF in Photoshop from still frames:

It's not very good and there are things I want to change about it; one being the frame speed but for my first attempt, I'm relatively pleased with it! and it took over an hour to make because of my poor laptop.