2012 Review

As it’s a fresh start in 2013 and I’ve done so much in 2012 I thought I’d write a post to review my year of work as I know I became a much more confident photographer through a series of projects. So lets look at some favourites aye?

First of all we have Rescued, this was my FMP for college where I decided to investigate how many animals are homeless, stuck in an animal rescue centre. I travelled all over the place with this project and met some wonderful people that volunteer to look after the animals and train them.

I also learned a lot about Photoshop with this project, I rarely use the programme but had no choice here.. Not just to achieve the desired layout for the image but also to correct white balance on many images as I found shooting in the centres I was often working with multiple different lighting set ups. I also fell in love with a particular cat on this project, cat 3 down 4 across – Hank. I’d still adopt him if I could.

Moving on we have my WWII project, my absolute favourite for the year. I’ve always been a great fan of History and in particular war. But I don’t want to be a war photographer. I found people in my village that had been children during World War Two in different locations around the UK and asked them to recall memories of the war whilst I photographed them in the Studio. I was surprised as how well people responded as I know for a long time the war was unspoken of, and some still refuse to recall the difficult time. I was even luckier that they were able to bring with them items that they still owned from the war.

I shot this project on medium format film using a Bronica to try and keep the history alive within the images. The stories I got were incredible and if you want to know of any of the stories please get in touch. Or the link through to the Facebook album has brief details. Above are Betty, Colin and Jim.

But as well as these two projects I have attended and photographed two Protests, most recently #demo2012…

 Attempted live Fashion Photography at Mid Cheshire College Fashion Show which raises money for charity and thoroughly enjoyed it..

Campaigned for a very good friend to try and get him the position of NUS President at NUSNC12 and photographed the entire three days of the conference, learning how terrible my telezoom lens is, more so in low light…

 Plucked up the courage to start asking people for their photographs, which I must say is not in my comfort zone at all…

Got in to university in Cheltenham and shot my first live event with a same day deadline with them at Tewkesbury Mop Fair…

And finally completed my first extended project at university handing in on time, Hesters Way. A project which will be continued yet and hopefully become my first real Documentary…

I have done even more than this but to find out about that you will just have to explore my blog more, or my Facebook page.

I have no goals for 2013 particularly, I just want to keep growing as a photographer and push myself further with work. Oh and finish (if it’s possible to finish a documentary?) Hesters Way maybe.

Rewind

Lately I've been looking back through my college projects and found the very first one I remember doing that wasn't a basic skills one. We had to choose two advert to make an advert for. I chose Amnesty and Greenpeace and these were my works of art.. Works of art that are now quite bad compared to later work I produced. 

Racial abuse campaign, but not focusing on black people.

The beautiful Laura McGahan modelling.

Deforestation campaign. 

My awesome Dad modelling.

I still like this shot, minus my Dad and the text.

No Ifs, No Buts, No Education Cuts!

So yesterday, Wednesday 21.11.12, saw thousands of students from all over the country take to the streets and show the Government they won’t just sit back and take what’s being thrown at them.

It was a brilliant day, one I thoroughly enjoyed. The atmosphere was amazing, especially as you walked under the tunnels, though at those points hearing anything other than horns or '”whoooo” was very difficult. And the weather was not going to put anyone off, nor the early starts.
My favourite photos? Here:

(Not all of these are what some might call “photographically correct” however they do show how fast paced a lot of it was and I suppose the style of the event, it was a protest after all)

   
It made sense to start with a sign that matched my title.

   
Wooden spoons and metal bowls were used to make even more noise!

   
MidKent College Students Union were out in force with several officers and students carrying placards. 

   
A slightly underexposed photo of one of the many homemade signs were out and about throughout the march.

   
Again, more extra noise. This time so fast my camera caught the motion.

   
Many placards were left discarded as the march progressed, getting wet in the rain and trampled all over.

   
NUS were readily prepared with plenty of placards, a lovely photo opportunity for me.

   
Another placard sums up the discontent with the two-party system in the UK.

   
As you can see there were plenty of police present at the Demo, to be sure all was safe and well.

   
Throughout the march people with megaphones were encouraging a variety of chants.

   
At one point during the march a small group did try to break away from the route as you can see here, however they weren’t successful – thankfully.

   
Now this is my all time favourite photo from the Demo. I absolutely love this shot.

   
And sticking with favourites, this was my absolute favourite sign at the Demo.

   
Slightly underexposed sadly.

The Birmingham Guild of Students made sure they were seen with a HUGE banner. I love the depth of field in this shot, concentrating on the students marching.

 
It was parliament that caused a lot of debate around the Demo as we turned left when most wanted to go right.

   
A Student Officer en route.

   
Many of those marching were stopped and interviewed for different news sources throughout the March as the media covered the protest.

The rain wasn’t enough to put everyone off, and despite this being underexposed I love it.

   
PCSOs were in Kennington Park watching students in, here stood on the bottom of a statue (just like me taking the shot) to be able to see over.

   
Sadly towards the end some of the protestors decide to take over the stage pushing through and jumping the barriers. In my opinion they simply made a fool of themselves, they barely achieved anything. And by this point my camera was too cold and wet to focus fully but I don’t think it matters here. Wow, what a ‘caption’.

 
And this is the state we left the park in, lush.

On another non-protesty note, I’m a bit behind in Blogging due to lack of laptop at the moment, so I have plenty more photos coming up shortly!

New Idea

Today has been a productive one, this morning I was out shooting in Pittville Park with the lovely Ellie Reed-Mumford on a Mamiya camera. I adore shooting film and we saw some really pretty shots, shame we were setting out to shoot portraits and not landscapes. I think we both got at least one landscape though… I shall scan in my shots one day next week and upload.

On another topic though I have decided to set myself a new documentary project, one to do in my spare times and weekends when I’m out and about in Birmingham.

My current project for uni is all about housing and how wealth determines your environment. That’s all outside. What’s inside? Even more interesting what goes on inside four walls when you’ve not long moved in to a new place with people you have never ever met before? Well, my story “Flat 47” should hopefully help me to show you.

I’ve decided to document James Phillips and his flatmates. I think they’ve gotten used to me being around now so they just have to get used to me having my camera glued to my face for a lot of the time. Something I started tonight.

It isn’t exactly a brilliant photo but it’s Black and White and that’s how I’m hoping to style this story. I quite like but not as much as I want to.

My photos should improve later on, as both sides get more used to the idea. The above image is also missing a person. Only four out of the five were in the flat earlier.

Oooh, Two Posts In A Day...

Yeah, I know I posted earlier but I popped down to the post room today and got two letters and a parcel. Two of which were from two of my favourite non-related people ever back home in Davenham. I decided to share an image of them in this case, before I write back to them.

Ray King. 

I got to know this man through working in the newsagents back home (a brilliant place to work). He helped me out a lot and we always had a good chat on a saturday morning when he came in for his paper. In fact, he helped me out with the project I've photographed below and helped to get me in to the courthouse in the town to do a project. 

I got a parcel from him today with two books in, one from WWII times (a big passion of mine I discovered when doing a portrait project based on WWII children) and the other from the 60's based on towns still recovering from the effects of WWII. I now have to hurry and finish my other book so I can start these.  

Jim Conboy.

He's been my next door neighbour for my whole life, a whopping 18 years. He used to help me with my maths when I was little, we did sums over the hedge using door numbers and registration plates on cars. There are still numbers in blue chalk on the side of both houses. I used to go to Bingo with Jim and the old ladies, both of us were callers at the legion.

This photo of him was part of my WWII project, he was one of my "children" so to speak. I loved this project and Jim was an amazing person to photograph and ask about as his Dad used to drive the POWs between camps and often took them home with him if it was tea time in the middle of the shift (if there was only one or two) and his Mum would cook for them as well. Amazing ey?

I got a little letter from him today, with RBL stickers celebratiing 90 years. I'm going to write back to him tomorrow in my break between lessons. 

I'm looking forward to going home in the middle of November, it will be nice to have a quick catch up with everybody. I wrote to my Gran as well yesterday, sent her some photos of both me and a bit of my work so she can see what I'm up to. It wasn't till I got here I realised how so many people have helped me to do so many things!

Apologies for the sentimental post, feeling a bit emotional tonight.