My Day With Menna

Yesterday I spent my day looking after my nearly three year old cousin. We had a very busy day together, spending time drawing, singing and doing role plays...

Menna	You be rapunzel and I’ll be Prince Charming.. Who is your Prince Charming?
Victoria	I don’t know, he hasn’t arrived yet.
Menna	I’ll be your Prince Charming
Victoria	Oh thank you, are you rescuing me?
Menna	Yeah.
Menna	*10 minutes later* I’m not your Prince Charming anymore, I’ve retired.

We also played with dogs, visited the chickens, fed the rabbit, watched some cbeebies, made crayon coffees, read a story, played with dollies - feeding them and putting them to bed. But we also did my coursework, where Menna found out how much fun a ruler can be and loved drawing lines on her piece of paper. The rubber also provided some fun, rubbing out my pencil lines. And we did some gluing. She was ever so helpful.

But the most fun came when I took some pictures of Menna. I have borrowed a Hassleblad for Easter and wanted to try and get some shots of Menna playing. This worked for a while. But then Menna wanted to take some shots of me. So we struck up a deal that Menna could take 5 pictures of me and this is what we got.

At the top is an image I took of Menna while I checked the light meter reading. Below is one of Mennas photographs of me.

I had a wonderful day, and I cannot wait to see what images I got using the Hasselblad. That will be a few weeks wait though while I finish shooting.

Preview!

It's been a ridiculously busy week for me so I haven't managed to get much done and I'm trying to get this article on dairy farming written. However, I have done a teeny bit of reviewing of images. These have no been edited in any way.

All of these photos were shot at John Platts dairy farm in Wimboldsely, Cheshire. They milk just over 800 cows at two different sites and I was given full access to everywhere. Amazing to see

The first calving shed, all calves here are between 4 and 14 days old.

One group of cows on the way out of the miking parlour whilst another is milked.

Looking down the milking stands. They cows were held in by what reminded me of a roller coaster barrier.

This is Gem, a very well loved Australian cattle dog. 

I was very lucky to get this shoot and a big thank you to John Platt for allowing to me go around. I am now officially over my phobia of cows as well having spent time in the calving pens and the cow sheds. Not to mention having one stood right next to me while I photographed the milking parlour.

Another Portrait...

So this weekend I had a Hasselblad out of the Uni stores and started to shoot a few portraits with it. The portraits I have shot.. or hopefully shot have not been in the style that my final ones will be as this shoot this weekend was just to get used to using a camera I haven't used before. However, the shots I have got I am very pleased with.

In colour:

This isn't the original, I have edited the tonal range slightly, increasing the magenta present.

In Black and White:

Not only did I push the colour out of this shot, I removed the bags under the eyes present in the above photo.

This image was produced with a reflector on the right hand side of the face, If I were to change it again slightly it would be to add a bit more definition to the left hand side of the face where the light coming from the window is bleached ever so slightly. 

Portraits

We've got a new module on at Uni now, it's all about portraits. Unfortunately for me, portraits aren't my strong point. I get scared of not being able to manage the light properly and then looking silly in front of the person I am photographing.
So today, in order to start getting over my fear of photographing people I have taken some shots using natural light and with somebody I know.

We started off like this, just stood normally in front of a large window.

I then started to limit the amount of light so there was much less and got this result.

Personally I found this very beneficial and I'm going to try it again soon with the use of reflectors and absorbers of light to see how much difference they make as well. 

The Annual Tea Dance

Oh goodness me, this was possibly the cutest, most lovely event I've ever been too never mind photographed. I had an absolute ball. And so did all the guests - it was great fun. The Mayor even popped along to show off his moves..

I was very impressed with the Mayor's dancing skills.

Some of the ladies dancing the afternoon away with students. This is one of my favourites from the afternoon even if it is a tad yellowy.

If I remember rightly, this was the barn dance. 

I don't remember which dance this was but these two were very much enjoying their dance. I really the depth of field on this too. 

A long shot of the table to the left. Above and Below the same with a serving of tea.

Picking out a lucky raffle winner..

Two of the happy RAG raffle winners, both with a nice bottle each ready for Christmas.

I know this isn't a very good photo technically but this student asked the gentleman to dance and it made me smile, and miss my Bingo crew back home as well. 

Now this pair were very into their dancing and I don't think they left the dance floor very often. I love the stance in this shot, even with the slight motion blur. 

I managed to sneak up to a high point somewhere (still not sure where..) and get a nice overview of the dance floor and the guests. 

Our VC also paid a visit to the Tea Dance, making the guest feel welcome as he and the SU President made a speech.

Another favourite of mine, I love the repetition in this image with the couple behind in a very similar pose.

One talented keyboard player.

This very happy couple asked me to take their photograph as they said they "couldn't remember the last time they had such fun dancing". Always a nice thing to hear. 

I really did enjoy my afternoon at the Tea Dance, I don't even know what else to say. I took so many photos, but these are my favourites. 

Now this afternoon, well I have to head back up to Hesters Way and shoot some more for my stories. Last minute I know, but I'm looking forward to shooting with flash - something I've put off before now due to lack of experience and unsurity (if that's even a word) or the reaction I'll get. Flash can seem intrusive.

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!

Street Photography

As I was wandering around Birmingham on Saturday I thought I'd try my hand at some street photography, shooting off the hip, not looking at what I was snapping at. I never imagined it would be so difficult.

All my images pretty much turned out like this. I'm not liking any of them. I think it's safe to say I need a lot more practice with shooting off the hip. 

It's focusing that seems to be letting me down. Do I focus manually and just hope everybody is at the right distance or do I use autofocus and hope the camera picks up the right things to focus on? Do I stand still or do I carry on walking as I take the image, relying literally just a fast shutter speed to capture it all. 

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.