Portraits

Last weekend I carried a ridiculous amount of equipment up to Cheshire on the train to go and shoot some portraits. Shot with a Hasselblad I have since scanned in the negs and got the images ready to be shown to you all.

I'm really pleased with these photos and really enjoyed the afternoon photographing - not to mention the yummy soup we got for dinner too!

Now I got a brand new combine harvester and I'll give you the key...

Overpowering The Sunshine

You might have noticed recently how lovely the weather has been with the sun out, blue skies and even some warmth radiating down. I set out in the sunshine armed with my camera and a flash gun in the hope to capture some portraits. I did just that only I made them look like night time images... oooh!

I have put this image in to show you just how beautiful the weather was when I was shooting.

My final outcome. Admittedly this isn't a great photo however I was only testing out what I could achieve. 

I am pleased with the results I got from one small Metz flashead and with minimal experimentation with shutter speed and apertures too. I think this is an effect I might try and use more if I am able to.

Shooting on the Streets

You might know that at the moment I am working on a portrait project that involves photographing people on the street. When I was in Birmingham I found this group of musicians entertaining shoppers and could not just walk past.

There is a lot of energy in this image, particularly for the chap playing the accordion - with his bright red jeans that match his instrument.

Since shooting the streets digitally, I have now taken to using the Hassleblad to get portraits. A camera which gets many peculiar looks when I'm out shooting with it but also a good conversation starter. Unfortunately the turn around for the images will take longer but it will be well worth the wait when we get to see what they have come out like.

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.

Street Portrait 2

When you think that this gentleman's target audience is children, for a balloon seller he does not look most impressed. In fact, I'd argue that he looked bored and fed up, not at all impressed with his job.

For me however, this is a good thing. Check out the photo..

In my opinion this photo would be much less interesting if the guy was smiling. He just appears to be standing there for the sake of it, not because he enjoys it and considering how colourful the photo is the mood isn't overly bright.

On another note, is there anybody out there that wants portraits doing over the Easter period? Get in touch and let me know so we can arrange something. I have three weeks free to photograph.

Street Portrait

How often do you see the men stood outside shops whilst their partners are shopping?

Very often. Yes.

I hit Birmingham City Centre with my camera and decided to photograph these people and grab a cheeky portrait from them. This is what I got.

This gentleman was waiting for his wife, he didn't want to be snapped with his glasses on but I caught him as he took them off. I just love this shot, I think a lot of his character comes through.

Street portraits are something I will be shooting more and more in the coming weeks as I intend on getting a project out that is just photographing the interesting people I come across whilst out and about.

Also, I have three weeks with no set shooting or work timetable, if anybody wants a photo session, please get in touch and we can arrange something.

Deco-Reco

Deco-reco was always going to be a challenge but it was one I fully embraced and ending up doing a lot of work on. Now when you see the two images and compare them please remember that Photoshop is not my strong point.

  

<- A self portrait from Ways of Looking by Douglas Gordon

My version.

Whilst I realise the angle of the portrait in the original photo of my version doesn't quite line up with portrait used in Gordon's version I'm pleased with my result. The only piece I feel didn't work as strongly as I would have like is the hints of burning paper that can be seen. 

Milking Time

Yesterday we returned to Woodlands Farm and visited the dairy. We went to watch the cows being milked this time and I loved it.

Busy working, slight hint of motion in this shot is what I believe makes it work, as it shows the fast movement required to keep up with all of the cows.

A quick portrait in the middle of the job.

This cow was particularly interested in me hovering around the milking parlour taking photos. I love this snap.

I do have more photos to follow, just a few posted here for now as I haven't had time to go through them all. 

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. 

Woodlands, Visit One.

I don't know if I've mentioned this project before of not, however today myself and four others visited Woodlands Farm, Chedworth to start shooting for our group project based around Dairy Farming. I had an excellent time and learnt a lot whilst I was there, Nigel Finch is a very interesting man to listen to. We spent a good couple of hours at the farm and received an excellent tour of the facilities, giving us chance to start snapping.

Here are a selection of my images:

Lets start with this animal portrait, whilst I am a little gutted that I cut of the edge of the right ear I am pleased with the shot.

A crowd of University students crowding in to the shed was clearly of interest to the cows as they swarmed to the gate. I'm pleased with this shot and the numbers of cows that squashed in for me.

Then of course we need a cute shot of the calves, this shot I think is good for showing hints of the environment behind them without being the focus of the shot.

Whilst this shot came out darker than I would have liked when taking it I am pleased that it has as it just highlights the one cow who is standing with his peeping over the rest of the crowd.

And to finish...

A portrait of Nigel Finch himself, lit with natural light coming through a small window as he talked to us about his job.

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. 

A Quick Shot

So as I was looking out of window just I noticed the spikes of the window sill just about creeping through the darkness and tried to take a photo of them. It took me a while to figure out how to do it and eventually I managed it. However, that's not the shot I'm showing here, instead it's a self portrait.

This photo isn't great, it's overexposed and it looks out of focus because of the window being so dirty (which I will point out isn't my fault at all) but that is what makes me like it.

Noted: Must get back in to blogging habbit.

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

I honestly do not know how our Christmas tree has managed to survive so long already. And without any broken baubles. To mark the memorable occasion of standing for a week and gaining only a slight forward lean I took a few snaps. Clichés of course.

One self portrait..

Two self portrait.

Yeah, my Cliches were intentional as I wanted a new self portrait and being in the festive spirit these made sense. 

Flat 47

In case you haven't already heard I've started to do a documentary, one I can work on in my spare time. Title, "Flat 47".

I want it to be a black and white documentary, and whilst I've started it on digital a few shots here and there could end up being done in film. Maybe. I can't decide yet. Probably not due to expense though.

Anyway, I started some shooting for it this weekend...

Thursday 8th November.

This was my most successful shot of the night and I'm still not overly fond of it. However it does demonstrate the style I was originally out aiming for. I've since sacked off the square format. 

Saturday 10th November.

I believe this collection of bottles (and cans) has been growing since the start of term and I haven't even captured it all yet.

Family shot? I like this shot. Turns out once you get the hang of a Metz Flashgun they can be quite useful. I'm still practising though.

Something was funny. 

Now this shot would be easy to turn in to a Square format image which I intend to do at a later date. However it isn't one I want to turn Black and White because I love the burst of colour in it. 

Another group image, it's just a shame one person wasn't paying attention.

This project is definitely going to be a long one as it keeps going. And I think it's definitely going to take a while before my camera becomes ignorable. I mean ...

Clearly not appreciated! Sadly the photo didn't turn out or this would be quite a mugshot.

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.

Stow Horse Fair

Yesterday was a busy day, I was out at Stow shooting the horse fair there. We had a 2 pm deadline as the tutors had partnered us all up with the Gloucestershire Echo - imagine how manic the uploads were! But it was all good fun, I really enjoyed it.

Riding through the crowds.

Michael Johnson selling slingshot and walking sticks.

Kate Friend enjoying the day.

The RSPCA had officers present on site all day.

Ready for auction.

Just a quick ride round the field. 

You can see one side of the field in the background here - that's how big it was.

As you can see the weather wasn't particularly great, it was miserable for the most part and it took a while to get used to being on the mud in boots that had minimal grip and you should see the state of them now. They are gross. 

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.