Digital Photography Degree

So i started the university of Bedfordshire third year BA Honours course. Not started proper lessons yet, just all the introductory stuff. But I'm already starting to think I'm really not going to learn much form this course!!! We shall see though, I may be surprised!

I've got to do another FMP...I have some vague ideas of what photo study I could do. Going to have to ponder for longer on that one.

I have three photography projects lined up for my work based/personal learning etc. I'm going to buy lights and a backdrop. However I'm going to find out friday if I can borrow these from the media centre on friday, as that should save me £300.... =p

I'm also looking into apprenticeships. Found some great job descriptions, which has boosted my confidence a bit. Just none in the buckinghamshire/bedfordshire area...or even london came up. I'm going to have to do some deeper digging...!!!

RAW versus JPEG

Okay, I have never used my camera in RAW format..my bad. So I switched a few days ago after reading another blog on Blogger where a woman photographer made the switch and posted images that compared thetwo formats. Only thing is, my Photoshop wont load RAW NEF files!!!!

So I'm stuck, with a load of images that need the levels adjusting and the colour fixed, and I can't access them. So my feelings towards RAW are somewhat wavering to say the least! I've installed a Nikon Codec for RAW files, but all that does is let me view them on my laptop, it doesn't let photoshop open them. My friend who has the same photoshop version as me doesn't have the same problem, so it seems it's just my terrible bad luck....

The Cookie Cutter Idea

Yesterday I was drawing hearts into the snow with a bamboo stick, when it occured to me there was surely a more precise way to make a shape in the snow...so as I thought about it, it occured to me also that cookie cutters was a great idea! Somehow, we have thrown out all the old metal ones we used to have, so today my mum bought some for me whilst I was at work, and I happily played in the snow with my star, butterfly, flower, hand, foot and bear! Here are just some of the pictures I've taken below. I'm actually quite pleased with myself for coming up with the idea, but as I sit here and think of a more abstract way of doing it, I realise; what about wet mud? Say if I went out to a field, and just cut a star, or even the hand shape into a big patch of mud underneath a tree or something, that could be so much more abstract, and kind of symbolic. Mud, snow, maybe collect a pile of tiny tiny stones and place inside the shape somewhere. I like the idea of a picture, with a random, yet kind of beautiful and well misplaced symbol being somewhere just out of focus. And also, it's a lot of fun stamping them into stuff!

Snow Photos

My toes are still freezing as I write this, but got some things I need to say.

I was having some issues with my camera the other day; trying to take a picture in the kitchen of the orchid, but the shutter speed was too slow, and my brain so I couldn't figure out what the hell to change. So I call my dad in (stupid mistake) and he starts p***ing about with it, changes it to manual mode and god knows what else. Ever since then, everything has been comnig out blue. He told me to keep it in manual mode (and auto focus but auto focus is for dummies the fool). So I decide he must know what he's talking about as he's had cameras longer than me. So I've been messing around with the while balance and ISO for the last 5 days trying to get the damn photos to come out right but they've never been the same since! So I decided screw it, I'll stick it back to Program mode, and VOILA! Hello, but program mode is easier! the exposure was just completely messed up in manual, and I didn't have a clue how to fix it; so program is a lot easier for me to use! Maybe I'm being idiotic, but each to their own right?

So I eventually got some cool pics done today whilst we've been having really bad snow storms this week. Here they are...

The Second Birth Of The Photo Blog

Right, I'm back after some time away thinking and plotting over what I want to do.

I am going up to Harrow in London on the 14th March, where I'll be taking pictures of a group of friends. My aim is to generate some shots for my fear project. So I'll need a guy pushing a girl up against the wall looking mugger-like ;). Also I'll need shots of the female full close up frontal, looking victm-like; where I'll later generate some graphics. Also, I need to make some signs in red paint for her to hold up. Words such as " I;m scared to step outside", "I was attacked 5 years ago and still have incomnia" "I;m scared to get on a plane", "I'm having a masectomy even though I don't have breast cancer after my mom and sister died", " I don't like what the mirror says". I might actually get 10-12 people holding up varying signs, then stitch the picture together.

I want to try some sequence and 360 panoramic photography. Firstly, sequence photography is easiest so I'll try that this year. If the snow has relented tomorrow I'll try it out as I'm meant to be seeing a group of friends in Great Linford. I just need to plan out some ideas...

Also to further note down, I have quite a few projects coming up. I am taking pictures at the hairdressers I go to in Leighton Buzzard on the 21st February; photos I hope will be good enough to put in my portfolio. On the 9th February, I'm going to another salon with a professional photographer to take photos at a Loreal competition. The on the 14th February, I'm taking pictures at a wedding in Wilton Hall. THEN on the 22nd, I'm going to a wedding fayre at Abbey Hill Golf Course! Phew! So lots lined up, many opportunities; just need to take advantage of them!



Right, here are some photos I took of my friends whilst playing in the park in Great Linford last Tuesday! I'm quite proud of how these turned out, but I would have liked them to be a bit more abstract.

The FMPJourney Begins...

After my kick up the arse on Tuesday, I have a new sense of motivation. Or maybe it's the impending doom of an exhibition that I have to organise and run in April/May. EEK! So I have set out a list of every picture I want to create...and subsequently have spent around 12 hours this week brainstorming these ideas which are slowly becoming brilliant. They will only really be brilliant if I can actually take the damn picture!

So my theme on fears and stereotypes is coming into play and I feel a lot more confident about it all. I have maybe; say 10 photographs that I have made detailed notes for, with research points I plan to undertake on Tuesday evening after the presentation I'm yet to still put together! There's so much work to do, as I sit here, and think about the amount of work this exhibition requires, I then realise I'm yet to make a dvd, write a dissertation, keep two production journals, make a display production file for the FMP stuff, AND make my very first photography portfolio for Bloomed Photography. Luckily I have a catalogue of images I have taken over the past year that I'm really happy with and just have to print out and put inside the currently non esistant portfolio...the amount of work is getting kind of scary. I haven't seen my boyfriend in a week, and it will no doubt be after tomorrow when I see him, another week til I do again. The hard work will pay off though when I'm unveiling a corridor of my work at Bletchley College and/or MK Library. Fingers crossed!

I regards to my FMP images, I think I have successfully combined all the elements I wanted to. The execution will only tell whether I manage to make viewers "think" when they see them. Images such as portraits of people, and connotations of whether they have a deadly disease or not; toy soldiers with fates written across their chests; a man under an underpass following behind a young girl, a line-up of different but ordinary people, but signs held up by them saying things like "suicide bomber?". And also a load of replica toy weapons on the ground, with obituaries of people the weapons killed laid out beneath them. Just a few examples of what I hope to achieve :)

Gritty

Today I have had many brainwaves. My tutor on my media degree inspired me and motivated me into seeing that my creativity has to be fed; that if I am to be taken seriously with my photography; I must first take it seriously. Ans so here I am, I have created a profile for my work on the Saatchi Online gallery as my first step to promotion, nd this blog is my second. I have a personal blog which I have kept for 5 years, and it's now time I had a blog which showed my journey career-wise. So here I am; day one.

I created a name for myself, a title for my journey "Bloomed Photography" as my tutor told everyon we need to create a letterhead and a company name as a formal way to promote ourselves. It sounded a bit silly at firs twhen he said it; I wouldrather introduce myself to professionals with my name, not "hi, this is Bloomed Photography". But still; it feels nice to give my journey a title; a way to express in just one word what this is all about. I at first wanted to call myself "blooming potograph" but that sounds more like I'm fecked off than the real message I want to send across!

I had a brainwave today n regards to my FMP (final major project). At first, I went through many ideas for my exhibition; but finally serttle don exploring fear in society. Today after findin Lexington Art League's exhibition on fear; I was totally inspired. The artists used barbie dolls to portray fear; so I suddenly burst with an infinite possibility. I thought and struggle dwith this thought that the photos I would take would be just of people. But it doesn't jsut have to be in the flesh. I could just toy army soldiers, babrbie dolls, toy cars, weapons etc., to portray fear of death, aging, obesity, size zero, stress, anxiety, war and youth culture. And with this realisation; came also the realisation that as I got all these ideas; my artistic roots were indeed blooming back.