Tuesday 30 November 2010

Snow/Winter(I-mean-Autumn) Shizz

Well, so far, a week after that lecture about blogging, i am indeed a failure! 
I've not uploaded any photos for the Fill-A-Book project...oops. My bad, college has been crazy busy.
But, 'bout this bloggingness - I just feel i'd have to nothing to blog about on a regular basis, other than college work, snow, being cranky, parents pissing me off, more college work, and more snow.
Oh and how shite this it-isn't-winter-yet-but-it's-gonna-snow-like-crazy-anyways-despite-we're-still-in-autumn!
Just can't appreciate it like i used to- just say, when i was 10. 
It used to be such a highlight, early before school, me and my little (now not so little) bro would play in the garden-making snow angels and lobbing hand-chilling snow balls at each other.
Ah, how times change. Now we just lob words of abuse. 
Aren't siblings darlings?

 ^^^
Just something to help me feel nice in this shitty time of year when tensions are high, and so are the gas bills. 
Bad times for Kat Von D last week, when i heard how her gorgeous kitty Valentine, replacement of the late Ludwig perished with Kat's home and belongings in a fire. Tragic! Hope Kat is coping with her loss. 

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Fill-A-Book Project

Well, well.. long time no post! 

I thought after the interesting lecture my tutor Jess (aka- cuppa tea and cake) gave about blogs and their many uses, i ought to update this with things other than compulsory blogged college work, and for example, the progress of a new project we were given today in drawing:

 Whey! It's awesome.

Basically, we were given a random book, i received some Christmassy poem book- it's decent enough with some nice illustrations, though just a lack of size and pages (only 48 to be exact)- Although this isn't a tragedy as i'll only just go buy another from one of the many charity shops in town.

Aswell as the book, we were handed a A4 sheet filled to the bottom of the page with tasks to complete in our books, e.g. " Make a self-portrait out of cotton and glue, leave a set of drawn footprints over several pages that leads to the creature that created them, get a stranger to draw on one of your pages then copy it on another page using different material." The list goes on and on...
I don't know about anyone else, but i can't wait to get into this! 
We have 5 weeks  roughly to complete the book, i want to be so inspired that the pages will be bursting with creativity- i usually really struggle to be creative with my art, so this should be interesting! 

I plan to take photos every couple of days to show how my books coming along. We're expected to do like  a page or so everyday, i'll certainly try and give it my best! 
Wish me luck!

Monday 1 November 2010

Pinhole Photographers

As part as my bloody long-winded putting information into a blog and a sketchbook malarkey, I'm required to include 2 photographers who photography pinhole style:

My chosen photographer no.1: Justin Quinnell, inventor of the 'Smilycam':

I first came across Quinnell whilst searching for pinhole photographers to use in my sketchbook. 
I immediately liked his fun style of pinhole photography, often using his own invention, the 'Smileycam', examples as shown above in the montage. ^^
He was born in Portishead 1962,  and now lives in Bristol where he lectures part-time at University College Falmouth.
He's had TV interviews on programs such as 'Jonathon Ross Show, and The One Show'.
I watched his appearance on The One Show, on Youtube which was quite interesting, whilst being educational.
He's practiced pinhole photography since 1988- bloody long time if you ask me!
And within that time, he's had tonnes of exhibitions and publications, and has held lectures at over 30 different universities in the UK.
He seems like a generally interesting guy, with a great knowledge for everything pinhole, offering all the information necessary in Rachel Weisz's movie The Brother Bloom, in which he appears in the credits as 'pinhole consultant'.
His style is so unique, i've never seen anything like the one of the 6 month solargraphs he produced, below. Nor anything of similarity to his 'Smileycam' photos. I love the spontaneity behind his in-mouth photographs.The images are enough to make you smile! I'd love to meet him, and be put to shame over my lame pinhole photography!

Solargraph- a long exposure photograph which shows the path taken by the sun across the sky.
Quinnell's pinhole photograph of the SS Great Britain, Bristol


Pinhole Photographer no.2: Mark Tweedie: Pinhole photographer, poet and bookbinder:

Wasn't able to find a massive amount of information about this guy as he generally doesn't seem to be very well know. 
But i know from what i've seen that he's a wonderful photographer with a very dark, haunting style of pinhole photography.  And living in Coventry, West Midlands from what i find.
His photos are beautifully shot, it's definitely worth taking a peek at his gorgeous gallery. 
He appears to be an artist within his words:  

"The long exposures required, sometimes lasting hours, grace the images with a powerful sense of narrative.-here is little conscious thought behind this, more that the inevitably slow processes involved allow - if not impose - a wider view of what is happening at the time."

I've discovered that it's been difficult to find useful information about him from anywhere other than his personal website, and even there, it was more about the work than him himself!
Perhaps this is because he truly isn't that well know. Which is a shame really. As it means the world is missing out of his beautiful, mysterious images. Or perhaps be doesn't want his personal life to be know, but just his work- and for it to be appreciated.
 His photography style is so enviable, i would love to possess the creativity that his images posses. 

This is a wonderful example of his work, from his 'Dream Of Flight' series it makes me curious, wanting to know what went on in the photograph, if there's a story behind the image. I wonder if he uses himself as the model in this photo.
I've seen a photograph of the man himself, and i thought him to be a lot older. Like 50+. But i can't even make a rough judgment on his age though. If it is him in the photograph above, he appears to have a young body-certainly not that of pensioner. 
However old though, he'll still be the same mysterious pinhole photographer with more creativity than i could ever possess.


Pinhole Photography Research + Examples Of Photography Genres

Was meant to post this ages ago, but coursework from my other classes has been a burden....
Feeling a little bit stressed right now! Got two days till my assessment, well, one to get everything done by and printed off at college, ughhhhhh.... stresssed, lost my sheet for what i'm meant to include here and in my book! Shit!

^^^^
That was the state i was in yesterday, when i wrote it.
Today, i am calm, and slightly confident that i'll actually get to bed before 4am once i've finished my coursework that's due to be finished for my evaluation on the 2nd of this month, ooh that's today!

Firstly... Pinhole Photography, and a little bit about it! 


 Pinhole Photography can be used for art, science and fun! 
An inexpensive method of taking photographs, provided you borrow someones darkroom, and development chemicals.
Basically, all a pinhole camera is is a lightproof, lensless thing with a pin-sized hole on one side. The tiny hole is used to photograph, once exposed to light. 
Designing a pinhole camera can be pretty fun! It doesn't take much to create one either, some black flat paint, black gaffer tape, aluminum, a pin, and a camera of your choice!
Some of the most amazing pinhole photographs have been taken using normal/average everyday items, like Pringle/biscuit/cake tins, shoe/oatmeal boxes, even wheely bins and a discarded fridge! 
I also read somewhere recently of the worlds largest pinhole 'camera' - that being an abandoned jet hangar! It earned the title of world's largest camera, and the print made from the hangar- the world's largest photograph in The Guinness World record book.
Incredible!
 Leonardo Da Vinchi and Isaac Newton both used pinhole for research.
Pinhole photography has become recently popular over the years,  it can be described as:
'experimental, fascinating, fun, gripping, inexpensive, uncommon, unusual, scientific, simple, time consuming, unique, challenging, and artistic'
I agree with all of the above! 

Pinhole photography is incredibly clever, still to this day i'm amazed by the idea of it!
Although i still have a job trying to work out exposure times.
Exposures are varied, ranging from half a second to several hours.
And the photographing can be extremely unpredictable, so to begin with, when first shooting with a pinhole camera, you may create some duds! Well, if you're me, you will anyways! 
Once successfully developed, pinhole prints will appear softer, lacking image sharpness. 
This will help make a photo seem more characteristic. Which i think is the reason i love pinhole photography so much. It's definitely something to be tried, if anything  - at least once! 


Photography Genres


Here's a few different examples of photography genres. Although they're not the same as those in my sketchbook.

Animal/Nature:

I absolutely love animal themed photography! It's simply described with no other word than cute! On my Deviantart account half of the stuff i've favored is someone's sweet fluffy cat, adorable lion cubs/foxes/puppies or beautiful, elegant horses. I love the playfulness animals can unintentionally display, like in the photograph of the two foxes shown above ^^  So lovely

Action:
                                                                                                                                  

I love action shots for the fact that they can be so wow-factorish! I look and think, how on earth did they manage to capture that so perfectly, with no blur to be seen.
Although, now i know, a super fast shutter speed is required to capture such a magnificent still image.  

Wedding: 

Wedding photos are always going to have the 'aww' factor, i aww because i love the happiness/love the photos show- everyone's smiling, making it very clear they're so so happy, so very in love. It's such a special moment! It's hard to describe it! I just hope if i ever get married, my photos will look just as beautiful, provided i don't blink in all of them!  

More Positive + Negative Prints

After struggling to work out how to change these prints at home from negative to positive as i don't have Photoshop on my laptop, only Paint Shop Pro 9 which i have little knowledge about using, i managed to rustle these together!:

This is a self-portrait, taken on the college campus. 


I originally wanted to capture my head shaking side to side, in order to create an illusion of having two faces like in the image above of Placebo's 'Meds' album. 
But i obviously wasn't shaking my head quick enough whilst the pinhole was exposed for roughly 30/40 seconds. I don't know, i struggled to keep tabs on the times i exposed my lens for.
My  bad.
Despite not getting the result i wanted, i still like this print and intend to upload it onto my Deviantart.



I think i'm gonna have to try and convert the negative of this print into a positive again sometime, next time using Photoshop. Don't get me wrong, i don't mind the positive Paint Shop Pro version, but i am intrigued over how it would look if i did it properly using Photoshop.
I really like both the negative & positive print of this!
They both are quite dramatic i feel, the negative version is really affective-  with the blacked out lighting suspended from the ceiling.
Definitely proud of this, shot it in the atrium at the college for roughly about 10 minutes, a perfectly timed exposure in my opinion! 
I preferred shooting inside the college, when photographing outside, you really have to get the exposure time right. 



This was the worst print. Ever. It's just crap. Ridiculously over-exposed, with very little detail.
Except for the grass, college building, trees and seating.
Mm. Exposed it for-? I don't even know. Too long obviously!