first post in a while!

Merry christmas everyone! i haven't been posting as much as i should of really but been busy with festivities and catching up with friends and family!
I am currently on a small family holiday in Northumberland, Newton by the sea, and for christmas i got a 85mm 1.8 prime lens! so this little holiday has been the perfect time to test it out and try it before i get back to Uni! Today we just had a crazy coastal walk to dunstanburgh castle with my dog and heres a few snaps from today. I don't really like landscape photography so i wanted to switch it up a little and make it so I was doing a lot of shooting into the sun today because i absolutely love this effect, and i've never tried it properly but here is a few of my favourites!

More from today! finals and close ups

Here are a couple of edited images from today. Really happy with them and can't wait to do more stuff like this.
There are also close ups of the head piece and the chest piece further down which in total took around 8 hours.
Also thank you to Annabelle again who helped out and took some Behind the scenes stuff, to Danielle my model, and Toni Dent my make up artist for the day! You were all amazing :)

Close ups of head piece and body piece!

Behind the scenes of todays photoshoot.

Today i shot my image for contextual studies, after HOURS of prep, making the head piece and chest piece, it was all finally ready to photograph. It was honestly one of my favourite shoots to date, i loved it!
I downloaded capture one yesterday so i took advantage of that and took my laptop down to Jesmond dene, which is where the photoshoot took place.
I found a tree and fallen tree covered with ivy, and so i decided to shoot there.
I took one flash head planning on using it but in the end it wasnt needed as it was a perfect day to photograph and it was giving the perfect amount of light.
We even tried smoke bombs! but unfortunatley because it was only a portrait it was hard to capture the smoke in the right places. but anyway I tried it and i really liked the effect it gave however it would of been better for a more full body shot.
This was all for our contextual studies supporting image, in which we had to create a photograph in the style of our chosen photographer. I hopefully captured Kirsty Mitchell's style, but my concept is mother nature. The contrast of flowers with the green ivy was really captivating so i was very excited to look at them properly.

I spray painted some of the ivy around her white, and entwined her hair in the leaves and flowers. It was a really pretty set when it was all put together!

here are some behind the scenes shots!

Amazing MUA, Toni Dent

Model: Danielle Connelly, one of my best friends, she was great! 

spray painting the leaves and entwining her hair

Using the smoke bombs..

As you can see its a really cool effect, and i will be using them again, but it was too overpowering for the look i was going for. 

Behind the scenes for Annabelle brown

Today i got to help out my dearest friend in her behind the scenes shoot for her contextual essay supporting image, in which she recreated Ruven Afanador's image with butterflies (the image underneath).

It was a great shoot, she had a model and an amazing MUA, who completely recreated the look for her, and so as well as assist a little bit i thought id make her a behind the scenes video, because a lot of photographers are starting to make these so i gave it a go, and here it is.. 

also you can view Annabelle's amazing final image by clicking this link 

Annabelle Brown photography- click here!

Helping assist Richard Allen!

After i had shot the images for ceramics, +Annabelle Brown  asked me to come along with her and our tutor graham to help out with a shoot at Alex Telfer's studio in Byker. Unfortunately it wasn't with Alex, BUT it was absolutely amazing to go. The studio was in a converted church and was absolutely beautiful, the walls were filled with his photographs and the actual studio itself was huge!! There was a lighting umbrella the size of my bedroom, and the scoop was insane!

ANYWAY

We helped assist a photographer called Richard Allen, who is also an ex Newcastle College student.

http://www.richardallenphotography.co.uk/

He has shot the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow! And his other clients include, Fred Perry, Hugo Boss and a lot of famous footballers and sportsmen!

Todays shoot was with Sunderland football club's Andreas Dossena, not a big fan of football myself, but he was Italian and a very nice man. They were interviewing him and photographing him, but they key part of the shoot ( Richards main clients) were Mizuno, a japanese sportswear who are very big over there but upcoming in the UK. So he's photographing various footballers promoting the brand. 

I wish i could of taken better photographs but the camera on my phone is rubbish as i lost my iphone a couple of months back. But it was a great learning experience and really good to see how a professional photographer works with his clients and the set up was amazing! Il upload the photos taken by Richard when they have been uploaded and finalised.

Oh and managed to get a short video! enjoy! (again sorry about the quality)

Potting about

This morning I was asked to photograph bits and bobs from the ceramics department! I was nervous and not too sure about it as I've never really shot still life or anything like that before and to be honest, its not really my niche, but hey, you never really know until you try.
So anyway, i had a little help from my tutor Graham. But my set up was just 2 lights basically, one from the back and one gridded soft box over the front.
+Annabelle Brown  was helping me out also which was really nice of her and the 2 peoples who's work i was photographing were really lovely.
We also ended up getting a box of chocolates in the end! and if you know me you will know i appreciate that :)

so heres a few from this morning ..

Last weeks make up shoot

So as you all know, if you have been following my blog that is, i have been working alongside +Annabelle Brown and +Caroline J Scott  with the make up students and last week we were in the studio.
It was so hectic and crazy because all of the students were in the studio, but it was cool because they had a chance to be a little bit creative this time.
I learnt a few new lighting techniques with gels and stuff which was good! And in the end we got a few more shoots out of it in which it will be location and we have more control over it.
We are also photographing their final exam in January, where we will have a studio set up each, so i cant wait for that and to play with gels and stuff!

Here are a couple of favourite images from the set, i really loved these styles!

This bottom image was taken by +Caroline J Scott but i thought it was beautiful with the yellow gels, so I was playing with it a bit on photoshop, but i love the outcome, so any other beauty shots i do i will most likely be playing with coloured gels!

Previous work...

I have just been looking around my old blog, and found some old work that id like to share with you all, its stuff i did last year and even one or two things before I even started uni.


End clothing brief
This first set is from last years final project, for +End clothing, set by sam brown, i chose a brand called +DOLLS KILL and with 2 fantastic models i created these images, i went for a typical grungey look, but it was the first 'fashion' shoot id ever seriously done, which was good fun! i really enjoyed this shoot and these two ladies were wonderful to work with, I styled the entire thing, and ended up spending around £200 on the clothes, which i took back in the end because i am unfortunatly not a size 8! haha

 Banner for brief.


Environmental portrait

These were also taken for Uni last year for a brief called environmental portrait. This is where we had to photograph a person with an unusual occupation on location in their environment.
I chose a boxer, he is a local boxer who has won a lot of local titles. And he was more than happy to do this for me, we spent a good few hours in the gym, i just photographed him training and guided him to do certain things, but i liked the outcome of my images, i wasn't able to get out any college equipment so this set up was made with a home made set, i just used a constant light.

Older personal work

Before i started Uni i hadnt had any experiance at all in photography so these images i had taken simply to build up a small portfolio so i could get on the course i am currently on now.

These first set were taken with natural light in an abandoned orphanage in gainford near where i live.

This image was taken on a beach, was a natural shot and wasn't an intentional shoot, i just had my camera on hand but this image is still one of my favourite kind of natural images i have taken.

Finally.. these two were taken with 3 multiple exposure shots of my friend Emma when i was doing my foundation degree in art and design, we were always told to think outside the box, and i hadn't ever done anything like this before but i really loved the effect it gave. I only used a old speed light for these images and the white background was a white board. i would really love to redo these images but in the studio with a better knowledge of photography i think i will be able to do something a lot more interesting.