This Week - 29/02/2016

This week has been made up of a lot of unreasonable early morning wake ups, but thankfully the dry weather has brought about the return of my favorite market book stand, so I'm happy. 

 

Rory has also discovered her own love for photography after I gave her my old Nikon point and shoot to play with. And while she mostly takes pictures through the filter of her fingers mashed against the lens, I think she's pretty good!

Print vs. Digital - 26/02/2016

 

I've been thinking lately about the purpose of photographs, about what they mean to us and why we take them. Before digital cameras, photographs were more precious, I think. They took time and money to create, took up physical space to store, always reminding us of their presence, encouraging us to look, and to re-live.

I love the fact that having a reasonably good camera on my phone means I not only have the ability to photograph the mundane as often as the fabulous, and can push the boundaries of my photography skill without the restrictions of developing negatives first, I also think this photographic freedom comes at a cost. Since I went digital I have taken and stored hundreds of thousands of photographs and all of the ones I have chosen to save have a meaning, or a purpose or a beauty that make me want to keep them, but really what use is a photograph if nobody can see it? What use are they trapped forever inside a hard-drive in a drawer? Or sandwiched between snapshots of irrelevant other things on your phone?

So I've started make an effort to print my pictures, to keep a physical set of all of the most precious images of my daughter and our family give them a purpose again. I keep a little gallery of prints around my house and I've started creating photo books for people I shoot weddings for in the hope that one day there will be a little kid as taken with those memories of the people who came before them, as I had once been.

Something in the air - 25/02/2016

This winter seems to have lasted forever, but finally it feels like spring is in the air and even though it's still ridiculously cold, I'm so excited to spend time outside among the fresh air and flowers taking pictures of beautiful people and places and things.

Photo Challenge week 8 Landscape : Panorama

 This Week was themed 'Panorama', which was tricky since I'd misplaced the attachment for my tripod when I did my first try. But then I had a brainwave throwback to 2006.

At college, along with Sally Mann and Martin Parr I was obsessed with David Hockney and I tried making my own joiner for a project set against the glorious backdrop of my favourite haunt in Wolverhampton. Not bad for a first try, and in film, no less. Gold stars all round for 17 year old me!

 Having ordered a new tripod mount, I attempted a traditional panorama, but no. Landscapes still aren't my strongest skill (and just look at that horizon line!)

 So I tried a digital joiner, which I think is a much better result for me. I really like the transitions in light and white balance in different frames and putting it together was like a fun little jigsaw, not like a trail in misery like the panorama was.

This week - 21/02/2016

This week started with us spending valentines day hunting all of the local watery places for ducks for Rory to feed, a notion she became gradually more obsessed about as the day progressed. Luckily Bridgnorth has plenty of bodies of water to choose from, but since the idea of standing beside a river that was rising and that's fences are far from toddler proof put my stomach in knots, we ended up visiting many a frozen pool before I gave in and we took her to the river. Ducks were fed, nobody fell in, it was fine (but far from romantic). 

We also learned that no matter how many foods she suddenly hates with the fire of a thousand suns, pasta isn't one of them. And Gatsby became something less of a Tom, but at least he can go outside without leaving a legacy of ginger kittens wherever he goes.

19-02-2016

Driving home

Photo Challenge Week 7 Portrait: Faceless

I really need to replace my tripod.

Valentine - 14/02/2016

"Whatever our sould are made of, his and mine are the same." ― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

This Week - 13/02/2016

This week we've been making surprisingly tasty pancakes and derping around taking selfies because we can. 

And for something slightly different... 12/02/2016

I've been trying to think up some different ways of presenting my photographs besides just printing them, for a while now. I love the convenience and freedom of digital photography, but it's easy to just take a picture, put it onto my computer and just leave it there forever never to be seen again, which is a huge shame so I decided to dabble in some embroidery in an attempt to make something more tactile than a standard framed print. I'd intended to print this image onto fabric, but unfortunately the material I ordered turned out to be canvas, which is why the print has that texture, but even so I'm still quite happy with my first attempt.

Photo Challenge Week 6 Artistic: Candy

Photo challenge week 6: Candy

This Week - 07/02/2016

This week has been quite uneventful. 

Last Sunday we went exploring the woods near our house and learned that Rory finds the everything about them to be intimidating and alien which I hadn't expected at all. I mean she's a toddler, all of that space should seem like a wonderland! I grew up spending almost every weekend playing in open fields filled with cows and climbing trees to build dens and stuffing my face with the berries growing on the hedgerows. I rowed my canoe along the river Severn and skimmed stones from its pebbled shingles into the murky water and reveled in the freedom of playing however and wherever I wished. I was used to endless starry skies and foggy vistas and her dad is even more so, growing up in it entirely and while it's been a very long while since I've been so at home in the countryside, I suppose I hadn't given much thought to the lack of exposure that my daughter has had to it in her two and a half years. 

Until that afternoon Rory's only experience of deep dark woods were in storybooks filled with Gruffalos, grumpy bears and monsters, places that always result in hazard and danger for those who venture into them so I suppose it's no surprise that she clung to us, too cautious to explore a place with no boundaries or direction. So this year I intend to make a greater effort to introduce her to the wild places that surround us and to better acquaint her with its wonder.

Black and White Landscape photography II - 05/02/2016

“These woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.” 
- Robert Frost, Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening

Photo Challenge Week 5 Landscape: Black and White

This week's photo challenge theme was a black and white landscape and while landscape photography isn't exactly my niche, I love shooting for black and white and branch-less trees and flat-white skies are black and white photography perfection in my opinion.