Obsessions

Lexi

2011-01-07T15:02:00.000-08:00

As part of LMP Models collaboration with the Charity 'The Round Table' to grant ill children their Christmas wish, I was asked to photograph this stunner Lexi as she wished to gain a modelling portfolio... and what a professional on her first shoot at the age of 16. The clothes are provided by 'The Dressing Rooms' Bournemouth.

A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

2011-01-05T10:22:00.001-08:00

Since I begun my degree I haven't been on a day out to just take pointless photos, also having contained myself within the studio for pretty much all of my shoots the past 2 years I felt that my images and outlook on photography needed a breathe of fresh air huhhh... My Bronica SQ-Ai got a nifty day out to the New Forest where teeny tiny wild ponies roam and squirrels frolic. I absolutely adore going back to basics and just using my eyes to make an image, I have been so pre-occupied with constructing and having control over every detail in my images I forgot about the beauty that could be found on nature's construction site. Here are a few images I took, I kept the roughly cropped edges in to emphasise the spontaneous mistakes of just taking a photograph as apposed to making one.

Hope they please the eye as much as they did my lungs...

I am looking to continue working outdoors, and adventuring into wilderness to both satisfy my photographic development and sanity.

My masculine and feminine wiles

2010-10-10T02:52:00.000-07:00

For my project at Uni I am looking into the androgynous: The line between the masculine and feminine. To start me off I decided to take some simple stripped back portraits of myself, I have quite masculine features so thought I would start with myself, I often think I look like a Native American, who in my opinion in the physical appear androgynous forms, both men and women parade long hair and have quite strong features.

These photos are nothing amazing or out of the ordinary, technically I feel they are strong with the use of a shallow depth of field the face is highlighted as the main focus. The softness of the focus emphasises the feminine with the contrast of the black and sleekness of the styling. It also emphasises the appearance of blurring the genders. All of the images are coupled with black and white as I can not decide which is stronger, I like how the images in colour appear quite clinical, but i also like how the black and white I was able to enhance some of the detail of the skin, creating more shadow and the strong features become more emphasised. I would say the last image is the strongest as it is more masculine and intriguing, my face and identity is completely altered into the other, into a mixed gendered form. Overall feel this is a good start to what will hopefully be my best work yet both technically and conceptually.

A dash of feathers

2010-08-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

These are two separate images, but me having to have things symmetrical, I flipped the right image, I also edited selective colour, and left the image on the left as it was taken, i can't decide which one I prefer.

I really like the images juxtaposed, how poised the pose on the left is, to the almost restraint that occurs in the second pose.

It occurred to me that I haven't picked up a camera since the end of Uni which was rather offending me. I have been so wrapped up in life's little gifts that I took my finger off the trigger but now it's back on, I am revitalized and hope to do many more shoots this coming next month if work finally lets me quit :) so keep on peeping toms!

For this shoot it was very much a play with fashion and taking inspiration from the soft tones present in many photographs today, using Lula Magazine as an example. I have also for a while now had an obsession with head pieces, since taking a glimpse at Kevin mackintosh's work where the head is often the star of the show in his images presenting us with extravagant fashions

and hope that when I return to uni I will pick up the nifty skill of making dramatic and epic head dresses out of metal, here I did a bit of DIY I used feathers, it's a measly attempt but I like how it changes the aura of the image and enters the realms of the fantastic.

Just using my sister's bedroom wall since I'm finally settled at home once again, I really like the light that consumes her room, you have hopefully seen why it was such a good location. I LOVE my 20mm f1.8 lens it does the best things :)

Rummage through...

2010-06-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

I was browsing my old photos while making my old friend a birthday card and found this image i took as one of my projects at A level, and although it really doesn't mean anything, I really like the underexposure, but the reflective light on the dress, really making it the focal point, what happened to my experimental style?!

FREE night...

2010-05-29T16:34:00.000-07:00

Yup it's a Saturday night and I had no plans, so I did a spot of research for some of my personal projects, and then thought I should just take some images, even though having nothing to do with what I am planning, it doesn't hurt to just snap away. yet again just in my room, using tungston lighting which made it extremely difficult with the long exposures and wide apertures, meaning none of them are in focus, I just went along with it and took advantage of the blur. my hair and make-up is done by myself, i love slicked back hair, and tried to make my bushy eyebrows messy but it didn't really work, need to invest in some clear mascara I think! The metal bar is from my old arm surface piercing (putting it in my mouth even though I can't remember if I washed it after I removed it... oh well). I love the rawness of the photos and pointlessness of it all, pretty much like fashion itself yup feeling quite controversial today :)

^ooo I found one that was in focus, did a bit of editing to make it nice and glossy^

Below is a photoshop experiment, don't know if i prefer the image like this or normal... I'm not too keen on over doing it on photoshop

Horray to BUCHET

2010-05-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

Cedric Buchet is just satisfying my photographic needs right now. This documentary approach to fashion grasps my attention, it could be because documentary images are used in news articles the snapshot aesthetic is extremely effective in telling us a story, although the portrait of the female is more glossy then raw, the entire composition of the making of the image demonstrates a cinematic aesthetic which has the same effect of the documentary photo. Hoping to produce similar work that grabs the viewers attention... keep your seedy eye out for my summer projects boys and girls :)

Testino Titillation

2010-05-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

I am loving this chanel perfume Ad by MARIO TESTINO, its sexy and fun, and whoever the stylist is has rocked it with the waist belt it keeps it in the realms of high fashion, and definately personifies fetishism. I want to be topless restained by an extremely tight belt sipping on some perfume, which is definately wrong but that's the whole point of fashion photography, its impractical, mischievous and tantalizes fantasy.

Final Spread

2010-05-26T08:01:00.001-07:00

Which one?

This is the final edit of the images, I'm so pleased with how they look as a series, the first image is a double page spread, which introduces the viewer to the main character (model) then, to the male model who hides in the darkness, almost invisible to he female (like the bird of paradise) the female is then seen oblivious. Female moves with grace effortless and natural. The female beautiful and subtle; desirable, in contrast to the male who performs to gain the females attention. From this they are together the male and female are united in romance.

My belated bookwork...

2010-04-26T15:45:00.000-07:00

So here is a snippet of my final images for Photographic bookwork. Only just finished today due to several delays. I quote "Throughout the age of beauty the woman has been at the forefront of its spectacle. Will you now see the male refashioned, in the transition of the feminine and masculine, creating girl/boy."

The people that made it all happen...
Model: Gwilym
Assistant: Izzie

Final Outcome...?

2010-04-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

I need help in deciding what my final images should be for negotiated Practice? I am so happy with how they turned out! This is the first shoot where I have relied on others, and looked to others for advice, at first I was quite skeptical working with such a large group, my leadership skills were certainly being challenged. However, the shoot is I feel the best work I have produced so far, I absolutely love the diversity of the shoot, and how each shot is different, keeping it intriguing and consistent but each image could stand on its own and still be strong. The last image I feel is the weakest and if I had more time would like to re-shoot it. But overall very pleased :) My initial idea was to produce images that were a response to the video still, each image was carefully framed to create that cinematic feel. I tried to capture the in between pose, getting my model to move around while I snapped up the shot, i really don't want my images to look contrived. I also shot video, to take some from but am yet to edit them, which is on the agenda for tomorrow (I want a Canon 7D)

Big up to -
Camera owner: Bertie
Stylist: Gwilym Lansley and Me (Leotard made by Scott Anthony)
Make-up artist: Charlotte Millerchip
Models: Jirka and Jacie
Assistants: Claire Hadley and Izzie Dellar
Tree constructors: Me and Jesse

Male Experimentation

2010-04-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

Having more time to edit photos from a previous photoshoot... here is a selection of photos for you to feast your perverse eyes on

Playing With Myself

2010-03-29T17:16:00.000-07:00

It's Easter break, stuck in Bournemouth because home is so far away and I have work at the weekend, and parents are still in Thailand... so no home cooked meals! Why not spend some time brushing up on my skills in the studio, again trying out new lighting. Although very simple and nothing too daring, the final results just keep improving :) very sad to say since I photographed myself, but since I put the effort in I will let myself be a bit smug. There wasn't really any purpose to the photos, just to create some really nice images that I could possibly use in my portfolio, and to help make me more co-ordinated when photographing others, as bumping your head constantly, not realising the sync lead is no longer connected and forgetting that you turned off the power pack really isn't very professional, even though I don't think I will ever be very graceful, I can try to familiarise myself with the studio set-up :) I think I'm finally perfecting the self-timer whilst flipping my hair around to catch the shutter, working with angles and how the effect of different lighting and backgrounds. I've never been partial to the colour grey before but it really works for me now, I'm normally a simple bright white girl, but playing around with tones on the background creates layers to an image. Several of the images have made me intrigued by the in between pose, the awkwardness has a real enticing effect, and is seen in many fashion photographs it takes it into he realms of abnormality.

Beautiful Business

2010-03-25T05:38:00.000-07:00

So how often do you see male beauty shots... apart from looking in the mirror guys :) for my project I want to explore the male face through beauty shots, typically presenting the female face. It is however the modern day, guys take care of their looks just as much as females, the line between the male and female is very fine in today's society, and in fashion the male is often crossed over into the realms of the feminine and vice versa. For this particular shoot it was all about experimentation, normally in the studio I'm rather partial to the soft box, but this time round I wanted to disturb routine and use everything abnormal to me. I wanted to keep the models simple using their more natural 'beauty' with a few exceptions here and there. The results were better then my expectations, thanks very much to the models who participated it always helps to have good looking specimens to enhance the quality of an image. here are a few examples of what I produced. ALL HAIL MALE BEAUTY!

Shutter speed

2010-03-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

Started working in the studio again today, it's a sort of love/ hate relationship, I love the simplicity of it well its minimalist appearance. I have decided to create a book of beauty shots, and to test out my skills I thought I would try out something simple. I made a happy mistake when I upped the shutter speed to 500th of a second, turns out my poor out of date camera can only handle flash up to 200th of a second, which means that half of the images goes black, although a mistake I am intrigued by the design of the image, and the gentle line between the captured and cut out. I am unsure however, how it would work in a commercial context, and would perhaps appear very graphic and mediocre. The bottom image would look so much better with a different model and different lighting, maybe ring flash or something harsher, perhaps it just need a different background, it's too soft, and looks like something from the 90's I look about 30! so this shoot was a bit of a fail, but you can only learn from mistakes and hopefully my work will see an improvement from this.

A Mess

2010-03-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

since the sun has been shining, which is actually the best thing ever! I have messed about with shadows using lace, although totally obvious and the photos shockingly awful, i like the effect, and maybe will start to experiment with different fabrics and objects. I also really like the effect of condensation and wish to explore that further. I think actually wearing make-up and a descent hair do is in order to make these images half good.

Tassels Galore

2010-03-09T09:20:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I have a presentation at uni for my NP project, and due to a lack of images that I am actually happy with i thought I should take a couple more. Shame they aren't exactly relevant to what I want to portray, but a bit of experimentation never hurt anybody well, that I know of :)

Late Night Joy

2010-03-07T10:42:00.000-08:00

Last night I had some spare time and had a couple of ideas that I wanted to try out, due to terrible room lighting, I thought that they would be awful, apart form a few focusing issues and slight motion blur on my behalf as for some reason I can't stand still... I'm really pleased with them and would nearly go as far to say they are my favourite pieces of work so far. The idea behind them is purely styling unlike my uni work which is very much context led. Just taking pictures for the sake of taking a picture is my dirty little secret.

The All Mighty... TERRY RICHARDSON

2010-03-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

I have the biggest obsession with TERRY RICHARDSON at the moment, after my T&R project he is practically my idol, I think it's his humor, and how he gets involved in his photos it looks like so much fun. He's not afraid to be a bit outlandish and play with the boundaries of fashion and the pornographic. Basically I just wanted to declare my love for his work :)

The Female Body as an Object

2010-03-07T10:17:00.000-08:00

These are images taken from my last Uni project Themes and Responses, I chose to look at the female body in fashion and how identity is removed to fully objectify the body, but i didn't want to approach it negatively, as I don't think it's a bad thing. I photographed the nude body in order to capture this idea of sexual desire, in some of my other images I explored more explicit poses, but felt pressured to take the subtle approach, I am really pleased with the images as it challenged and broadened my skills technically and my knowledge of the presence of a female body within photography. I think the urge to be more explicit is down to my obsession with TERRY RICHARDSON.

Kevin Mackintosh

2010-03-07T10:07:00.000-08:00

Whilst sticking photos on my wall so they didn't look so bare, I rummaged through an old 125 magazine and discovered Mr. Mackintosh whose work transcends into the fantastic, the subtle element of fairytale keeps his images sophisticated but also trigger the imagination I am intrigued by this idea. Short but sweet his work is lovely to look at.

David Bellemere...An All Rounder

2010-03-07T09:57:00.000-08:00

I Officially love DAVID BELLEMERE, he does everything. His style is so diverse there is no denying that the All Saints campaign is amazing, but his other work is so much better. These following photographs are stunning and enter the realms of fantasy which is my craze at the moment. What a genius, I am absolutely fascinated with his imagery, The muted tones, and the richness of gold are spot on. He is the main inspiration for one of my current Uni projects: Negotiated Practice where I hope to achieve images as mesmerizing as his.