♥ Let it snow... let it snow... let it snow

All of the end of last year I was willing for the snow to come and fall upon us as I knew it would be a great setting for a good photograph, so when it started snowing heavily at the start of February this year (2012) I practically had to force my little sister out in the cold gusts as I wasn't going to let a good opportunity slip through my fingers. 

It was around 12 o'clock on the night it started snowing as I dragged my sister out into the cold and made her pose for the camera. Here are the results...

(She's wearing a top I created for a part of my As level coursework final as I may use one of these pictures)

So, what do you think? Worth the sub-zero temperatures to get these shots? haha

♥ you're beautiful... just the way you are

For my final for the coursework side of my photography project I'm looking at different advertising campaigns between cheap shops and more expensive designer shops. Here are the pictures for a shoot I did which resembled how new look like to shoot for their advertising.

                       Original image                                   After being Photoshopped                        

I think you'd agree that my friend looks beautiful without me even touching the photo on Photoshop which is the picture shown on the left, but as it was for my finals and for an ad-campaign I retouched her skin, slightly brightened her eyes and set the contrast higher.

What do you think?

♥ If we could party all night

Here are some pictures that I took for my previous shoot where I took photos of my friend looking like a barbie doll with perfect skin, and I placed her in front of some pictures I took of my Christmas tree and decorations out of focus to get a Bokeh effect.

It's amazing what a background can do to an image, the first one looks like she is at a disco, and the second makes her look really delicate and beautiful... not that she isn't anyway :p

(Christmas tree background in Bokeh effect)

(Christmas decorations background in Bokeh effect)

Have you ever tried creating this effect just by taking pictures of lights when your camera is out of focus? 

♥ I'm a barbie girl!

Hi Barbie! Hi Ken! Do you wanna go for a ride? Sure Ken! Jump In...

Do you remember these famous words from the 1990's hit song 'Barbie Girl' performed by Aqua? I certainly do, I remember always moaning at my dad in the car to play the song, and my sister and I would take it in turns of acting Barbie.

Recently, for my photography project, I have been looking at the famous photographer Daniele Buetti, who at first I couldn't distinguish if he was a man or woman. However after searching I finally managed to find the much needed information clarifying he was in fact a man.

His images are well known for showing people in a particular way with glowing writing to the side of them or, what looks like, carved words into their skin. 


At first, in response to his work, I took pictures of my sister who I force to model for me as she has exceptionally long hair, beautiful eyes and isn't afraid to strut her stuff in front of a camera. I then uploaded them to the computer and used photoshop to create a sparkling glow with the paint brush tool. On other pictures I used a glowing text effect and also mosaic text to create the Daniele Buetti effect.

(mosaic text effect and darkening of picture)

(glowing text using different fonts for each word, and a red gradient)

(Sparkle using the brush tool, gradients using 3 different colours and gradient circle effect)

However after showing these images to my photography teacher, she told me to research how Buetti managed to create such an effect in his images and I managed to find out that he pin pricked his images, placed them over a light and retook the picture with the light shinning through. I managed to find a way of doing this myself by placing foam under my images and then using an ordinary pin to create holes.


From this I took the idea of his picture which shows the word 'Barbie' being carved into a woman's arm which I think portrays the idea that she feels like she needs to be a barbie to be pretty.

Here are my images from this...

(original image with no editing)

(edited on Photoshop)

(with light writing... I'm going to try and retake these with better lighting as I prefer the lighting of the picture above)

I hope you like these images, and I may upload some tutorials of how to get the different effects used! :)

♥ Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down

So out of all the pictures I have taken, getting my friend to smother her lips in sugar and hold a mahussive strawberry in her mouth, bearing in mind she can't stand them, really has got to be my favourite shoot so far! I think it helps to the excitement that it was my first time shooting in a studio with bright flashing lights and professional back drops which adds that extra bit of class to any picture.

My shoot was inspired by the amazing Elisabeth Hoff, who is known for taking pictures of female models with outstanding face paint and contrasting lipstick all the while whilst holding a strange object in their mouths.

(these pictures are by Elisabeth Hoff herself, which was my inspiration)

Our photography theme throughout our AS project has been 'Everyday' and this particular shoot was focusing on everyday objects.

Here are my pictures...

(light pink lipstick, sugar and a love heart)

(light pink lipstick, sugar, mahooosive strawberry)

(barbie pink lipstick, chubba chub lollypop)

My favourite photo from the shoot! 

(bright red lipstick, sugar, red lipstick rolled in sugar)

What do you think? Would you like to be a model who gets free sweets and sugary lips? 

♥ shoot 1

Our first shoot was to take pictures showing different example of things.

Firstly we had to show the advantages and disadvantages of high and low viewpoints

This is showing a high viewpoint, and as I'm photographing high heels it doesn't 

show just how high the heels are.

However by shooting at a low viewpoint, it elongates the heels and makes them

look a lot higher, it makes the photo more visually pleasing too.

Next we had to show the differences when using high and low apertures.  

This picture was taken with a high aperture, which in effect blurs the background 

of the image but keeps the object you point the lens at in focus.

I think this adds a nice effect, and again makes the image more visually pleasing.

Our next task was to show how using the rule of third made a picture more interesting to look at.

For anyone that doesn't know, click here to find out what the rule of third is.

This picture breaks the rule of thirds. As you can see the glasses in the image 

are in the centre, so they aren't lying on any of the lines or in the intersections

of lines, the horizon line is also a lot high than any of the lines. All of this

makes the image dull and it wouldn't necessarily attract any attention.

On the contrary, this picture applies to the rule of thirds. The horizon line is lower

which - if you were to draw the rule of thirds grid over the top of the image - would

lie along the top horizontal line, and the glasses are also off-centre. All this added

together makes the image more pleasing to look at.

Finally we had to use lines in an image to create a mood.

This image combines a blurry background (use of aperture), the fact the book is off-centre, 

and also it has lines going down in the picture. This creates a mood as lines are the most 

important element of visual design in photography. They also direct the eyes of a viewer in an image.

I hope you like these images, I'll admit, they aren't the best as this is when I had just started photography. I hope you'll notice an improvement as I share more images! 

  

♥ The start of an everlasting journey...

It was back in around January time when I was still in year 11 and the time to choose my 4 AS subjects was slowly creeping up on me. At the time I remember feeling so young and naive to be choosing the 4 subjects which would lead to my successful, rich and happy career which would allow me to live in a HUGE house, drive a range rover, be able to have 8 beautiful children and give them the life they deserve (yes, you did read correctly, I do want 8 children) and have a fantasy white wedding ... ahem!

At 15 years old how could I possibly be wise enough to know what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, well the fact of the matter is that I didn't, and to be honest I still don't.

To cut a long story short, I ended up choosing my 4 favourite subjects (Sociology, ICT, Product Design, and Photography) as if all else failed and I don't get into a university of my choice, at least I would have enjoyed the work and hard effort I would have put in for the previous 2 years!

Now I have discovered a new love, passion and drive for the art that is photography. I look forward to being set my next shoot and getting out and about snapping away at buildings and people. I love planning where to go next with my project and hopefully what the outcome will be!

I started the course in September, and have now been doing it for just over 2 months. The work is extremely stressful, but the outcome is exceedingly satisfying. I hope to achieve a good grade, and carry on studying photography at university.

(sorry if this post is a little boring, I promise ones in the future will have pictures of my work which may be a little more interesting for you lovely followers to look at!)