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Colour ring around.

Here is Shirley girl demonstrating how our prints can be misrepresented by different colour casts. The middle example is neutral thus showing the variations in a spectrum of Magenta, Cyan, Yellow, Red, Green and Blue, this will help us gauge whether or not the prints are neutral.

Studio Portrait

Here I have just done some female portrait studion shots, I was just getting used to using studio lights and experimenting.
I was using a soft box and a beauty dish and light lighting up the background I was shooting at iso125 38mm f5.6 shutter 250

Looking at the images I can see that maybe I could have brought her forward so I wouldn’t get the shadow in the background.
I was trying to concentrate on getting the S curve pose and the lighting on her skin right.

My final 5 images for exhibition

Here were my original ideas, thoughts and sketches sorry they are very messy I did alot of it on the train and I’m not the best drawer !!! But this is where my visions started for my exhibition.
My first plan was to work on the genre of Dreams and Desires but I think that as it has evolved it could fit in with Portrait and Landscape,but I think it probably fits in to Portrait better as each image has one main character.

Here are my final chosen images for my exhibition .
At the start of my working progress I was toying with the themes the Natural Elements, Seven deadly sins, The chakras, And combining them with Pre Raphaelite images and Environmental issues, as this is something that I am quite passionate about so wanted to bring this through in my work.

I really wanted this exhibition to really mean something to me and come from the heart by visually documenting my inner thoughts, in a way that people could understand and a non confrontational way. I wanted to show beauty in the same glance as tragedy and make the connection through the beauty of the Pre Raphaelites, by giving the a modern day environmental twist and I hope this shows through in the way I had envisaged.

I decided to go with the natural elements being Earth, Fire, Water and Air and an additional image Rubbish just to through everyone off and to go against the grain !!

My exhibition is called “Natural Disconnection” I chose this title because The pre Raphealites were very connected to Nature and they were also rebelling against the industry revolution that was happening to them and looking to Nature for escapism.their moto being “Truth too Nature” .

I really feel that our society is losing it’s connection to Nature and not valuing it’s importance we live in a fast paced, throw away, Materialist world that is not sustainable for our future generations, we are polluting the land, water, draining it of its resources, by deforestation and exploiting animals and what for …. well these are some of the questions that I hope to raise in my work.

1, FIRE this is my favourite image from my body of work shot at Rainbow Beach just after sunrise. I love the composition of this image and knew it was the one first time I saw it.
I wanted to show the effects of Global warming in this image at first I was going to have her face all blistered by the sun, but had second thoughts and decided to have the layer of sparks, to give the impression of fire and heat. and I have placed the skulls to have a slight sinister feel.

2, AIR this image I tried to get a proper hardcore army gas mask but they were so expensive ! I had to settle for a fancy dress gas mask, but I think it still shows what I’m trying to say. This image is about air quality and how poluted the air is getting when driving into the city being greeting by a welcoming layer of smog, and in fact Brisbane is nothing compared to cities around the world. Delhi,Cairo,London,Bangkok,Athens,Istanbul,Beijing just to mention but a few !
So I have taken this image and added filters to show the dirty air I hope this comes through in the image.
3, EARTH  this image I am really happy with and feel that I don’t really need to do anything to it.
The only concern that I did have was that someone commented that they couldn’t really tell that the figure in the background was holding a chainsaw. Although I wanted him subtly in the background I wanted people to notice that it was a chainsaw he was holding, to emphasise that this beautiful backdrop was soon to be destroyed by the ever stronger desire for money, Power and Wealth, and ultimately deforestation is the result of this at the cost of the environment and everything that is lives in it.

4, RUBBISH this image I wanted to show how we are such a throw away society and the effects that land fill is having on the planet and all the plastic that is making its way into the rivers and oceans making an island of plastic which is being eaten by Marine life and Sea birds with fatal consequences.

5, WATER this image I wanted to base this on one of my favourite paintings “Ophelia” by Millais for this I used Maizie my daughter I wanted to show her  pure  innocent being slowly poisoned as she’s engulfed  by oily water and dead fish to show water pollution and it’s effect on our Marine life, Animals Birds and ultimately us.

I hope that I have managed to get the viewer thinking about these issues through my work because if they do then the work has been successful.

I have framed all my images with frames that I found in various Charity shops and I have painted all the frames to give the same kind of theme running throughout the body of work.

I wanted the frames to look old to run with the theme of the Pre Raphealites, I have done each image a different size to give variety, and an Art gallery feel of old masterpieces. I framed them all myself which was a mission on it’s own and put all new backings on and new fittings on the backs it was a real learning curb but I enjoyed every minute !

I wanted to hang them with the Portrait image in the middle as there was only one portrait image, but then it turned out they looked to cramped, so we moved them and I got to hang my images in a room of their own, so I have the 2 big images FIRE,WATER on one wall and AIR,EARTH and WATER and I am really pleased with the way they look.

Male Portraiture

Here I have taken a Male Portrait of a writer needing some shots for his next book, he wanted natural Black and White images I have used natural window light.
Since looking at these I realise that his arm and elbow look quite big which makes his head look quite small !
I don’t think I have quite got the lighting right so might try some more.
I shot these images  with my D700 and my 24-70 lens at iso 1000 40mm 4.5  1/ 40

 iso 1000 66m 4.5 1/40iso 1000 25mm 4.5 1/30

Looking back maybe I should have put my iso up so I would have had a faster shutter.

MICHAEL ASSIGNMENTS

I did a family/pregnancy shoot for my assignment so we arranged the details of what she wanted and where and sent me through images that she liked which was so helpful it gave me a real idea into what she wanted, also what she didn’t want. I have attatched the email and the inspirational images that the client liked.

We then met up and we all went for a walk I hadn’t ever been to the area where we were shooting before and the time was 8.30 am it was very sunny so I had to look for nice shady spot for the shoot which there wasn’t much, as it was in a new residential estate ! So we did find a bridge and a few trees so I had to work with what I had.

It was quite a funny we were all having a bit of a laugh because Lochy the guy every time we would go to take a photo he would suddenly tense up into a Ken doll! So that definatly broke the ice and then the shoot went really well! I have enclosed the corespondense between the client and I and the booking form.  

And more exhibition test shots

Am I really happy with this image and feel that I don’t really need to do anything to it.
The only concern that I did have was that someone commented that they couldn’t really tell that the figure in the background was holding a chainsaw. Although I wanted him subtly in the background I wanted people to notice that it was a chainsaw he was holding, to emphasise that this beautiful backdrop was soon to be destroyed by the ever stronger desire for money, Power and Wealth, and ultimately deforestation is the result of this at the cost of the environment and everything that is lives in it.

working progress for exhibition
Here I have tried to edit this image to see if it worked, but not sure…
I am trying to put different layers over the top of the image to get a different feel and depth to the image.

More Exhibition stuff

With the images of the girl sat down surrounded by junk food wrappers, and on her iPod I didn’t think it quite worked. It didn’t have the impact that I would have liked, so I decided not to use any from this series of shots.

Some more test shots..

So these are my possible finished pieces for the  “Ophelia lady of the lake” images I am quite happy with these images, I’m just deciding whether to have the text in the images or not I wanted to include the old native indian proverb “Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money”
Whether that is to be included within the images or written in text along side the images I not sure yet.

Cree Indian Proverb
I have tried to recreate these shots here.. But not that happy with them so they will do both again. With the gas mask shots i didn’t quite feel it was as powerful as i had envisaged, we tried in a few different places, In one of the images I have tried to put a filter over in to show the air quality is bad.I still wasn’t totally happy with the pose either.

With the other image I wanted to show the beautiful girl surrounded by rubbish and show how much of a throw away lifestyle we lead these days. But i dont really think it has worked so i think it would be better to see if i can take shots near a dump or landfill site so this image is very much still in progress and I felt I didn’t nail the pose or light !didn’t nail the pose or light !

Test shots for exhibition.. still needs work

Today I did some test shots for my Ophelia shot its missing some of the vital elements The Dead fish ! and more flowers but we thought we would just scope out a location and do some test shots.
Well it was all going really well until Maizie noticed that there were 2 massive spider sitting right above her on the log, so we manged to flick them away .. But it took alot of bribery and promises of Easter eggs to get her back in position !!
So now looking back on the photo’s I can see what worked and what didn’t for next time.