52 self portraits!!

Smoking riffs!

Well its week 5 of the 52 self portraits, still got a long way to go and each week will only get harder to think of a new side of me to show. Any how heres a couple of me alter egos!! The artist and the goth!

the artist at work

We have three shoots planned for the coming month, and I really cant wait. First off were in the studio with some high key shots of a lovely young lady whose keen to work with us, and then were out on the sand dunes of burry port with a parachute to see what we can do! Now that is really exciting stuff, I'm stupidly giddy for that shot just hope the weather is kind and the clouds break up a bit! Then if all thats enough on 2nd march we have a shot with up and coming model from barry island, this is the brain child of too much tea and spare time and me and Jen not being able to get a shot as planned.

Experimenting with poise and edit.

Tonight we took a few quick shots for Jens next art piece. While we were there though seemed a shame not too have a full play. Well add a bit of make up and drama, a black and white edit and what do you have....

We used a off camera flash for this shot using iTTL (auto) which I'm getting my head around on controlling. I'm loving the D300's ability to control the flash of camera... What's most interesting for us was reflecting on our understanding of light. A year ago we would have had no idea how to do this or even what effects we were gonna get. Now we're happy to have a go, pose for the light and think about final image needs.

What no colours Jen!

Hello all the colours them has gone somewhat stray! But don't fear, we're still doing it sort off! In February we are venturing into the studio for the first time to play with a white screen and some high key photography! Exciting and nervous, not sure what to expect yet, although I'm sure you guessed it the theme will be white. We will be working with a local lass keen to develop a portfolio so that's good.

Speaking of portfolios next week were picking up on a cancelled shot with another local keen to develop a portfolio, this time venture into the wild graphic images of the masons arms band room for a gritty alternative style shots..

And what of the weekly challenges, well I have changed mine to be a 52 self portraits! Yes that's 52 pics of little ol me, one a week for the year. Just to add to your misery on this cheery saturday this is Steve typing not the pretty one so those images will be a bit more wrinkly I suspect!!

So week 2 and an experiment with stroboscopic!!

New toys to enjoy

For the past year we have both had manual flashes to learn with and they have been an absolutely fabulous learning tool. We have began to scrape the depths of light and how to see it and use it to our advantage, and I think being thrown in the deep end with not having a flash with a TTL ability has been absolutely valuable. But the ability to use TTL could have helped in one or two events and places this year, so both of us for Christmas have invested our pennies in to two new TTL flashes to add to our kits. We are both so excited to be learning new techniques with these type flash and to have another complimenting flash to help control the light in our images. So the cheesy saying that I always read on Facebook , watch this space !!!! Jenxx

New year new project

It has been an interesting year with the 365 project and we have both learnt loads from composing to technical, but alas we will not be carrying it on into the new year as we both feel that we have had the most we can from the experience.
But there's not to say that we are not doing projects at all, we both have set each other a new task where each month we shall be doing a theme on a colour we have already set out. Each week we are going to do an image based on that colour, also a main set up piece a month. All of these will be aimed towards doing portraits and hopefully help refine our creative planning skills. Have a happy new year and you will be seeing more of our work soon xxx Jenny

Dust and Decay

Decay and dead moths especially might not seem the most enthralling things to photograph, but i saw some work the other week in a mag i purchased, it was a brief look as Jen borrowed the magazine before i read it and i haven't seen it since ;) .. anyhow i really liked how the photographer had gone peering into another life, in to spiders webs and dark holes to capture what lives there. it got me

playing with decay. and Black and white.

 thinking and got me looking at the stuff thats left lying around, the small details. how they might look in the form we brush away and mop up. behind the vases on the window sill and the dust on the top shelf. 

so a little macro play while i still had Jens Tamron, do i want one.... yes defo want a macro lens next.. 

steve 

added textures and effect on Black and white to dramatise image.

Up date on me new learning curve

Well at the beginning I found college to be a tough step, all my own doing out of fear. But now I have found it to be a door open to my creative explorations, my way of creative thinking is different to Steve's as I think I need a structure to how I come about ideas. Steve's way of creative thinking can be so wonderfully random (jealous of that ability). It is nice to have ideas that can flow easily through the methods used in college, ideas do not usually flow so easily for me and can occasionally go stagnant.
I have loved reading about different artists/photographers and that has sparked ideas for me .. Here are a few plays all with Steve in them hehehe...