..

Just in from work and thought I might update this, seen as I haven't in ages. A couple of days ago I went out with tom and got a shot of his mamiya 645e, which is medium format, I'd never used one before and only shot 1 roll of ilford fp4, but this is one of the shots I got from it, and I'm really happy with it, now to try and find something to do on a little to no budget tonight. :) x

Queensferry

Took a wee trip to South Queensferry yesterday, it was pretty decent.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21327804@N05

Decent Day....

Spent the whole day pretty much taking photo's it's been pretty good, Went for a walk down almondale country park with the missus and the camera, got some decent photo's but my camera is begining to drive me mental, it's just not that great anymore. need a new one desperatley, someone buy me a D80?

After this I was about set for the idea of a night in with the football, got textin tom and we decided to go do a shot for his draded unit, which involved me sitting at the side of linlithgow loch, having a fag and playing guitar, can't wait to see the results of this, shot on 5x4 film. it was an amazing sky and I had brought my camera but forgot the SD card so got a shot of Tom's camera and this is what i came out with:

I have just reached my monthly bandwidth on flickr. I need a pro account. x

Final Day

Using anything and everything as a tri-pod. x

New York - Day 5

Day 5, and my photographs are getting weird. haha this one is a bit strange, looks like some sort of 50's thing, taken through a window on the staten island ferry, didnt take much photographs today, took the oppertunity to go shopping for a wee break, got myself a nice wee polo at topman in soho. minted.

New York - Day 4

Probably not the most productive today of photographing, however it was decent day. I went to soho and grenwich village, which I have decide I will live one day. So cool. and got the above photo of the Friends building. which I like as a photo, and a bit of a novelty that it is where they filmed Friends, cos it was epic. Anyway this part of the city was really nice cos it's a bit quiter than main manhattan, which i now hate, the people there have no pationce or charm. Fuckin' Wanks. Anway today has been tireing so I'm gona have a beer and go for a fag.

"how I wish, how I wish you were here"

x

New York - Day 3

Today was probably the most successfull so far, Easter Sunday in NY is very weird, and I took full advantage of that to go and do some documentary style work on Digital and Film. They shut of about 4 blocks and had people wandering about with weird hats on and stuff, dressed up and all kinds of things, and this is a couple of the ones I managed to snap.

As per, loads more on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21327804@N05

New York - Day 2

Today has been really good, wandere around again, and found "the center of photography" which was a really cool place, and had a lot of work of New York in the 60's and 70's seeing this and loving, the camera went on black and white, the film camera came out and off i went to try and do some of that, which turned out quite cool. hit times sqaure, and radio city and this is what came of it, really love the radio city shot. and pretty much plan on moving to new york.

1 more on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/21327804@N05/

New York- Day 1

My jet lag is beyond a joke, it's technically like 2am right now but im still up, just back from an afternoon/evening of wandering the streets and back street cafe's.

As always better quality on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21327804@N05

Still Life.

Today I shot part of my still life project for college, It had to be an object which was glass or reflective, so I choose a bottle of beer and after the first bottle I tried didn't work because of various things I went to Asda and found this bottle of Grolsch which I think works quite well.�

Potential...

After a fairly informative day at college today, on my way home I noticed these clouds in the sky mmaking weird patterns, I usually hate photographs of sky's but these shapes reminded me of a photograph of something i'd seen by Trent Parke. So out came the camera. And after an afternoon spent looking at black and white photos, this one was only gona go one way, I quite like it, quite strange and not ususally my thing, but not bad for a photo taken for the sake of it.

Killing Time....

Myself and Ross got bored waiting on the schuh award giving to begin..

Shambles.

So last night I had to shoot this event that was on at the college, Which involved 8 schools using there art and design classes to create shoes out of all sorts of stuff. and they would get entered into a competition run by Schuh, the shoe store, and this was where the announced the winners. There were 4 of us doing it, and we were required to shoot all 8 schools as a group in the studio, a montage of photographs of the different shoes, a photo of every winner going up and getting there certificate, and a group of 35 at the end. This was far from easy, we were sitting about until half 6, when it had been dead for hours, then all of a sudden everyone turned up at ones, which meant we had about half an hour to get 8 schools in and out of the studio. Impossible, Myself and Ross managed to get 2, but then i had to leave as they were starting and had to get some shots of some men in suits making speaches, riviting stuff. In the end we only ended up getting 6 schools, before they started announcing prizes, and with teachers who are unable to shut there mouth for 5 seconds in your ear 24/7 it does not help. So we just set to getting the shots of the winners, when low and behold flash guns start falling right left and center, so we need to start chaning batteries. all the while we can't really get any good shots because the lighting is so bad. and to top it all of, the woman we asked to announce the fact that the 35 winners have to stay behind forgot, so we eneded up with about 20. Not our fault, hers. All in all a very stressfull evening.

Couple more on my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21327804@N05

Here come's the sun......

Hopefully this sunny weather is here to stay cos im loving it.
On the way back from brickworks I went through the fields to get back to mine to see if i get some more shots, not for any reason apart from the fact that it's been a while.
This is the best of the lot, I really like this shot, its not often i do anything really landscape related but when I do, I do quite like it. as long as it goes to plan. haha. Now im off to get some lunch and hopefully enjoy the sunshine, before a mission of a day tommorow, school kids, about 200 photos, and chaos all day.

I really hate the quality of photographs on this for a decent quality one go to my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21327804@N05

Graded Unit

So there is some ridiculous open day on the go at college today, so I think pretty much everyone bailed. I decided to try and shoot some of my graded unit which is on urban decay. so i headed for the brickworks, where Tom was doing a model shoot, at the same time. I think that actually is everyone's favourite places these days. Anyway I went down there with the mind set of getting at least 1 shot completly different to any iv ever got down there before, and any i've ever seen from down there. And this is what i came up with, a decent effort, but this shoot was really just to fire off some test shots, nothing is set in stone yet. but i did get a good few ideas from roaming around that place again.

Stealing Photos

From Toni's camera.
need somewhere to put them so i can get them when I'm home

This is how my new year went.....

From my room to the dread(full)nought. good times.

10th march.

Today has been extremly boring, I went out to take some photos but it just wasnt happening, so I went to college to print off some of my portraiture stuff instead sadly this also failed as none of the printers were working. It's just not been a good day, however i did get some of my evaluation done in college, But then had to wait a bloody hour on a bus, First is the worst company ever. And this of all days is the day i try and cut down on smoking. gutted.
All in all its been a pretty boring day though, I cant wait till these deadlines are over and I can start going out in the middle of the week again. Group shot tommorow, hopefully all goes to plan, and and a bit more evaluating and im done, Now im off to see Antonia and have a boaring night in seen as i canny go out in the middle of the week.

I even made these low res jpegs and the quality is still shit on here
I took these ages ago:

.

I think this might turn into a place where I just ramble about anything....

Completely Unrelated...

Listen to British Sea Power



One of my favourite bands at the moment, and amazing live.

...

Sitting in my bedroom with the snow battering against the window. It's getting a bit old now eh?
Anyway yesterday I redone one of my corporate photos, the one I done of the head teacher at toronto primary I hated it so much so I went to my dads work and shot a completly different type of photograph. I am much happier with this one, I like the use of props, It is much better window lit than the last one, And this is turning out to be quite a decent unit for me, I now have 5 out of 6 shots that im happy with, Trust it to be portraiture eh?

I also just realised how different photographs get when you upload them on this, they go so much lighter, wierd, Anyway you get the idea.

Continueing cafe culture....

Bulking up my project a bit, seen as ross had some along to linlithgow with us today to shoot some cafe culture stuff I thought i'd take the oppertunity, to bulk mine up a bit and get rid of the shots i wasnt to keen on hopefully, So after convercing over a cup of tea we got the cameras out and this is what i came away with. 2 shots that i think work really well in black and white, especially the top one with the lights going off into the distance out of focus, looks really good in my opinion, so turned out to be a right good day.

Good times....

The end of block 2 is actually in sight, and I'm almost done, Today i went through to my dad's work to do a corporate photograph, the second of my 2, however the first will very possiblly be getting re-shot. This one had to be lit with flash so Tom and Ross came through to give me a hand, Thanks to Tom for this one, he's a wizz with a flash gun,
cardboard and a bit of velcro. haha. Shot in one of the conerence rooms, at f.8 and a shutter of 1/200 of a second. I think it works quite well and one of the better of my portraiture unit so far.

Finally....

I have finished my cafe culture project, Went to glasgow today, to take a trip down ashton lane, because there are loads of nice pubs and cheeky cafe's. Went into this one called "The Lane" who were a bit sketchy about taking photos, but eventually i got away with it and managed to get the last few shots I needed to fiish this, The project didnt quite turn out as good as i wanted but ther are a few quite strong shots in it, and a few that are definatley making up the numbers tbh. but oh well, has to be done, These are a couple of the ones that I'm really quite happy with, a bit different to the other ones I had taken in resteraunts and pubs, so adds a bit of variation to my project, Now I just have a bit of colour calibration, and a couple of portraits which should be taken care of tommorow, and block 2 is done,thank god!

Almost there....

The final slog of this portraiture unit, and today I shot my school portrait, pretty standard, but it had to be done, got my little brother in to do it. I used a standard 2 light set up one with a softbox over it the other with an umberealla. I am still hating this project to be honest, portraiture just does nothing for me, and this was probably the worst of the lot, horrible backdrop, Model has to be very formal, no creative outlet with this shot what so ever, however what has to be done has to be done.
I decided to take a shot of the studio set up today aswell, bit more creative than a school portrait....

Once Again

Cafe Culture this time, which is what we all intended to go and shoot, sadly this didnt go as well as shooting architecture did, however i did get some shots I am really pleased with a couple of the shots i got, this one being the first, completly unplanned, sitting in the advocat having a sly pint, and had the idea of something like this, the lighting in there was pretty poor so it had to be shot over by the window, however I think it works really well, having the glass and hand in focus with Ross in the background out of focus, almost like a Magners advertisement.

This is the second of the photographs that I am really happy with, This one was shot after Tom managed to blag us into a hotel resteraunt called "The International" very edgy the whole time we were in there, they clearly didn't want us to be but said yes for some reason, so it was a case of set to it and get out as quick as possible, What I like about this shot, is how the outside of the restaurant is in view, and you can see the castle, which is a really nice touch, which i think works well being out of focus with the wine glass being the main focus of the image. All in all one of the most successfull days of photography in a long time.

Architecture....

Went very well today got a few good shots, enough to finish off this project in fact, Tom kindly drove myself Ross and Swalker, to edinburgh to shoot the museum for what is hopefully the final time as I am sick of the fire alarm going off in that place, we got a belter of a day for it, clear skies and blinding sunlight, Good times. This photograph is one of my favourites from the architecture side of things, so simple but yet very effective I think, very thankful for the sky in this, could have been a very boring image had it not been so kind to me.




The other 2 images are a couple of the first i took today, so I think i got off to a good start, needing some strong exterior shots for this project as i already had about 5 interior ones. I thought i'd focus mainly on this round building at the front as it is alot more interesting to look at than alot of the rest of the building, really happy with how these shots turned out in the end, good times all round.

Very successfull day....

Today after a trip to Edinburgh with Ross, Scott and Tom, I hit the studio to do my high key portrait, which my girlfriend modeled for (Thank you Toni). It went quite well again, portraiture not being my strong point, however I am quite pleased with the outcome of this one, A 5 light set up was never going to be easy but thanks to some help from Ross setting up the studio, and alot of fiddling with lights during the shoot I did get there in the end, and the fact that I showed my lecturer the photo after, who is a man hard to please, said it worked. So for that I am thankfully and hopefully the final slog of this portraiture uint goes as well as this did. Taken at f18 with a shutter speed of 1/125 and iso at 200.

Cafe/Pub Culture?

This is much more my type of thing, even though im struggling a bit with getting the images I want, I do have some good stuff, which I like, This was taken when we stopped off for a sly pint before heading down to the old brickworks to attempt some architecture work, with my cafe culture I intend to shoot a range of pubs restaurants and cafe's. So far having shot 1 pub and a restaurant getting a couple of good images from each, I decided to get the camera out and snap away while we had a couple of games of pool, this shot being the pick of the bunch, I really like the feel of this image what with the blinding sunlight coming from the window, and I like the composition of the pint and the pool table, sort of breaking the image up a bit. This type of thing has given me a lot more ideas on what to shoot for this project, which could take place tommorow as Tom has invited myself and Ross along to go into Edinburgh and shoot some cafe culture stuff with one of his mates and Scott.
On that note:
Tom - http://blog.ifotou.co.uk/
Scott Walker - http://swalkerphotography.blogspot.com/

Brickworks Again......

Today myself and Ross decided it was about time we shot some more architecture stuff, so we headed for the brickworks in Pumpherston, as i'd shot it before i knew it was a good place to take photographs, for a sort of surreal view on architecutre, veering away from the idea of well structured building and looking at one that is literally falling down, this trip failed quite badly as the rain started very heavily as soon as we got there but we made do with what we could (which wasn't alot) I did manage to get this shot from inside one of the buildings though, I love how the light is just spilling in on that one area, leaving the rest almost black. Another trip down there is on the cards soon im sure.