art
We have been doing a few still life jobs this month, all in different styles of finish.
Many of them are bulbs with a lot of root search out for water and a home. Others are dried flowers and odd things like past it sell by date vegetables, gone to seed/ Fresh fruit for rotting veg as the punk band The Dead Kennedys once sang about it, but it would be nice to see one day, one of these images hanging from a gallery wall … I would be happy to make do with an outdoor privy … its a start.
Yet again just a few still life images for this month, but something is better than nothing. I photographed some polystyrene hands using only room light which was a bit shitty really but it can give an interesting feel to the pictures if done right. So only three of them this month and very arty farty they are too!.
Only a one off offering this month with a still from Decembers shoot with Mercybongo at The Boardroom Studio in Derby. I used a lot of bokeh in the picture which is what I did many moons ago with some of the old flower shots that can be seen on the website. Its a good way to hide empty spaces?
Just a few still life images for this month. This was a flower given to us by Brambles Florist that had a very interesting stalk. They on there own were worth a set of pictures I thought and have turned out okay I think.
Start the year as you mean to go on with some great flowers to work with from our friends at . Brambles Florist and Flowers To Yours. The quality of their flowers is always tip top and I am very much reliant upon them for their help. So thank you to Chris and the ladies at Brambles and Flowers To Yours. A thank you also to Amy for her help taking the pictures in our home studio (outhouse).
That is it for this month. Thanks for coming back to see us and hope you drop by again at the end of February.
Bye x
Turn back the clock to Novembers blog when I spoke about a shoot I did in the Boardroom Studio and Zavod Studio on the same day? One was with tattooed model Izzy Holliday a recreation of a panel from a graphic novel called 'Judgement On Gotham' (Judge Dredd vs Batman) where Judge Death is being tormented by his fears (Cuddly toys) With Izzy we also made a pictures with Izzy kicking a vending machine in Death Valley. picture is called 'Shit ! …. and I came all this way …?' Notice the child's tricycle and UFO's above. So who has come all this way?
Check out also pictures of taken of Xenia Model in the Debbie Harry 'Koo Koo' inspired LP, shot in her Zavod Studio in Sheffield/.The pins through her face were created by using knitting needles and added to the portrait in post production (Photoshop) edit As well as a simple portrait that stops and makes you look twice … asking what is wrong with this picture? There is also a one of digital creation featuring Mercybongo. That I will go into in the shoot section below.
A few still life pictures for you all. I was inspired by something I viewed on Instagram of a still life using pears. I could not stop going back to it and studying the way it looked, light, angle, grain and colour. So then I wanted to do one for myself only better if I can? Here is the result thrown in with a few Still Life Daffodils I did also, but will only use one of them in the Still Life gallery (the blurred one)y. Please enjoy.
Some fresh still life images hot of the press. Featuring some flowers from the Brambles Florist and stuff Amy found in the hedgerow Do not get me wrong, I do not send Amy out to rout through the local hedges in her spare time, but she finds something interesting like a gnarled old stick or some berry's on branches that have fallen. Then bring them home and see if we can put them to good use in still life shots or even at studio photo shoots we have done in the past. So here are the results of this months offering, I hope you enjoy them. They were all taken in natural light and using several filters, some with Vaseline smeared on them so as to add a blurred effect. I am pleased with them and hope to do some more very soon if we can. Thank you Amy x.
Its getting mighty close to Christmas season, the season when Mariah Carey comes out of her cave to warble at us again. But not before we have just had Halloween and Fireworks night. And that is represented in the Brambles flower shop who have once again provided us with some really great flowers to work with. I am especially fond of the three football shaped plants on sticks that I have photographed before on their own and singulary, but never as a set of three. I even added them to the ever growing carousel pictures on the landing page of this web site (its the third picture in!). So a big thanks then goes out to our friends at Brambles Florist and Flowers to yours, Chris and the team for all of their input. Thanks also to Amy for helping with the shoot and organising the preparations to the shoot as she often does.
See you all next month for a festive season offering. X
Do you ever look above eye level when your going about your business in town centres? You should try it some time. I found the architecture of our local library quite interesting and a surprise to me. Its something I had never noticed before and although a bit Brutalist in design, it does take a good picture. Featured here are also so images of local beauty spots (?) like the Bus Station, the Probation Office and the back of an old inn of renowned destitution opposite the probation office hang out for naughty boys and girls in the area. I hope you enjoy them.
Models: Marie Jean Saxton
Music: 'Sympathy For The Devil' – Rolling Stones
Personally I am not a believer in celebrating Halloween and I certainly do not open my front door to the hordes of little brats that come trick or treating. It beats me how that American tradition was picked up in this country? I do remember fondly as a teenager on the estate I used to live on when one sole kid was trick or treating going door to door. I had told him not to bother knocking at my fathers house as he will get nothing for his troubles but a flee in his ear. Sure enough the kid knocked and ended up explaining trick or treat to my Dad for twenty minutes. And when he asked if he would get any sweets or money he was given a stern 'No' and had the door slammed in his face.. Well I did warn him !
So here is the lovely Marie Jean Saxton with Devil horns I purchased from Amazon and a pink suit on. I have had to shift the colour in Photoshop to make it red, but I just love the pointed shoulders the jacket has. It adds a certain style to the pictures. The laptop images are copied from a front cover of a magazine I picked up from the train station that featured a cartoon of the Devil offering bad things on the internet. The image stuck in my head and I wanted to bring it to life. I think it worked out quite well. So thank you to model Marie Jean Saxton and Phil Lynam at the Boardroom Studio in Derby.
There is only one Still Life to show this month and its the rotted corpse of last months Sunflower. We often leave the flowers to go over to see if we can get something interesting in there decay, as was the case with this flower. I wish I had got to it sooner as there were more petals on it when Amy first showed it to me. My fault I left it a little too long. It smelled to high heaven as well as did the water it was in. So here it is then, the decay of the Sunflower picture, just before it went on the compost heap!
Here are some images I actually made several months ago and never got around to editing for one reason or another. They are of model Marie Jean Saxton and again the Sunflower from last months batch of flowers. The fressonique style of editing is quite intense, so lucky for me I made a point of writing it all down and follow the instructions each time for consistency. All images taken using the plastic fantastic cheap lens Amy made. As crude and as simple as it can be, but still look reasonable quality. I hope you enjoy them?
Something a little different for this months flower pictures, in that there are no flowers. I thought that might be a problem when I realised this fact after visiting the Brambles Florist, but actually it turned out good. So there are no gerberas or roses this month, more shapes and textures like oak leaves and poppy heads. Thank then to Chris and the ladies at The Brambles Florist and Flowers To Yours. A thanks also to Amy for all her help.
Well that is it for this month. I hope to see you back here at the end of October …. so see you soon x
This month flowers comes curtsy of the good people at Brambles Florist and Flowers To Yours. Who always provide me with some of the best subjects I have ever had the pleasure snapping. So a warm thanks to Chris and the ladies at Brambles Florist and Flowers To Yours. A special mention also to Amy for all her help when taking the images. I could not do it without all of you.
Thats it for this bumper month,. See you back at the end of August for still more. x
Carrying on from last month still life subject where I captured some big red tulips from Mercybongos garden, here I captured them again when they had defiantly gone over, but look very much like a butterfly. Also during the shoot Amy suggested I shoot some of the many vases we have kicking around and then turned a sepia colour. Here are the results for this month. I will have to send Amy out again soon to look for more interesting old vases she can find in charity shops,
In the closing days of April we did a great shoot with the amazing Mercybongo who we last shot in December. She is so keen we had to get her back. She cut some tulips from her garden on the day and brought them along for the shoot. They were so joyous and bright that I had to take their pictures when we got home. So as a bonus I have captured them as a Still life set as well as the standard flowers update. Mercybongos pictures are still being edited as we speak, so should be available in Mays update.
Here are just a few extra special to wet your appetite from our shoot with boxer Nicolie Campbell on the Tribal set.
Just a few digital art special I made from six of the images featuring Mercybongo at our recent shoot. They are a mixture of flowers and model, I do mean to get back to doing a bit more digital art as I had been doing when Covid came along, but its getting inspired to do it. Maybe in the new year?
