Projects
I had intended to do some more of these styled images at the December shoot with model Mercybongo, but never got around to it. So its back on the flowers again for this time and a new cream background, rather than the old sandpaper I photographed it against in previous sessions.
On the abstract theme again, I snapped some things around my parents house like their kitchen blinds and clothes bin because of there patterns and abstractness. Since that time I have not done any more, but I shall remedy that I hope this February. So more to come I hope.
While being away this last new year time I managed to go out and get some landscape pictures done with the help of my father. I do not get a lot of opportunities to do this, due to medical reasons so it was nice to indulge. Northamptonshire is not the most dramatic of landscapes (unlike Derbyshire), in fact its nearly as flat as a witches tit, but you can still get some interesting views and I hope I have captured a few here?
Thank you Dad for the day out. Loved it x
Here is another new project I have started and its one that litreages me. I have already touched on it a bit in other projects, but here is its own folder. Abstract or Abstractism is something I am drawn to because I like symmetric patterns it can throw up. Featured here are some random stuff to start with like a radiator, some silk cloth and a weird designed building in town, now sadly vacant.
I have added a few more this month from the flowers selection we got from the Brambles Florist to the Lujon Fressoniue gallery. I know this is not to every ones taste as the images are rather dark, but I will go with it some more as I like the outcome. In December I have the added bonus of some fashion shoot extras that I shall be taking in the studio as well as the flowers. So don't miss that.
Work in progress here of this new project and this time with some added Fashion captures from the Marie Jean Saxton shoot. Them mixed with some more flower snaps all using the plastic fantastic home made pinhole lens. Blurred to perfection.
So I have started a new project that will be a mixture of flowers and fashion together
I was inspired by a great photographer on Instagram called Andrew Turner ( check out his page on Instagram at @andrewtuner_art ) who had made his own lens out of cannibalising an old Kodak Box Brownie camera, a body cap and some sticky tape. He very generously helped me create my own , the lens is essentially a pin hole lens at its crudest but can make some interesting blurred images. I then researched a French way of developing in old chemicals a style that is called Fresson. The family in Paris keep it a tightly guarded secret just how they do it, but after a few attempts I found a way to give a similar look in Photoshop, Yes its not quiet the same but its a start. I took some pictures of a few flowers that are all heavy on harsh shadows which can be seen here as well as plan to shoot fashion images using the lens and technique at my October shoot in Derby.
So I would like to say a big thanks to photographer Andrew Turner and Amy for helping make the lens. I know they images might not be to everyone's taste, but I hope you enjoy them.
We took a visit to Newstead Abby a weekend or so ago to have a look over the grounds as I would like to do a location shoot there sometime soon with Monalisa Moyo. It was a nice day and busy. The bulrushes were not out this early in the year, so it might not yet be suitable to do a dramatic shoot in, but that will change as the seasons progress. While we were there I did manage to grab a few shots of the waters they have and what seemed like a huge sky above. So all in all a productive visit.
We were taken to a place called 'Rushden Lakes' to visit this really brilliant magazine shops that stocks just about every publication you can think of. Including a lot of fashion photography magazines I enjoy thumbing through. Also there they have this public right of way and overpass from a busy main road that spirals round in a sweeping arch. It caught my eye the previous time I went there, so this time I took my trusted Nikon and captured it with the help of Amy.
Only one this month and like the Architectural Metaphor gallery it is taken at Rushden Lakes shopping centre. Please enjoy
I never thought I would be doing any updates for this blog, as getting out and about in the deepest countryside is not easy for me. Yet over the New Year break my parents kindly took me on a magical mystery tour of some of the back lanes where they live, and I am quite happy with the results. We had good weather with us. It was am over cast day, but that is fine because it adds drama to landscape pictures.
So thanks Mum and Dad for your help on the day. They know they do not particularly like black and white images as it is what they grew up with, but I think they would agree It gives the pictures more depth and punch.
Just to start off with a look over some architecture this month, with some brutal 1970's car park design amongst others As well as an old and faded art deco veneer shop front face which used to once be the Co-op.
Just a couple to update this project gallery this month as it has not been having much love for a while. These were taken on a trip around town, primarily to snap some clothing on location, but as an opportunity to grab some sound of the suburbs stuff.
There has not been an update for this project for a while, so I thought to grab a few snaps of the Penthouse Suite we booked for the 'Good Times' Fashion Shoot at the splendid St. James Hotel in Nottingham. Chairs, lampshade, mirrors and cups of tea make this update with a backdrop of some expensive wallpaper. I should have also shot the bedroom as that was great, but by that time I was too tired.
Maybe next time ?
Amy and I took a day trip so she could visit the Chinese Supermarket. So while there we took advantage of the local architecture, snapping away and seeing if we could get anything worth showing. It was a bit hit or miss, but I think we got some good photos in general. My particular favourites being of the side view of the Theatre Royal. It has an Art Deco feel and look about it.
Just a few images this month that I nearly did not bring you.
Let me explain, I took the liberty of photographing my local general hospital, because it has an interesting design. Little did I know that you have to have permission to do that until some man mountain range ape of a security guard informed me rudely and with thuggish glee. So I tossed him a few lines of well placed expletives back, just for his troubles. It then fell to him and three of his thug mates to escort us both to the front of the hospital . From there the gang of four stood loitering around giving my wife and I the stinky eye stare as we waited to catch a taxi home. They obviously had nothing better to do with their time than to harass a disabled man innocently taking a few shots of NHS property? Apparently not, so it would seem.
Maybe they thought Amy and I were a major criminal threat, planning the down fall civilisation … or the Health Service at any rate, using only my walking stick and digital camera? . Who knows. Still, the results I did manage to get I am reasonably happy with, so please enjoy them.
During the visit to rainy Northamptonshire this month, I finally got to go back to Sywell Aerodrome and capture the Art Deco designed buildings. Doing this fulfilled an on going desire I had since first seeing them before the lockdown. I had literally dreamed about it countless times. A note to add, there are more pictures published in this blog than on the ''Architectural Metaphor page due to repetition issues. Thanks to Amy and my parents for their help on the day
I know its probably a little odd photographing lamp shades but I could not help but admire the textures of the light, as well as on the shades and wallpaper.
Here is another I found hidden away in a cupboard. Its an old hand developed print of a view on one of the beaches at Hayle in Cornwall. I remember this view mesmerized me when I took it as the eye is led down to the sea by the poles and cable supports. I had to give it a sepia tone in Photoshop as the original print was made on a very unstable paper called 'Oriental Seagull' which turns a nasty colour over time.
Viewed here are some new and old mix of images I recently took of the Nottingham Contemporary Art Gallery along with some really old architecture shots from a shoot I did decades ago in Rock Cemetery.
