Abstraction

Today I saw Shakespeare 4 Kids perform The Tempest. If you get the chance, go see them. It was fantastic just to see the school groups so completely engrossed in the stage. I didn’t see any child not utterly raptured by the stage.

Tomorrow will be a long day. So I had better go sleep some of it away!

Last weekend was DigitFest 2011. I was there as a steward – helping to cat herding visitors to various events and joining in activities that I would never have done without it.

I drew on iPads. I painted with light (well I’ve done that before..). I saw Holotronica. I enjoyed beatboxing. I danced. I laughed. I met new people.

Hope you have a look over there. Got a few things to write about – hopefully I’ll get time to get them online tonight!

Tomorrow (Saturday 2nd of May) is the final day of the photographic exhibition At This Space. I hope you all get chance to drop by and I really hope that you enjoy it.

This does however mean that I’ve lost about 6 months worth of work.  Everything I’ve done since about August (except certain shoots that have been printed off-site) is gone. This also includes my Project 365 which I was about 8 weeks from concluding!

In the past month we have replaced the scanner power pack, my laptop, the kitchen window and we’re in the process of sorting the other stolen things. Project 365 will restart on March 16th – my 21st birthday!

Also got a back-up solution being tested atm. Now time to get on.

This morning I thought I’d have a play with my new lens – Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6. Someone on my flickr feed had some time playing with them in Photoshop’s tool yesterday and inspired me to play with my toy.

The original images were taken from our front gate in a circle to include the *whole* view from there. Maybe next time I’ll do a section of the view and more of it in detail.

I wasn’t much in the mood for arranging my face today so I thought I’d try an idea that’s been bouncing around my head for a few days – a blurred, backlit portrait.

Take:
Canon 10D
Vivitar 285HV
Stofen
Cable release
PC Sync cable
tripod
lighting stand
and a blank piece of wall

Mix together in an appropriate way. Camera pointing at subject, flash (on 1/2 power) with stofen behind subject at shoulder height. Subject, in this case, holding the cable release. Auto-focus off and focused at the very minimum.

The only post-processing done – added a vignette, image size and saved as jpg!

Today and yesterday I’ve been printing. I’ve been doing photograms of my mum’s memento box – the same ones as the baby booties and stuff I took in the studio. I also did some other prints, but they’re for something else and not dry so I can’t scan them just yet!

The rest are in a gallery. Thought I should share.

For my materials and process project I’m looking at the effects of Bi-Polar Disorder on the visual perception. I started with the title “loss of insight” – words chosen at random from a conversation with my mother over my sister’s recent mental health troubles (asking whether it was loss of insight or realisation of needing help).

So today I present to you my latest painting!

The image that I used to paint from was one I took at the Imperial War Museum North (in Salford Quays).

The painting has really got my head into gear. I now need to get some sketchbook work done!

I took my camera (Canon 10D with Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 lens), tripod, flash gun (Vivitar 285VH and sync cable), flash metre, apple, fork, the rest of my lunch and some tissues. With that jolly list I created 12 images, some of them are good, some are bad and some are just plain ugly!

This image is simply called Fork.

This is the gallery for the rest of the collection.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. As always I’d love some comments and or critique.