untitled for now...

WARNING: IGNORE THE MUSIC

While this video isn't exactly P-G at times, it epitomises exactly what my style is - the kind of west coast, golden, desert-dry grunginess, paired with western themes, leather and a lot of movement and flashes of colour.

This video (despite the supposed music), I found really inspiring. For the last... I don't know how long... But for the last longlonglonglong time,  I've wanted to have a glitter and powder paint fight. This has made me take action (finally); there are powder paints stored under my bed as I write this.

The photos below are a bit like what I want to do with paints... But not quite...

I love the colours in this one, they're so vibrant...

I think the key is to use a fairly plain background, and to really incorporate the colours without order or abandon.
I also like the almost spontaneous feel that this photo has - like it was just a snapshot of a few friends after an actual fight, not like it was planned at all. I think that one of the factors that contributes to this feel is their expressions, and the way that one guy isn't looking at the camera, and appears to be looking and smiling at something else, also giving the photo more context.

This photo is, technically, what I will try to achieve. The perfectly formed explosion of colour against a plain background, photographed on an extremely high shutter speed.
However, I don't actually like this photo. If I were to do it, I would make the colours more vibrant, and I would probably put the woman on the third, as I think that she's in kind of a weak position at the moment.
I'd also like to do things with glitter and incorporating expressions - I'd want it to look like fun, real and spontaneous, like the picture above.

 This one I like a bit better, as I like the fading light in the background and the more vibrant colours... It gives the photo more of a story, more context, whereas the photo above looks like it's very controlled; just a photo of some model, taken in a studio. Unlike the girl in this photo, the model probably just stood there as an assistant threw paint at her face, and the smears of paint on her cheek were probably strategically drawn on by a highly paid make up artist.
I love this photo because it's not pretentious... It seems like a friend took it, and the girl is smiling.

 I like the way that there are three, which makes the photo more balanced than if there were two or four subjects. I also like the way that you can quite clearly see the relationship between the girls... They look like they're friends which, again, gives it the context that I keep talking about.
This has also given me the idea to put powder paint in someone's hair and then have them shake their head...

 This one, again, looks too polished and forced for my taste... However, I do really like the extremely colourful and bright bit in the top left hand corner near her head.
I like the directional lighting, which is another thing that I could try to use when I attempt to do this photoshoot. The light brings out more dimensions and contrasts in the paint; it makes it look more 3d and less like an amorphous cloud of stuff.

I like this because he looks like a funny guy.

Holmes' Dunes and The Golden Hour

I like the use of foreground, middleground and background... It gives this picture more depth and makes it more life like. I love it because I always thought that boats like this one look like toys; the colour of it enhances that idea. It looks a bit surreal as well, as it rests on sand and has a little river flowing past it to the sea. 

This needs editing... Possibly a curves adjustment and a bit of a vignette would be nice. I wish that the wheat was backlit a little bit, as I think it would look quite interesting with more texture, and a light behind the wheat would highlight the texture of it more... From the photos below, you will also probably realise that I have a penchant for photographing with a more golden-y tone to it. I like things warmer... Also, this is starting to annoy me a little bit because, while my friend is on the third, she isn't immediate and clear in this photo which I think is caused by the fact that the wheat kind of dominates the photo. I could possibly try to make this better with brightening her up and making her 'pop' out of the photo, but I think it's almost irreparable, regardless of her being in focus and everything else not.

I love the depth in this and it almost has a notion that the dogs are leading the way, connoting that they're braver and more powerful than their owners. It seems very Alpha-Beta to me, even the relationship between the dogs. The way that there are only three things in this photo makes it seems more even and balanced out - discarding any feeling of symmetry. It seems more natural.
I liked getting down low and crouching on the floor (and having muddy, orange knees as a result) and photographing at their level; I had to wait for the exact time to press the shutter down, as it is very easy to make things look awkward when someone/thing is moving towards you.  It was all timing and levels with this one... 

I like both this one, and the very similar one above it... but I can't decide between the texture of the sand in the first one, or the bird silhouette in the second. Regardless, I like the way that the sun makes the middle of the picture look lighter, almost as if there was a vignette around it when, in fact, I didn't edit this at all.

love the reflections in this one, and the contrast between the fluffy, pink flowers and the harsh barbed wire. I was tempted to edit this a lot to bring out the pink a lot more to add a bit more punch to the photo, but I've grown to love it the way that it is.

I feel magical when I point my camera into the sun and see the little circles and colourful smudges that it causes to appear. It's almost like I'm really little again, confronted with something that I really can't explain and really don't care to - I think they are beautiful and I accept, unlike most other things, that they are just there. Make fun of me for making a big deal out of something that a lot of photographers would try to edit out or try to take another picture without it in, fine, but it's just one of those things that I've fallen in love with... Maybe from my love of the sun or surreality, I don't know, but I'm not about to stop and try to figure that out either.

Because I don't have photoshop, and only a Macintosh variant of it, I didn't do a vignette per se, but I did a smudgy thing around the edges, which I really don't regret because I feel like making this photo any darker would only take away from it, as the picture has a golden, wholesome quality to it at the moment, and making the edges just smudged goes with the theme of the colours blending in the sunset and it doesn't add any more darkness which more goes with the wholesome quality I was talking about. It also feels more lighthearted and childish... It feels like he's going on an adventure; and I don't want to make his adventure have any darkness in it.  

Again with the magical, lovely, colourful circle smudgey things. This child has beautiful hair.

Ending with a picture of myself; taken by the lovely N.Street.  How strange the feat of death is - we never fear sunset. 

Looking at these pictures I just can't help but feel an optimism. Summer is coming. I'm soon off to boarding school. This is my clear horizon; it can't be obscured by anything, not anymore. Not even clouds. They come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.


I've learned from this photo shoot the effect that shooting into the light has, and I've realised that it's easier to photograph when you're really passionate about something.  This was such an enjoyable experience.. Though I don't see how it could have gone badly  - in such a beautiful place with my best friend. It's a new kind of beginning for me... For so long I've felt like I've been stuck in one place, going nowhere; doing nothing of value, but this symbolises clarity and endless horizon for me. 

Heart Full of Fire

 These photos are the outcome of my earlier photographs of fire and self portraits. These photos actually went better than I thought they originally would.
The idea behind them is that, when taking a self portrait, I don't want to be a person who just looks at the camera and pouts and looks pretty - I want people to see me; who I really am (forgive the cheesiness, please).
Now, who really am I? My thought process went as follows: *Look in the mirror* That's me - my reflection. I carried on with my day. As I was taking off my makeup and brushing my teeth that night, I looked in the mirror again and saw someone different. Now, how could it be that my reflection is me if it constantly changes? I know that I change a lot, but there's got to be something more cement about me... Right? I think that the cemented things are on the inside. You can dye your hair, you can insert silicon into your chest, you can cake makeup on your face until you're barely recognisable, but you can't cover up what you are inside. So, from there, I decided to photograph souls... Fire, and shadows, are what I imagine a soul would be like... A fire, moving, hot, powerful and bright... Seemingly alive, but not confined to a body.

As for the actual photographs, I love the orange - and, although I know many people think it's tacky to have everything in monochrome except one thing in colour, but I think that these photos are possibly an exception as they are not just made up of one photograph, but two layered on top of each other using photoshop... So all is hopefully forgiven on that front?
As you can see, I have used two of the same self-portraits in the background of these first photos, but I couldn't decide which one I like better... In the one above, I like the shape that the fire makes, and the dramatic bright yellows; it reminds me of fireworks, yet is subtle in the way that it doesn't consume my face like the other picture below does. Also, I like the contrast that the photo above has that is caused by the sudden and dramatic bursts of fire, whereas the other photo with the same face isn't nearly as contrasting - the entire photo is pretty much tinged in oranges and yellows. I also used the rule of thirds as my face is off-centre and the majority of the flame is on the third.
I have to say that, even though the photograph of a face is the same one used in the photograph above, I dislike the second photo's expression - there's something about the shadows and textures that make my mouth seem a little bit weird... Though, that being said, I think that the photo would probably die without the shadows and textures. I like this photo a lot pretty much purely because of the concept behind it - it's taken of the heart of the fire. You can even see the blue heart of it just above my eyebrow. I think it's relevant to the topic, because it's all about what's inside of us (for me, anyway) and this photo is taken of what's inside the fire; and just looking at it makes me feel a bit special, because it's not something that you see every day and, without my camera, I would never have been able to get as close to the flames as I had to to take this photo (thank God for zoom). Compositionally, maybe not my finest work, but, like I said, it's more about the concept for me. I think this photo would probably work better if my face was a little bit more dominant, meaning it was darker; creating more of a contrast, or if the background was less busy. I think, after writing all of this, I like the other photo more... There's something about simplicity that I just love.

Next up we have a slightly different one... The first, actually, that I'd done. It was just a trial, really, to see if it would work, and I guess it did because I decided to try my hand at photoshopping more of them. This one I like a lot because you can't really tell that it's a fire at first. I also like the way that, on my cheek, is a completely burned out piece of wood so that it looks like my cheek has a different texture to the rest of my face.. Like it's cracked, or something. With this photo, I altered the opacity of the face, attempting to make it the precise colour of ash which would, in turn, link in with the fire and ember-y quality of the texture on my cheek.

At any rate, I put these photos in monochrome with the obvious goal of 1) being able to clearly see the fire in the background, 2) so that there were no colours that clashed, and 3) to add simplicity and contrast to the photos. There are more to come, but I have no photoshop at home so I'm going to have to wait for a little while before I can do anything more with them.

I'm thinking that I might actually use this sort of idea for my final project of 'I, me, mine' but, also, touching on my other ideas of souls - that they're kind of shadowy, disembodied versions of ourselves - I thought that I could take photos on a slow shutter speed of myself and slowly move the camera around so that I come out a bit smudgy looking and ghosty-like... Maybe I could mix the two ideas together? I don't know if that would work, but it's worth a shot. I could also do things with smoke, which is a less literal mixture of the 'fire idea' and the 'ghost idea'. Let's see how this turns out.