NEW PROJECT: Inspiration...

I'm not going to post my proposal until after my tutor approves it, in case they feel it's not substantial enough and I completely change it! But it will hopefully be playing with fun fashion elements, lots of pastel colours, and large scale props!

(images courtesy of Google, Claes Oldenburg & Tim Walker)

Watch this space!

Also if any MUA's, models, clothing/accessory companies or stylists want to get involved please leave me a comment with your email and I'll get back to you! Or if any bloggers with lots of clothes want to get involved with styling send me your emails or tweet me!

Chloe !

Barrow Gurney

So last Saturday I headed off to Barrow Gurney Hopsital with Luke and two of his friends to take some photos of the disused hospital.

Barrow hospital was Bristol's second purpose built hospital for the treatment of the mentally ill. In 1959 changing attitudes to mental health lead to a subtle change in the hospitals name, the word mental was dropped from then on it was just Barrow Hospital. The following year 1960 the hospitals population reached a peek of 453 thou it was predicted that new community based care initiatives would lead to a decrease in patient numbers to 200 by 1975. By 2004 only three residential wards remained open at Barrow.

In 2003 Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust announced their intention to close Barrow Hospital and transfer its services to new purpose built units in a £ 60 million project, the initial plan was a phased closure to take place by 2008 but in a national survey of hospital cleanliness conducted in 2005 Barrow Hospital was found to be the dirtiest hospital in the country inspectors stated the hospital had "an unacceptably dirty environment". Two of the hospitals three remaining wards were immediately closed and their patients were transfered to other hospitals. The entire hospital closure plan was brought forward, With the final ward emptyed during the summer of 2006.

Just a few of the photos I got from the day! I stuck to my 50mm for most of the day which gave me the beautiful bokeh in some of the photos. The spider web photo isn't edited at all apart from a small crop which I'm very pleased with as I think the colours are beautiful!

And a token self-portrait ;D

My boyfriend used film on the day so doesn't have those developed yet, but he has lots of urbex stuff on Flickr if you're interested in checking them out! :)

Have you done any urbex stuff? I'd love to hear of your adventures and photos!

Chloe !

Wishlist...

So currently these are the things I am lusting over...

Canon 5d MK2 - I got a large sum of money a few years ago for my 18th birthday that I haven't touched which almost covers the cost of the body so hopefully this will be mine in a month or so's time! Still deciding whether to get just the body and save up for an 85mm prime lens, or get the body and 24-105mm package, decisions decisions...

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM Lens: Ideally I would LOVE this, the glass is beautiful, amazing for portraits, especially in low light conditions, great for depth of field and bokeh (<3) I'm looking to get into wedding photography at some point and read this is a good lens for it, however given that price tag I don't think this will be in my kit at any point soon, a girl can wish though!

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Lens: Pretty similar to the lens above however a little higher f stop, however as I'll probably be using it in the studio or on location in good light conditions it shouldn't make too much of a difference. From what I've heard from people and pictures I've seen the bokeh is beautiful and it's a very good lens, definitely can see myself investing in this pretty soon!

Canon 580EX II Speedlite Flash - I could do with getting a proper good quality flashgun, I want to get into wedding photography and I think a flash is quite vital for that with low light conditions etc... This is quite pricey at just over £300 but I going by reviews I've read it is a worth while investment and it will work with my 400D and 5D when I get it!

So that's my current wishlist, although hopefully I can get two of those soon, I just need to save save save!

I'm also thinking about selling my prints? Would anyone be interested in any?

Chloe !

2/52 - Batman

A day late but I'm sure you don't mind!

Week 2's theme was Batman, I figured most people would go for the joker's face, white make up, red lips etc, so I decided to play around a bit with shadows and lighting.

This was the image I uploaded... I'm quite happy with how the shadow came out, however the bat edit was a bit rushed and I couldn't get it to go how I wanted so in the end I gave up! (bad I know!) But other than that I like it!

It was hilarious to capture though, I had to wait until it was dark, then I set up a kind of fort, attaching a duvet from one wall to the other between the door so there was enough room to get behind, I then had to put a lamp behind me. Next I set up my camera on a tripod with a reasonably long exposure and set the self timer, I then had to dash across the room, take position behind the curtain and hold my pose for a couple of seconds! Then run back to the tripod and see the result and change the camera settings accordingly... this went on for about half an hour running/diving to and from the tripod/fort!

I think I might try this again at a later date for another theme and refine the edit a little more!

52 week project!

So as I mentioned before I was contemplating taking part in a 52 week project... however I completly forgot/had a severe lack of inspiration and had no idea what to take photos of!

Anyway to cut a long story short I got a comment on Flickr about a 52 week project inspired by movies that some people were taking part in... Well when I saw that the first theme was Harry Potter I couldn't say no! (I am a massive HP geek!) So a few days late but ohwell not too late to catch up!

Ideally I'd like to experiment more with self-portraiture bus as I decided on doing this pretty late in the day the light had faded and I hate relying on artificial light as it has such a horrible orange hue to it and isn't nice at all, but hopefully I'll take some earlier on in the day next time and the next uploads will be a bit more conceptual!

Please feel free to check out my Flickr stream and add me as a friend if you have it! And if you'd like to join in to the link is here. The next theme to be posted on Sunday is Batman so I need to get my thinking hat on!

Horrah

So I got my feedback for the last two modules today, professional practice (website, CV design etc..) and vantage point (project 99 to you and me) and I got a 2.1 on both projects! I am VERY proud of myself, I put a lot of effort into both. Last year I was terrible and got a third, I didn't put any effort in at all really, I hated my projects, therefore wouldn't really get stuck into things, however I made a promise to myself that this year I would do what I wanted to do, and even if things weren't going my way I would persevere and make it right. I think it shows with a massive improvement in grades so hopefully I can continue doing this well and get a 2.1 or higher on my next projects!

Hope everyones having a good week,

Chloe !

Camera bags can be a girls best friend!

London Camera Exchange £4.99

I already have this as my main camera bag that was a gift from my boyfriend the year before last, but went into the London Camera Exchange yesterday with Luke (boyfriend) on the hunt for a Canon 35mm SLR, as we were browsing I spotted this absolute bargain and couldn't possibly say no!

Firstly I love the print of this bag, it's so kitsch and cute and fun! It's also a good size for daily use, as much as I love my Timbuk 2 and it's great for jobs and carrying all my equipment, when I just want to wander around the city with just my camera and no added extras it feels a bit empty and pointless to carry, my camera fits perfectly in here and space for one extra lens!

Although my main camera is a Canon, I'm not to bothered it's an Olympus bag. I will probably steal borrow Lukes OM-10 anyway as it's a brilliant camera.

I'd definitely give this bag a 10/10 for aesthetics, practicality and value!

The Childrens Hospital, St Michaels Hill

What better way to start the new year than to take a trip to the old childrens hospital on St Michaels hill. They're currently in the process of stripping it and the whole place is a bit of a mess/mass building site! The door that was previously used by other people had been bolted shut, I guess they've realised a lot of people have been taking pictures! But Luke managed to find another way in thankfully so we could take some cool photos.

All photos can be found on my Flickr : http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixielee/

I'm contemplating doing a 52 week project but I'm undecided yet, although I should probably decide soon as I've only got 6 days left now!

Have you done a 52 weeks project? Are you thinking of doing one? Let me know :)!

Chloe !