Photography and College

I've just got back from my only lesson at college for today. I have a proposal to write for the end of the week with a basis of studio photography. I'm thinking of creating a themed/conceptual photoshoot, but I want to think of an idea that has not been recreated hundreds of times by other photographers.

I was going to base the project on a retouching idea where I take the images in the studio and then use photoshop to edit them, but I need to stick to the idea being more studio involved rather than computer orientated.

I have one idea that is simple and would not cost anything for me to carry out. This idea involves using emotions and lighting to emphasize the emotion. I'm thinking of showing the basics, so happy, sad and angry and then really going deeper into the emotions.

For example, angry would have somebody ripping up pictures and clothes that belong to another person who has done this person wrong. Also, smashing up something precious that belongs to this person.

I would show some one being happy and then I would show ecstatic happiness, so a person winning the lottery or jumping for joy.

For sad, I would have someone crying and then I'd have the extreme of the same person looking extremely depressed and possibly get some fake blood involved and a straight razor.

Hmm... I think I know what I will write for my proposal now. :]

Here's the guy I'm researching for this project. He's called Mark Velasquez.

http://www.modelmayhem.com/60635

I love the ideas behind his images and they are very well presented. I'm a huge fan. Show him some love. :]

To make this post a little more interesting I'll throw a picture or two, or three..

This was my first picture that I took experimenting with shutter speeds a few years ago with my first decent digital camera :] I love the colours and composition.

Please post comments about my blog and feel free to critique my images :D

Here is another image i took whilst experimeting with shutter speeds. For college I have a work book with lots of different photography terms and experiments and these images are used for that too.

I'm not sure about this image, i chose this one because it has the most lights in it and I think the car frames the image well.

I took this whilst on my way to BurgerKing with my friend Suzi King. For once I was being driven so I had the chance to play with my camera in the car. Any thoughts on this image?

Speaking of Suzi, she is organizing a Bash (party) at college for tonight and everyones invited. I'm going to photograph the event and see what piccies I can come up with. I'll probably post some of the images tomorrow, either after college, or at lunch time. :]

I'm being pestered now to give my boyfriend attention, so I'll end this post here and get back to it later. :]

Thanks for reading xx

Gemma's World - A Photographer's Journal.

I have decided to make this blog a record of my photography experiences, including days out, new pictures, new things I have learnt, pictures that inspire me and so on..

Please feel free to comment my work, critique is always welcomed, whether good or bad! I want to know what impact my photographs have on you and whether you would hang my work on your wall or not. I would also like to hear from all you people who read blogs what you think I could do to improve my work and my technique.

Some people may ask me why don't I join a picture site such as FlickR or Modelmayhem. The answer is, I have, but you do not get any space to write down your thoughts on an image or have any space for discussion.

I currently use PhotoshopCS3 with the add on ColorEfex which is the most useful tool I have found.

Please note that all images I post will be either photographed by me, so copyright rules apply. Or I have modelled for the image, in which I will have the Photographers permission to use the image.

Any image I use as a reference for my work will be noted with the web address, or book reference and the artists name will be provided. Images will be clearly marked as to which of the above applies :D

Now, to get me started with my picture posting I will upload one of my favourite images of a kitty cat I know called Squeaky. Comments/Critique Please :]

This image was taken by myself with a Canon 400D Digital Camera.

I am very happy with this image, I love the colours and the composition and I think my cat model is purrfect :P

We have a cat picture, now lets have a dog picture for all you dog lovers out there.

*looks through the My Pictures folder*

Here we go, this is the biggest poser I have ever met! This image was taken by me.

She was getting a bit fed up of me taking her photo so in the end she just went to sleep. I seized the moment by photographing her paws as she slept, experimenting with aperture and shutter speeds to get a different depth of field for each image. I had to give up when she started to wiggle her paws and quietly woof as she dreamt of chasing ducks in the park. Bless her.

Here is one of the paw pictures I took while she slept, I have chosen an image with a larger depth of field to show the detail that can be captured when experimenting with aperture. I hope you like it.

There is much detail on her paws and I'm happy with the result. The paw furthest away I feel is a little out of focus, but, if i work on this some more I can probably get a better result :]

This is the end of todays post, hope I have you hooked with my cute pictures :D thanks for reading.