23rd - 29th

Monday I had my digital imaging lesson and I learnt how to extract images with accuracy and without a rubbish result.
Tuesday I had a free day but came in to develop my 5x4 film. Whilst waiting for my film to develop I sat in with some uni friends in the studio and watched them shoot their films for high key and low key. When my film had developed I managed to get some 10x8 paper for the colour darkrooms and I contact printed my medium format high key and low key negs and also my 5x4 negatives. I showed the contact prints to Paul and worked out what I need to do next. I think I may have to reshoot my high key prints because they aren't high key enough.
Here's one of the 5x4 negs, its a picture of the neg on a screen so its not great quality but you get the idea.



















Wednesday we had a guest speaker come into the uni who told us all about how we should protect ourselves and our images when going into work. It was very useful to find out all of that information and I have a handout which I can refer to when I need to.

Thursday was a day off but I spent it doing research for my technical workshops unit and looking through the essay questions in the PVC Unit.
Friday I used the studio to create a seperation of light set up and I shot 5x4 transparency film using a class mate as a model. I will be processing the film next week. I also collected a metz flashgun and a hot shoe from stores at uni friday afternoon to use at the weekend.
Saturday I experimented with the metz flashgun so that I would be used to it for when I shot the digital part of my brief.
Sunday I took some pictures of an elderly gentlemen at the canal for my portrait brief.

Moving on.

It has been a long time since I have had time to post anything. I have been very busy concentrating on my college work which has just been handed in for marking. Now all I have to do for college is choose images for my exhibition! I will post the dates of the exhibition up here when I find out more about it! 

I worked out the total amount of UCAS Points I have got for all of my work that has been marked so far which does not include 5 units which are spread across 3 projects including my final major piece and another two.

I calculated I have gained 388 UCAS points so far and when I compared it to the grade sheet I saw that 360 UCAS points is a triple distinction!! This means I have a triple distinction and I'm going to get more UCAS Points when my other projects have been marked! RESULT! My hard work has paid off! :D 

Also, I got into the University that I wanted to get into! Bournemouth Arts Institute! I start in September and I can't wait! Yay.

Next I plan to sort through my images and delete any I will not use and create a folder of my best work from all the folders on my external hard drive. 

I am dreading the end of college because I am going to have to say goodbye to all of the new friends I have made, and we are really close! :[ Yesterday I went to Exmouth with my friend Martin, we went in the arcade and walked along the beach with ice cream. Then last night we had a poker night which was fun with Ali, Leigh, Martin, Jonny and I, with Beckie in the room but not playing poker and it was great fun :D

About a month ago I went on a trip to London and took lots and lots of photographs, it was great to experience a new place and I managed to get alot of images to help me with my Final Major Piece which was based on shadows and silhouettes. 

My next big step is moving to Bournemouth and starting University which should be great fun :D

That's all for today.

Thanks for reading.

Crazy Times

Alot has been happening in the last couple of months, I have found myself in a new state of 'singleness', probably not a word but hey! I have also had to think hard about university and getting all my work done for college and printing my portfolio which is going to cost me so much money that I'm going to be in debt to the bank! rubbish!

I've also spent alot of time socialising and making new friends. I have also made new contacts who have asked me to photograph them which is good to add to my portfolio! :)

A couple of weeks ago I spent some time in a forensics lesson at college and I got to photograph a pretend dead body and all the blood spatter patterns, it was really great and now I have forensic photography to add to my portfolio! I was planning on photographing Holiday on Ice today because my Aunt and I went to see it in Exeter, but they didn't allow photography, which was the main reason I wanted to go, however the show was awesome!

Here's a forensic image that I took (not for the feint hearted)

At this forensics event there was some really old horses blood placed in a petri dish and left out so that the smell of death and decomposition was present. It took me ages in the shower to get rid of the stench!

I have to get on with my final piece now.

Thanks for reading!

also, Check this out: www.flickr.com/photos/gemmiev

Another Thing off the list!

My UCAS application has been sent. :] I've just got to wait for the college to add my references and for them to send the form to UCAS again and then to the University. FINGERS CROSSED!!!

Today at college the photography department was asked if there were any pictures that they could let the library use on the walls and I gave them a contact sheet of my work and requested for my name to be displayed with the picture if it was going to be used. So hopefully I will have some work on display there! There's also a chance to do some work experience with the local gazette in tiverton which will be good if I can get a place. :D

I've started playing badminton at college on a wednesday. I used to play when I was younger and I got a trophy at county level but didn't really play much after that. After my game yesterday my body aches from using the muscles I don't usually use! I think I need to stretch more before I play. I'm going to play every week because I enjoy it and I would like to be fitter.

Hopefully, I will be able to finish all my work early so I have extra time to concentrate on my final major piece which is worth three units. I have an idea for what I would like to do, but I need to get more research into the subject.

I entered a competition which is being judged this month and I'm waiting to hear from them to see if I got anywhere in it, hopefully I'll win a prize and my work will become more well known.

This is a picture I drew of my Grandads hand, I thought I would show you something different for a change :D

My name used to be Jefferies but I changed it to Varney.

This is the end of todays post. Thanks for reading! :]

Busy Holidays

Lately I have been busy visiting relatives over the holiday period. I managed to buy presents for most of my family members this year, which is an achievement for me! 

For christmas I got 'The Photo Book' from my Aunt and it is wonderful! It lists many different photographers and a picture of theirs and will be super helpful with my photography work.

I finally finished writing my personal statement for The Arts Institute at Bournemouth today and am planning on applying through UCAS as soon as I get back to college. I have decided if I don't get into Bournemouth then I'm going to set up my own photographic business instead and work in Bournemouth.

Lately, I have been working on my photoshopping skills and have been bulking up my portfolio of work which I will need to print when I get back to college. Busy, busy, busy. Hopefully I will be able to afford the cost of printing my best images for my portfolio, otherwise I will have to print on standard matte paper and wont have the best quality for my work.

Using flickr.com I have uploaded some of my images to the internet hoping for constructive critism and feedback. If you would like to see them then please copy and paste this link or click it if you can; www.flickr.com/gemmiev

At some point in the future I have decided to do some volunteer work in another country, either working with children from uganda or doing conservation work for a month or two. I would love to be able to document my time there and have some images of another culture. Hopefully, I will be able to teach in another country and make a difference to people who are not as lucky as I am.

Here are a few images I have been working on;

This was created using two images in Photoshop, I experimented with overlaying the layers and changing the blending options.

I play on photoshop for hours to get the right effect and its not unusual for me to edit the same image four times before I find an effect I am happy with.

This is one of my favourite images.

I really love the colours in this image and the highlights on the eye. I like the writing on the t-shirt because it helps show the girls interests.

I have made some new year resolutions which I am determined to stick to, these include; 50 sit ups a day, eating more fruit and taking/creating one new image a day :]

I am going to end here because I'm watching jurassic park and it's distracting me :P

Thanks for reading!! 

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.