New Beginnings...

Plymouth College of Art: BA Photography (2013-2017).

& how I arrived here.

I guess this is the start of the new part of my blog. As said in previous posts, now last year sometime(!), this was going to be about my journey into Photography, hobby into (hopefully) career. This'll be the place where I document my personal experiences and share anything I've learnt.

I suppose I'm going in to this course as somewhere between beginner and intermediate (more intermediate I think!). I'm not new to photography but I still don't know a huge amount about it. I taught myself everything I currently know about photography. Books and the internet were very helpful.

I hope this may be of use to anyone unsure about where their life is going and is considering something to do with Art.

View from Jigsaw Park. Plymouth Uni (left), The Roundabout, PCA (right) and Drake Circus Mall (far right). ~Nov 2013.

[Sept. 2010 - Aug. 2012]

My A Levels at my secondary school didn't go very well. I suffered from anxiety and panic attacks which started at the beginning of Year 12. My attendance fluctuated and I missed a lot. However, the school was very helpful, there was always someone for me to talk to and the teachers seemed to understand. The anxiety didn't just affect attendance, I couldn't think straight and even had trouble reading sentences, just because my mind was always on the anxiety. AS Levels results came in August of  2011 and needless to say, my grades weren't good. They weren't absolutely terrible, but I knew I could have done so much better. I re-sat one exam.

Mid Year 13 and I applied for Geography at Plymouth Uni. I was always interested in how the world works and our relationship with our planet. Geography ran in our family too! I was very much in to art too and always had been, but I felt I wanted to keep that as a hobby and never really knew all the career opportunities there were involving art. My anxiety was still presenting challenges, but I wanted to show myself I could do this and get through it. Our A2 Level results came in August of 2012 and were pretty much the same. My anxiety hadn't gotten any better and I thought it unhealthy, mentally and physically, to repeat a year. I chose to take a year out and pursue all the options I could, to beat the anxiety.

The year out proved effective, my anxiety improved and I could go out in public without worrying as much as I had before.

I remembered I had felt happiest and carefree when I was out and about in nature and taking photos. Long story short, I researched Photography more and applied for the Photography course at PCA.

Ceramics

[Sept. 2013 onwards]

I started at Plymouth College of Art back in September 2013 on the 'Level 0' course. 

This is an extra year prior to the start of the BA course. In Level 0, all the disciplines are together: Illustration, Graphic Design, Photography, Fine Art, Contemporary Crafts, etc. Up until now, our projects have been aimed at getting to know the college, it's resources and learning how to carry out research and present it. It's been about art in general.

We've been introduced to ceramics, textiles, glass work, etc. which I have enjoyed as my interest in art covers lots of areas.

Textiles (tie dyeing)

Drawing, sketching, painting, etc.

Glass (sandblasting)

One project I loved was named Decon/Recon. We were given a list of objects to chose from (I chose a book) and interpreted how we liked. I made scenes from the pages of books. One scene is Baker Street with 221B Baker Street conveniently on the front of the house I made, Sherlock with the word Holmes across the silhoutette and lamp at the top of the lamp! I acquired some LEDs to fit into the lamppost too - It looked great in the dark!

My final scene was a forest scape with a house, river and old book illustrations of people.

The first year has been great, I haven't had any anxiety since September (except 2 mornings). I think I've made the right choice and I can't wait to get writing on here again!

First scene - Baker Street

Decon/recon - final piece.

Decon/recon - final piece.

Framed and Mounted.

After the success of selling my cards, I've finally ventured into larger prints to sell. Now I know the popular photos; I have printed a few local shots I've taken over the last few years:

The line of boats at St Ives (Cornwall)

Tin Mine Sunset (Minions, Cornwall)

Silhouette Trees (Lerryn, Cornwall)

Celtic Cross (Landulph, Cornwall)

Sunset Trees at Burrator (Dartmoor, Devon)

All mounted, some framed.

I will see how these go and maybe print out a few different photos. Exciting times! More news to follow soon...

In other news:

Last Thursday, I had a great talk about photography at my old primary school. Obviously, since I'm not a professional photographer, I was talking mainly about the artistic side, composition, rule of thirds, genres, etc. After a quick presentation, I took questions from the kids. They asked some great questions - I was mainly talking about my journey through photography so far: what I plan to do, what subjects are good for photography and so on. Then I had small groups and we went around the grounds taking photos of the surroundings.
I had a wonderful time and I think the children did too. They took some amazing photos themselves. I'd love to do it again next year!

Best of Cornwall Video

I have finished a video of the best photos of Cornwall I've taken so far. If the video isn't playing or you want to see it bigger, you can go directly to YouTube by clicking here.

Milestone.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me since the blog started only back at the end of January.
The milestone of 500 views has been reached in only 45 days!
I know my procrastination can be annoying but people liking my work has helped me with self confidence and I am grateful to know my photos are being appreciated.

So once again...

Facebook integration.

Good news. You can now keep updated with this blog by liking it on Facebook. The like is in the sidebar on the right; alternatively click here to open a new link to my new Facebook page. Whenever the blog gets a new post, the Facebook page will be automatically updated.

Cards

Here is a selection of some of the cards that are available. They are printed on 10 x 15cm (4 x 6") photo paper, mounted on a corresponding colour card, which is then mounted on to a plain quality card. For a more updated look at what cards I have, take a look >here<

 

Welcome note.

Welcome to my brand new blog!

I suppose I should explain what this is all about. First of all, I am not much of a writer so the photos I upload may have a short description! I also feel that when uploading photos with lots of writing, more attention is on the writing than the photo!

This blog is my journey in to photography and my passion for nature. I still consider myself an amateur even though I have been in to photography since my very first camera on my 10th birthday 8 years ago. I suppose I have been concentrating on composition which is one reason why I'm not very knowledgeable about other features a camera has. It is only recently I have started to get more serious with my hobby....

And so the journey begins.

Panasonic Lumix DMC FX550.

The photographs I have taken over the years are mainly with a Panasonic DMC FX550 camera. I know, not very advanced! But in fact it is a good little camera to carry around with you. I got it new for £113 from eBay. At the time, the RRP was something like £200 so I guess that was a good purchase!

It is 12MP and printed out, the images are stunning. This camera had lasted me well. I still use it if I have a free lesson at school and go to the nature reserve just across the road from the school and take pictures of the landscape and animals that I can find. I don't want to carry around my new camera (more on that later!) which is more bulky and the main point, more expensive!

So the time comes where I decide I want to develop my skills further; probably about August 2011. My wishlist for Christmas and Birthday (My birthday is 23rd December and a DSLR would be too expensive for just one present!) was the Panasonic G3. New, cheap (within reason), good reviews. Went to the London Camera Exchange in Plymouth. Panasonic G3 wasn't exactly right. I don't actually know why I didn't go with it in the end. It looked perfect. I suppose I wanted a small, portable camera that didn't look like I was a tourist everywhere I went! But after maturing on the subject, I looked more in to 'proper' cameras, I spoke to people I knew who were also in to photography; a family friend is a photographer. Apparently the Panasonic G3 just wasn't what I needed. I also realised after looking at loads of websites that the major brands are Canon and Nikon. I visited many shopping websites and reviewers and on some of them, I couldn't find ANY Panasonic cameras. I ended up having 2 cameras on my wishlist after the very helpful London Camera Exchange. Needless to say, I didn't go with the Panasonic. I opened my present to find an awesome Sony HX100v. I used it the whole day, going around my garden, testing out the features!

My new Sony HX100v with some of my favourite photos.

This is a great camera. I've been on walks on Dartmoor taking photos of everything I see! I highly recommend it. Of course I haven't used all the features yet, which is partly what this blog is about. I want to see how my photo styles change as I discover new techniques - I consider myself beginner/intermediate borderline. I want to share my photos so people can feel the same way I do when I view them. I don't want these gathering virtual dust on my laptop for nobody to appreciate. I also want people to share my journey and hopefully, this blog may help other beginners to feel the same I now do about photography.

I aim to share my favourite photos and some of my not so good ones so I can learn from my mistakes.

This is my journey...