CITY OF GOD = AWESOMENESS

Rocket, take a picture.

Watched this film this week and oh my god!  It was truly awesome.

Memory Tree

Been out this afternoon and did some memory tree photos.
Only just taken pics off the camera but adore this one :) 
I see these images in Black and White so will look at altering
them a little later on.

it's been a while

I hadn't realised it had been quite so long since my last update.
had a very poorly baby girl and this evening the boy went downhill too :(

Haven't really watched much over the last couple of weeks, Battle of Algiers, Exorcist, Air America (it was on!) ummm . . . . the usual, Casualty, Holby City, Something Special and currently watching Children In Need (Some dirty dancing rendition)
















I finally got my new Canon 550D Camera :)))  Very happy about this!  Been out and made a mini movie to coincide with my photography project of time & memory but just need to work out how to use Windows Movie Maker now to edit the damn thing!
Done some test shots while out as well but I got round to ordering a backdrop yesterday so hoping it comes tomorrow so I can set up a studio and get some Xmas shots done!

I have also manged to layer some of my memory pictures onto some leaf pictures to creat the look I am trying to create for my trees and fallen leaves.
I had some printed and they have come out really well, better than I thought they would.
Obviously I am going to cut them out but you can get the idea.

what to do, where to go?

So to start, I have watched over the last week a lot of crap and some good stuff, including the GREAT Holby City, a bit of Eastenders, over my fair share of cbeebies and a bit of Tom and Jerry.

I've also watched The X Files Movie, The Jungle Book and The hour if the Furnaces (oh, and Casualty!)

 

 

 

I have been to Legoland and have had 3 nights of fireworks from Friday (Bodicote), Saturday (Legoland) and Sunday (at home)
I have started to experiment with playing with light and long exposures!  I'm happy with where I'm going with this and have a small understanding now of what you have to do!

 

I've also started looking at my Time & Memory project in more detail.  I now have a hard copy of some old images from my Aunt Rita (as well as an amazing family tree, thank you Rita!)
This week will be spent adding photos to leaves and creating some lost memories, if that is at all possible?!
I want to focus this week on creating this look, so it looks as genuine as I can get it.  I want the images to be apart of the leaves, not just stuck on (I hear layering on PS calling my name LOUDLY)

I also want to try to experiment with the use of long exposure but introducing a flash of coloured light.
It;s not where I;m planning to take the project at the moment but it;s an idea I have and want to get it started.

Off to London tomorrow, batteries on charge and bags are packed.  Happy Days!

Memories

I was reading Vicky's blog about her and the red tent, she said she remembered the tent and the smell but not standing in front of it for the photograph!

It made me think about photos that I have of me as a child and do I remember the event from my own memory or do I think I remember it because I have a photograph telling me I remember it?

When we were younger (I was maybe 8 at a guess) we were photographed (unknowingly) by someone who used this photograph for a travel agency brochure.
I'm unsure how we got to know about it, maybe someone saw it and thought "that's Barry & Sue's kids, I wonder if they know?"  But anyway, I forget where it was and I have to say, I don't actually remember the event (or holiday) itself but I do remember the god awful swimming costume.  The straps were too big or maybe I was too small and the front kept slipping down.  I also remember the hairband, it was bright orange and made of a jersey material.  I used to put it on a radiator to dry it out and it would go hard and smell funny!

 

I asked my aunt Rita (My dads only sister) if she had any old photos I could use for this project and she sent me loads!  She has hoards of this kind of suff and is a wealth of knowledge for remembering stories that she was told.  She told me a few years ago, for example, that my paternal Grandfather, James, was in the Royal Navy (I didn't know this) and he was a Chef (again, I didn't know this)  anyway, he was supposed to be out on some boat or other during WW2 but was asked to stay behind on land as one of the other Chefs was ill.  He did this and it saved his life as the boat he should have been on was bombed and I believe there were no survivors.  My father wasn't born until 1948 so had James not stayed behind, I wouldn't be here.

Below is one of the pictures she sent me, and I adore it.  It was taken in 1934 and has the label "Betty, Vera and Nan" picnic 1934.  Vera was my paternal Grandmother, Betty is her sister (Still alive as I write this) and Nan was Nanny Webb.  I never met her (that I'm aware of)   I have no idea who the little chaps are at the front either!

I wonder if there are other people out there looking at this picture thinking, that was my Grandad or Great Uncle or cousin in 1934.  I wonder if anyone else knows where this was taken?  I wonder if that piece of land, maybe a field?, is still there or is it now a housing estate or someones office carpark?

This isn't my memory as obviously I wasn't even thought of back then but this memory belongs to those six people or seven if you count the photographer!

Time & Memory continued . . .

I have a lot of ideas floating around for the Time & Memory project.

I've done a couple of "Recces" to get some ideas down and below are some shots from these.
There are two main ideas I have although this could change!

Holiday fun fun fun!

It's been half term (College like to call this "reading week!") but with 3 lively children, not much reading got done . . . hence printing off 21 pages at 2.24am!

So, we went on holiday to Weymouth, painted pottery at Blenheim and visited Cotswold Wildlife Park.  Along with it being Alex's 6th Birthday and Halloween.
The picture below is of my boy playing in the sea (Late October bbrrrr) at Westbay, near Bridport.

Time and Memory

"Brief

It is from this (informed) standpoint that we would like you to make some short pieces of work – sequences of still, and moving images, as sequential imagery is intrinsic to the concept of ‘the passing of time’ - that somehow visually responds to the concept of Time and Memory."

24 hours

Tout va bien (1972) Jean-Luc Godard & Jean-Pierre Gorin

 Fish Tank (2009) Andrea Arnold

Over the weekend . . . .

Over the weekend I photographed baby Noah who was the baby in the tummy of B is for Baby!

Noah was a little grumpy and poo'd a lot but in between nappy changes and feeding, I managed to get some beautiful photos for Mum and Dad.

 

On Sunday afternoon, I went up to the field near Byfield with Tom as he wanted to go flying.  I thought it a good opportunity to get the camera out and get creative.  While there, I came across a derelict old barn that was just screaming to be used as a location so currently plowing the brain into over drive on how I can incorporate this into the new "Time & Memory" project that we are about to embark.
I have a lot of ideas for this so will update soon with some test shots :)

Below is one I did of a lonely tree while down at the barn!

Films, films and more films

This blog is for Uni purposes and as such, I really should keep track of what I've been watching for Uni.
So far this month I have watched . . . (in no particular order!)

Sunset Boulevard - Billy Wilder 1950

F for Fake - Orsen Welles 1973

Daisies -Vera Chytilova 1966

Spartacus - Stanley Kubrick 1960

Lilya 4 Ever - Lukas Moodysson 2002

Singin' in the Rain - Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly 1952

The Bicycle Thief - Vittorio De Sica 1948

Invasion of the Body Snatchers - Don Siegel 1956

The Lives of Others - Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck 2006

And for non uni purposes I have also watched a bit of Eastenders, Casualty, Holby City and Toy Story

We also watched a short film by director Alain Resnais called Night and Fog (1955)
"One of the most vivid depictions of the horrors of Nazi Concentration Camps. Filmed in 1955 at several concentration camps in Poland, the film combines new color and black and white footage with black and white newsreels, footage shot by the victorious allies, and stills, to tell the story not only of the camps, but to portray the horror of man's brutal inhumanity." IMDB website

F for Fake

So . . . back to uni and we've literally hit the ground running.  We have watched various films (to be mentioned later) and we have started project 1 the Fake for our Still & Moving image module.
Vicky & Laura and I are Group 1 and we had to produce 36 images for this project, for group 2 (Annie, chloe & Dan) to edit.
There were early starts, car break downs and late nights but we got there!
Above is a selection of said images . . . can you see the theme??

**Photography by Claire McBride, Laura Boffin & Vicky O'Rourke**

O is for Olivia

Olivia - 4 weeks old

B is for Baby

36 weeks