So the weather this year has been so bad….sooooo bad. And all my photo shoots have been cancelled through bad weather or unreliable models. On Tuesday I met with Amy to do a few photos, but the rain cut it short. Here’s a few from our brief shoot, sorry it’s been a while since I’ve posted!
So I think it was November when I saw another bloggers post about losing faith in the portfolio website Model Mayhem because the models were just so unreliable. The post explained the websites purpose, to put photographers in touch with models, everyone sharing pictures and furthering their portfolio. This female photographer had been just about to give up on the site when she’d finally got a booking who showed up, and it made all the weeks of disappointment worthwhile.
So I signed up, and guess what – the same thing happened.
After a few false starts, today I got my first shoot with a model off the Model Mayhem website!!
We went to Leigh, an old industrial town near Wigan, and shot in a park that used to be an open-cast mining area – on a grotty, grey day after rain. nonetheless ankle-deep in mud, we produced a couple of pics that I like.
So here are a few pictures of Olivia! I still need lots more practice but I’m certainly feeling more confident with this people-photographing business.
Comments, likes and follows appreciated!
Does it sound weird when you say it to yourself? Two thousand and twelve. It was the nineteen nineties for so long. I learnt how to write putting the date carefully at the top of the page and practising my nines (and my eights) and now…suddenly its a new year, a new century and millennium. Things really fly by. So it’s January that means…
CUTAWAY MAGAZINE IS NOW OPEN!!
Yey, so it’s a project (if you’ve missed the posts) and we’re accepting submissions of poetry and prose but no art. Payment is a copy of the beautiful finished article which you’ll recieve in May (ish) and if you’re local there’ll be a fun launch type thing in Manchester.
Also it’s a time for new projects. I’ve become obsessed with cameras. I’m not that fussed for fancy ones bought at fancy camera shops. I’m interested in people’s unwanted film cameras – from a bygone era. These mechanical works of art demand to be appreciated and cared for. I’ve spent most of December in fact on eBay trying to catch a few bargains. This project doesn’t really go hand in hand with the taking photos side of things, I mean, how many cameras can I use in one go? But they are so beautiful. Freecycle has been fantastic too, getting some expired film which (hopefully) will work just as well.
I was going to start a Tumblr photo blog, but I’m having second thoughts. It might just become a replica of my 365 project - which is into its second year. Either way it is just a vehicle for my new project which has been in the pipeline really since November 2011 when I asked for volunteers on Facebook to be models for my photography. I want to spend 2012 taking photos of people instead of buildings and landscapes. Sure landscapes are pretty – but photographing people is hardcore – it’s tough. It is reading poetry in the original French instead of the translation, it is doing Iron Man competitions rather than jogging in the park, it’s landscaping as opposed to gardening. A tree will never get annoyed about standing in the cold, a flower will never ask to see the pictures you’ve taken and pass comment (not that my models have done either of these things!) but in theory people are a more interactive and unpredictable subject. But they’re also more amazing – and the human condition is to all of us more important than how green a tree is. To me anyway.
So my 365 project – whilst no longer being one photo taken a day will become one photo uploaded a day from my most recent shoot. If anyone out there is happy to model I will pay you in tea. Well I’ll buy you one cup at least. Or go halves maybe depending on where we are. It’s addictive taking photos – as I found in 2011 – but the downside to taking photos of other people is you need other people! So you have to be patient. I have a few things in the pipeline though and my sister wants some pictures for her jewellery website.
So here’s my latest pics. My second photo shoot - with a lot of time in between my first and second learning how to use my camera better and where I went wrong the first time. Thanks to both my previous models who have tolerated my early fails.
So what are your new projects for the new year? And please feel free to comment on the pictures (sorry they’re lo-res) I don’t mind feedback.
