Another of Tony's tasks is to create a christmas card with the intention of promoting ourselves to potential and current clients as well as sending them to family and friends.
I was quite stuck on what idea to use and decided to recearch a few current ideas.

I have always quite liked close up images so this one appealed to me, however we were told to attempt something different that hasn't been seen before.I thought this image was quite amusing and I have been thinking of ways I could incorporate something similer.


When I saw this image I found it quite interesting and thought I could do something similer myself. as the image was going to be to promote mysef as a photographer, then what better way than to create an amusing christmas self portrait.

For part of Tony's assignment we have do a series of PR photographs. this meant visiting a business or company to gather images to tell a story. My first idea was to e-mail PADS the People And Dogs Society. I have already had contact with this company before in the form of a photography competition in which I recieved the reserve first place.
This is the e-mail I sent.

"Dear Sir / Madam,
I am a student at Wakefield College and also the runner up from your previous photography competition and my photograph of "the legs" was included in the special mentions. I am currently studying a foundation degree in commercial photography and one of my assignments includes a brief for PR photography. I am e-mailing to ask if you would be interested in allowing me to use your charity as part of my brief, these photos could include fundraising events, what happens at head office or rescue centres/re-homing or portraits of staff and dogs. You would of course be able to use any of the photographs as advertising for the charity for free.
Please let me know if you are interested either via e-mail or phone or I could come into your head office for a chat as I only live in Altofts.

Thank you."

I recieved this e-mail the following day.

"Dear Amy Jo

Thanks for your offer. I'm not sure if we can help, although I'm open to it if possible.

I will have to refer to a couple of other people and get back to you on this. I'll do so asap but it would be helpful if you could let me know your deadline.

Debbie Waller
Hon Chairman/Webmaster"

I replied the same day letting her know what my deadline was and also that i was interested in attending the Halloween dog show. I am now awaiting a reply but I am also considering other options.

One of our other assignments includes sports photography. My origional Idea was to visit a local skate park and attemt to get some photos. I had already taken a few shots during the summer at Hyde park skate park in Leeds.



















I practiced with the different shutter speeds and appertures to try to get a good image.











































On Sunday I had the chance to attend a horse show with my Mum. I decided to use this as an oppertunitiy to take shots of the horses and riders during the show jumping and whilst they were getting ready and un-tacking.



I liked this image as it shows Jettison having his mane plaited, which he hates, and you can see the look of boredom and annoyance in his face.














These two images show a close up of Jetti after he had been "Tacked Up" and now wearing his bit and bridle and a second wearing his saddle. I like the unusual angle of this second photograph.

















This Image shows jettison and his rider Holly, both looking smart and ready for the show. I liked the way they are both looking in the same direction, suggesting that they are both looking towards the action, waiting expectantly for thier turn.





I also attenpted to capture some images of the horses during the showjumping but I found it very difficult to avoid motion blur as the lighting was quite dark and I was trying to avoid using any form of flash so as not to spook the horses.

After a long summer away I am finally back at college.
Our newest assignment is to create an interesting image based upon the idea of shoe / bootlaces.
I have been doing some recerch along these lines and I have been trying to think of an image that would be unusual and innovative whilst still keeping the focus on the shoelaces.
I started by looking at images of shoelaces just in shoes to see how they are advertised














I also looked at images of unusual shoes or ways to lace up shoes.




































One of the ideas I had was to use shoelaces in a different way such as wigs and jewelery.
























































I also thought about different phrases that could be associated, such as "Tied in Knots" "All tied up" and "Tying the Knot". I serched for these phrases online to see what images were brougt up.

























I really liked this image of the woman tied up on a shoe and I considered doing something similer, perhaps having a model who has attempted to tie thier shoes but ended up tying themselves up or possibly having a male and female model dressed as bride and groom, wearing trainers and being tied together "tying the Knot"




I also had a few other ideas to create images giving the impression that the shoelaces were extra strong such as an image of them being used to tow a car like the old levi's jeans advertisment.

In order to get a little practice in my chosen genre I decided to attend a Gig of a reasonably well known rock band, Heavens Basement. They were also supported by three other bands which I also took the oppertunity to shoot.
I managed to get some very good and interesting shots of the first band and managed to possition myself into a good place, directly in front of the front man.

After discussing my ideas with Amanda, I have decided to go with my original idea of using music as a base for my experimental portfolio. I have chosen this concept for a number of reasons, firstly, i have always enjoyed photographing live bands and I find the excitement, spontaneity and liveliness of gigs and live events a thrilling environment in which to work. This is also an area in which i wish to work in in the future, hopefully having my photographs used in popular music magazines such as NME as well as having the opportunity to shoot some of the greatest musicians in the world and hopefully achieve an image that will one day become iconic in the way Pennie Smiths photograph of the Clash did, used on the cover of London Calling. i would like to experiment more with my chosen field, trying different ideas and playing with innovative concepts. I have already started this in the form of a live band i photographed before Christmas and portraiture I worked on for a friends band which has since been published in the Wakefield Express.

I have been advised to research different artists such as Caroline Coons, Linda McCartney and Terry O'Neil in order to look at work that has already been done and what is famous. Along with this I have a few books dedicated to music photography, including documentary photographs of the Rolling Stones, which I can use as reference. Also this evening I am planning on attending a live Gig in one of the music venues in Wakefield in order to practice a few techniques and experiment with ideas.

This term we have been asked to create an experimental portfolio based upon a genre of our choice. After researching many different genres including landscape, still life and documentary i was required to give a brief presentation on my findings, along with this i included photographs that are relevant to each genre.

For a long time I was unsure as to which genre to adopt. At first I was leaning towards music based photography such as live gigs and musician portraits, however one of my fellow students suggested that they were unsure as to whether that particular genre would be acceptable. Following this advice I decided to experiment with one or two other genres including documentary, street, cityscape and architecture and some still life photography.

I also visited a couple of photography exhibitions such as the "China Through a Lens" Exhibition at Mersyside Maritime Museum, which displayed a large number of glass plate prints, taken by John Thompson during 1868-1872, of his journey though Asia where he set up a professional photographic studio, capturing various images of landscape, people, architecture, street and domestic scenes. He worked especially to capture the culture and traditions of this new world as they fascinated him so much with a fascination with the women and the fashions in which they wore their clothes and hair.

I found this exhibition very interesting as it showed a wide variety of different genres all at once as it basically paved the way for photojournalism. I was surprised by the amount of information that was carried in these images, not only in the way the photographer had labeled each slide with in depth information on the subject, date and location, and without this information we would not have been able to learn so much about the photographers travels and also the history of Asia. But I was also surprised by how much information you got from just looking at the image, events that would have long been forgotten can now be remembered and kept forever.

Another exhibition I attended was Black Britannia held in the National Slavery Museum. This series of photographs by John Ferguson is a collection of portraits of successful black British people taken especially for this exhibition. Ranging from Firemen and Doctors to celebrities such as Lewis Hamilton and Ms Dynamite. The purpose of this exhibition is to celebrate the overcome of prejudice and racism and also to hopefully inspire young black people to see beyond the stereotype, develop a stronger understanding of what they can achieve and to help them find positive role models.

I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition, each person was well portrayed in their portrait, often showing each person in their working field along with a brief description of why they have been included in the display such as Charlie Williams, the first stand up comedian of African decent, and Samantha Tross, the first black British woman to become a consultant orthopedic surgeon. As well as an impressive display of good quality work i noticed how many of the images had been printed on a silvery paper, creating an unusual light effect on the photos themselves and making them jump out and grab your attention as well as look stylish and unusual. This is something I may bear in mind for the future when displaying my work.

Learning style, strengths and weakneses.

Earlier today we were given a few exercises to determine our learning styles and our strengths and weaknesses in the learning field. This series of short tests were statements which we were required to number depending upon our feelings towards them and also questions with two separate answers to find out which side of our brain is more dominant.

I discovered that i learn kinaestethicaly, which means i prefer to practice by repeating them and physically doing things in order to learn how, also using rhymes, word links and poems in order to remember things.
I also discovered that the right side of my brain is more dominant which means I have a more creative nature and prefer to learn through free exploration. however it also means I can have difficulty concentrating and tend to be a daydreamer often becoming restless during long verbal explanations. I have noticed this often in the past and now understand why this occurs.

Upon completing the tasks i found out my strengths and weaknesses, strengths being presenting ideas, assertiveness and ICT (Information Computer Technology) and weaknesses being Writing and analysis and Time management with a particular problem with distraction. In order to rectify these problems i hope to improve my note taking skills and learn how to skim read, also attempt to become more organised and try to improve my timekeeping, especially when studying or doing homework.

One think i believe I have to do is push myself a little bit harder and when i feel i can't be bothered or I'm bored of a task, to force myself to do more. A lot of this can be as simple as overcoming laziness and lethargy, something I can do to get myself more motivated has little to do with learning and actually do more physical activity. I plan to go swimming at least once a week in order to increase my energy levels and therefore help my concentration.

Before Christmas my task was to create an ambient candle shot. I ran into many difficulties at first, including actually finding a location. My original idea was to create a spa type scene in my local gym as the swimming pool area is decorated in a very nice style. Unfortunately I was unable to shoot there as they do not allow photography. However I did have a plan B which was to create a romantic meal setting in a restaurant. It took quite some time but eventually I got a restaurant that would allow me to shoot inside and I managed to get a few good shots.



I ran into few major problems during the photo shoot, the most difficult probably being the fact that my battery had run itself down and i had to use a nearby plug socket to charge it up while i dressed the set. I also ended up having to pop over to the nearby supermarket to purchase a few things i had forgotten such as flowers and red wine and apart from trying to avoid nosy waiters everything was relatively easy.
The shot i wanted to create was that of four candles, with flowers, table settings and an engagement ring in the form of a wide angled shot. However when i attempted this shot it did not work out as i expected. The image looked quite flat and a little uninteresting so I decided to attempt a few close up shots. I found a few few problems when shooting hand held as I had to extend the shutter speed slightly and this often caused a slight camera shake but after much time and effort I achieved my desired photo.

Once I returned to college I used the editing programmes to clean up my images ready for assessment.

Also over the holidays I was required to write a 3000 word essay based upon the creative industries of the UK. I found this very difficult as I wasn't entirely sure as to what to write about and it took me quite some time to complete. I ended up using my script for my presentation as a base and elaborating further. After much trial and tribulation I finally finished my essay.

However, because I have been dedicating my time to the essay the rest of my work has fallen behind and have been trying to catch up for a while now.

Over the past few months I have been practicing my art by visiting music venues and photographing live bands, I have found this incredibly interesting and help full in my learning. Plus I took the opportunity over the past few weeks while we have had excessive snow to get some beautiful and interesting shots.