13 Jan 10: Lilies

13 Jan 10: The Darkroom – all my own work!

My mum and dad moved house last November and when they came to pack up all their stuff my dad found his old Kodak Retinnette camera that he bought in about 1960.

He gave it to me, so over the Christmas holidays I took some photographs in Manchester and in the Yarrow Valley park in Chorley.


Today I went into the darkroom to develop the film and make some prints. This was the first time I had been back in the darkroom since our workshops at the start of the semester and I was flying solo (well with a little help from Kevin in setting up the chemicals and assessing my first test strip). I made mistakes along the way – for example, adjusting the exposure the wrong way when I needed to tone it down – but that’s all part of the learning process. Here are my first four prints, of which I am very proud!

5 Jan 10: Flowers/Macro

I had booked some studio time today to take some macro shots of flowers but due to the snow college was closed. So I improvised – I recently found that the light in my bathroom and was pretty good for some product shots – so I set up in there.

I am inspired by the work of Imogen Cunningham (www.photoliaison.com/imogen_cunningham/Imogen_Cunningham.htm) and Karl Blossfeldt www.soulcatcherstudio.com/exhibitions/blossfeldt/ and the approach they took to shape, form and patterns.

I love the abstract effect of these images of I took of a rose which look more like folded cloth:

And whilst these images of a gerbera are slightly overexposed I like the effect that produced:

I played around with some filter effects in Photoshop:

Dry brush

Diffuse glow

Solarise

Conte Crayon

and tried a low key background