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Old old old

2009-07-24T13:47:00.001+01:00

This is now old. Hello new blog at - summerclouds.tumblr.com :D!

Narrative

2009-05-26T13:21:00.003+01:00

Okay, so I haven't posted in AGES. But in my defense, my laptop is broken. All the wine and chocolate I spilt on it finally upset it and now it just hates me.

Okaay. So, narrative. Really I should be going through and editing them all right now, but I love avoiding work, and I've done most of them, and I'm pretty bored of Photoshop and need a break, so I'm doing this instead.

So, my narrative is Night Terror by Laura Marling, which I think I've already said on here. Getting models was a bit of a hassel with everyone suddenly wanting to go home whenever I tried to shoot them, but I managed to get Keeley, and as Eddie was up, he had to be in my work too.

I'm only putting one picture up for now as I really do need to get back to what I'm supposed to be doing, but here is a nice picture of Keeley. She was pretty upset with me at the time because it was about midnight at Stanley park and it was very very cold. And she only had her pajamas on. Sorrry Keeley.

Roma!

2009-03-27T21:32:00.002Z

Okay, so I've been in Rome for the past week, and I have a billion and one photos to edit from it.
But for now, here are three that I took that I liked as they pretty much were, and didn't need too much of an edit, as I am tired. So very, very tired.
I hate flying. My ears hurt.

The Pantheon.

The Colosseum

Some graffiti I thought was cute.

Shootin' some B-ball.

2009-03-19T00:29:00.006Z

Okay. So I have had the best day I have had in a long, long time today. And to be fair, Karma owed me.
Extensive list of good things that happened to me today :
1. I woke up at a reasonable time ( 9 o'clock!). Even though I was drunk last night. Get me.
2. I went to a lecture. The lecture was good.
3. I found a new photographer I like.
4. It was actually sunny in Blackpool for once!
5. I went to Stanley Park and watched the guys play basketball. It was nice and sunny. Mmm.
6. I FOUND MY PHONE! Which I thought I had lost after a very, very drunken Friday night with Eddie.
7. I handed my work in late, and Alan wasn't the slightest mad. I love Alan.
8. I heard someone playing the original version of Heartbeats in their car in a traffic jam. That was nice.
9. Because it was nice and warm I had a Frescata at Costa. God I love them.
10. My heating started working, suddenly.
11. I had a lovely nap.

And I think all of this relates to the two magpies I saw. Y'know, for joy and that.

I only have two photos from today. I spent the rest of my time being happy that I was actually having a nice day for once. I did have some absolutely brilliant pictures of Dan, but I feel that Lee has put up enough of them already, so I won't subject Dan to any more bullying ;P

I also went home at the weekend. It was mental, as weekends with Edward Green often are. The Saturday started with a very Skins-style escape from some random guys house and jumping in the car, when his mum started shouting about something. I can't remember what because I was absolutely wasted, still. That hangover. Oh. My. God. Thankfully Kirsty and Eddie saved me from it, fed me Shreddies, more alcohol, and took me out again. I love my friends.
Here is a picture of my cat to represent my weekend back in the village. My cat is lovely.

Oh! and some Narrative work.

2009-03-10T00:54:00.003Z

Okay, so I know this picture is crappy. But its only a practice, and it lets me lead on to explain what I'm probably going to be doing for this narrative brief.
I've decided to take my inspiration from a song.
Originally I thought I'd do a Bright Eyes song, because basically I'm obsessed with Conor Oberst and have been for as long as I can remember.

But then I was listening to Laura Marling, and Night Terror by her seems to have a pretty interesting meaning to me at the minute.

Basically, what the song has always meant to me is this - Laura Marling is seeing a guy, this guy has some mental issues. The song is her wishing she could get into his head and fight his demons for him.
To me, the night terrors and being in his dream are all symbolism for her wishing she could help him, but of course, she can't. So she just constantly holds him, and tries to shake him out of it. Of course to no avail. But still, she tries because she loves him.
It's all quite sweet really, but the imagery is really quite creepy at the same time. So I think it's gonna make some pretty nice photos. If I can get it right.
I'm gonna try really hard at this one, cause I know if I don't get it perfect, it's going to look pretty crappy. No leaving it until the night before this time I think.

Night Terror Lyrics
I woke up and he was screaming
I'd left him dreaming
I roll over and shake him tightly
And whisper "if they want you
Oh they're gonna have to fight me"
Oh fight me

I woke up on a bench on Shepherds Bush green
Oh a candle at my chest and a hand on his knee
I got up it was dark
There's no one in the park at this hour
Why do I keep finding myself here?
Oh find me

If I look back and he's screaming
I'd left him dreaming, the dangers fade
And I roll back and shake him tightly
And scream "if they want him oh they're gonna have to fight me"
Oh fight me

But if I wake up on a bench on Shepherds Bush green
Oh a candle at my chest and a hand on his knee
I'll roll over and hold him tightly
And scream "if you want him oh you're gonna have to fight me"
Oh fight me.

The photo up there is how I might do the girl "waking up" in her boyfriends dream.
But, then again, I may decide to do a Bright Eyes song after all. Who knows.

Self Portrait.

2009-03-10T00:39:00.004Z

I've decided every time I get in a bad mood, I should just do some photography.
For one, it takes my mind of whatever I'm worrying about/mad about, etc. Two, I need to just do more random photography in general I think. Three, it stops me from going into Lees room and breaking out into whine and annoying him.
It's a good idea all round I feel.

So, here's a self portrait...

Take from it whatever. I dunno if its got any meaning. Sorta means a bit, sorta means nothing at all.

Old Stone.

2009-03-02T21:08:00.004Z

Today, anything that could go wrong, did go wrong, I shan't get properly into it at risk of sounding emo, but yeah. Starting at 3 o'clock in the morning, right through until about an hour ago. It involves still being lonely, wardrobes trying to kill me, and my family in general. Urgh. Whine whine whine. And the day isn't even over yet, don't be surprised if I am dead tomorrow, as it's likely I'll just drop down for no reason the way this is carrying on.

Photography makes me feel better though, so I decided to do some smoke shots to take my mind off things. Of course, because of today's luck, it went wrong, and I only have one half decent shot to show for it.

In other news, Emily came to stay, which was nice because it's the first time I've seen her since Christmas Eve. Lee only took this one half-decent shot of us, and I'm including it because even though we both look like tits, we both seem to be ecstatically happy about something or other, which makes me like it. Sort of...

I am maybe the palest person alive.

Taste, Expression.

2009-02-25T23:49:00.004Z

Latest brief from college, my contribution...

My word is expression.
Our facial expressions are mostly determined by the use of eyebrows. I thought it would be interesting to take away the eyebrows in certain facial expressions. And here's what it looks like. Kinda freaky.

I think this one of Lee will probably be my final image.

And my Taste picture. I dunno. The first thing I thought of for taste, were of course tongues. Here I've dyed the tongue different colours where different taste buds are. (like for sweet, sour, etc, also, I realise its not exactly where the taste buds are and stuff, and there is extra colours but you know, it looks nice.)

Some people might think its a little simple, but I dunno, I didn't really wanna get bogged down with developing it loads.

Hello. My name is Samantha.

2009-02-25T23:09:00.005Z

Well, Obviously it isn't. But for the day at Focus 09 it was. I hadn't put my name down on the list, and stole Sam's place because she didn't go. Not many people did go actually. Only me, Lee, Eilert, Greta and Merlin did. It was quite fun actually. Saw a lot of things I really, really wanted. But of course can't afford to, as I can barely afford to live at the minute. But my god, the things I want...
Like a lens baby. Seriously, if anyone really loves me/wants to get me an early birthday present, a lensbaby composer lens would be perfect. (It's only £150 mum ;), if you are reading this.)

Really, really, really want it. I know I could get the same effects in photoshop etc. etc. As Lee likes to keep pointing out, but its just not the same!

So lovely.
Heres a couple of shots of Lee from the day anyway, I took quite a few more, but didn't really like them.

Me and Lee playing with shutter speeds on the way home ;)

And Lee, with a little bit of photoshop on his eyes to make them look pretty.

Stanley Park

2009-02-22T20:27:00.005Z

Me and Lee were having a pretty boring Sunday. So we decided to go out and play with our cameras.
This is only the second time I've ever been to Stanley Park, and I've decided that Blackpool is far too cold for short shorts. But I'm going to carry on wearing them anyway. It gives me something to complain about, and I do enjoy complaining.
Stanley Park is quite nice. Possibly the only nice place in Blackpool. Minus the beach. I sort of like the beach. Reminds me of Cleethorpes, only you don't have to walk for 5 miles before you see the sea. Only right now its far too cold to even go near the beach, I hate the wind here.
Stanley park reminds me a little bit of Normanby Hall back home. Only if you maybe replaced the geese for peacocks and put deer in it instead of a boating lake. So it's really nothing like Normanby Hall. I'm seriously homesick, and I think it's making me delusional.

Played about with these two in photoshop. Not sure how keen I am on the second one though.

This isn't a very good photo. Me and lee realised how hard it is to actually photograph animals today. They just move so much! How do I get them to keep still?
But anyway, like I said, not a very good photo, I just like geese. I want one as a pet. Are you allowed to keep geese as pets?

Hurray!

2009-02-19T02:01:00.005Z

Fiiiinally. I have a camera.
It's a very lovely Canon EOS 30D that I got off eBay pretty cheap. I'm so happy. I got a new tripod too so at some point (maybe when Blackpool isn't cold, does that ever happen?) I'm gonna go out to the beach again at night and maybe get Josh to do some more long exposures with me because they are pretty. Not with a torch this time though, I have a different plan involving some wire wool...

Anyway, one of the first picutres I have taken with this new camera - Lee looking a little bit upset that I'm bothering him.

I can't wait to take out some lenses and stuff from college and have a proper play about with everything. So exciiiting. Yay.

Large format.

2009-01-14T19:30:00.004Z

This is the first ever picture I've taken with a large format camera :

Hah, nothing special. But I'm pretty pleased with it anyway.

We're using the 5x4's to take some abstract stuff at the minute. I don't perticululy like abstract, nor am I very good at it, but here are a couple of my attempts.

A candle.

And a lightbulb from my room.

And now I have to go and write all this up. Abstract is boring. I'm much more looking forward to the new brief...

Back in the pool.

2009-01-08T01:13:00.002Z

Okay, so I'm back at Uni after Christmas now.
Unfortunately I haven't taken any pictures over Christmas to put up like I was hoping to, as I got a new camera but the shutter is broken in it (we think) and the place we bought it from are being awkward about replacing it with a working one. Ah well. Photos when that's sorted.

In other news I hate doing essays. And Modernism.

Light

2008-12-11T01:54:00.005Z

This was a bit of a collaboration between Josh and me. We all suddenly had an urge to go to the beach, and I decided taking a torch and doing some long exposures in front of the sea would be quite fun. This was all thought up before Alan gave us the optional Light brief for college, but I decided not to submit it because its a little cliche for a brief called 'Light'
It looks pretty anyway.

We started off by me spinning around on the spot, moving the torch up and down.

Then we just did some squiggles...

Eventually we decided it might be a good idea for someone else to run around me.
Here it looks like a frog :3

And here is Josh running around me again.

Lastly, a little bit of a contribution from Lee...

Lomography.

2008-12-10T22:47:00.005Z

Here's a little of the Lomography I've been doing since I've been here.
I first saw Lomography at the National Media Museum in Bradford, and Greta explained to me what its about since she was already interested in it.
I figured it would be a pretty nice way to document my time here, and so that's what I've been doing.
(Though it's a little harder to photograph using it in the winter, because it's not really an indoor camera, and because it's cold, no one wants to go outside! These are mostly from the beginning of term.)
The camera is called an actionsampler by the way, and it's only about £10.

Here is some stuff I've scanned in :

My cat, Apple.

Some pigeons. There is this really sweet looking old man that feeds them. He didn't look too happy about me jumping into them.

Lee, outside TK Maxx

Lee eating some KFC

Blackpool Tower.

Jumping on the bandwagon

2008-12-10T19:13:00.008Z

Okay. Decided to make a blog along with everyone else. Could be interesting? Possibly not.

I'll start with the first project we did (and have now finished) at college.
I hated everything I photographed (I think a lot of people did), but here are two images I sort of liked, but they didn't make the final piece because I didn't think they fitted with the brief very well, which was documenting the lives and culture of people of Blackpool.

Here's Greta eating some candyfloss and not looking all too happy about it. Apparently she was on a diet and couldn't eat it. But she broke the 'diet' about 10 minutes later when we all went for fish and chips around the corner.

And here's Lee, who properly went for the candyfloss.

The reason they didn't make the final piece was because I didn't think that photographing my two housemates was really capturing the lives and culture of the people of Blackpool.
Also, the final pieces had to have been done on colour positive film, and these were done on digital.