Photography

Happy Belated New Year!

2009-03-26T05:18:00.000-07:00

Woah so it's been a while!

Can't really say anything has happened on the photography front. So far I've done one wedding and one Christening, and I've been booked to do another Christening over Easter. Did get a few people interested in some portraits of their family/children over Christmas but nobody saw it through, but it was nice to know it was me they came to.

So I'm still working at Burger King. Have to say up until now I've completley wasted my pay from there. Mainly because I didn't know what to spend it on, and first full time jobit was a novelty having so much money all the time. Well now I've decided to buy a motorbike, it's kind of frustrating because since I've been working there I've made about £5000, so I could be driving by now, but I'm not. So now I'm slowly saving up to buy equipment/clothes/a bike/insurance etc.

Am also half way through applying to University, will finish writing it after I've written this I guess. Hopefully I'll be doing Egyptology in September in Swansea University, which is why I need to be driving really, as there's no way I'm relying on busses again to get me around. So yeah, managers at BK will be over the moon to find out I'm going back to part time again =/ Oh well.. I'm not staying there all my life so I have to do something.

Well just a little update as it was so long a go since my last one. And, as this IS a photography blog I feel bad not posting a picture with my blog, and as I've been a bum lateley and haven't taken any I'll post a picture of my future motorbike ^_^

Employed

2008-08-31T14:49:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while, but I've made myself switch off from everything else and settle down to post a blog. A Level exam results came out a couple of weeks a go, I picked mine up the other day and had a B in Photography, a C in Film Studies and a D in Media Studies. Not bad.. but not good enough. I've planned to do a degree in Egyptology next year, and have found out I need three Bs to get onto the course. So far I have one! So, I need to get my ass back to college this year =/ Looks like I need to retake Media Studies to get up to a B, and I need to finish off my film course to get the complete A Level.

And yes, the title is right. I finally have a job. For years and years I've told myself - and others - that I'd never work in a fast food place, but.. let's just say I got desperate. So now I work at Burger King. It's pretty shitty.. but it gives me money, which I needed so badly. So that's pretty much how things are going now. Work work work all the time. 2 days off a week, mostly spent shopping and with the lover boy.

So okay, onto the photography bits.
I did my first wedding about a month a go! It was nervewrecking, but also pretty fun. I got pretty lucky in the fact that it was family of my sisters partner that was getting married, and I had met them all before, and my sister was there too. Plus the bride and groom really wasn't fussy about what in particular they wanted. So I was just left to capture the whole day so to speak. And gosh, I learnt so much just from one day. Looking back on it there's a lot of things I wish I had or hadn't done, but hey.. it was my first time so I'm allowed to make mistakes.

I'll be buying a studio kit very soon now that I can afford too! Will be buying a portable studio backdrop with a few lights as well. I've have a Christening to do in November with a pretty damn fussy mother (part of the same family as the wedding) so being able to do studio-like portraits of the child should keep her happy.

Well I can't end this blog without a picture! So here's one from the wedding that I quite liked. I think it would benefit from a border, yes/no?

300mm Lense

2008-05-22T05:06:00.000-07:00

I promised myself last week that I would try my best to get out and take more pictures. Well Monday was a nice day so I went up to my local park to try and get some practice in with my new 300mm lense.

My first thoughts are a bix of a mixture really. I first thought I did quite well, then when I looked at them on the PC I thought a lot of them looked out of focus. But now I think I had dust on the sensor.. doesn't that make the camera focus more on the dust, making the rest fo the picture out of focus? I'm not sure, but anyway it was my first time so mistakes are allowed!

A personal update, I had a C in my photography exam. Gutted. I put more effort into that journal than I have with any other, and I thought it was the best out of the lot. Now my photography teacher didn't agree with my chosen topic, so I think this has a lot to do with it. I think I got marked unfairly so I will be talking to her about it. Previously I've had As and Bs, and I know I kept the same standard with this one. One other thing, I'm still looking for a job.. I'm heading down to the job center tomorrow to see if they can find me something, hopefully there's a studio in the city that's looking for staff. I sure hope so, but anything will do me.

To end, I'll post one of two shots from my outing.. unedited as always.

Lightning!

2008-05-11T11:21:00.000-07:00

Just a quick little rant.

Friday night there was an amazing thunderstorm in my area. As soon as I realised I grabbed the camera and went to run out the garden, only to realise it was pouring it down outside and I was in my pajamas with no shoes on. So I passed on going outside. Instead I opened my bedroom window as wide as possible and tried to get a decent shot from there. Only I couldn't get the camera to focus, so I couldn't take one picture. Jumped on the laptop and Googled some help, but by the time I worked out what to do, it had bloody stopped!

So attempt 1 at lightning failed quite a bit. I think I'm more than ready for when it comes next time though. The weather is still the same so I'm hoping for another one soon. So keep checking back here, there could be some in the next couple of days.

One more thing, I haven't been out taking pictures in a while which is quite disappointing. Promise there will be some more on here soon though. I might also go through some of my other ones to see if there's any good enough to show off.

That's all for now =]

Flowers!

2008-05-05T16:41:00.001-07:00

This is a photography blog, and it is Spring!

I thought it was about time I got some more pictures in here. Show y'all a bit more of what I can do. Maybe get a lot more people interested in this thread, make it more interesting or whatever. I was going to post the Exif data about them all, but I don't think I will. I'll just say that all the following were used as AR6 photography exam final prints =]

If you can't ifind out the Exif data, but would like to know just leave a comment and I'll get back to you ASAP. Or if there's anything you'd like to ask me about any of my pictures such as where they were taken and that. I hope there are people who enjoy reading this blog. I haven't worked out a way to see how many people have read it, if there is a way. So yeah, if you are reading, and you do enjoy then please drop a line in the comments, it would be great to hear from you :)

More Babies!?

2008-05-05T16:04:00.001-07:00

I think I'm getting into the swing of things with this whole blog writing now. Never been to confident with my writing skills, with blog writing it doesn't feel like it really matters. Still, I always go back and edit each post a few times after I've published them!

Anyway, I never really stop thinking about the future. My head is always up in the clouds dreaming of what I hope and what I want it to be like (because let's face it, their usually to different things?). I read a certain thing on the internet one day and it got me thinking.. can aiming too high career-wise be a bad thing?

I wont beat around the bush with this. I'm aiming to have a career in photography, and for as long as I can remember, I've loved the National Geographic Society. I think the furthest goal I could reach with my career is work for them. Is that such an obsurd thing?

I've never felt like I've been good at anything, so when I got into photography and people told me my work was good.. it was a great confident boost. I'm going to sound cocky here, but when I look at the winners of photography competitions, I can't help but think yeah.. I could have done just as good. Or sometimes even better. I can't see why it isn't a good thing. Even if I don't get to the top, being somewhere in the middle is a pretty good place to be. Or is it?

I don't really know where this is going, but for some reason I'm going to keep my little rant. I'll even it up with another gawwwwwdjus picture of my little brother.

A quick update

2008-05-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

So I'm still keeping this thing going!

I was at my nephews 2nd birthday party a week a go today when I started taking some cute shots of my little brother who was being held by my sister. One of them actually turned out quite good, and I was pretty pleased with it so I'll stick it in here to make my whole post just a little bit more interesting.

Looking back at it, it makes me consider a career in taking pictures like this. Of babies or just family portraits., mind you.. I'd probably get stuck with all the ugly ones. Isn't he the cutest thing ever!?

Anyway, I took a picture at the party I was at and now I have a bunch of people who'd like a copy. My first customers! I think it's a big step for me, but I'm also pretty concerned. People at the party told me they would like me to come take pictures of their children. My worry is that I'll get pulled to that side of photography too much, for now I only see it as a way of making money and building up a portfolio, both of pictures and experience.. I wouldn't like it to go any further than that. I think if I'm pretty sure of it now, then I should be okay.

One last thing, I was told of a photography competition today for BBCs 'Country File' program? Stay tuuuuned as I shall be entering. The theme is 'Animals in Action', so yeah.. I'm SO going for this one.

Why should you watch this blog?

2008-04-14T16:12:00.000-07:00

So I'm guessing you're on my page because you're pretty bored, and probably have an intrest in photography, amirite? I figured I should show you what Rachy can do..

I sort of drifted away from the whole blogging scene once I got my Canon 400D, so I won't write my whole personal review thing that I was planning on doing just yet. But to keep you interested, and show you what I can do, here's some pictures that I've taken with the new camera so far.

This has to be one of the best pictures I've taken, so I thought I'd start off with it. I took it on a day out during the Easter holidays. My step-mother drove me around for the day to places of interest where I thought I could get some good shots for my 'Spring' project I'm doing in college at the moment. I took a quick walk down a forest path that I'd always been curious about and found this down there, I wasn't very impressed when I saw at at first, but the pictures turned out pretty well.

Most of the pictures you'll see from me will probably landscape and scenery, but wildlife photography is where my heart lies, so hopefully as time goes on and I get into a serious career in photography, you'll see a lot more wildlife. I'll finish up this quick post today with one last picture taken on the same day as the one above. I hope now that you've seen what I can do you'll keep coming back here to see some more of my work =]

This picture happened by luck, in a way. I was looking for this place I had heared of called the Chinese gardens which was meant to be some lovely Chinese themed place with a pretty bridge over a little pond and it was so nice people even got married there. Well the place turned out to be just a field with a birds nest in with no sign of a bridge, but luckily I got lost on the way and went across this bridge where I took this lovely shot up river ^_^

Introduction

2008-03-06T10:18:00.000-08:00

As always I had the urge to write another blog, and as always I keep getting stuck when it actually comes down to writing it. I’ve always had that problem with blogs, I enjoy writing them, but thinking of a topic is harder for me than it is for Sony to make money their PS3(oooo).

Now, my passion is photography, it has been for a while. I remember having my first camera a little Polaroid thing when I was about 7. I'll stop now before I end up going completely off topic which will result in me sounding like my grandmother. Well anyway, since I’m so close to leaving college, I needed to start thinking seriously about my photography. I know I want to do it for a living; I’m just not sure what kind of photography right now. As always, the best way to decide is to just get out there and try it all, but wait… I haven’t got a camera.

Well I’ve now been waiting for my spiffing new Canon 400D for a week. If I have to wait one more day I will start pulling my hair out and hunt down some delivery men.

I’m going to finish this one for today, I think it’s all I can write for now. I guess now I have a decent blog to keep track of anyway, my photography. There’s not much I can write now, but I will be writing more VERY soon (at least it better bloody be). So I hope any of you who are reading this keeps an eye on my blog because once I can get out there and start taking my pictures, I’ll have plenty of things to write about, and yes, expect lots more digs at Sony =]