Darkroom

As I was searching through my old college books from last year I discovered some of my old darkroom work which really encouraged me even more so to continue shooting old school with film.

It's a totally different experience than shooting digitally and I recommend anyone who is into photography to try it especially if the opportunity to develop the photographs yourself arises rather than sending them to the local ASDA for somebody else to do.

I hope to one day have the chance to develop my own colour rolls as well as my black and white ones in a lab.

Here's some of my work:

The techniques I used for the first one: I burnt the negative with a lighter then used a scalpel to scratch into it then I created the print with a long exposure to create the high contrast.

Techniques used for the second:

I scratched the negative, A LOT. This photo is a silhouette of Jennii which I distressed by using a  scalpel and anything else I could find to scratch into it.

Techniques used for the third photo:

I didn't do anything to the negative in this case however after I had shot it and started to develop , I didn't put the photographic paper in the developer tray instead I put developer in a spray bottle and sprayed it on, concentrating on certain areas which created this bubble like appearance.

-Ella-

Trying out Tumblr

Click - here - to be directed straight to my new Tumblr blog to see some of my photographs :) I'll keep adding more and more of my own images including some of my less recent ones...

Thanks. 

-Ella-

Tumblr & Watermarking.

So I've decided to create a tumblr blog for my photography where I'll be posting my images as often as possible. obviously it's a bit bare looking at the moment as I only decided to create one this morning so I'll post a link up soon once I've uploaded more content So if your interested in solely looking through my images rather than reading through the blog posts then you can check it out soon.

 Also I've been thinking for a while now about having my own watermark for my images to protect them that little bit further so I spent some time on making one this morning which you will start to see in my images. I looked around on Etsy as people have businesses of creating watermarks however I thought surely there's a simple and easy free way to do it and to have it exactly how I want, so I searched on google and found this page here: Create your free watermark

Which tells you step by step on how to make your own which was really fun to do because you can experiment with it in any way you'd like.

As I was looking through some of my older photographs I stumbled across this :

On my flickr account and thought I'd upload it here and talk about it a little.

I took this with my Canon 600D whilst I was sat in the back of the car on a journey to see a relative. It was raining and at the time I was really intrigued with images taken in this kind of situation (shooting whilst in a moving vehicle). So I was playing around with my manual settings on my camera and took this , once I had taken it I went into settings on the camera and put a black & white grain filter on it and voila!

What I was really pleased with about this photo is the eerie atmosphere it has. It looks very ghost like and mysterious and it can also be thought provoking. I love that this kind of work is so opinionated too so...

What do you think?

-Ella-

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone! I was determined to do another blog post before Christmas but life just took over and I didn't have the time so here's just a quick one.

The more and more research I was doing for college looking through photographers work the more I found I was leaning towards the more traditional route and decided I wanted to get hold on an Analogue film camera which is something I have wanted for a few years now. 

I was lucky enough to receive an Olympus om10 film camera for Christmas along with 12 rolls of expired film , the oldest being from 1961 which I simply cannot wait to use. 

I contemplated doing the project 365 in the new year, but realistically I know it's something I'd struggle to complete however I have decided to make it a new years resolution to take more and more photo's and to experiment more with my film camera.

This morning I loaded my camera with a 36 exposure AGFA colour film (expired on 06/2005) , I look forward to seeing the results and blogging them!

Merry Christmas!

-Ella-

Why did I start photography?

I'll start with a brief 'history' of me and photography

So I realised I haven't really touched on this subject very much and thought it could possibly be interesting to talk about and it's a question sometimes asked. My earliest influence where photography is concerned is my dad. My dad has been taking photographs for years and he is great at it too. I guess you could say I inherited the photography bug. My earliest memories of taking photographs is with disposable cameras, I remember being a bridesmaid for a wedding when I was about 7 and I was given one to take photo's throughout the reception and I just thought it was the greatest thing ever running around trying to take quick photo's (which obviously were not very good however I loved it). I remember feeling the excitement afterwards wanting to get them processed to see how they turned out, it's the same feeling I get now when I develop my own black and white films or send my colour ones off to a photographic lab. It's a thrill of anticipation. 

When I was younger I also remember asking for a Bratz camera for Christmas (there is an awful existing photo of me holding it with a friend from my younger years both posing) I think it was a battery operated one and I also used disposable cameras taking wonky photo's around the house too from a young age. So when I say I've been taking pictures for a while, I have and I guess in a sense everyone else has too. Through my early teen's I always took photo's with my phone's despite the cameras on them being terrible , I just liked to take a lot of photo's. I remember often looking at the sun on the walk back from school and how it cast long dark shadows of the tree's and highlighting the autumnal leaves and thinking it would be a fantastic photograph. It was thoughts like that which triggered the idea that maybe I could potentially take photographs like that regularly but with a better camera.

2011 I asked for a compact camera for Christmas, a red Olympus camera. This was then my own first camera which I loved. I started having more of a creative approach to photography capturing things like Butterfly's and anything else I found. My fondness for taking photo's grew a lot and I started to realise it was something I could maybe do. Summer 2012 I bought myself my first Bridge camera which is quite a step up from a compact one. It was around this time that every Tom , Dick & Harry started to get bridge cameras too and went through a 'photography phase' but I didn't want what I was creating to just be a phase. So I was constantly taking pictures from alternative perspectives always challenging myself to improve my skills. 

2012 was also the year I had 2 of my images in the local chronicle which I was ecstatic about, it was the greatest feeling ever logging onto Facebook to have friends message me saying they've seen my photo's in the Crewe Chronicle newspaper. That's when I knew I was set in a potential career choice, photography was what I wanted to do.

Since then I have started a college course, BTEC Level 3 Photography which I am currently in my second year of. In my last 2 years of high school I attended an after school Photography class which prepared me a lot for College and also helped me create a portfolio which secured my place on the course. 

I started photography because I got enjoyment from it. I loved the excitement from seeing my images after I took them and being able to show people pictures of things they have seen so many times but not in the perspective I can show through my imagery. Photography also really opens your eyes to really see what is right in front of you, it helps you appreciate the most simplest yet most beautiful things we see every day. It's my way of connecting with people. For anyone who has read this far I'm going to be really cliché and finish up by saying;

It's far much more than just pressing the shutter.

-Ella-

Changing & Improving

My photography is constantly changing, I'm always working on new techniques and shooting in different ways, focusing on different genres and it's great, I love it. I love that one day I'll be working on portraits and the next I'll be working on still life or nature shots. The best way to figure out what you are good at is by trying different things so don't be afraid to reach out of your comfort zone!.

Also , I have recently created an account on 500px as I have started using Flickr less, so check it out here;

500px.com/ellamcquoid

-Ella-