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-

New York State Of Mind

I've been so busy recently with projects in college and trying to meet deadlines that I've been neglecting my blog so I apologise !

Recently I've been experimenting more with double exposure images and I've also re discovered my love for black and white images. So you'll probably notice more and more black & white photograph's as I write & shoot more.

''When you photograph people in colour, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls''- Ted Grant

One of my favourite photo related quotes.

Photograph of Danny layered with another one of my images, from New York City.

-Ella-

Pressed Light

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Here's another one of my images for a current project of mine called 'Light & Time'. There was a perfect glimpse of light shining through my window so I decided to make the most of it by placing different objects , that to me represent time (& possibly light) , directly underneath. I decided to put down a pressed flower of mine which has aged because to me it symbolises time and how time ages & changes things in different ways. 

I leaned the rose against the book spine to elevate it slightly to create the shadows underneath the flower to create more depth.

-Ella-

Alistair Grimley Photography

Alistair is an A-Level student currently studying photography, He is really talented at what he does and I suggest you check his work out. I follow his work on his blog and also on flickr and I have been amazed at the quality of each photograph. 

His work is documentary style with each image telling a story. As a photographer myself it's always great looking at other peoples work , it's great seeing so many different variety's of photography and seeing something in a way in which they see it. So I encourage you to check out his work. 

So here's the link to his blog: alistairgrimleyphotography.blogspot.co.uk 

One of Alistair Grimley's images.

-Ella-

Light & Time

Light & Time , what a perfectly titled project now that it's Autumn!.

 My favourite thing about this time of the year is the light (especially when it's highlighting all of the beautiful coloured leaves that quickly surround us). It's my favourite time of year to photograph so here are some of my image's from this exciting new project.

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You might be thinking that these photograph's are all a bit 'mismatched' and you'd be right in thinking so. My first shoot for this project I decided to photograph various things that relate to both or either Light & Time and that may be the only link between the different photographs but that's the only link they really need. 

Photograph 1:

An image of my hand with a stroke of light. In this image my hand represents the element of time. With time my hand will age.

Photograph 2: 

Time being Autumn in this case, the leaf has fallen because its that 'time' of the year. Taken on the window shelf directly facing the light.

Photograph 3:

An image of an instant photograph capturing a moment of light 'in an instant'.

-Ella-

Double Exposed

I went to Liverpool last week with a Pentax K1000 and a Kodak 36 exposure colour film. It felt so long ago since I last shot with a traditional camera that I was so excited to start shooting. I started taking photograph's as soon as I stepped off the train. I was requested to double expose the images which meant taking 72 photographs overall. 

For those of you who aren't sure what double exposure is where traditional film is concerned , it's loading your camera with film, using the film up , rewinding the film back and loading it back in, so you basically shoot over your images. 

Half way through shooting I felt a little regretful about having to double expose because I was quite pleased with the shots I was getting however I proceeded. 

One of the great things about shooting the old school way is the anticipation of getting back your pictures after they've been developed.

I got them back and I was fairly disappointed with the results. Flicking through the photo's made me wish I had followed my gut instinct and not double expose. Although there was a few I quite liked so here are one or two which didn't turn out so bad. 

-Ella-

This weeks favourites

As mentioned in my previous post it was 2012 that I started becoming more and more familiar with the idea of photography and pursuing it as a passionate interest, I've explored lots of different genres in photography since. Ranging from Landscapes to Still life , the more I have experimented with the more gradually I have found where I am most comfortable (however I do like a good challenge). Recently I have discovered my love for Product photography and Still life photography.

Here are some images from the past week.

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This last image is a photo of a Nikon film camera (without the lens attached), I took the image with my Canon DSLR looking directly towards the mirror which is inside the Nikon body. What I like most amount this photo is that it looks quite unusual, not to everyone's taste.

-Ella-

My favourite

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty certain today if the first day of Autumn 2014!

How exciting. Autumn is by far my favourite time of year, I love the fact it's getting closer to Christmas (eeek) and what a beautiful time of year that is but I'm going to be quite cliché and say I love it so much because of the Autumn colours. I adore capturing the leaves falling and the gradual change of yellow, red and orange tones that seem to quickly surround us as the weeks pass by. 

I suppose this is my first official autumn photo of the year then, I really like the simplicity of it and the contrast in textures, the crisp red leaf against the hard stoned path, the central composition and the creases in the paving slabs used to create a leading line effect.

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-Ella-

Deadly Delicate

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I thought I would share with you one of my favourite images of mine. I took this back in July and I also have it in black and white which too is very lovely. I'm not quite sure if its a moth or not however I found it in the house by the door and before laying it to rest in a plant pot I decided to take a quick close up shot, I was amazed at the detailing in its tiny body. How can something so small be so wonderfully detailed and beautiful? we see these creatures and many like it so often that we usually don't pay attention to its real beauty but when you stop to admire little things like this the world around suddenly becomes so much more interesting. 

-Ella-

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