Rescued Film

Several weeks ago, in fact probably months ago, my film camera stopped working right in the middle of a photoshoot. To say I was gutted would be an understatement, as I had bought film cameras before which didn't work and I knew my parents wouldn't let me 'waste' money by continuing to try and shoot film. So imagine how happy I was the other day when I randomly decided to test it out, and it was working again! I had only used about 4/24 photos but I wanted to get the roll developed to make sure the camera was working properly, so I ended up taking lots of photos in the garden and at Hunstanton. This is one of my chickens called Stella- sadly she was ill and died about 2 days after I took this.Can I be really vain for a moment and say I love this photo? Yes, I think I can. Especially after looking through photos of the sixth form ball the other day (I still haven't shown you photos of that actually, must do that at some point!), at which I think I looked awful.Various photos of myself and my brother at Hunstanton, which I took just to finish the roll really. They are a bit pale (especially the first) because it was too bright for the film, which was ISO 200.

Black Swan

Just a little post to show you some photos I took a while back for my art project, based on the concept of Black Swan. One the most fun photoshoots I've ever done as my best friends came along to help me with carrying things etc, and we were on the stage in the school hall so it was quite cool!

This isn't one of the photos I used in the end because it didn't fit in with the concept so well, but it's crazy how strong ballet dancers are! Here the model wasn't holding onto anything at all, just using her own strength to hold herself up- amazing.

I have my school ball this saturday and then a friend's party the following day, so I'll be sure to take some photos of my outfits to show you. My ball dress is vintage 80's, I love it!

Reflections

Well I handed in my art coursework on monday, and tuesday (February 1st) I got given the exam topic- busy busy! I was so glad to finish my previous project, towards the end I almost collapsed from exhaustion because I was spending all of my free time at school in art and not sleeping too well. But hey ho, i've chosen the topic of 'Mirrors' which I think will be quite interesting, and to start me off I've done an artist study of Katie Lionheart. Not all of her photos, but there are a few where she uses mirrors. I had to be so careful with this mirror in the woods so I didn't scratch it.

The Third Step!

This is the third and final photoshoot for my AS art coursework outcome. I'm using three images from each shoot and printing them onto fabric (white cotton, which is a detachable 'lining' I made for this dress), and then decorating on and around them with thread and pen. I'll take photos when it's done- it's too hard to explain! I think I almost collapsed yesterday because of a lack of sleep combined with me spending literally all of my time outside lessons in art doing my final. I was meant to be going away to visit relatives this weekend but luckily now i'm staying at home to do my art, so i'm much less stressed today!

By the way, this blog design probably isn't permenant but I just wanted rid of that dark background

The Second Step

You remember the previous photo post for my A-level art final? Well, this is the second photoshoot with that dress. It was set in and around the local church (we know the vicar and asked for permission, don't worry) and was more of a sombre mood than the first. There is one more of these shoots still to come. My deadline is on monday; i'm not sure if i'll be able to finish by then because i'm away this weekend visiting relatives. I'm just going to have to work lots in my free time at school!

The First Step

Yesterday afternoon I had a shoot with two of my friends, with one of them being the model for the two of us. She is a ballet dancer so that was great, not to mention the fact that she's very pretty! This is the first photoshoot of three (maybe four) which I have to do for my a-level art final piece- it's actually an installation piece but I need photos for it using this dress with various models in different settings. I did another photoshoot today with a different friend which I will show you sometime soon! All of these photos are unedited, and the dress is vintage Laura Ashley from a charity shop in Cambridge- the sleeves aren't part of the dress, but she put this over the dress she was wearing anyway. It was really windy but thankfully there was no rain, which was our main concern!

Those last two are my favourites- pretty ballet dancer friends are the best, haha!

I hope I can get that dress back before summer, because with a skinny belt and my clogs it looks actually quite nice (the dress is a main part of the installation, so I don't know if they'll let me have it until October).

Oh and also I am planning to create a new header for the blog soon, so if it doesn't happen within the next week feel free to leave me a shouty comment to remind me because I may forget!

Frosty Mornings

I haven't been out to take photos for probably a month now, but the frost was insane today so I thought I should take advantage of it while is lasts. Seriously, I don't think I've ever seen itso frosty!

The spider's webs looked really amazing, like how they do when they're covered in dew but the frost meant they stood out even more. They looked kinda of eerie too, like Halloween decorations.

I didn't take tons of photos because it was absolutely freezing and I kept having to take my coat and gloves off, but i'm pretty pleased with the ones I did get. I'm going to buy a couple more rolls of film soon so hopefully I'll get a shoot or two organised and get them developed. I do like digital but nothing can really beat getting a roll of film back and being really pleased with the photos you got.

I'm wearing: cardigan and polo shirt- Joules, jeans- mini Boden, headband- Zara, brogues- New Look. That's also the L'Oreal nail polish from yesterday, it's doing better than Barry M so far!

When I was on holiday in York back in the summer I found a Minolta film slr at a car boot sale for £5, and I was desperate to use it straight away. But I spent ages using up the first roll of film, and then when I was winding it back up it snapped and so I accidentally wiped everything. I decided to have another go, but this time I would use up the film quickly just to see if it actually worked. This time I took the whole camera into Boots and the lady showed me what I had done wrong the first time (there's a little button underneath that you have to press to release the film!), and lucky for me the film turned out well. These are some of the photos I took last saturday morning at a photoshoot with my friend for my a- level art project, and I thought I would share. I'm crazy busy at the moment with art work, but as it's being collected in this friday to be marked I won't be able to do any this weekend, so hopefully i'll get some blogging done! I miss being here!dress from Jack Wills (mine, I styled her)

dress from Topshop

I used to collect minerals, and I needed to use up the film roll, so I arranged pretty things inside an old suitcase.

I officially have the coolest friends ever, at the (late) Halloween party I went to last saturday my friend had carved a Harry Potter face onto her pumpkin! It's also the cutest little face ever, a double win!

Happy Hallowe'en!

Happy Hallowe'en Everyone!I don't really know why we celebrate Hallowe'en, but this year it's been a good excuse for making cakes and generally having fun! First we baked cakes in orange cases and iced them in green with chocolate sprinkles and sour worms on top:They do look a bit strange! Then we also had some caramel shortbread squares from Tesco which had cute little Hallowe'en pictures on them in white:

And then just for decoration we had a large cake stand on the table covered in little gourds:

Next weekend i'm going to a belated Hallowe'en party at my friend's house, which I can't wait for as we haven't all been together for ages. I'm not dressing up, but I shall wear the Nightmare Before Christmas ankle socks which I bought from Disneyland Paris!

Bonjour Mes Amis!

Oh my gosh I didn't realise it has been a whole thirteen days since my last post, so major apologies! I have been away for five days though, on a sixth form art trip to Paris with my school, so I thought I would share a few photos from the trip. They are a bit of a mish mash of various thingslike buildings, landmarks, and sneaky street fashion. We went to loads of places on the trip, mainly art galleries like the Louvre, Rodin, D'Orsay, L'Orangerie and Montmarte, but then also a few other places like the Eiffel Tower and Cite Europe (at Calais). We didn't get to do that much shopping other than buying postcards to go in our sketchbooks, but there was a Zara at Cite Europe which I think almost every girl on the trip bought something from!
I'm hoping that i'll get time to do some more outfit posts soon, I really miss them, but a- levels are so much work! Especially art and textiles, they are crazy. I have a six and a half hour shift at work tomorrow because I took on extra for half term, so I am gonna be so tired. But I really hope that I'll get some more stuff on here soon! Oooh and also I got some heels today for the sixth form ball (not until February but I need my dress altering in the next few weeks before the lady goes on holiday)- they're black wedges and I love them! The upper is suede and the heel is patent, and they only cost £20 from Dorothy Perkins, literally the first and only pair I tried on. I may take some photos of those to show you soon!

I love how my new lens gets my good focus like this. The shutters on french windows are so cute!
Candid photo of a girl in year 13 outside a small gallery on the first day.

I got my friend to take a photo of me outside the Louvre- this was one of my favourite oufits from the trip, unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the other one I liked. Candid one of my friend taking a photo, I love symmetry!

From the left: Holly, me (Gemma- I don't think I actually have my name on here?!), Celia. Outside the Louvre.

The pyramids outside the Louvre. Proud of myself for getting this shot so quickly, I do love the colours though.

These birds just seemed to be everywhere!

One of my favourite photos, candid of a woman looking at the paintings in L'Orangerie. I just love all of the tones in it. Disneyland!!!

Yes, we did go on the Dumbo ride to start with, because we are definitely children.

Just on the way out of the 'It's a Small World' ride, which was totally cute with lots of puppets and singing. We went on this ride too, it took us about an hour to queue but there were eight of us at this point so we could just chat. It was pretty awesome though, and a decent length for a rollercoaster I think (I don't exactly have much experience though!). The things you sit in (carriages?...) looked like trucks behind a train so it was really cool. We found a Starbucks in Disneyland, obviously everyone who went on the trip ended up in there drinking various types of coffees, hot chocolates and frappuccinos. All these cute little birds were on a bush outside the Notre Dame, this was probably the best photo I got but one of my friends got one which was 1000000000x better!

This was inside the Notre Dame, I didn't realise that she knew I was taking a photo focused on her until I saw her smiling through the viewfinder. So lovely :)

All photos are completely unedited