Back to Nature!

I went for a walk with Hamish my Westie tonight and even though the light was fading, I still decided to take my camera and my 75 - 300mm lens.  

It's always a good time to try and capture some deer out grazing and resting in the fields, and although I was lucky enough to see them, I just couldn't get close enough to get a decent image.  It's my own fault really, it's exactly what I have the tripod for, and I completely forgot about it!  

I've been focusing so much on all of my college work, that I rarely get out to photograph nature anymore and I'm really missing it!  I'm going to set aside a few hours one evening and make use of the hides in the fields accross the road and get some worthy shots!!

But here's what I got today, from very far away and with an unneccessary shaky hand!!

 

Roisin

Food Advertising Photography

Wow...the most annoying thing just happened!!  I have spent the last hour typing a massive blog...and as I was trying to upload a picture...the whole blog deleted itself and I was left with a blank page!!  After screaming at my laptop for about 2 minutes, I had to leave the room and do a 10 minute workout on the punchbag to relieve my anger!!  

So...SIGH...and begin again...

For the last week or so I have been focusing on my advertising brief for 'Nestle' - given to me by my lecturer.  I have been set the task of promoting either their healthier products or to show their products being enjoyed along with a healthy balanced diet.  I have decided to use both of these ideas and create an ad campaign combining a few of their different products.

This afternoon after work, I set up my camera equipment in the orangery (conservatory), created my dishes and started shooting, with the help of everyone else who was working, holding lights and reflectors for me! :)

My message for this advert is that by combining their products, you can enjoy a healthy balanced diet and have this tasty and healthy dish for breakfast - it will get you going for the day by boosting your brain and body energy levels and concentration, and providing vitamins, minerals, omegas and antioxidants

  This is not necessarily the image I will use, it was one of many taken today but I do love it!

For this dish, I have used the following products and ingredients; Nestle Shredded wheat, Nestle Fitness cereal, (Nestle) Ski yoghurt's - plain and strawberry, Walnuts, Strawberries, Raspberries, Banana and honey.
 I have also created a nutritional information chart for this dish;

Nutrition Information	Per Portion 100g	% RDA Per Portion
Energy	336kcal	16%
Fat	9g	11%
Of which Saturates	2.5g	12%
Carbohydrates	59g	19%
Fibre	20g	N/A
Protein	12g	26%
Sodium	159mg	1%
Also containing;	Omega 3 oils
	Antioxidants

Hopefully I will be able to create an advert that will meet with the brand identity and be a convincing enough concept to be a Nestle campaign! (Theoretically)

Roisin

Weekly Tasks

I haven't blogged much about the photos I've been taking these past few weeks... Every week we are set a new task in class to photograph something different.  

Here are my attempts at the following;

Temperature

  

Levitation

Bokeh

I really love the temperature pictures.  I set the camera on a tripod...cause I can do that now!! :) And I set it to 1/8000 and high speed burst against a black backdrop and started flicking the lighter with my left hand while shooting with my right!  It took quite a while to get the images I wanted...as you could probably imagine, and my left hand was killing me by the time I finished!! ...Worth it though, I just love them...they look so magical!!

The levitation shots weren't actually as hard as I thought...although they where rushed, and clearly not my best work, I'm still happy with them!  The monkey was shot using 2 images and creating a mask in photoshop to delete the rest of the image I didn't need.  But for the image of the sighnsI used the cloning tool, as I wasn't sure how else to create it...I think it's worked ok though, I'm happy with the results!

My Bokeh images where shot over the christmas break and I've never got round to publishing them...so here you go!

I hope you like them all!! :)

Roisin

New Toys!!

So I have been meaning to Blog about my new toys for a whole week now, but I have just been so busy, that the only time I remember about it is when I'm lying in bed!! 

I have been given, from the same friends that gladly donated the tripod to me...a 35mm Pentax P30, a new flash...which is fantastic, seeing as my neice managed to break the 2 that I had, a x2 lens and a 75 - 300mm lens, both to fit the pentax!! :)

I was out today snapping away in the fields with my dog...Hamish.  I was getting some good macro's with the x2, but the only problem is that it's all so heavy and I don't have a proper bag to carry it all in!!  That's definitly something I need to be investing in - camera bags, and somewhere to store all of my equipement!  I now have quite a lot of camera equipement, including my portable studio, the problem is I have the smallest house and, I must admit...I'm a bit of a hoarder!!  I have cardboard boxes dotted all over the house, filled with camera stuff and broken flashes!! :)

 

Roisin

Advertising Photography

A lot of what I'm focusing on this year falls into 'Fine Art' and 'Food Photography'.  I'm still unsure of what I want to do when I graduate later this year.. alarmingly it's not too far away now!.  Do I start my own business, photographing what though even I'm still unsure...although people do pay for a photographer to simply be able to express themselves...don't they??  Or do I work in some sort of advertising or editorial role, with an agency or newspaper?  The latter is clearly the more sensible route, but my problem is, I've never been a very sensible person!  I Love what I do and the images I get to create, and creating them for other people gives me huge joy... I just don't know if I could work for someone in the sense of having a real job!  I know this sounds silly and childish but I love working for myself.  I've ran a successful business in the past so I'm confident I can make it work for photography, in the sense of having a knowledgeable business plan and confidence in my images, although the clear problem is cash flow, which with a steady job, wouldn't be an issue!!

We've recently been set a new advertising brief at college, so it's good to get a sense of the kind of things I would be asked to produce for a real client.  We were given 5 choices within the brief, and I have chosen to portray the Nestle brand....we'll see how it goes!!

For one of my other briefs however we are focusing on the use of text and image.  We had to produce a vintage and contemporary style poster to fit with the feel of our chosen subject... I chose to focus the brief on food and drink, so I have created some posters to advertise Bulmers Original Cider.  Here is the poster I have created for the vintage look.



I have never been great with typefaces, and finding the right one for this style of advert was hard.  I ended up choosing one that the Bulmer font is based on.  Unfortunately I can't seem to successfully download the Bulmer font without it changing all the settings on my laptop to something completely different...I now have a default web browser called...Vosteran...where the hell has google gone?  Oh well, I hope you like my first attempt at advertising, it can hopefully only get better!!

Roisin

My New Tripod!!

Look what I was given tonight...AS A GIFT!!  As it happens, I was sitting here tonight thinking I really want to get some long exposure shots of light at night, and how annoying it is not having a tripod; so I started searching online, pining for one... and one literally falls into my lap!!!  What can be better than that...especially in a week when I've had 2 hospital trips cause of a virus!! Didums I hear you cry!! ;)  But thanks to our lovely friends, I now have a brand new (to me) toy to go out and play with! So seeing as I'm feeling better, I'm off into the garden to get some long exposures of some stars hopefully - if not then I'll settle for some car tail lights!! ;)

Roisin

Ho Ho Hogmany!!!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year!  

It's funny sometimes; growing up in Scotland and then living in England, it's easy to forget how differently we all speak!  The number of people I have had to explain to this week what Hogmany is, is hilarious!! (Even as I type, my computers telling me it doesn't even exist!)  It's not only that, I've lived in England for 5 years and this is the first time anyone has taken note of me saying it...haha thanks guys, nice to know you're all listening! ;)  But I did have a fabulous Christmas at home and  Hogmany was brought in with a family I was very close to growing up, and don't get to spend any time with now I live so far away, it was smashing!! ;)

I didn't actually manage to get any college work done over Christmas though, as I was just so busy all the time...it's hard being the centre of attention when you go home! (Haha..yeah right!!)  But I'm on a serious guilt trip now, I really have to start cracking the whip!!  

I did however manage to get my nieces to sit still long enough on the 2nd, to do a little photo shoot of them; the excitement of the portable studio going up in the living room was enough get my 3 year old niece ecstatic, but that quickly ran out after 7 minutes!!  Here's what I did manage to get however!

I shot these freehand as, surprise surprise...I still don't have a tripod for my Canon!  

Unfortunately the shutterspeed wasn't quick enough so they're not all of the best quality.  I always feel under pressure when doing any studio work, so my work often suffers as a consequence of me not taking the time to set up correctly...I always think I have,  and I'm later proved wrong! I need to remember that I am still only a student and so it's ok to take my time as I'm still learning, and I'm not expected to know everything...yet!! 

Roisin