Youtube

As you guys know I love photography!! But I've recently been exploring moving image as well which is completely new for me. I'm having a lot of fun with it and creating 'vlogs' of day trips and outings which I upload to my YouTube channel. There are a lot of similarities between photography and moving image obviously, like framing, focusing etc. but a lot of new challenges in the way I handle my camera and try and keep it steady whilst panning! I'm also learning to use new software as I can't edit videos on Photoshop of course!! I'm currently using iMovie which is a fairly simple editing software. Like I said I am loving creating these videos, but at the moment not many people see them! I put them on YouTube but it's hard to get people to look at them and I really would love some feedback. If you could take a second to check out the videos that would be great, and maybe subscribe or share them if you like what you see. I put a lot of effort into them :)
 I think one of my favourite videos and the one I am most proud of is my video of my trip to London.
Click the box below to watch it....

I have other videos of my trip to France and cmpambridge and other videos like hauls and photoshoots. So have a browse.
I really hope you enjoy and don't forget to subscribe!

Thank you so much
Becky

University Diaries

Hello!

I often talk about uni on here and I just wanted to inform you that I now have a new blog! The new blog is called University Diaries, and I will be writing posts on here about shopping for uni, cooking, student finance and accommodation, moving out, freshers- all that kind of stuff as and when I experience it all! So please head over to my new blog post and follow it so that you can be updated with my new material. As for this page, I will continue to post Photography related items on here as often as I can!
Hope you all like the new page, please share with your family and friends and give me feedback if you can. I really appreciate it.

New page- http://universitydiaries-becky.blogspot.co.uk

Bye for now
Becky

A photographers Christmas wish list...

Christmas is fast approaching and it's time to start thinking about presents and I'm sure I am not the only one who finds this a really difficult task!
I started writing this post last year, but it was a bit too near to Christmas and I don't think it would have helped people as they would have already finished their shopping! So I decided to try it a little earlier this year. I wanted to make a list of presents you can buy for your photographer friends pro or amateur! Most of them are just cute little themed gifts that someone with a passion for photography would really love and your purse will love them too, because they do not break the bank!

So if you are struggling to find a good present read on...

1) The first present is this quirky camera lens mug from gettingpersonal.com
Perfect for a cup of coffee on those long days editing at your computer! It's only £14.99 to which I don't think is too bad. I have seen this for sale in other places such as John Lewis and Amazon, so you might want to look around just in case.

http://www.gettingpersonal.co.uk/gifts/camera-lens-mug.htm?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product_feed&utm_campaign=froogle&gclid=CNPtreSi57oCFQjKtAodEGcA3w

2) I'm sure you all know someone who uses an iphone... lets face it, most of the world do- well if they love taking photos they probably feel a little limited by the straight forward camera, so why not buy them this 12x zoom lens which is only £18.99 from eBay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/141114676072?lpid=83&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=83&ff19=0

3) How about a present for that chocolate loving photographer? I found this chocolate bar with a cool retro camera on the front, I really love it.

It is from Amazon, so if you are not happy about buying food or drink online I wouldn't recommend this, but the reviews of this product are really good and apparently the chocolate tastes great! £12.50 - you can't go far wrong!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Camera-Belgian-Chocolate-picture-perfect/dp/B006ZZOXS4/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1384535728&sr=8-9&keywords=gifts+for+photographers

4) If you're looking for something a little more personal why not use one of your own photos to create a gift, or maybe you could pick your favourite image that your friend has taken and put this on a gift. Either way it shows thought and you could give them a really useful and creative gift!
Places like http://www.photobox.co.uk can print your photos on cushions, jigsaws, magnets, canvases and so much more! There are so many photo  printing websites and they all do something a little different and for different costs, why not have a browse and see what you can find :)

5) Something I like personally is photography inspired jewellery, and I have quite a lot of this as I have received it for gifts which is always nice. I have two really pretty camera necklaces, one is a Nikon and one is just a vintage camera, they are very pretty and original. You can purchase similar items online...

I like this one which is a bargain at £5.99 from http://www.seasonsonline.co.uk/crystal-camera-necklace-p6653/?gclid=CNCL_d-n57oCFcTLtAodeBEAOQ

6) Is your friend saving for some new equipment? This might just be the present for them. At £8.05 this camera money box is a really cool bargain present! 

You can buy it from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sil-Antique-Camera-Money-Box/dp/B00A4EQED4/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&qid=1384536420&sr=8-24&keywords=gifts+for+photographers

7) My final idea is something again, I really like! It is a photo album in the shape of camera negatives.  It is £9.99 and a really unique way for them to store their favourite photographs.

http://www.find-me-a-gift.co.uk/film-strip-photo-album-frame.html?gclid=CJX1jp6o57oCFQXHtAod7mUAUQ#utm_source=froogle&utm_medium=free&utm_term=Film+Strip+Photo+Album+Frame

Obviously I wasn't sponsored or anything buy the companies that make these products. 

I hope you like these suggestions and find them useful.

Happy Christmas shopping

Bye for now

Becky

Brighton II

After an early rise and a traffic filled journey, we arrived at the beach of sunny Brighton. It was freezing cold don't get me wrong, but sunny- and nobody cares about the temperatures I have to endure when they are looking at my photos, haha! I was very glad I took a pair of gloves because my fingers were numb after a few seconds of photographing!

We stood on a high level, looking out across the beach and while standing there a seagull perched on the railing. The seagulls local to where I live don't want to have anything to do with me, but this one seemed to love the attention of being photographed, so I took my time varying my angles and settings to frame him nicely.

I chose this image because the seagull was facing the right way and his features were nice and sharp, I like the fact that you can see the wheel and pier behind him, which illustrates the surroundings perfectly. The sky is lovely and blue so it looks like the height of summer.. and not mid november! I didn't edit this photo much, I simply cropped it to give it a panoramic feel which emphasises the length of the pier, and I balanced the brightness and contrast to enhance the image.

After the seagull flew away, we walked down to the lower beach level and walked along to the pier. I photographed the wheel, fascinated by the abstract images I was capturing as I altered my angles and positioning around the base. This photo is probably my favourite as it looks quite surreal and abstract. I once again increased the brightness and contrast to really highlight the linear elements of the image.  The sky interests me as well with it's subtle gradient and stark blue, which is quite different to the appearance of the sky in the previous image.

The pier was shut, which was a shame but as I was so desperate to photograph it, that meant that we had to come back later which was actually much better as the light in the early evening was so fantastic (but I didn't know that at this point ).

The whole point of going to Brighton was to visit the university so of course we had to fit that in between the photographing!  Sadly the course wasn't for me, though if you are interested in the university I certainly wouldn't dismiss it as it looked like a good course, just not the perfect one for me. We left earlier than expected for this reason, so we had plenty of time to wander around and take more photos.

This was probably my favourite photo of the day, which I just caught as we were wandering past the end of the road looking for a nice coffee shop...

Later on in the day as the sun was starting to set and the town was filled with a pretty orange glow. I took this opportunity to photography the horizon, focusing on the dramatic clouds and sunbeams. I altered my settings to make the subjects in the foreground appear shadowy and silhouetted against the light.

 I would really like this photo, as I personally think the composition is quite interesting but I didn't realise when taking the photo that my lens was set to manual focus, so the burnt pier is not quite as sharp as I would have liked. 

I think the sky in this photo is beautiful and I really like the silhouette of the couple and the bird, they give a really beautiful touch to this image.

Finally I spotted this puddle which was reflecting the buildings across the road perfectly, so I took my  opportunity to take these reflection shots.

 

I really hope you like these images

Bye for now

Becky 

Brighton

Hi everyone!!

I have a new job at next, which I'm sure most of you have heard of but if you're not from England maybe not. It's a huge chain of shops that sells clothing and homeware etc. I'm really enjoying it, but it's taking up a lot of my time and I am realising that weeks are going by when I haven't managed to get out and take any photos. So as I travel to Brighton today to look at a possible university choice, I am making an effort to take my camera with me, with the hope of taking some good snaps. It's not that I have lost my interest in photography at all, I am still as passionate as ever, but with two part time jobs alongside university applications I am struggling to find the time to blog, vlog, and photograph as much as I would love to. I am hoping to do a review of my new lens ASAP, which is a 50mm 1:14 lens, which I purchased after trying out my friend's 50mm lens and completely falling in love with it! This is the lens I am going to take with me to Brighton today and tomorrow along with my trust worthy 18-105mm!  

I am also hopefully going to have some Brighton photographs for you in the next few days, though I do have a few shifts at work coming up, but I will try my best because I really am missing blogging regularly. Sorry it has taken me such a long time to update, I hope you understand that it's a busy period in my life and manage to stick with me, because I really do love writing these blogs and producing photos! 

Bye for now, and thank you!

Becky x

Brighton courtesy of google. I'm hoping the weather will stay nice enough for me to get some sunny shots! 

 Ready to go!

Blogging and Vlogging

Hi everyone!

I think most of my posts start with the phrase 'sorry I haven't updated in a while' and this one would be starting in a similar way...however I have been updating- in a different place.

I am now on YOUTUBE and so a lot of the things I used to write about in blog posts, (days out, photo shoots etc.) are now recorded in youtube 'vlogs' rather than google 'blogs'.  

I'm a creative person, so for me it's much easier to get my message across in a video than in a blog post because I feel I ramble too much on here. This means I have put a lot more time an effort into recording activities and photoshoots, because I love making videos! This doesn't however mean, that I will be stopping blogging altogether, I enjoy blogging too- but I think there will be more of a balance between youtube and blogger now. I want to continue with my business on a budget series, and will still be uploading photos as regularly as possible but now you can also see room tours, photo shoots and vlogs on my youtube channel which should be just as interesting (if not more). 

I would LOVE it if you could check out my youtube channel, I have a few videos and so many more planned. Subscribing is free-it would mean the world to me if you could click 'subscribe' you will then automatically be updated when I post new content and I wont have to nag you all ;) - and I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments and via the 'like' button. Another thing you can do is share the videos and the video links to your facebook or twitter, this will allow more people to see the videos which would be amazing! I am trying to post a variety of videos on my channel which will hopefully interest everyone, so like I said please check it out. 

To get to my youtube channel simply click this link-

http://www.youtube.com/user/truebecky

Or to subscribe instantly click this link-

 http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=truebecky

Thank you so much
Bye for now
Becky 

End of school is in sight...

Hi everyone,

It has been a long time since I wrote a blog post... sorry! I have been so busy though. I was planning to update you on my office, and my computer and all my business things but, the week I moved in to my office, I started 3 projects for the final stretch of my A-levels and everything went a bit chaotic. So, 5 sketchbooks and 30 hours of exams later, I can see the end and I only have my 15 hour art exam left. On wednesday everything will be done and I am free to update as often as possible. I hope you guys can forgive me for leaving for such a long time, but I have some things to update you on and I don't know if I mentioned that I am having a gap year... well, I am! So that year out from school and education should give me plenty of time to make lots of new blog posts and I am planning to branch into the world of Youtube too.

I have a LOT of plans for my gapyear and I did already mention setting up my business and a few of my plans for my gap year, I mentioned my first wedding shoot and things like that. So you already have a rough idea of what I should be doing but if you haven't seen those posts click this link - http://becky-iblog-becky.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/gap-year-and-business.html - and have a read.

So, like I said I have done my first wedding and that was really great and really boosted my confidence- though it was really stressful. After I did that wedding, I set up a website with weebly.com  to allow the wedding guests to view the photos in an online gallery. I hope to expand this website and put a lot more photos on there so that it becomes the home of my business. There are not many photos on there yet, but feel free to click the link and check it out as I will be uploading on there as regularly as possible.
http://beckywealephotography.weebly.com .

I mentioned how I planned to make videos and this is still on the cards for me. I want to branch out into the world of Youtube, but I think that is going to take a bit more courage as I have never done anything like that before. I think starting this blog was a great way for me to practise speaking to people and about the things I love and I want to do this in video form, because a) I have loads of ideas for fun videos and b) I don't know if people can really be bothered to read all of my rambling blog posts. I am learning to use iMovie on my new computer, so this should help me with this plan. Watch this space.

My office- Now I did mention before and after photos, and room tours and things like this and I have not forgotten I just haven't found the time until now, because my room keeps getting messy every time I go  to work on my sketchbook or something. I spend hours making it look nice and beautiful, as I really do think it is a lovely space and I am so grateful to have it- I have lots of photos, a beautiful fish tank and a hand-built desk, it's just perfect and I really cant thank my parents enough for letting me create this space- but whenever I spend a lot of time in here, painting and drawing and trimming photos and research for my sketchbooks it just looks like a dump! So... I really want to upload photos of it at it's best. I have a few photos that I will put together and upload in the next post though, so you can get a rough idea of what it looks like.

Becky x

Computer

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to update you super quickly on my computer situation, because it is very exciting for me!

Basically I got a laptop when I was 12, which was great but it slowly started to deteriorate until it just stopped working last year. So for the past year I have been using my mum's laptop for work etc. but that was becoming increasingly tricky, as my mum needed it for work and my coursework was taking my longer as I progressed through sixth form. We spoke to a few photographers about the best computer to get, as I mainly use a computer to edit and blog etc. I knew at this point my plan to start a business and sell my photos and so I knew really I needed a decent computer for that.
Anyway, it was recommended to me that I get an iMac or a Macbook pro, and eventually after much debate I decided on the iMac, mainly because if I have a laptop I am tempted to wander and end up getting distracted easily. My parents said they would 'invest' in one for me, for my 18th birthday and christmas present, as they knew it would be useful to me. I was obviously, therefore, expecting to receive an iMac in April, when my birthday is. But, just last week they came home and presented me with my iMac. I am so grateful, it's absolutely brilliant. I downloaded photoshop elements, as that was all I could afford at the moment, but it's really good.

I am really thrilled with my computer. When I was looking for information about which computer to buy, I wanted as many opinions as possible. Now I have my iMac I am happy to answer any questions or help in anyway that I can if you are thinking about buying one. I am happy to do tutorials or advice blogs, so just let me know! Also if you want to find out why I chose an iMac over another computer, let me know.


Bye for Now

Becky

Business on a budget (2)...

Hello!

Welcome to the second post in my 'business on a budget' series. If you haven't read tip number one click this link http://becky-iblog-becky.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/business-on-budget-1.html and for all the rest of my 51 posts click here- http://becky-iblog-becky.blogspot.co.uk

So my parents said that as we have a spare room in our house, I can use it as an office. The only thing is I don't want to spend a huge amount of money at the moment, so it's really just going to be a spruce up. I obviously want it to look nice so I am working on accessories and decorative items that will look nice, be useful and be cheap!

The first thing I really wanted was a pretty little unit to store paper work and all the boring stuff, but without it looking messy and chaotic. When I helped to decorate my parent's café we found a lovely little storage unit in tk-maxx for £3.99 (I think). I know that £3.99 isn't a huge amount of money, but the costs soon add up so I decided to look for an alternative.


This is the tk-maxx one - pretty right?

I found this box in my house, that nobody was really using.

It was quite similar to the shape of the shop bought one, so i decided to give it a coat of paint. 

I literally just wiped it, to get rid of dust and then started painting with white acrylic paint. It needed about 3 coats, but I left the tiniest bit of green to give it the shabby chic look.

Then I simply went onto Photoshop, typed in 'Becky's Files' and selected a font I liked. I printed it out and carefully cut out all of the letters, which took a while (might have been easier with a craft knife rather than scissors). The last step was gluing the letters on using PVA, and it was finished. I am thrilled  with the results, it didn't cost me a penny. You could try painting any shelves, or boxes to spruce them up! This will look perfect in my office, and are really useful!

Bye for Now

P.s. the glue in the picture wasn't dry, but you get the idea...

Business on a budget (1) ...

Hi everyone! In my last post I mentioned a couple of things-

1) I am turning a spare room into an office

2) I might be getting an iMac

3) I am starting a business

Well i thought I would update you today as things are moving on nicely.
Firstly, I did say in my last video i didn't want to go into too much detail about things, because I plan to make youtube videos, covering similar points but for now i am just updating on my blog, so I guess I can explain and if need be I will recap with some youtube videos at a later date...

Anyway, a week or so ago I decided that the first step in business and order myself some business cards. I don't have an official website or anything so I literally just put my name, email address and mobile phone number on the cards, with an explanation of who I am and where I am based. I picked a pretty design (in keeping with the colour scheme and 'style' of my business- more on that later) and ordered them. Now, I thought theses were going to be rather cheap, the website ( http://www.vistaprint.co.uk ) boasted free business cards, so I was obviously expecting them to be free, but as I began editing, and adding postage cost they ended up working out at just under £10, which isn't too bad. I was really excited when they arrived on my doorstep today, and I was really pleased with the outcome. They look really high quality and very professional, and i really did get loads, so I am not so disappointed with the price now.

This is roughly how many I got, give or take a few... pretty sure it was like 250 or 500 or something like that! Definitely enough for me at the moment.

These will be perfect for the wedding next week to give to anyone who asks for my details, quickly and professionally. 

So my first business on a budget tip, is to get yourself some business cards! It really is a vital part of starting a successful business and getting your name out there. 

I plan to pop these cards in envelopes when I post prints, leave them in shops, give them to friends and family etc. just so they know how to get in contact with me. If people have your details at their fingertips they are more likely to contact you for work, because they wont need to waste time searching for you when they need you!

Also, sign up to vista print and sometimes you get special offers and deals for cheap purchasing. I got a fab little booklet filled with coupons and vouchers for money off purchases, with my business cards, so I will definitely be making use of those.

(sorry they are back to front!)

Bye for now

Becky

P.s get ordering those business cards! 

P.p.s. please don't judge me if you see any uncapitalised 'I' letters. Getting used to my new keyboard!

Gap year and business

Hello everyone! I think I will be updating fairly regularly now as I have a blogger app which makes it soooooo much easier to update.

Basically, yesterday I told you about the wedding I was photographing, and the first of my commissioned work, and this got me really excited about my gap year, and what I want to so. I don't know if I explained my situation, but I didn't really find a university I liked enough to commit to for three-four years. I really liked the course at Coventry, but I didn't like the accommodation really and the city was ok, but I wasn't really wowed, and I know that for the amount that university costs to attend now, I really needed to 100% love the places I applied to. So, I decided to take a year out, go to loads of open days, expand my portfolio and get some work experience, but as I kept thinking about it I sort of went off the idea of university at all, not sure why I just didn't think that for me personally, it was the best idea. So, I looked into the possibilities of starting a business. Now part of my business plan is to start making youtube videos, about photography, a-levels, gap years, university alternative options, etc. so I don't want to delve too much into all of that because I want to save some things for the videos.

But what this blog post is really about is my gap year, I got really excited about my small 'jobs'. (I got paid so technically they are jobs, but I guess it's not regular work at the moment). I haven't even left school and I've already had two paid jobs, which is exciting for me because I'm gonna be honest here, these jobs were sort of handed to me, I didn't go out searching for them, but I feel regardless I have made my way into the photography ladder, baby steps at a time.

I plan to get an iMac for my 18th birthday, and my parents said I could have a spare room in our house for an office, so I can spruce if up and give it a lick of paint in about two weeks time, when I am on holiday. I ordered business cards yesterday, and I am getting very over excited as I keep saying. I have huuggeee plans.

The point to this post really, is just to say that I will be setting up a business, selling prints and personalised work, but there will be detailed posts and links available to view soon, and I will blog about my new office and the redecoration process. Hopefully about the wedding, the iMac and any progress I make with my business. I will try and keep you all informed of the process, and will update as often as possible.

A after all that, expect we posts, possible videos and a website! Eeekk! Exciting stuff :)


Bye for now

Becky

Apps

I know I briefly mentioned apps, in my Christmas Day post but I wanted to give you a quick list of my favourite photography apps. I can't arrange my photo order on here so I will put the apps in the same order as the photos at the bottom enjoy...

Firstly, Instagram! I love love love Instagram. Please feel free to read my previous post where I explain my reasons for this, I don't want to repeat myself. My Instagram is @beckyweale if you want to follow, I will follow back! I'd love to hear from you if you followed me after reading this, so leave a comment on one a photo, telling me if you followed me after reading this and ill give you a shout out! I'd love to hear from you. ;)

Second- pad gram, similar to Instagram but specifically designed for the iPad rather than the iPhone or iPod touch. I really like pad gram as you can easily view a large selection of photos, and you can quickly see likes and comments on each photo, but I think I still prefer Instagram. I find it easier to navigate personally.

Third- pic joiner! I love this app! It does what it says on the tin, it joins your pictures which can be super useful if you have more than one photo you want to upload or you just think particular photos look better as a series etc. if I am cooking I like using this app because I can take photos of the process, and the end result and I don't have to upload 4 different photos. I also like combining photos when I have been with my friends and I want to 'summarise' (if that is the right word) all the photos from our day. Whatever you want to use it for, I'm sure you'll find something it's great!

Fourth- fat booth, which isn't really a photography app, but it's really fun and especially for children it can be a right laugh! (This list isn't in order by the way or this app would be a bit further down).

Fifth- vintage cam. I like this app because you can put loads filters on your photos, like Instagram filter which I love, but without needing Instagram. They make dull photos look really creative and 'vintage'! ;)

Sixth- group photo. Now, I was sceptical about this app, but it is rather clever actually, and much quicker than sig photoshop which I used to have to do before. Lets say you've taken two photos, of the same people, in the same place but you look good in only one, and your friend looks good in the other one. Problem right? Nope! This app allows you to swap your head! Haha sounds crazy I know, but you can literally switch your beautiful face with your slightly less beautiful face to create a perfect image of two perfect faces ;) I love this app, because I always blink in photos.

Seventh- iPhoto! My favourite app by far!! I think is app is like £2-3.00 but is really worth it. It's one of the apps that comes with an iMac if you have one, so I've heard. There is a great tutorial on this app on youtube, http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3HKgK6iupls . It has some really quick and easy editing options, filters etc. you can adjust colour, remove spots, brighten and darken areas, remove redeye etc. every basic thing you need to do to a photo. It's not particularly advanced, you wouldn't replace your desktop photoshop with it, but for a cheap app it's extremely good!

Eighth- photoshop! I have photoshop touch, and photoshop express. Photoshop express was free I think, and touch was £6.99. I was expecting great things from photoshop touch and as far as apps go it didn't disappoint. You loose a lot from the full desktop version, but you can still add layers, you've got filters, selection tools, clone stamp, blurs etc. everything you need for basic editing. So it's pretty good. Having said that though, sadly for seven pounds I open iPhoto more than I open photoshop.

Finally- mega photo. Which is just plain fun. There are hundreds of filters and effects to make you laugh! You can upgrade for like £2 if you want more. It's just a laugh really nothing too technical ;)

Unless mentioned, these are free so enjoy! These are just my personal favourites, let me know what you like and don't like!

Bye for now
Becky

Instagram

I am feeling in a blogging mood this afternoon, so prepare yourself to be spammed with my blog posts, hopefully you will find them interesting as I have a few A number of things to talk about.

So up next, Instagram.

Until I got an iPad, I had no interest in ever having Instagram, I didn't understand it, didn't see the point iron it but it was one of those free apps I decided to trial one afternoon. I have to say, almost a month on it has become an addiction of mine, I am forever instagrammimg (or instaspamming as I have renamed it), and it really didn't take me long to get the hang of it.

So what is Instagram?

Basically it's a photo sharing application that allows you to post photos, view photos, search photos and like photos. You can follow people, and people follow you. The key to Instagram is the humble #.

So lets say you have a glass of peach juice (which I just so happened to have the other day), and you are very happy that you have this glass of delicious peach juice. You upload it to Instagram, whack a filter on it and hashtag it! Simple as. The filters make the dullest photos look really quite artistic, and the hashtags allow your picture to be found. Kind of like trends on twitter.

I hash tagged my picture with things like 'peach' 'drink' 'love' now anyone who searches for these will find your Image, can like it and follow you. Easy as that! Top tip, words like #love #friends #swag and #follow are apparently highly searched, so me as the addict I am, include them in most. Tags ;) haha!

I hope that all makes sense :/

Why use Instagram?

This year I am king the 2013 happiness challenge. If you haven't heard of it, it's basically where you write something positive that has happened each day and on New Year's Eve at the end of 2013, you sit and you read them, remembering everything wonderful that happened in your year. This challenge has really helped me to look for the smallest things that make me happy in my day, and really appreciate them, a compliment a lovely meal a joke an evening out, a cuddle with my dogs etc etc. little things that make me smile. So I jot those down everyday, but how does that relate to Instagram? Well, I find myself photographing all these little things that make me happy, for example, the peach juice or pretty frost on my car window. I know it sounds so pathetic and twee when I try to explain it, but these little things that might brighten up my day a tiny bit, are permanently recorded, photographically and I can go back and view the things that have made me smile. That was a terrible explanation, but I hope I got my point across.

Photographically it helps you get your work viewed, and you can view other photographers work, but if you are uploading serious shots, I'd recommend putting a watermark on them, just in case. Put a link to your twitter on Instagram and your website, vice versa and keep connected constantly, it's free!

I honestly can't speak more highly of it, I love instagram!

Happy Instagramming people!
Bye for now
Becky

Exciting new things that have happened...

I know I haven't posted anything since Christmas Day, but trust me I really have been busy! I thought I'd give you a quick update, because two very exciting things have happened for me in the last month.

1- I have been asked to photograph a wedding! This is huge for me, I am not even 18 and I'm doing my first wedding. It's very exciting for me, and I hope it will be a fantastic experience and a chance for me to really learn and progress with my photography skills, so this is great news! It's on the 15th of February, which is coming round rather quickly, and I am super nervous so please keep me in your prayers on the 15th ;) thanks! P.s. I wonder if any of you could share any tips and tricks for wedding photography as its my first time?

2- I have literally just picked up my first piece of commissioned work. It is a poster for a local orchestra, and it was very exciting that I got asked to make them a poster to advertise their concert. I am going to upload some of my graphics work on here at some point, because it is available to buy but I am waiting for my website to go live. Basically I digitally paint photographs using a very slow, careful and complex technique, which I have learnt myself. I did make it up as I was using photoshop, but I have no idea if someone has done it before me, I've never seem any work like it. I will inform you when these personalised art pieces are available to buy and tell you more about them when I do. :)  so this poster was using this technique and photos that I had taken a few months ago. It's so amazing for me, to get paid for something that was just a hobby, I really feel like I'm beginning on a fantastic journey and I haven't even left school yet.
This new technique particularly is a big break through for me, and I have already been asked to make paintings for friends and family and for my school, for posters and advertisement, I can't wait to share it wi you all on my website.


Bye for now... New posts coming in a few minutes

Becky

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all! I thought I'd update on my new gift as I've just discovered I can :) my new iPad mini! I know my family don't read this but I want to thank them anyway because my dad managed to get one when TEN came in stock for less than half an hour in John Lewis, and they all kept it secret. So thank you. After downloading Facebook twitter and the usual apps, I hit the photography and art apps and managed to find some great things. I wanted to recommend a few for any aspiring artists or photographers like me :) 

Inspire pro is fantastic, admittedly a little limiting but gives great results and is  really fun, you can get rather professional looking results and can even blend the 'paints'. It's free too.

However I'm not so impressed with photoshop express, it was free so I can't complain really and I will definitely be buying the full version, but this is very limited. Well merry Christmas everyone :)  more app reviews to come! 

London 2012- Experience of a lifetime!

London 2012 has been the talk of Great Britain particularly, for the last few years. And these last few months particularly have seen the spirits and general happiness of our country soar to new levels! It's been truly inspirational watching the way people have changed, and I hope it lasts. I've had conversations with new people and everyone just seems to be on a general high, united in the pride we have for our country's. I didn't think I'd get tickets for any events because they sold out so quickly, but I was lucky enough to get Paralympic athletic tickets, meaning I'd be in the main stadium and I'd see all of the fantastic athletes, including Hannah Cockroft and David Weir.
I'd already had my first taste of the Olympics when the torch passed through a near by town. I tried to capture the general joy and anticipation in the atmosphere as the crowds waited for the torch arrival, in my photos and I was on the whole pretty pleased with how my photos came out. I didn't like the idea of my Olympic journey (so to speak) finishing there. I wanted my journey to continue, so I could experience as much of the Olympics as I could. So, as you can imagine, I was over the moon when I was informed we had tickets.
On the day I got very over excited and ended up filling both memory cards before I even got in the stadium. I failed to mention that I can use these photos as part of my photography project, so it was of importance to me to take so many photos, though I would have done anyway! My photography projects is portraiture, so I took photos of the armed police, the games makers and general crowd shots as well as the general surroundings. Once in the stadium I put in a new memory card and began photographing again. If you got a chance to go in the stadium you will know that it has the most amazing atmosphere in there! People cheering, Mexican waves, flags waving, music pumping and lights flashing! Everyone was screaming for the athletes there was such a buzz. Me and my family kept looking at each other and just saying "wow". It's hard to describe the atmosphere if you haven't been in there but it just took my breath away...Incredible.
Again, I was really pleased with my photos but I now just felt that my journey was unfinished and I was willing to accept that because I couldn't go again to the park and there was no way I could get tickets to the closing ceremony. I was grateful enough for the tickets I got so I was certainly not expecting to wrap my photographic journey up completely...if that makes sense? But then a teacher at school told me about the London 2012 Parade. I had no idea this was even going on, but as soon as I heard I knew it would be the perfect way to end my series of photographs. The end of the Olympics and the end of my personal journey with London 2012. My parents agreed to take me and my teachers at school really encouraged me to go, knowing it would be really beneficial for my project.

(Where we stood-found on Google, bad quality)

 

The parade was amazing! Absolutely amazing! We secured front row 'seats' and had the perfect view, just in front of St. Paul's Cathedral, by ludgate hill.  The parade consisted of 21 floats with all of the team GB athletes on board. Because the crowds gathered so dramatically on St.Paul's steps in comparison to the other side of the road, all of the athletes stood on our side of the float so we got an amazing view of everyone, and we were so close.

To cut a very long story short, I think my Journey feels complete. The torch-The Events-The Parade.

I've got hundreds of photos, but here are my personal favourites. If you want to see anymore, just comment of tweet me or leave me an email and I'll upload some more.
I hope you enjoyed this post, please follow, comment, email...whatever you want to do.

Bye for now

My personal favourites from the parade.
(I do have photos of Jessica Ennis, Victoria Pendleton, Chris Hoy, Mobot  and many others if you want to see any of those)

The Olympic Park-Athletics Paralympics

The only photo that seems to want to upload currently, but contact me if you want some more photos as like I said, I took hundreds!

I will upload the torch ones separately as they are on my laptop which is being repaired at the moment.

Hope you enjoyed London 2012, and I hope you enjoyed my blog post. Please let me know whether my posts are interesting or not because I feel as though I am rambling, and I'd love to hear your feedback.
Thank you

90mm

I know it's been a while but I finally have an update for you all! I recently bought the Tamron 90mm lens for my Nikon D7000. The reason I didn't buy the Nikon lens was because I was told that they are pretty similar and for a couple of hundred pounds cheaper I was happy to settle for the Tamron alternative.  Most of you probably know but, for those who don't, the 90mm lens is a 1:1 macro lens but also a portrait lens too, which is exactly what I wanted. 
I've had my lens a week and I love it, it takes beautifully clear images and I have cropped a few in photoshop to zoom in closer, and they enlarge to a very high quality.

So I just thought I would include a couple of shots I have taken this week when testing out my lens. They are, like I said, just tests so they are not perfect, but they should give you a good idea of what this lens can do and I'm sure I will post more photos taken on this lens very soon.


The first examples were taken super quickly in my Nan's Garden. It was really bright outside and I couldn't see that a couple were not quite in sharp focus, but it's all a learning curve.

 

I'm not a flower expert, but I think they were two roses and the last one is definitely Lavender.

 

I just thought I'd include a photo that I took on my way home from the camera shop, you can see just how close this lens can get and I'm sure it goes closer!

 

I think I need to clean my phone though...kinda embarassing!

 

I also wanted to show you how it works on other subjects slightly further away.

 

So as you can hopefully see, it's a pretty nice lens and I'd definitely recommend it if you don't want to fork out for the Nikon just yet. I'm sure I'll upgrade to that one day, but for now...this will do me perfectly :)

 

Bye for now

 

 

 

Portraiture

I'm sure you're all aware that I haven't done a post in ages and I keep making excuses as to why I haven't done one.
At the moment I am studying portrait photography, and I am taking thousands of photos, but I can't use them because understandably my models don't want their faces all over the Internet, so I haven't got a lot to update you all with.

I was going to do a photoshop tutorial to do with how I edited the portraits, but I've just tried to get onto photoshop and I can't open it because apparently it has a virus, so I now need to update my virus protection and pay about seventy pounds, which is just what I wanted to hear.

I can't seem to open another Internet tab either, because the Internet is also now a virus according to my laptop, so I doubt this blog post will save at all but we shall see.

I was looking back through my old files trying to find some images I could talk about. I found some silhouette images I took last summer. My old camera had a sunset setting, which basically enhanced the vibrancy of the sky and made all the red and orange shades a lot more intense. I took these photos using this setting, but if you don't have a setting like this, just take the photo and you can always boost the contrast a little in photoshop. The sky here was a really lovely shade of orange, and in front of it was a huge tree. I didn't want to photograph the whole tree, because when I did, the image just wasn't that interesting. So, instead I zoomed in on smaller sections of branches and leaves. The shadowy black tones of the leaves worked well against the orange sky I think.

As it is summer, make the most of the long evenings and go out and try some sun set shots! If you live in the west you can photograph the sun setting over the sea, in the east we only have sun rise on the sea which is nice but different. If you want to try some long shutter speeds by the sea, I recommend investing in a ND filter which cuts the light so your photos aren't over exposed. They are not too expensive either.

Here are my sunset photos-

]All images belong to ©becky-iblog-images