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

It's been a while....

It has been a while since my last proper post. My recent(ish) posts haven't been about anything particularly photographic anyway, hopefully this will change as from today, I am on summer break for 6 weeks. I have an enormous amount of homework, plus I am taking on a lot of extra shifts at work to get myself some money, but I will hopefully be updating fairly regularly again.
Part of my ginormous pile of homework includes taking photos and visiting exhibitions, so you can expect to see some posts about these things. I might tell you about some good exhibitions in England if I find any, I'm hoping to get up to London if I can, (might be difficult given the Olympics etc).
Another thing on my very full plate at the moment is Universities, I have to start making decisions about Uni's, but I am really stuck and this is where I need help probably more than I've ever needed it from you all! I need your opinions! University is a HUGE step and potentially life changing, at least for now, but I just dont know what to do. I have a couple of questions to ask you all. Please respond, it would really mean a lot to me, I know I ask you a lot but I can't stress enough how much this might help my decisions etc... So here are the questions, to all you photographers and artists...

Q1- Did you go to University to study art or photography?

Q2- If you did, would you say it is worth going? I can't help but feel there isn't a lot more that can be learnt about photography, apart from the history. After that is it not just practice, which I can do without paying £21,000+?
                          Q2(b)- Would I be able to learn the same things without going to University and start myself off earning money, or are there vital things I need to learn through higher education?

Q3- If you did not go to University, can I ask Why? and has it affected your career, is there anything you have been unable to do, due to not going to University? Do you regret not going?

Q4- Which university, if any, did you go to?

Q5- I want to take a gap year, should I travel and build a portfolio of images to sell, or find work experience. What is the best way into the photography business, solo or as part of a company?


If you have anything to say that I haven't mentioned I'd be so eternally grateful! Haha! It's a really scary and stressful time for me and I need all the help I can get. I don't know anyone studying photography at University or any kind of art course so I am struggling to find answers.

Please reply by commenting below or emailing me at- becky-iblog-becky@hotmail.co.uk
If you tweet a response, your answer will be limited so I'd greatly appreciate a more detailed reply or I get confused. :D


Thank you all in advance!

Bye for now

The olympic Torch

Well it is just under two weeks until the Olympics officially start! I wasn't really planning to get involved, I don't have any tickets and I'm not really a sports fan, but I did find myself getting a little bit excited at the the thought of the torch coming through my home town. As I waited in the crowded streets with hundreds of other cheerful people, I started to get even more excited. Camera at the ready, free bottle of coke from the huge coca cola van that squeezed it's way through the streets, I was prepared to get some great shots. The torch was running late which gave me an opportunity to get some candid shots of the crowds, and capture the atmosphere. I'm not sure I'm allowed to use those photos though because I don't have permission from the people in them!
Anyway, I set my camera up and also put it onto a burst mode, so that I could capture the fast movement of the runner. I lined it up perfectly, and got my finger ready to press the button and..It didn't focus! Typical hey? It kept re-adjusting and focusing on the bodyguards and security members around the torch bearer. I couldn't believe it! I desperately tried to flick it on to manual focus, but the runner was too fast and before long, all I could see was the back of her head as she ran towards the park. I wasn't too disappointed, I'd seen her, I'd witnessed history and it was really cool, but I was a bit frustrated that I'd missed a shot I'd been waiting an hour and a half for! I guess this kind of thing comes with time, I'm still learning how to capture those moments but maybe in another four years I'll catch the torch.
They are not terrible photos, just not as clear as I'd hoped! :)

And if you compare it to my brother's photo (admittedly taken on a mobile phone) it doesn't look too bad! Haha! Sorry Dave! ;D

 

My Brother's Photo.



Exhibition

Once again I've been really busy... so I appologise for my lack of updates and posts.

I decided to blog today about my exhibition, which was last night. Remember me telling you that I coudn't put my work online because they were for my exam etc etc etc.... but I assume now the exhibition is over, I can.  So I am going to Include photographs of my art exhibition and my Graphic Design exhibition too. I am not going to include photography because I don't currently have the final images saved on my laptop, they are at school. (so when I get them, I'll upload them).

I'll talk you through the images a bit aswell.

(©Copyright to becky-iblog-becky images)

This is my unit 1 final work for Art. This is actually about six foot tall, to give you some kind of impression of the size. It is all pencil and it took about 5 months to do ( Not constantly of course). The theme was twisted and intertwined and I clearly decided to look at hair, and the idea of plaits twisting and intertwining. I started with the head and just a couple of plaits, then decided to keep adding them so it became more and more surreal. The cracks in the face were to add to the sense of surrealness, and the impression if it being a porcelein doll.

All Images (©Copyright to becky-iblog-becky images)

The next two images are from my unit two art work.

 The theme here was facial expressions, and I was strongly advised to step outside of my comfort zone for these pieces. I normally do quite tight, controlled work- so I did these in a very expressive and experimental style. They are supposed to work together as a set of two. The images
were of friends of mine, I photocopied their faces when they were portraying an emotion, and cropped sections of them.
To achieve the effects seen, I used tissue paper and dry brushed paint over it, which worked well. For the faces I used about twenty or more different shades of green, with a few blues, purples and yellow tones. And obviously on the blue face I used 20 or so different shades of blue, building little areas of colour with a small brush.  I know a lot of people will look at these and be very unimpressed, but for me, I am proud because they took a lot of effort :L haha... and to be honest I wasn't overly thrilled with the choice in themes! :L


Well I hope you enjoyed the little insight into my artistic world! I will probably do a similar post soon with my graphics work and then with photography... but I am so tired I can't write anymore...

Bye for now

All images are (©Copyright to becky-iblog-becky images)



A short weekend in the Lake District

I’m 99% Sure that I’ve mentioned before that my brother goes to Lancaster University. That is why we always go up and visit him, and spend a few days in and around Cumbria and the lake district. It is so beautiful and every time we go we see something new because the weather has such an impact on the surroundings- nothing ever looks the same. There are fantastic hills and dales to see, but I love the lakes most. They are so calm and peaceful and so unlike anything we have where I live. It’s a real privilege to live in a country with such a vast variety in scenery.

So after I finished work on Sunday we began our 5 hour journey to Lancaster straight away. It’s always a bit of a dull journey, but it surprisingly didn’t seem to take too long. We got to Lancaster university in the evening, met my brother then spent the night in the hotel they have on campus. The next day we got up early and drove to Grasmere via lake Windermere and some other beautiful landscapes. The village was so pretty, filled with cute little tea rooms and gift shops. There was an old fashioned gingerbread bakery which smelt so good, and we got some gingerbread in there.  It’s a real tourist attracting area because William Wordsworth lived there. There is a memorial garden for him with a river and bridge running alongside.
(If you google Grasmere, one of the suggestions is the Gingerbread shop, to prove how good it was)

We grabbed a sandwich and headed out for an afternoon walk. Now in my mind, an afternoon walk is a gentle stroll round the little villages or parks, in my parent’s minds it is a hike up the biggest hill you could find, well one of the biggest anyway. My dad had his mind set on climbing Catbells.  Now you can Google Catbells in Cumbria and it probably won’t look that big but for inexperienced walkers like myself it was basically Everest and I wasn’t looking forward to it.  We briefly spoke to a passer-by at the bottom, who told us we’d be better off going up another hill as the view was more impressive from the top. She said it was a shorter walk, but I now know she was most probably lying as the highest point is apparently higher than Catbells. Well anyway, my mum and I were relieved that this new hill, seemed to be a shorter walk, so we started walking up the first path we saw. It looked as though we were heading the right way to the top of the hill, until we saw a load of hikers on the other side of the valley seemingly also heading to the peak. After bumping into some walkers we found out we were in fact on the wrong path, but we could still get to the top if, we walked a bit further. We walked for a good hour and a half (or should I say bad?) up a constant leg burning hill,  with the sun blazing and our feet slipping on the thousands of tiny rocks making up the pathway. I was far behind the rest of the family, and I’d love to say this was because I kept stopping to take photos, but even I don’t believe that.  We got almost to the top, and had near enough, vertical climb on the rocks to get to the highest point. We made it. The view was breath-taking. I don’t even think my photos can do it justice, there is no better feeling than getting to the top, all the climbing was done, it was completely silent and we could see for miles. The lakes were glistening in the sun and the clouds were casting shadows over the valleys. Amazing. If anyone is near to Rowling End you have to climb it, no question. You might want your Nordic poles though.  

The view!

 (Very steep)

I only included this because it made me laugh! I couldn't get the timer to work properly.

There was a pile of rocks made by people who made it to the highest point!

You might even befriend some sheep along the way, I clambered down to a really steep section of grass right at the top of the hill to get these sheep shots. I was on my hands and knees and couldn’t risk getting any closer because I was so near to the edge, but the sheep stood still for a while so I got a couple of shots.

The walk down seemed harder, it takes so much effort to keep a steady, slow pace as you balance your footing on the rocks and slippery grass. I slipped once and my legs were shaking the whole way down. I have never felt so glad to see the car!

We stopped at Keswick on the way home which was nice, but there wasn’t a lot to photograph there. We, then went back and had tea in a lovely three story restaurant in Windemere Village, The lighthouse. I recommend the calamari!

(Image from Google)

I know this blog post is really long already, but despite being a break of only two days, we seemed to do a lot, I haven’t even included everything….just the best bits.

The next day we got up early again and went to Carlisle. I loved the look of the University and photography course at Brampton road (the arts campus of the university of Cumbria, in Carlisle) on the website, so we went to visit to see if I really did like it. Can’t say I did.  There was nothing particularly wrong with it and it would probably appeal to a lot of people but just not me. I’m looking for a huge bustling campus with shops and cafes and loads of social places as well as a good course and so far I’ve found nothing of the sort. But I have plenty of time so I’m not worried…YET! J I did tweet to you all about Universities, and asked if you knew any good ones that did photography, so let me know if you find any!

We had a look round the main city of Carlisle, which is historic and as parts of Hadrian’s wall there I believe.  Th city was lovely, really busy and had loads of shops! There were people singing and there was a really lovely atmosphere.

Next up to  Ulswater,the viewing points and hills around there. It was all lovely, and we stopped a number of times to take photos. We then went to Morecombe beach before we had our dinner.  It was cold and bleak in Morecombe and wasn’t exactly busy but  there was a real atmosphere from the desserted beach.

Ulswater-

Sorry that this was such a long post, I tried to keep it as short as possible. I hoped you enjoyed reading and looking at the photos. I’d just like to add that it is under a week until my Race for life with my mum and it would be so great if you could sponsor us. My target is £100 and I have £50, if you could help in any way I’d be so grateful. I’d love to reach my target and raise £100 for cancer research. You can donate onlinehttps://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/beckyweale49  and even the smallest amount would help such a lot. Thank you all! The website is secure and safe and the money goes straight to cancer research. Thank you.

Bye for now