Pumpkin Calving

Dan carved this wolf on our pumpkin for Halloween:

I am so impressed!

Negative Polaroid Scans x2

More spooky negative scans:

Disappoint

Found my old plaroid 600 camera with half a pack of the new black and white Impossible Project polaroid film still in it.

Sad to say the film results are still rubbish, everyone looks like they live in a pumpkin.

Through blogging I've realised how much I love Polaroid film, I talk about it a lot.

I think this is because I find it so magical, the way the object forms the picture itself in front of my eyes. Also everyone looks nice in polaroids (not these ones admittedly but normal polaroids) with blurred outlines and soft-focussed faces. Also the instantaneousness of the results reduces the fear I feel when I'm shooting on film. The fear that I could have done soemthing wrong and after all the hard work of organising, collaborating, shooting, I'll have messed something up and there will be nothing on the film.

Mark Borthwick Inspired My Cat

Lovely light leaks...

His name is Cat.

Grassy Day

There was a heatwave in London at the beggingining of the Summer and this day Dan and me went to Primrose Hill and lay down under a tree.

Fuji Instant Film

Trying out new Fuji Mini camera with my housemates, such a dream to have the instantaneousness

Schiele

This is an image by Egon Schiele from the current exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, Treasures from Budapest.

I love Schiele and felt really privileged to see this work for real.

Personally his work speaks to a part of me that is both simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by the human body. I think the bodies of most humans, not models, but normal people are ugly until I come to know and care about that person. Then themselves and their body becomes beautiful to me.

Schiele’s work shows the ugliness and pain of human existence coupled with a tenderness that makes it beautiful.

I think his images have had a tacit impact on my photography, but I’d love to base a photoshoot specifically on the theme of his work.

"I do not deny that I have made drawings and watercolors of an erotic nature. But they are always works of art. Are there no artists who have done erotic pictures?"

Egon Schiele

Reflecions on a Model Test

A digital image from a recent model test:

This test reinforced my understanding of how much the model is an important part of the collaborative team. This model was not a very cooperative collaborator and as a result I found her really hard to work with. I think she would have been better suited to a David Bailey style male photographer who would tell her she how sexy she was. Anyway this meant it's taken me ages to get around to editing the pictures, because the shoot wasn't as enjoyable as usual and therefore I think I like the pictures less.

This evidenced an emotional commitment to my photographic process that I hadn't been aware of before.

On the other hand it was a dream to work with the wonderful make up artists Larissa Carey again. She as always was icredible, so tallented and entirely lovely:

You can see her work on www.mnavyprincess.blogspot.com.

Dalston Roses

Dalston is so full of roses.

Dreamy.

Bauhaus Beauties

I found this postcard from my last trip to Berlin a few years ago. It's all the members of the Bauhaus together in one photo. They were such an incredible group of creatives, I really crave this kind of network of creative people and an atmosphere this exciting to create work in.

This inspiration really means a lot to me, I'm so happy I found this picture again.

Shrimping

Had more films developed: Shrimping in Scilly with my family.

Gemma D Polaroids

I'm a little bit in love with these Hassleblad Polaroids from my test with Gemma.

I definately want to test more with different types of instant film.

Negative Polaroid Scans

I scanned the negative part of Fuji instant film to see what it would be like.

Apart from the dust and fingerprints i think they're quite spooky.

Jen on Film

Finally processed the 120 films of Jen from the Summer:

Such a beautiful day.

Gemma in Studio

Digital Images from my Test with Gemma

Make Up: Gabriella May

Model: Gemma D at Sapphires

Assistant: Kristine Joramo

Gemma Test

First digital image from my studio test with Gemma.

Panorama

A difficult ratio to show here, but this is a panorama of the islands at dusk from the Garrison on St. Marys.

Shot using half-frame Olympus Pen-EE.

Janet

Janet from West Cornwall is the second witch I have photographed and interviewed for the portraiture half of my witchcraft project. An incredible, kind lady she keeps lots of animals and believes in the natural magic of plants for healing.

(spinning sheep's fleece into wool)

(bee keeping)

Summertime Half-Frames

Olympus Pen-EE snaps from my summer back at home in the Isles of Scilly

My island home.

Emsy in a speedboat.

Arran's boat.

Sugar...

in tea.

Basking shark sighting: nose and fin!