diptic three

i thought i would try these images together i quite like the contrast between the night image and the day time image. I'm comparing how life changes whithin these two different environments, in the day the countryside gleams and is at its best, the light plays beautifully between the trees and the colours, on the right day, can be outstanding. In contrast i have placed a night scene of Nottingham, The city comes alive at night, people leave work, students go out and the street lights come on. I love this time between night and day with the day time sky still hovering in the distance and the street and car lights glowing in the pending darkness. I like the contrast of the two images, instead of showing oe thing that i love about home and one thing i hate about City life i'm shwing the best of both of my home worlds.

Diptic 2

Dipticnessidge

The big comparison!

Okay so i've tried to focus on the differenes between my student life and my home life, i've taken a few pictues that mirror earlier blogs.
















This image is a straight foward shot that shows the difference between Nottingham and Rural England. A mirror image of an earlier blog shows me stood in the woods surrounded by leaves, here you can see what my normal City footware is. I started to realise that even though there are more places to go for walks back at home that i actually walk more here. We take for granted the things that are natural to us and the one thing that has changed my world is that now i live i a city buses and lifts ( as i dont drive ) are in the past, i an pretty much walk anywhere that i need to go in a short space of time! If i was to walk to the nearest town back at home it would take about 3 hours so it is soemthing that i am now very grateful for, even though a pavement pretty much decides where i tread.














The other thing that shocked me is the never ending supply of surveillance cameras, watching your every move. If this kind of technology is wanted or even needed by our area it is supplied by our selves, and of course there are certain rules to apply.
The Countryside tends to give a sense of freedom and privacy, here in Nottingham my every move can be monitored, the pure concept of it kinda gives me the creeps even though it is for my own saftey!




















But then without warning Nottingham shows me why it can also be beautiful, it is one thing to look at place, it is another to see it! Similar to my earlier blog this image shows the total opposite of my manmade skyline, in a place where i least expected.

Nottingham at night

I have decided to carry on looking at the things that i like about Nottingham, i like the architecture of Nottingham, its varied and interesting. I've never really been a massive fan of architecture but since moving to Nottingham it some thing that has struck me.

I have been enjoying night photography, using the artificial light to my advantage and enhancing the scene with warmer textures and shapes.

I am going to try and compare my life back at home with my life in Nottingham and see what would be different. Several things have struck me that are very different so i will attempt to document this as well as possible..... hopefully!

Leaving cake!

Well i'm home from my weekend in the much loved sticks and the flat is quite. One of my most animated friends and flatmate has gone to south America for 4 weeks and on thursday it was his leaving party, sadly i missed it due to going home, alas, now back at uni the cake from the party lies half eaten and destined for the bin, alone in the place we call the kitchen.

Not the most interesting picture but somehow this cake is what struck me the most when i walked in to the kitchen, abandoned and left for mould to set in! It goes to show that it isnt always the absence that makes you realise someone isn't there its the things they leave behind and in true James fashion it seems to have been mess!

Home is where the heart is!

I'm home, here are a few main reasons why i miss home so much and why i find Nottingham a scary pile of concrete.















I have missed mud!















I Have missed having to wear wellies when i go for a walk, infact I've even missed having to tuck my jeans in!





















I've missed walking through the woods and seeing how different everything looks every time i leave my house!





















I've missed gates that are closed even though they lead in to empty fields and I've missed climbing over them when I'm not suppose to!


"me and my dog"


















Most of all I've missed being able to take my dog ( Jazz) for a walk when ever i wish to see any of these things that i love!
The one and only reason i don't find Nottingham all that pretty is because I'm not use to living in a big city! I'm use to being here, in the middle of nowhere, being able to get away from it all and being able to find some solace away from cars and people and shouting and lights! I can even see stars out here!


Sorry once again for the lack of yesterdays blog, once again the internet was down, its one of the perks of living in the countryside, the internet is so unreliable so I've posted extra to make up for it.

I might try to use this difference to focus my project a bit more, try to show how things differ for me now that "my world" has totally changed!

Is there beauty every where?

Following Owain's comment on my picure for Monday's blog he inspired me to look at the tower blocks again and see if i can fring the beauty within this urban landscape. After living in the Countryside for the best part of my adult life i began appreciating stunning rural view that i was fortunate enough to have every morning. Moving to Nottingham I am presented with this concrete garden, which I immediatly hated! I often muse how it depresses me to look upon these towers so i thought i would try to see them in a less ugly disposition.

Concrete Sky

Here is another example of a social atriocity that any architect should be ashamed of, its a human chicken pen that obsructs my lovely view of the equally ugly Lenton!

I hate the way the Lower class are stacked in these concrete towers that we immediatley associate with crime, violence and social disorder. By segregating the poorer minority does it attach these stigmas to these individals who are unfortunate enough to not be able to afford better home?

On the other side of the aurgument do these people put themselves here, is it a tower full of benefit claimers who cant be bothered to remove themselves from this way of life that forces the government to provide such cheap desolate housing for those who will not support themselves fully?

Okay so yesterday i had some internet issues and couldn't access so today i will be posting two images to make up for it! This first image has been baffeling me, i like it, alot but i don't know why, as Barthes would say, i can't identify my punctum! I often fall prey to photos that i find "pretty", which i know is a terribly amature thing to say but sometimes i like an image just because..... I keep looking at this image and wondering what it is that attract me and i'm at a loss, its totally differerent from any type of photograph i have taken before, maybe that is why i like it, technically is a terrible photo but i like the obstruction, here you have a "pretty" ( there's that word again) sky scene but its surrounded by all these man made atrocities that for some reason make it afftractive to me!

I may be reaching around in the dark here but it makes me feel like subconciously i was trying to cover up the "pretty amatureness" of this image by abstructing it with ugly man made images! I kind of have a soft spot for beauty in our natural world and when i see it tainted by roads and buildings i feel kind of let down by the world for letting these "beauties" be swallowed up in our human obsession to build everywhere and to overtake everything.

I think i may just have answered my own question there! Any other views are welcome!

Through the lense we see...truth?

Since i first began taking photographs i have done it for me, i've taken the shot when and where i want it taken, it has all been my choice. Now i have entered the world of university i have had to start thinking about taking pictures for other people, considering what it is i am being asked to do as oppose to considering what i want to do. This is where i have been challenged, i need to set my mind to the idea of taking photos for other people, for a brief or a set project. In doing so i have to consider also how i can inject a part of me in to that brief.

Our course is all about changing the way we see things, the way we express ourselves and the way we speak, as this doesn't tend to happen over night i have been feeling a little pushed in different directions, being told when and how to work. But what it is all about is making a set brief our own whilst still achieving the desired result of our client.

This image is mostly about how the current state of my world is making me feel, i feel cluttered, overwhelmed, intirged but most of all activly encouraged to make changes to the way i work.
This project is going to be demandng and challenging but thats what being a photographer is all about!

I'm not feeling grate.....get it? Forking funny!

Okay so after today's crit i'm not sure if i feel better or worse about my project, i felt like i had a solid idea of what i wanted to do but now i'm just not sure! i have been posting blogs over the last two days trying to show parts of my world, things that make me, me!

I had felt really pleased with my images from yesterday's blog, books are a real passion for me, i love the whole experience of reading, the feel of the pages, the musty smell of the paper and the whole idea of getting totally lost in a world that isnt mine! A grater in a kitchen is not how i would describe me at all but i'm trying something different even if i do totally hate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hugh said that i should probably look down another path and not try to do the macro idea cause it will probaly get a bit boring after a few weeks, but right now i have no idea what else to do. I'm liking the Macro work i have done so far so i'm not 100% sure if i want to go back to it another time!! Think i need some opinons and ideas here.......help!

Can you guess what it is yet?

Reading is one of my main procrastinating methods, i love every aspect of books and they tend to take up alot of my time.

I have carried on with the idea of macro images whilst trying to capture the object/subject in an abstract form. I have tried to make the object look as less like itself as possible. I would still like to get much closer and focus more on texture a well as abstract!

A little part of me!

Okay so i've gone all soppy and in thinking about my world i decided that this ring plays a big part, it was an 18th birthday present from my partner which i always wear, it injects my uni world with a little bit of my home world.
For my last body of work i looked at macro work so i'd like to continue this in this project , however i'd like to get more abstract and much closer! I dont quite have the right lense for the job yet so a trip to the stores may be in order!

Lighting work shop

As a huge part of my life revolves around Photography i have decided to show what i did in my lighting workshop today, or should i say what Tom did!

Having a small hangover today this image perfecly represents certain parts of my uni world.

Misrepresenting Nottingham

A collage that means "Nottingham" to me.

Misrepresenting Nottingham

A rainy day in Nottingham and the tables still stubbornly out in the cold.