"My Shiny Place"

Another self p, this was inspired by the surreal work of Ione Rucquoi. Rucquoi is inspired by her environment, and the animals and plants that surround her, hence the bird theme.

I thought as a bird, I would probaby be a magpie, because I am attracted to shiny things and stock lots of 'junk' everywhere.

The original photograph is fairly old, it's a pretty poor layer manipulation, but I recently added fairydust, and I really like the effect!

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"Beyond the Moon"

And now, I introduce you to another member of my family; my Grandad. Both he and my Grandma have been down to visit for my 18th, Christmas and New Year.Grandad is by far the most genuine person I know. You see what you get. If you don't like it, that's you're problem. He is also one of the funniest and one of the most caring.
This is a candid photograph I took in a cafe in Totnes, blended with a photograph of clouds and a picture of a street in London. I wanted this portrait to have a grungey feel to it, like the early work of one of my favourite photographers Annie Lebowitz.

I used digital manipulation in this image, it includes 3 photographs in total, the portrait, clouds and a street scene. The photographs are layered, softly erased and shown at varying level settings and opacities.

I also chose to use some grunge brushes from deviant art around the edges of the photograph, to give it a typhical Lebowitz finish.

"Doodlerooni"

This is a portrait of my loverly maytee Juan. We spent a photography lesson painting his arm with acrylics and peeling off the layers to make it look all manky!
I wanted to try a portrait in a more fun, hallucinatory style, like those of erwin olaf or david lachapelle! To me, this kind of looks like a strange child's painting.
I have digitally coloured this picture in photoshop and added several tones and level layers to create depth and shadows. The background was in the actual picture itself (a graffiti wall), but I have chosen to enhance it with colours and textures.
My next college photo project is portraits, so there are many more to come! I will be trying out lots of new techniques, so very excited!

"Masked Stranger"

This photo is a portrait of my friend wearing a mask and situated in a lift. The photograph was inspired by Diane Arbus and her legendary wheelchair shoot, on whom I am studying as part of a controversial imagery project in my college Photography A Level course.

The image was fairly simple to achieve, all natural light is used, no heavy manipulation. In processing, I simply tweaked light, saturation and contrast.

"Send Your Mum's Out for Spray Cream"

I forget how much I take for granted.

This photo was inspired by this one by Rosie Hardy, watching Mary Poppins and the crapness of British summer.

www.flickr.com/photos/rosie_hardy/2610389721/

I've wanted to go out and take pretty sun lit pictures for ages, but unfortunately I forgot the sun doesn't live here anymore, so I'll have to make do with the shadows.
When I was taking this I phoned my mum to ask her if on the way back she could pick me up some whippy cream, and she got really excited thinking i'd made something lovely like a cake.
Sorry Mum! This picture is for you!

The picture was created using three different photos, one of myself on a chair in my room, one of wooden flooring and one of pretty victorian wallpaper.  My room is really dull, so I fused the wallpaper/flooring into my image using photoshop tools, such as clone and the eraser at varied opacities.  It took a long time, as I had to be really finnickity about bits like the semi-transparent table cloth and holes in the chair back.  I also chose to add realistic shadows using the burn tool.  I magnetically cropped myself and the table, and set the two as a new layer, adding a "vintage photo effect" and fiddling with colour and that.  Then I selected the whole image and hung it in a pretty frame to the left.  Yay!

"The Heist"

This is one of my most favourite pieces of work so far! Yay!I decided to set out on a little walk as the light was pretty, and that is a rare thing in the crappness of english "summer" lol. I got some odd looks whilst taking this. The vicar and co were preparing for a wedding and I was darting around in my skimpy little dress clutching a tripod to my chest!

Yet again, another self p, I know, you're getting bored! Sorry! But don't worry, I have some graffiti work from London that will be up again soon. This is a mulit exposure shot, the layers of which were all fused together on Flickr. I neatend it all up using the cloning and eraser tools.

"All Strung up"

A less innocent self portrait. lol. I kind of wanted to reach into my feelings. I am constantly striving to do my best and reach out desperately for my aspiration, but sometimes I am my own worst obstacle. I constantly question if I am good enough, if I will ever really make it. I guess we've all been there.Also, I'm sorry for the recent obsession with self p's guys, i'm just really trying to get better at them. I really feel i'm not a photogenic person, so thought i could have a go taming the beast.Anyway, yeah, another really fun shoot. I have the house to myself, (thank god) so I secretly nicked my dad's duck tape. He would actually string me up himself if he found out.

This photograph was made using 3 layers, and two block shapes for the border. I used photoshop elements to blend the layers together. I chose to magnetically crop around my body and add an old, water stained texture to my bedroom wallpaper to make picture look more gory. I also flipped the photo upside down to create a more surreal, interesting feel.