from sun up to sun down

 Pretty much my favourite place in the world right now is Northala Hills. It's where I seem to take the most pictures, and every evening I go there I see the most beautiful sunsets. Although I'm sure everyone else is sick of seeing my photos of sunsets, I just can't stop taking them! It's a disease I tell you!

 My sister was standing by one of the lakes and I loved how it looked with the silhouette of a person included in the shot.

Those last two are my sister standing on this big wooden ship climbing frame they have built for kids to play on. It's amazing, and has given me all sorts of ideas for nautical themed shoots come summertime. Where's your favourite place to take photos? xxx

my obsession with blue paint and signage

A few weeks ago I stayed a few nights at my friend Sofia's house. I feel like I'm a bit too old for sleepovers, but it was nice to stay somewhere free from parents and siblings! The first night we went to The Junction Room to watch a free screening of Alfred Hitchcock's 'North by Northwest' and to sample their 2 for 1 cocktails (I had a mojito.) It was the first Hitchcock film I've seen (shocking I know!) but certainly won't be the last. The next day we decided to take a walk along the canal by her home in Hoxton, down to Broadway Market. I snapped some photos along the way, and it was only looking back at them just now that I realised the only things I'd taken pictures of were blue paintwork on buildings, and shop signage!

Maybe one of my new year's  resolutions should have been to take pictures of people every once in a while! For some reason I find it much easier to photograph inanimate objects. Oh, and here is one final photo (sans human of course) of the sunset I watched from Sofia's window. I really wish I could move to East London. One day...

Friday Favourites

1. Untitled, 2. Fly, 3. Untitled, 4. glass glittering, 5. Untitled, 6. i love fleas, 7. three birds, 8. pom.jpg, 9. Untitled

what's better than a gingerbread house?

 There are no words to describe my emotions when I was given my very own gingerbread beach hut by my oh so amazing and talented friend Lucy. It was like Christmas, Christmas when you are a child and everything is so exciting and shiny and new and you can barely contain the squeals of anticipation. I couldn't eat it until I'd taken several (dozen) photos of it.

I named the seagull Sam (like in Huxley Pig - did anyone else watch that cartoon when they were younger?!) and ate him first, lest he realise what was going on and do a runner. Not really, I know he's just made of gingerbread. I still couldn't look him in the eye though. Oh and please go visit Lucy's tumblr - she makes the most incredible baked goods, posts loads of recipes, and is just generally one of my favourite people in the world.

PS. it was so yummy. so very yummy.

sunny days sweeping the clouds away

 Oh yes, those are the words to the Sesame Street theme song. But they are very fitting right now - the weather in London has been very grey and rainy lately, but on a rare sunny day me and my sister ventured over to Northala Hills to take some photos. They were originally meant to be research for my 'I Live Here' project, but as the lighting was so perfect we took a lot of just for fun shots too.

 My idea for the 'I Live Here' project was to show where I live in a mirror, so you can see both the person and the area they live in. We were supposed to climb to the top of one of the big hills so you could get a bird's eye view of where I live, but it was rather windy and chilly, so we didn't make the climb. I really like how these turned out though. And I love my sister for posing, even though she doesn't like having her picture taken!

Hopefully the weather will improve for more than just the odd day here and there, so I will be able to go out and take even more pictures. xxx

brown paper packages

 One of the most amazing things about blogging is the people you meet. And I know everyone says it, but the people I have met through the blog community are some of the sweetest, most caring, and most genuine people I have ever known. I feel so lucky to be a part of this little world. Right, gushing over. But the gushing had a cause. A couple of weeks back my dear friend Emma sent me the most incredible package. I actually had the shakes when I opened it! I mean come on, she stuck an instant photo on the back. This girl is all kinds of awesome!

Those camera cards are her own illustrations. Yeah, amazing, I know. I love cameras. And look at that tote bag. You know about my obsession with tote bags right? And tote bags with hand drawn illustrations? Pretty much my idea of perfection. Emma - thank you. Thank you for the amazing gifts, but thank you more for being such a lovely friend. xxx

I Live Here (a brief)

 University life is still chugging along, though I feel like I am being left behind and not progressing the way I imagined I would. That's probably partly my own fault, as I imagined that after taking a photography course I'd immediately be able to take amazing photos like the ones I spend hours looking at on Flickr. Obviously that is not the case.

But also the course is very commercial, and geared towards people who want to become commercial photographers. There's very little scope for experimenting in the way I want to, so I feel a bit like the odd one out. Luckily I have made a few amazing friends on the course who feel the same as me, and who have similar interests as me in terms of the type of photography we want to be doing, so I don't feel too isolated.

This turned into a bit of a moping session! On with the show... My latest project brief was titled 'I Live Here' and the task was to take a photograph that illustrates where we live, being as creative or as literal as we liked in our interpretation of the brief. I knew I wanted to create an imaginary living space, a place from childhood, an escape or a sanctuary. So I decided to build a type of 'fort' like me and my sisters created and played in as children. My Dad was a huge help in the building stage, and together we created a wigwam using some scraps of wood, an old sheet, and some fairy lights. How very Blue Peter!

 I shot the pictures above in our living room, using my sister as my model. But there was something lacking in the images, and so I decided to reshoot the project, this time using my sister's friend as the model, and using my neighbour's front room which had more space. I experimented a lot more with different types of lighting to create different effects. (for some reason the pictures look a bit grainy and low res but they're not... apologies!)

 Using the lantern with a candle in, and having Hannah reading a book, really made the image in my opinion. I ended up submitting the photo below as my final piece.

 And finally, a little bit of cute courtesy of my pupster sidekick Jasper (or J-dog as he is known around these parts.) Whilst we were all faffing around with lights and so on this cheeky chap snuck into the wigwam and exercised his squatter's rights. Eventually he was lured out with a cuddly toy and the promise of a treat.

I just wish we could keep the wigwam up all the time, but as my parents were unwilling to sacrifice their sofa in favour of the fort it had to be demolished. When I have a place of my own I'm definitely going to build a wigwam fort. A really big one where I can sit and read and daydream about nice things.