Bunny Pumpkin Boutique

So recently, I had the chance to shoot for Bunny Pumpkin Boutique - Bunny Pumpkin Boutique is a bespoke customised vintage footwear business that offers unique designed footwear which is created by hand, and that is exclusive to each customer who makes a purchase. The shoes are amazing and I had so much fun organising this shoot around the theme of the business. The theme was 1950's pin-up, so I had a lot of ideas and spent a lot of time researching what I thought would be best for this specific brief!

My make-up artist was Elle Darby. Elle posts her make-up tutorials on YouTube, and after only posting a couple she has gained amazing reception from friends, family and other make-up enthusiasts, so after doing abit of homework and with me being a fan of her YouTube videos anyway I thought she would be the best person to ask! We decided on a typical 1950's look, with the winged eyeliner and red lip look, this worked so well and I couldn't of been happier with the results from hair and makeup!! I will be keeping in contact with Elle so we can both gain experiences and help from each other! Check out Elle's wonderful YouTube channel here: Elle Darby

My amazing model Ami-Lou, who you can find on Facebook, Ami Lou, again was an absolute pleasure and joy to work with. When Elle and I arrived she was so welcoming and friendly, (made us both a lovely cup of tea!!) and time flew by! She was so easy going and brilliant to work with, she was also beautiful!! I honestly couldn't of asked for a better model for this shoot and I will definitely be staying in contact with her for future shoots!

Here are just a handful of my favourite images - I found the most amazing airstream diner for my chosen location, which I absolutely loved shooting at. It was such a quirky location and it was definitely perfect for the whole theme of the shoot! I hope you guys love the images as much as I do! :)

 

 

 

Let me know what you think guys! :)

Laura xx

Ghost Sign Secrets

So for part of our assignment for visual language, we have to produce three pieces of creative work that incorporates text and image into them. I decided to focus my attention on Ghosts signs. I find Ghost signs absolutely fascinating and I try and look for them wherever I go. A ghost sign is an old hand painted advertising sign which has been preserved on a building for a prolonged period of time.

Ghost signs are seen and preserved all over the world, some are visible, whereas some are occasionally revealed after buildings that were built after them, have been demolished to find these old advertisements behind the newer buildings. I wanted to use these as part of my assignment as something different, something that is part of our history and towns, and by preserving them conserves and reminds us of the historic side of our surroundings, that include text and image in a natural way.

I shot a few ghost signs I have seen on my travels, but because I only needed three, I picked the best three out of the handful I had to choose from. One ghost sign is from my hometown Chippenham, the second one if from Warmley, on the outskirts of Bristol and the last one is from Bradford-on-Avon.

Old 'Bookshop' sign in Chippenham -

I came across this sign just opposite the railway station, I spent a lot of time researching this ghost sign but I had no luck in finding out what it was, how long it has been there for and the history behind it. I really love this sign and I feel like it still carries a part of the town’s history during this present day. It also holds a lot of secrecy behind it as I was unable to make out what the first word says. I will definitely be researching this sign in the future to find out what it was.

Old 'Raleigh and Humber Cycles' Sign in Warmley -
The Rayleigh Bicycle Company is a bicycle manufacturer which was originally based in Nottingham, and it is now one of the older bicycle companies in the world. One shop, based in Warmley, which is called ‘Webbs of Warmley’, is one of Bristol’s oldest established businesses. It has been trading in the same shop for more than a century, in which recently it has moved to bigger premises. The shop still remains, the sign of ‘Webbs of Warmley’ and the ghost sign also still remain and it has been preserved very well, seeing as its been there over 100 years! The sign is very visible and because of the very interesting history behind it, I had to add it into one of my final images!

Old 'Swan Hotel' sign in Bradford-on-Avon -
Bradford on Avon is a very historic town and I believe this sign is a rarity amongst other ghost signs of this time. This is down the Swan Hotel still trading in the same premises, under the same original name till this present day from that of when it was first built, which dates back to the 1500’s, as seen on the front of the hotel. This is my favourite ghost sign out of the 3 I have taken, it allows the town to keep part of its history present, rather than removing it, the hotel has kept its original name and kept the sign visible for everyone to see. I really love this sign and it has to be my favourite out of the three.

 I really enjoyed shooting these signs and finding out the history behind them, and I cant wait to find more in the future!

Until next time, Laura xxx

Inspiration Hour!

So every now and again I like to spend an hour or so looking at new or previous photographers, artists or inspirations of mine to keep my ideas up to date and to also think of new ways I can improve my own photography. This week I have been looking at another one of my favourite all-round photographers Shaun Alexander. Shaun is a top fashion and advertising photographer who specialising in anything you can imagine, his portfolio is literally never ending! I spent a good house looking at his website, his images and his career as a whole. He really is an inspiration and his work is very unique and one of a kind! The quality of imagery is very high, and with him creating and working with numerous advertising campaigns, Cosmetic campaigns, and Editorial Campaigns. Fashion designers, high fashion magazines, advertising companies, fashion editorial, celebrities, magazine covers, his work is known famously worldwide, with the standard of photography and work always growing after every shoot of his.


If you have time please check out his amazing website! (You wont be disappointed!)

http://www.shaunalexander.net/

Laura xx

Editorial Throwback!

So I have recently been looking through my images that I shot during my first year of University. I came across a really exciting shoot that I did back with Steve, a photographer who also studies with me. During this specific shoot, we spent the whole day with the model and the MU artist. We took our cameras over to the media make-up studio in the other building and photographed the model getting ready and transforming into a beautiful mystical creature!

These things take time, so I spent atleast 3 hours chatting and photographing the model as I went, capturing stages of the transformation. It was such an amazing experience, being able to see the model being transformed, and the stages the MU artist went through to complete the look was fascinating and definitely needed someone with a lot of patience and a model who was willing to sit that long!

Here are just a few shots during the transformation stages. I love the depth of field within these images, which really allowed me to focus on the model and the makeup artist. Blurring out the background really helped me to create attention to detail in the models face and how delicate the whole process was. I also love the imperfections with some of the images, the mirror is slightly smudged and none of it was staged, which definitely makes these images stand out.

I then got onto shooting the model in the studio, Steve and I set up the studio whilst the model was having the final touches of her make-up done so we were organised and ready for when they came over. I was so excited but nervous because I wanted to capture some really striking images to do the work justice! I took a lot of images but there is one that really is in a league of its own. I love the way the light has fallen on this particular image, almost as if it is lighting up the most important parts of the image, creating and leaving shadows on the face, the ears and the dress to create depth and contrast. I absolutely love it, I think its beautiful and it was definitely worth the wait capturing an image like this one!

 

 

 

 

 

Ill be blogging again soon, thanks for reading!

Laura :) xx

 

Digital Imaging - Bokeh!

Our task over the Christmas period was to photograph the technique known as 'Bokeh'. After never hearing of this specific effect before, I spent a little while researching about it and looking at lots of different perspectives and ways of doing it. A simple way of explaining Bokeh is the technique that blurs out the lighting in the image, or when the lens completely out focuses the background. For this task, I used my Nikon Telephoto Lens (70 - 300mm). I was abit apprehensive on using this lens as I was worried I wasn't going to get the right effect with it, but after I set up what I wanted to shoot I started playing around with the shutter speed and aperture I was starting to get the right effect. I was currently in the middle of tidying up my Christmas decorations and I decided to use the tree lights for the background and some little Christmas novelties which would be in focus in the foreground.

I had a lot of fun shooting Bokeh, especially for the first time! I'm really happy with my results and will be shooting a lot more Bokeh in the future!

 

 

 

 

I also got my beautiful little cat to model for me!!

 

 

 

Hope you like my images :)

Laura xxx

A hidden gem

 For my most recent shoot, a friend and I popped over to Bowood for the morning. Being only a 2 minute drive from where we both live is very handy - you don't always have to travel far to find beautiful locations to shoot at! Once we arrived my friend got changed in the house toilets and we started making our way down to the hidden gem - the waterfall! Being a long walk and right at the bottom of the lake, I was worn out before I even started shooting! The waterfall is beautiful, set back from the rest of Bowood, to get there your have to walk over little stepping stones over the river! The sun also made an appearance every now and again which looked lovely peeking through the trees surrounding it. We started to shoot straight away, we couldn't wait to get started! I felt bad that my friend was getting wet from the water so I decided to take my boots off and get in with her.. well only up to my knees! We had a lot of fun and it was a great experience, especially walking back to the car in the rain and thunder and no umbrella! I will definitely be returning for another shoot here in the future, but for now here are some of my most favourite images taken from Wednesday :)

 

 

 

I have used Photoshop Elements 11 on all these images, increasing the contrast slightly and also bringing down the saturation level. I didn't want the colours in the images to be bright and 'in your face'. By dimming down the saturation in the image allows the colours to still be there but to be a lot more subtle, giving it a very smooth look to the image - an effect that I love! I am so proud of these images and it is definitely the best shoot I have done so far!


Laura xx