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

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

Digital Imaging - Splash Photography

So this weeks task from one of our lecturers was to experiment with the word 'splash' and create images around 'splash' photography. Splash photography is very interesting and can create some very beautiful and striking images that you wouldn't normally see through the human eye, instead, through the camera lens, you are able capture a still life image that presents a lot of detail and technique.

I wanted to use something everyday to create a splash so I just picked up an apple from my fruit bowl, some spare black A3 paper and filled up a glass bowl full of water and off I went to my kitchen to start shooting! I did drag my mum into helping me so she could drop the apple into the bowl whilst I focused on capturing the image! It took us a few attempts to get it right but we eventually got some good shots!

I am very pleased with the outcome seeing it was my first attempt at this type of photography!! Some images are below, enjoy :)

 

 

 

I really loved experimenting with 'splash' photography and it is something I would definitely do again. If I were to do this again, I would change the object I was dropping into the water, or I would perhaps use a different glass, or a see through box so I could photograph the object falling into the water from the side of the box to get the objects splash from inside the box etc., just to do something different. I also like experimenting with angles and the different splashes you can achieve from the angles from the camera lens, so experimenting with that further is something I would like to practice.

 

Until next time :)
Laura xox

Photographing a Hair Show

On Saturday I photographed my first ever hair show! It was such an amazing experience and one that I was preparing for for a little while now! After waking up at 6am and going to my usual job until 4pm in the afternoon, I had to rush home and get my things together and head down to the hair show. I arrived at 6 and the team were doing a final run through. So Caroline, the lady who owns the salon and who organised the whole show took me backstage where I was introduced to the hair salons regular photographer, Nick. He made me feel less nervous and we were having a laugh and a joke. He was telling me all about his 15 years spent in the photography business, with his own home studio and company, it was really inspiring listening to all the experiences he had during his photography career!

There was a lot of waiting around as the show didn't start until gone 7:30, but I was peeping out from behind the side stage curtains, out to where my mum and sister were sat, who were in the audience (they were trying to put me off!!) haha. The show began with a speech from Caroline, followed by a dance crew who were very good and started off the show perfectly! It then went into hair of different eras including 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and so on, one even dressed like the spice girls did back in the day! There was also a men's cut of the on-trend cut based on 'The Only Way is Essex'. Below are some images I took from the different decades of hair.

 

There was also another salon there which showcased their work during the second half of the show, the image above was one of my favourite images I took of 3 different hairstyles that were produced.

 

A live cut on stage: Long hair into a Bob

 

 

There was also live music during the evening which added something different to the evening, everyone in the crowd was signing along!

 

 

There was then a masquerade ball, which showcased big hair that would usually be sported back in the days when people 'went to the ball'. The hair was amazing and looked like it took hours to do! Complete with beautiful gowns and lovely make-up from a well known make-up artist it all came together brilliantly!

I took around 400 images, so it was very hard to just narrow it down to just a few, so I picked my favourite from the evening to put on my blog post today! I had an amazing time, I was there around 4 hours and it absolutely flew by I was having such a brilliant time! I am so so pleased with my images and it was such a different and amazing experience, one which I would do all over again!!

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