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

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

My Favourite Photographers!

For this blog post I decided to talk about my favourite photographers and what inspires me as a photographer.

I look at a lot of other photographers work and a lot of their work really inspires me and the way I work. Obviously every photographer has their own style but it doesn't stop you from having a look at what's popular and what other photographers are doing to help gather ideas and to add to a board or folder for future shoots. Two photographers I really love the work of are Marco Grob and Chris Nicholls.

Both work as fashion, portraiture and advertisement photographers, but both with two different styles of shooting.

My first inspiration is Chris Nicholls, a fashion photographer but with a very different style to Marco Grob. One of my most favourite group of images is an editorial piece with model Herieth Paul for the September 2013 edition of Fashion Magazine. His work is absolutely beautiful and shot in the most amazing places with stunning models, again his work captivates the eye, but in a different way to that of Marco Grob's work. I would love to produce images like Chris does, you can tell his passion for photography leaks through his images, which is how every photographer should work. Chris makes sure his images are picture perfect, displaying elegance and beauty with definition and simplicity. I could honestly look at his work all day long and I believe his amazing images speak for themselves. I aspire to become what he has become during his career as a fashion photographer.

My second inspiration is Marco Grob, known as the master of faces, he produces captivating images of people using his well known lighting techniques, sculpting the light to suit the specific facial shape. He uses Elinchrom with the use of Monoheads to create the light, with this lighting being particularly powerful and one that gives off a light all in the right places! I absolutely love love love his work, especially as he works 90% in black and white, gives it a very pure feel about it, like its just Marco, the light and the person, without any colour or Photoshop interfering with the image, which it really doesn't need! Although his images are so simple to the eye, it is in hindsight work that once you see it, will stick in your mind, it is that powerful.

This image is just wow! It really does make me speechless looking at an image so perfectly lit which defines Leonardo Dicaprio in every single nook and crannie! This has to be one of my favourite black and white portrait images in a long time, it will be very hard to beat!!

I did try for myself, a go at the way Marco Grob works and I tried to position the lighting to make my image look as Grob like as I could! This is my outcome which I am very pleased with and proud of!!

Until next time!

Laura xxx