Magnetic Memoirs. 18th November.

Some of you may know that my Grandad passed away back in April, one of the many things he left behind was the magnet collection that decorated his fridge. My Nanna and Grandad collected magnets throughout their lives, each magnet represents a memory, trip, or something which was part of their lives. I have decided to produce a fine art photo-documentary where I photograph the magnets and then share how they created part of my Grandparents identities. 

I remember these two budgies, my Grandparents used to own two which looked exactly like these... I can't really remember the yellowey-green one as it flew away when I was quite young, but I can remember visiting and seeing the blue one. I was young when the blue budgie died, but I have always wanted to own a budgie... it's probably because of my early experiences of seeing them when I visited my grandparents. My Nanna and Grandad liked birds and often left food outside for them; one winter season my Grandad befriended a Robin and gained its trust so much that it used to come right up to the door and eat out of his hand.

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Winter at the Lido. 17th November.

On a very chilly winters day when the streets were filled with Christmas shoppers, one city centre establishment was completely empty. 

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The Savoy, an empty town, and a little bit about the Ian Parry Award Ceremony with Don McCullin. 4th October.

It seems like I am in London a lot at the moment, I've been in London the past two Tuesdays and will probably be back in London for a week at the end of the month! There's a big contrast between the hustle and bustle of city life, and the empty streets of my local town at 6pm.. I'm not quite sure what I prefer. 

I also met this little dog today when I was wandering to my local shop:

Why was I in London last Tuesday? I was at the Savoy, there was a conference there for a Canadian company and I was the photographer for the event. It was a great conference set within an absolutely beautiful building, it was such a pleasure to capture the day and to work within such an iconic hotel.

I said I'd update you properly about the Ian Parry Scholarship award ceremony a couple of weeks ago, I have put together this very short video of the night.. I didn't take much footage as I spent most of the time talking to other photographers and admiring the work of the winners. One photographers I did get to talk to was Don McCullin, it was amazing to meet him as I have been incredibly inspired by his work. Don seemed to be very supportive of new talent as he gave me a whole load of advice, he urged me to not settle for photographing the easy things, but to get out on the streets and capture the things that happen. So I am currently looking for a project which will get me doing those things, sadly life in my rather empty town makes it quite hard at the moment!!

Ian Parry Scholarship Award Ceremony 2012. from Ruth Jones on Vimeo.

GradAcad day 7: Moving Brands Brief Work. 3rd July.

So today has been a productive day as my group & I sat down and started working on an answer to our brief. After some spider-diagrams, paper prototypes and research we have come to an initial conclusion about our answer. We have a mentoring session tomorrow where we can run our thoughts by an industry figure, and then we will probably be back to developing our concept over the next two days! 

You have to have some little breaks of fun during a long day's work! Office chair racing is quite a good sport which will both help you refresh your brain and exercise! 

The graduate academy has been split up into four teams, so the three other teams were also working on their briefs in the same room.. so throughout the day we became each other's market research and focus groups! It was interesting comparing the working styles of all of the teams as everyone had a completely different way of working!

Pretty confident about tomorrow and developing our concept with the mentor!

#gradacad

http://www.dandad.org/talent/graduate-academy

The Park Study

Sadly I couldn't shoot for the park study today as I am in-between flats, so today has been pretty manic and I am quite far away from the park where I am shooting! I am hoping to get back on the project tomorrow, although I can't make any promises! 

The Green Backyard. 6th June.

I went to the Green Backyard today, this is an environmental project in Peterborough. It is a green space in the heart of the city surrounded by buildings, people come to the green backyard and work there in the gardens, poly tunnels or workshops. I visited to take a couple of photos for my current project on British life.. but I have now started to gain an interest in the project and am looking into developing a documentary around it... so watch this space! 

http://www.thegreenbackyard.com/

 

Scooby and Alan. 10th April.

I went to the Emmaus community in Cambridge today, I hadn't been there for about a month, but it was good to be back and working on the project. Even though I have been visiting a few times I am still meeting new people, this man, Alan, is someone who I met today. He is really interesting, he has a little dog called Scooby who was possibly the most excitable dog ever! He also has a bearded dragon, his room is very unique and almost all of his furniture has been made or customised by him. 

Today's trip mainly consisted of interviews, I took a few photos, but I have decided to start filming for the video documentary I am making on Emmaus and the people who live in the community. I have had a great start to filming this documentary and over the next few months I am really looking forward to creating it and making a really strong final piece.

Polluted Darkness. 17th March.

Recently I've been realising how much of our night skies are polluted. It is immensely hard to see the stars or constellations as the sky is lit up, I miss the darkness sometimes, even though sometimes it may feel eerie, darkness is beautiful and peaceful most of the time. I would love light pollution to become a thing of the past, it is now hard to appreciate the beautiful wonder of a full night sky or a moment of pure darkness.

Receiving. 12th March.

Almost every house in the UK is connected to an invisible network, through aerials, dishes, cables we all receive information which is now a major influence on how we live our lives.

In other news.. I was going to shot at Emmaus today, but the shoot had to be cancelled, so I won't be shooting there until next week now. I am shooting for my new project, which is a study on England and the English, on Sunday at a horse show. I am quite excited about this. I'm going out with the Mamyia and a few rolls of colour 120, I love Medium Format photography, it brings a whole new dimension of quality into photographs!

The Night Tree. 26th February.

I saw this tree tonight, this tree and other similar trees are lined down the drive of my church. I thought it's silver branches stood out from the dark sky, hence the photograph of it. I am off to Emmaus Cambridge tomorrow to shoot more for the documentary, this is quite exciting, so expect new work on it soon!

Rain. 18th February.

Today's weather has not been the most agreeable! The wind and rain have been quite persistent, meaning that I have not been able to go out and shoot for my project on the industrial side of Britain, instead I have been doing general computer-based work, such as editing and working on my website. 

I have two fashion shoots coming up at the start of next week, these should be good and I'm looking forward to them and working on the photos I will be taking at them. I'm also starting to research for a documentary project which I shall be exhibiting in a few months time, I will give you more information as the project develops, hoping to start shooting for it quite soon though!

Balloon Tree. 15th February.

I was due to have a fashion/portrait shoot today, but it was cancelled. I had a load of helium-filled balloons to use as props for the shoot, so I decided to have a shoot with them anyway. The photograph was taken at a local nature reserve, I thought that the colourful balloons would make an interesting subject as it stands out from the green/brown surroundings. It was a fun little shoot, the rest of the photographs will be found on my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/RuthJonesPhotography

I am also currently uploading the photos from the shoot I had at Emmaus Cambridge yesterday onto my facebook page, so if you're interested check them out.

Emmaus Photo Documentary Update (and daily photo - fen turbines). 13th February.

I visited the Emmaus community and shop in Cambridge for the first time today, I talked to a few of the people there and had a look round the centre, I also started shooting. For those of you who do not know, Emmaus is an organisation which takes homeless people in and gives them accommodation and work if they comply by the rules of the community. The residents at Emmaus run a shop which sells refurbished furniture and donated goods. For more information about Emmaus visit: http://www.emmauscambridge.org/

On my way driving back from Cambridge, I saw this scene and just had to photograph it as I thought it would fit well into my Electric Landscapes project. So I pulled onto the verge and just captured the scene, it was wonderful!

Hotel Kettle. 4th January.

I was staying in a hotel last night as I was at a conference in Bradford. I find hotel rooms really interesting places, if the walls could speak they would no doubt have many stories to tell. It is strange to think that thousands of people will have slept in the room that you are sleeping in. 

Gaffa Tape Gallery. 27th January. (And why I love mobile phone photography)

I was with a few fellow photographers today and we were all doing a little task, after watching an hour long documentary we took screen shots of moments which would work well in a photographic documentary for the same subject. This morning we all met up and stuck up our photos in the sequence we believed was most effective, we critiqued each other's sequences. It was a great task to do to improve portfolio/photo documentary editing. 

I am also quite a big fan of mobile phone photography, it's a camera which you can take everywhere with you. There are so many things I have captured on my phone, it's a notebook (documenting shoot locations), a photo album (friends and family), and a journal (documenting ideas!). Major news companies now use mobile phone photographs to document news stories, the camera phone is a piece of equipment which can make everyone a photojournalist, a truly important historical invention.

Raindrops. 24th January.

Today did not go as plan, I wanted to go out and shoot for my industrial landscapes documentary project, but the weather for the day meant it would be pretty challenging to take a photograph which would appear how I wanted it to appear. Instead of shooting I spent a day indoors planning for a documentary on the effects homelessness has on people, hopefully I have a great organisation on board who I can work alongside. I also booked a location for a fashion shoot I have coming up next week. Excited to see both of these projects unfold!

New photographic documentary project on the horizon! (Daily photo: Cookie Monster. 12th January.)

This is the Cookie Monster from the classic children's TV programme Sesame Street. He currently sits in my hallway, not really doing anything, I used to love him as a child, but now I grow older he has become more of an ornament to remind me of classic childhood toys.

In other news, I am looking at starting a new documentary project where I am looking into homelessness. I am hoping to get involved with a charity who support the homeless. It is an issue which I find very interesting and is something which I am looking forward to exploring. Along side the photographic side of the project I am looking into producing a video documentary to support the photographic aspect.

A C Ostler Garden Centre. 29th November.

So today I started working on a new documentary project, where I take portraits of people who work in small independent shops. These shops are the ones that our towns and villages rely on, they are the ones that some people take for granted as they have "always been there", people may not even notice them. Recently I have watched a number of these independent shops close due to either retirement or not being able to live up to competition, this made me want to capture the small British independent shops as there is always a possibility that they will be taken over by clinical commercial large scale retailers. 

One shop which I can remember from my childhood is a Garden Centre called A C Ostler, it sells everything! Toys, Kitchen Utensils, Garden Tools, Plugs, Christmas Decorations (when it's christmas!), Clothes Dyes... the list is endless!  I know that this Garden Centre may not be around forever, I hope that it is, but it is one of the many shops which would be missed if it did have to leave our high street.

I shall update this album during the production of this series: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150983027765046.767614.407058550045&type=1

Flower of Light. 24th of November.

Here is a flower, not a normal flower, it's a flower of light... the normal eye can't see it, but the camera can!

Today I have been researching into and planning my new project, a series of photographs documenting home education families in England. I was home educated up until the age of 16 and I absolutely loved it and benefited from it a lot, this subject is something I am passionate about and I am really excited to start working on this project! I will keep you informed whilst I am working on it!