Parnwell. 28th September.

I went out today and did a test shoot for what I thought could be a possible project, I wanted to photograph life in a small estate in Peterborough, Parnwell.. the test shot did not go to plan as there were not that many people about.. making it hard to photograph it how I wanted to. I am not sure if I'll continue the project, I might visit a couple more times to see if it changes.. if not then I may look at different areas to test shoot.

Burghley House. 14th April.

I was at Burghley House today (near Stamford) shooting for my current project on the English. The house was having an Open Gardens day, this is where the residents of the house let the public look around their private gardens, the gardens are absolutely beautiful.. and I am slightly jealous of the children who get to grow up in such a wonderful and exciting place! The house and gardens were full of people, and I had quite a few people who were interested in the equipment I was using (Mamiya RZ67) as they are so used to seeing people with DSLRs or Compact Cameras. It was a beautiful day and I am quite excited about seeing the negatives when they are developed!

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.

The Skatepark. 5th April.

Today was a lot better than yesterday, so I made the most out of it and went back to my plans of shooting for my current project. This is a little digital test shoot I took when I was out at one of the locations, I'm shooting on 120 film with a Mamyia, it is a great camera to use and still used by many pro photographers. 

Daytime at the Fair. 22nd March.

There's a fair in my city at the moment, people only usually see fairs at night when everything's open and it's bustling with people. The fairground has a completely different atmosphere in the daytime; a few people walk about the grounds chatting together, on a couple of rides there are men checking the mechanics, some girls play together on one of the "£2 for 5minutes" trampolines, and dogs sit next to the caravans gnawing on bones. It's a friendly environment, it feels a bit like a morning at a festival, it's a community of people who travel and live a really unique way of life. 

So today I visited the fairground armed with the Mamyia with a roll of colour 120 film and captured the people and the environment which they call "home". 



The Shire Horse Show. 18th March.

Today I was shooting at the Shire Horse Show, this is for the new project I'm working on. The show is held at the East of England showground in peterborough, there were horse events, stalls, and dog agility events so I thought it would be a really great event to shoot for my documentary. I was working with medium format film today, so I only took a few digital images as instant reference images (this photograph being one of them). I love shooting with film, especially medium/large format, as you find yourself really considering each show and composition in depth. Hopefully I'll be getting the film developed tomorrow, so I'm rather excited about that!

New Project: How the English Life. 10th March.

I have been out at the local country-park today, Ferry Meadows. You may have seen on my twitter/facebook that I have now started working on a new project which is going to be exhibited for the first time in June/July. This project is exploring the English and how we live and spend our time. It's exciting and I am very much looking forward to developing it. 

Today I had my first test shoot, I am currently finding locations and this park is a great one, I found these lads playing football and asked them for a portrait after taking a few shots of them playing, they were great! 

Emmaus shoot 2. 27th February.

I visited the Emmaus Community in Cambridge for the second time today, it was a great visit as I was more familiar with the surroundings and the people there. I got to chat to a few of the guys who live there, I learnt a little bit about their stories and how they came to live at Emmaus. I'm going back next week to spend some time with the community in the Evening, they have a band practice and I am really looking forward to photographing that. 

This documentary is great and I am really enjoying working on it and starting it, I hope you are all looking forward to seeing it expand!

More than a fridge magnet. 3rd February.

I was looking at the work of Eunice Adorno yesterday, she produced a photo-documentary called: The Flower Girls. It follows a number of Mennonite women and shows their lives through these photographs, it's a great piece of work. One of the photographs in the series was quite thought provoking, it was  a fridge with a magnet on, I found this very interesting as it shows that a simple magnet on a fridge can tell someone a lot about the people who inhabit the house. Fridge magnets are little bits of people's personality and connect with the identity of people. 

Schools At Home.

 

David. 19th of December.

I had my last shoot of the month for my Schools at Home project as it's Christmas time and most families are wanting to spend the time together and take time out from giving children structured lessons! The family I visited today were the Davies family, It was great spending some time with them and photographing them. In the photograph is David, he enjoys making models and he is holding a model shed he made which was quite impressive. The whole family are quite creative and I highlighted that through the photographs I took today. The project is really starting to lift off and I am excited about seeing it develop in the long term!

The Stephens Family. 13th December.

I had another shoot for the Schools at Home project today, I have one more left before Christmas! This shoot was great, the family was wonderful. They have a very relaxed and autonomous approach to education but encourage the children to learn by doing activities and reading etc... I am very happy with the shoot and am so excited about the fact that the project is really starting to develop and come to life! 

I am also currently working on my website, it's going to be a lot different to what it was previously, but I am developing it so it can really showcase my portfolio. I am hoping to have it done by Christmas.

The Candle. 12th December.

 I don't know why people seem to use candles more over Christmas. It might be because the days are a lot darker in England over Christmas, so candles bring a little bit more light into the world. It might be because Christmas it about Jesus's birth, which is also seen as the light of the world being born... so a candle signifies light. It might be because people just like candles! I don't know, it's just one of those funny little English traditions!

I spent some time with the Smith family today, they are a home educating family from Huntingdonshire. They are a great family and I am very happy with some of the photographs from today, this project is growing and getting stronger. Very exciting! I have a shoot with another family tomorrow, they approach Home Education in a different way to the Smith family, so it will be interesting to see what I get out of the time I spend with this family.

I also produced more photographs on my "Electric Landscapes" series today. I am going to start looking at another way to expand the project as I have now shot a series of landscapes with Pylons, I am now wanting to incorporate other forms of things relating to the subject.

Electric Landscape. 11th December.

So I shot a little bit more for my Electric Landscapes project today, it's going well and I am excited about what the finished piece of work is going to be like. I have a few more locations to shoot and I need to generate a few more ideas for the project, but it is great!

Tomorrow I am visiting another family for my Home Education / "Schools at Home" documentary. It's exciting to see this project forming as it is a subject that is really close to my heart. It is a short-term project at the moment, but I am looking into continuing it over the next year or so as I want to get a really wide range of people involved in it.

Kitchen Flowers. 8th December.

Every kitchen, at some time in its history, has had a bunch of flowers in it. I don't really know why flowers seem to be found in the kitchen, maybe it's because they are seen as refreshing and relaxing items which may relieve a little bit of the chore that cooking could be to some people, maybe it's just practical and the fact is that the flowers are near to the water tap so they can be easily refreshed, maybe it's just because they might be a nice table decoration when there is no food on the table... it's not a life changing question, but it's a little quirky way which we choose to live our life in the British culture.

In other news, I developed the film from my Electric Landscape project today, I was doing a test shoot with my Holga camera, I was not impressed with the results so I am currently working out what will be the best way to move this project forward. I might stay with 6x6 square landscapes and shoot with a Bronica, or I might go totally opposite and shoot Digitally as this would give a fine art twist to the project show how I as a photographer rely on the electricity which the pylons bring to fuel what I do. I have much deliberating and more research to do until I decide how to move the project forward.

Inside on the Outside. 4th December.

I am starting a new fine-art based project, I'm not really a fine-art photographer, but it's a challenge which I am excited to accept. This photograph is a slight test shot for what I want to do, I want to produce a series of images which show how people showcase their personalities through their appearance and what they wear. I am not going to include people in this, but I am going to base the project on people who I come across and how they like to portray themselves!

I am also shooting a studio piece tomorrow, I won't say much about it...but I will say that it is rather chilly!

The Pearsons. 3rd December.

I had a shoot with the Person family for my Schools in the Home documentary where I am producing portraits of families who home educate. It was a great shoot and I am looking forward to my next shoot on tuesday! Exciting times!

In other news, I passed my Driving Test today, this is going to be a massive help for me as it will enable me to be able to photographs things and people which I couldn't have done by relying on public transport. 

It's been a good day!

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

Abstract Lights. 28th November.

Thought I would do something a little bit abstract today with the photograph, I don't like the idea of being stuck in a creative rut, so this daily photography project is really helping me generate new ideas and do things which I would not normally do!

In other news, I'm off to Hertfordshire tomorrow for my first shoot for my home education documentary! Really looking forward to this and I can not wait to share my results with you all on here!

Moo. 27th November.

I went out for a walk today in Kirkby Underwood, a little Lincolnshire village! There's lots of fields, and trees, and animals. There was also a field full of cows which were identical, one of the cows decided it would be kind enough to pose for me, so here is it's portrait!

In other news, I am really trying to get the ball rolling on my two new portrait-documentary-projects, exciting times. Going to have an admin day tomorrow full of contacting people in relation to the project. Crazy but fun times!