Snow day

I've been itching to get out in the snow with my camera over the past week, but have been working most days. Apparently even outdoor clothing shops can have snow days though, so today I got out at last! The snow was fairly deep in places, and seems to have been causing chaos on the roads. Having spent over an hour digging my car out the other day only for it to be completely snowed back in this morning, I can certainly see the positives and negatives of this weather. There is a definite 'Narnia' look to this much snow - particularly in the trees. It was great to get out today and take some photos. One side of the sky was full of beautiful colours, while fog was setting in on the other - making for some more atmospheric scenes. Hopefully I will be able to get out again soon!

Early bird catches...the sunrise!

One advantage of getting up early for work is seeing some beautiful sunrises from my window! I like the bare trees and the phone wires, which make the images a bit more interesting than just the outline of the houses.

Pampas Grass

This pampas grass is great to photograph, as it is a very striking plant. I love being able to take a really sharp photo of something like this, capturing the texture and detail, but I equally love trying to create something more atmospheric by playing around with the focus and light. (Hope that doesn't sound too arty farty!)

Leaves

Autumn in Scotland doesn't have all that much going for it - with more rain, more wind and turning even colder than the summer. But days like today make it all worthwhile, with the sun shining and some great colours in the garden. I particularly love the various shades of red seen during Autumn (on leaves, conkers etc) and always feel inspired to dye my hair a similar colour around this time of year!

Fake Plastic Trees

Another beautifully frosty and sunny morning, so I pottered round the garden with my camera (and my dad's new camera, much nicer than mine) to see what I could find. Last year my mum cut out some squares of bright pink plastic from notebook covers and stapled them to some trellis down the bottom of the garden. The colour has now faded (although they're not totally see-through), making them ideal for multi-layered photographs. Shadows from a nearby tree merge with the real scene and vary the level of transparency.

Textured condensation

In these photographs, I focused more on the actual condensation rather than the scene outside. I think they both have a real sense of texture to them - almost metalic or like precious stones. This contrasts strongly with reality, where touching the surface would destroy the pattern.

Condensation

I was experiementing the other day with photographing the view from my bedroom through the condensation on the window. This blurs vision and adds a haze of hexagonal shapes, making for a more atmospheric scene.

Garden frost

Had a beautiful frosty morning yesterday, so managed to get a few photos in the garden. I'd love (well, sort of) to get up early and go out and about to take advantage of the amazing light at that time of day. The potential for great photographs is there, but I don't think I'm getting it just yet. Could blame it on my wee camera, but I think I could do with more practice too! Bring on winter!

Liking the lichen

(Apologies for the cheesey title - couldn't resist)

Found some interesting patches of lichen on wooden posts on a recent trip to Dobbies (with the parents, I must stress!). Love the detail within these photos - the colours, patterns and texture. Could be an interesting project to try and reproduce in stitch? I like the idea of distorting the scale, for example by enlarging an area to make it less obvious what it is.

I like being able to see interesting details in something that is normally overloooked.

U2, Summer 2009

I took these photos at a U2 gig last year in Hampden Park, Glasgow. Managed to get right down the front, which was amazing! Particularly like the top photo of Bono - again, it's the silhouettes and light that I seem to go for.

Hoping to blog a bit more regularly over the next few months (rather than lots then nothing for ages!), so watch this space...

More College outfits

These were also made for my recycling project in College. I deconstructed and cut into t-shirts, layered and gathered bits, and stitched them back together. Inspired by sections of some of my drawings of everyday objects, I also added black stitching to give a bit more detail. I really like being able to take something ordinary and change it into something new and different! All these garments appeared in the end of year fashion show at The Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow, and were pictured in The Evening Times!

Reduce, reuse, recycle

For a self-directed project in college, I looked at recycling and the idea of taking everyday objects and making them into something new. I took this idea into my fashion class and recycled a gents suit jacket and shirt into a skirt and top (both from Oxfam). I loved working on these, playing around with ideas on the mannequin until I came up with something that was totally different from the original garments, but used some of their features such as buttons and seams. I love to try and do more of this kind of thing - making use of old clothes or clothes in charity shops and giving them new life, instead of always buying new things.

Travis gig, Barrowlands

I quite often annoy the people around me at gigs by taking lots of photos, but I think it's a great opportunity to try to capture the moment and the atmosphere of the night. The results are a lot more spontaneous than my usual photographs, but still play around with light and silhouettes.

Botanics - Kibble Palace

Kibble Palace (one of the greenhouses) reopened in 2006 following a multimillion-pound restoration. It lends itself well to photography, with lines and shapes created by the impressive iron and glass structure, and is one of my favourite places to visit in Glasgow. I particularly like the top photograph, with the contrast of sun and rain, glass and iron, and the sense of looking in from the outside.

Botanics - secret staircase

In one of the greenhouses, partly hidden behind masses of leaves, is a beautiful spiral staircase. I assume it is used to gain access to the tops of the plants, but it's like finding a stairway to a hidden world, and the wrought iron is a beautiful contrast to the surrounding jungle. As it's so hot in the greenhouses, the lens on my camera steamed up, creating the effect in the final photograph - I think this just adds to the other-world feeling!

Botanics - leafy greens

While looking around the greenhouses in the Botanics, I found these leafy plants growing up towards the ceiling making it quite jungle-y. The sun coming in through the windows highlighted the variations of green in the plants as well as the different, overlapping leafy shapes, which contrasted with the lines of the window panes. I'd really like to be in the position where I could visit the Botanics regularly to see how it changes throughout the year.