Recent Photography

As I have probably mentioned in previous posts about photography, I have been aiming to take my camera(s) out with me most places I go. This is to get me into the good habit of taking photos/ practising photography.

I use four cameras on a regular basis. The one I have with me basically all of the time is the one on my phone. Though fairly basic, the quality isn't too bad for a phone camera and can take some okay-ish looking photos with it. With the help of Instagram, they can look even better!

The next one is my Canon 550d, DSLR camera. I often use a 50mm lens with this. As I keep it mainly for filming, I don't used it a lot for still photographs, but it is something I keep getting myself to use for photography these days.

I also use an analogue SLR camera, an Olympus Trip 35. This goes with me most places these days- I'm in a really good habit of taking film photos now. Being as this one is still fairly new to me and doesn't have a light meter, sometimes I find it difficult getting the right settings. I'm occasionally still over exposing my photos, which is really annoying! I think getting the lighting right with this camera will come with practise and use over time.

The other camera I use a lot is my Instax Mini. This one is slightly novelty, though a lot of fun and can actually take some quite good photographs with it. I like using this for less serious things, like using at events or on holiday or on nights out (which are rare these days)! I like using it especially for portraits, mainly of my boyfriend, as it turns out. Here he is playing golf:

Growl

'I Don't Think That I Exist'

My latest piece of art.

I've been developing this low poly style for a while now and it's a format I really like working in. This is probably my favourite so far, because the background, the colours and also the style I drew the rest of the body in. For some reason on my other ones, the body was the part I most struggled to get "right", because mostly line thickness/ brush pressure and also colours. It's also a well developed piece and has lots going on. A definite improvement from my first one.

It's exciting for me to see what I'll do next with this style, or move on to something else...

Food Photography Continued...

As stated previously, I was going to be making a bigger deal of and really be focussing on taking more professional looking photographs of the things I make/ bake, to fuel both hobbies (baking/ photography) at the same time and get better at both. As I've made more things in the kitchen since and therefore taken more photographs, I thought it would be appropriate to share them.

Here are my latest two:

Top: Chocolate Truffles as a Valentines Day gift for my boyfriend (yep, cheesy, I know!) and below: cherry, almond and chocolate fudge for my Mum for her Birthday.

I'm very pleased with both of these photographs (and the chocolates!) and can see me creating a style the more I take them and the more used I become to photographing products in this manner.

So, if anyone does want photographs taking of their bakes etc, then let me know as I'm open to commissions.

GIF

What's this, another blog post in the same Month. Cray.

Feeling really creative and positive at the moment, which is really fun.

Here's my latest piece:

I haven't made an animated GIF for a while now, but had a wave of inspiration the other day and I'm pretty pleased with the result. Hopefully it'll spur me on to do more...

Cat

Good evening!

I'm still here. Are you?

I finally got around to completing another piece of art- yay- after not having completed any for quite a while. It's for a friend of mine who I write to and we send each other pictures/ photos/ art that we make. And no, we're not as pretentious as that sounds!

Here it is:

...And here are my workings:

Hope to be posting more artsy stuff and blog posts soon and more frequently. Watch this space!

SPACE.

35mm ...Again

I'm trying to get back into blogging on a more regular basis. I think this is the third this month, so that averages out as just under once a week- I'll take that!

I'm also trying to use my 35mm camera more often, by having it with me all the time and get into a habit of using it more than my phone camera.

Here are some of my favourites from my last film that I got developed yesterday:

New Ventures in Baking...

If you are a regular reader of my irregular blog, then you will know that I have started baking cakes as a new creative challenge/ hobby or whatever one may call it.

Recently though, as a different challenge and to keep things fresh, I wanted to try my hand at biscuits/ sweets- something I've never really looked into, besides eating them!

This is the fist batch I tried:

"stained glass" biscuits

It was more the aesthetics of these that took my fancy rather than anything else. I thought they would make great Christmas presents.

I had no idea how they'd turn out and was fairly nervous, but at the same time I was super excited, because it would be a new thing. I finished these at about 1am one evening! 

They look like how they're meant to and I was pleased with how they came out, but they didn't actually come off the baking sheet(!), so I had to bin them, unfortunately. It was the boiled sweets that just stuck to the paper, so next time I must grease the paper.

These are the next ones:

ginger biscuits

Because I didn't have enough time to make the previous ones again before Christmas without risking disaster, I decided to make some ginger biscuits instead. I drizzled them with dark chocolate to finish, because I thought it would compliment the ginger (in which it did) and also give the design of them a little "extra something"!

I was very pleased with the end result of these- and so was everybody who tried them! I will be making these in the future...

lemon creams

Here I strayed away from biscuits slightly, because I wanted to make something different. I remember making these when I was very young and remember them being lovely, so thought these should be the next thing I make.

These are actually Lemon Creams, rather than the peppermint ones I had previously made.

Again, I drizzled dark chocolate on these, to give them more of a crunch and also had something to do with the aesthetics. Warning: these are very moreish!

vanilla shortbread thins (shortbears)

I then wanted something to bake for my parents. I had just bought a bear shaped biscuit cutter and was longing to try it out, because super cute! I decided to make vanilla shortbread thins (in the shape of a bear). I dusted these with icing sugar to add an extra sweetness.

I had never made shortbread before, but these turned out pretty well, plus the bear shape made them even more tempting!

...And lastly:

rum truffles

I wanted to try another completely different thing here and I am so pleased I did- these were delicious! The flavour was quite rich, but as long as you don't eat more than one or two at a time (though fairly impossible to do), then it's not a bad thing. I added some orange extract to outer chocolate coating and also made that with predominately milk chocolate, rather than plain as the recipe suggested. I think they would have just been too strong if I used dark on the outer, too. I think if I made these again, it would be nice to add some glacé cherries to the inner and maybe more rum- flavour was a little too subtle. Be great to try out different flavours of truffle. Any suggestions, send 'em my way!

I'm really enjoying this baking hobby(?) of mine at the moment. I challenge myself each time I make something and that is largely part of the enjoyment. It's also a lot about the excitement of the unexpected and also getting to try what I make and seeing how I can improve. 

I've always enjoyed baking, especially as a child, but I think I'm now more of an age where I can appreciate it in a different way to when I did when I was young. I'm also getting much more confident with baking and I'm even starting to add my own twists to things, rather than following the recipe step for step, ounce for ounce. I can't wait to see how much I improve throughout the year and how many more different things I make. For Christmas, I was given a fair amount of baking equipment, so I think baked goods from the Flora Martyr kitchen may keep on coming... Watch this space!

xo

More 35mm

Here's some from the second roll of film I got developed- I'm really liking this camera! I'm still only getting used to it e.g. how it works in what light etc, but I can see a lot of potential here. Plus, because it's so small and light, I can basically carry it with me everywhere, which is what it was intended for on purchase...

Portrait of Myself

A while ago (December 2014) I was asked by some old university friends to do some rotoscope animation on a music video they were making. Since this video they have now set up a production company, with website soon to be released- will link when I have the go ahead!

Because of the work I did on their video, they kindly asked me to be part of the 'associated artists' section of their website and for this, I was to take an Instax (modern day polaroid) picture of myself.

This is the result. I quite like a portrait of myself every so often, especially when it's a fairly 'artsy' one, like so.

It says 'animator' at the bottom and I really wish I had the time to do more animation these days, so if any of you guys do want to hire me for anything animation related (or just anything creative), then please feel free to do so #gettingdesperatenow 

Photo credit goes to Ben Fuller.

I Finally Got Some Photos Developed

...pretty much self explanatory blog post due to the title!

Anyway, HELLO! How are you? Even, who are you? I've not blogged in so long, I have no idea who you even are anymore or who I am, for that matter.

I haven't been doing much creative things lately, because I have a day job which consumes most all of my time these days. Fun.

Saying that, I have been taking quite a few photos with my new camera (see last blog post) and here are some of the results:

I went to Southend on holiday in November, so sue me.