Rural road-trips, a gothic make-over and a scary Polish lorry driver!

Firstly, I know a lot of you find my blog amusing, that is it's purpose I feel. But I have to report some sad news, my Taid sadly passed away on Wednesday 18th of May. His funeral was today, and my, was it a celebration. But a tough day none the less. Taid, to me will always be

remembered as someone who had time for anyone, and it is thanks to him I have any kind of grasp of maths. We released balloons and messages and it was a day to remember such a proud man, so full of personality. RIP Taider 1939 - 2011

L to R Jamie, Tracey, Emma Lee, Joanne, Terry, Jonathan and Sush. Taid is sitting in the middle with great granddaughter Olivia and Grandson Kiran.

And so Summer holidays are upon us, and I'm already wanting to go back! Still I have plenty to keep me occupied so far, there's a few photoshoots in the pipeline and scripting has already begun for two of the films I have planned. The scripting for the Scream tribute film has now finished and we're looking to set a date to begin filming.

Some of you may be aware that I recently made a somewhat hefty purchase at Camera

Solutions in Chester. I have bought a new lens, my dream lens infact. A Canon 24-105 L lens, that tiny red line that circles the end of the L series lenses has been something I've aimed for since getting into photography a depressingly long time ago. I've been so scared of using it in case I need to sell it on. (I think I almost melted my poor debit card, it was one of those moments where you were expected the dreaded 'card declined' beeps that makes you want to run screaming from the shop). But luckily (?) it didn't and I put it on my camera andtook them out for the first time on Saturday. I decided to go on a little road trip by myself, I had no destination in mind at first, only that I fancied the A5, so I found Brecon on my satnav and took off in my car. I was near Oswestry before I took a wrong turn at a roundabout after getting distracted by someone pulling out on me. Wrong turns often lead to a horror film-ending, but luckily for me they lead to something I simply love in this world; empty abandoned buildings. This is where my camera came into its own, I couldn't believe how rich and saturated the colours were coming out.

These buildings looked as if people had left them years ago (there were about 7 or 8 in

a row and only single rooms) but as I was peeking through one of the windows, I saw a calendar that read 2010. It's hard to believe that they have decayed so much in such a short space of time. One was still in use, a motorbike riding school. I could see people in hi-vis vests on bikes behind the cattle market which was behind these shops. The wind had started picking up quite

a bit by this point so I decided to jump back in my car.

Since I had took a wrong turn, the satnav was trying

to get me back on track to Brecon, I decided to clear the route and look for places with interesting names instead. I zig-zagged through Morda, which sounded an awful lot like Mordor to me (although no eye of Sauron and no Hobbits disappointingly!).

I also drove through another interesting place called Knockin, I wanted to get a picture of the 'Welcome to Knockin' sign, but there was a police car behind me, and nowhere safe to stop.

Next up was Nesscliffe, a long stretch of road with a few houses, and lots of fields, I found a rather interesting looking bus-stop here.

Inside the bus-stop there were some graffiti'd flowers which took a long time to shoot as the batteries in my flash gun were dying. I had a brief chat with a random girl who asked me if the bus had gone. I honestly thought the first time I saw it that buses had long ceased to stop here, but lo and behold, one turned up moments later and she waved to me as I got back in

to my car. That's one of the things about Wales, well depending where you go, but in mid Wales I've always thought people are very friendly and helpful.

After Nescliffe, I drove through Bicton and stopped at a garage to get myself something to drink. I asked the guy behind the counter if there was anywhere good locally to stop and photograph. He told me (in a lovely gravelly voice!) that I was mere minutes from Shrewsbury, and it being an old town offered a multitude of amazing shot opportunities. Sadly I couldn't find a place to park my car but I've plans to head to Shrewsbury on the train at some stage over to summer with my camera.

Just outside of the town centre, I pulled into a lay-by and took a couple more shots. I know the ones I've taken aren't amazing, but I was trying to photograph things that would display the quality of the lens, and my experiences of places are personal. I prefer to remember places for their aesthetic and secretive qualities as opposed to the "obvious" shots.

After leaving the lay-by I drove through Harmer Hill, there was a sign for an airfield in a town called Sleap, I saw the turning too late and was stuck behind a huge tractor! Wem was the last photographic stop for me. This was due to a scary incident involving a Polish man. I was photographing some material that was stuck to some barbed wire on an (what I considered to be dead) industrial estate, when he beeped his horn and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was photographing the barbed wire, and he said that I couldn't. Trying politely to say it was just barbed wire, he repeated himself so I decided to cut my losses and get out of there.

As I was driving away he blocked me in with his huge lorry and got out of the cab. I was a little scared to say the least by this point, I rolled my window down and explained that I was simply out looking for things to photograph and he asked what company I worked for. Thankfully, that morning I had put on one of my uni hoodies and so I showed him. He seemed fairly happy that I wasn't there to steal anything and he let me go. Sadly it had dampened my mood and so I decided to head home. I drove through a few more villages, Grindley Brook, Tushingham, Broxton, and Clutton and then through Wrexham and back home. I guess all in all it was an enjoyable day, it was great to put my new lens to use and get used to it some more. It's certainly very much worth the money, and now I'm half way there to my dream set-up. I will definitely be doing another road trip or two over the summer, although I may take someone with me next time!

Lastly, a while ago, I posed a blog about being bored leading to a transformation. A few people have commented on the picture, so I decided to make a tutorial video on how I achieved the look. I've also posted the video up here. I hope you enjoy it! There's likely to be more videos over the summer, so watch this space!

Time waits for no man.

Did someone leave the fast forward on?? Where has this first year gone?

It genuinely seems like yesterday that I was sitting in an office being told I'd got a place at Glyndwr and being unable to breathe for a good minute. They said in the interview that the gap between the interview in February and starting in September would go by in a flash, and they were right!

Since then, the first year has gone by faster than the speed of light. It has been a huge shift for me, after being used to working full time. But I've surprised myself at how easy I've been able to put my mind to work, something I wasn't great at in college or high school.

So what have I learnt in my first year? Well, I've learnt that university isn't like school at all, learning is mostly a self discipline, and if you need the knowledge, you have to go out and find it, or someone who knows it. I have been introduced to film makers, photographers, artists and other creative people both in the industry and at Glyndwr. I've been given the chance to use equipment that has opened up a huge range of creative options to me and to top it all off, I've met a bunch of people who have supported and encouraged me, staff and fellow students alike. For this I am so greatful, and feel so lucky to be given this chance.

As with most things in life, things haven't been a complete breeze, sometimes it's hard to find enthusiasm to keep going when you hit a wall. Some of the projects have been hard work, like the short film and its six weeks of editing. Sometimes the briefs we've been given are a little confusing in what exactly is expected. I feel like communication could be a little better in some instances, as well as offering more practical lectures. I am aware short courses in Photoshop and Final Cut are on offer and shall endeavour to attend the Final Cut course in order to better my ability to use it.

For a term we were given critical studies lectures, these were mostly interesting to attend but I felt them to be very much geared towards fine art. It seemed a little odd to want to put the whole art school together and each week the numbers dwindled a little more. I did enjoy going to Liverpool to the galleries though, and surprised myself with my writing ability. Having not written an essay in several years it was very comforting to know I could still do it well.

We've been offered the chance to attend several trips over the course of the first year. There has been a good selection, and I feel none of them were overpriced. I enjoyed visiting Liverpool, and Paris was a photographer's dream. I took away memories from the streets of Paris that I'll never forget, and got by quite well even with my rusty French! We also visited Stoke your Fires, sadly I felt this was geared towards animation more than anything and although it was entertaining it wasn't really for the film makers and photographers.

The projects we've been given have been both varied, fun and in some cases very hard work. I enjoyed all of the film projects apart from the vox pops which I felt wasn't for me, perhaps if we had chosen a different topic it might have been more interesting. The photography projects have been fascinating as most of them (apart from the portrait ones at the beginning) have pushed me out of my comfort zone where photography is concerned and I've really enjoyed pushing myself. I had never really experienced film making before starting the course and I have really taken to it, enjoying each aspect individually, including post production once I started to get the hang of it.

I've enjoyed getting into the studio again, and being able to photograph people in that setting has been immensely fun and rewarding. I've learnt a lot from my fellow students too, about the inner workings of my camera, and how to use a Mac properly (although I can't see myself running out to buy one any time soon!).

Between meeting new friends, learning new skills and experiencing new and exciting things almost everyday university has been an amazing experience so far. I look forward to the second year, although I really hope it doesn't go as fast as the first!

How to be a goth

Do you dislike who you are?

Do you want to be someone different?

Here is your answer! Become a goth!!

Although I don't subscribe to any kind of social group, I was a goth back in the day. During college I found black make up and baggy, black pants all covered in chains. I've since added tattoos and a couple of piercings to that and still consider myself to be 'alternative'.

So last night, I was rather bored and decided to make a video. Enjoy :)

Seeing pink!

A few entries back I mentioned a music video that we were filming as part of our current unit. Well, following the completion of the short film editing was started (and finished!) on the music video and here it is! Sue's friend Tracey and her husband Jamie took part in the filming between Caergwrle castle and Sue's home. The filming went smoothly and without any real issues, we also recorded the track in a studio over at Plas Coch. Thanks to Johnny and Tom for their help with the recording and to Bryn for his skills on the guitar and for backing vocals.

The final track sounded amazing, with lots of different layers making it sound really professional. Then it was just a case of matching up the vocals and parallel edit to the song.

Trickier than originally thought, it still took a fraction of the time that the short film took but looks just as good. The last part was to add in an actual pink sky at the end of the song and the 4sight logo.

I changed the font on this one compared to the one we used for the short film. This was because we needed a less 'gothic' font for future productions. It wasn't too difficult and after a few small adjustments it was all finished ready for the critique this afternoon.

The feedback we got seemed to be positive, and in hindsight I doubt I would have done much differently. It would have been nice to give the story a deeper story but the lyrics give it a very strong one as it is. As much as it would have been nice to shoot on a sunny day it was out of our control and the music video turned out well.

I seem to be having a lot of trouble uploading the video here, so here is the youtube link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CTHFuNjH0s please feel free to leave constructive comments. If you really like the song, it will be available for sale soon on iTunes!

Lastly, staying on the pink theme and using my blog to shamelessly promote cancer research, I'm running the race for life again this year. Please please sponsor me, it's for a great cause and every penny raised is put towards researching new treatments and cures for cancer. If you would like to sponsor me, please visit my sponsorship page here:

http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/gemmajones2011 where you can sponsor me, and see how I'm getting on. Thank you :)

Ghost face makes a return and being thrown in at the deep end!

Most people will instantly recognise ghost face (aka father death) from the Scream movies. And with the recent release of Scream 4 bringing him back to our screens I'm curious to hear your opinions on them.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Craig (some of you will recognise him from

some pictures I posted back in February) approached me and asked if I'd like to help him make a tribute film. Now I haven't seen any of the scream films for ten years, and what

better excuse to buy yet more DVDs than 'research'? (Yes, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it) So I found the trilogy on eBay and waited with bated breath to see if I had outbid the other person. I always hate bidding for things, but the buy it now prices were a little more than I wanted to spend. Luckily I won them, and in the meantime Craig and I sat down to write up a script.

The basic story is that Roman Bridger is looking for his mother Maureen Prescott (previously known as Rene Reynolds). After a failed visit to social services, he breaks in and finds her details and heads over to her home. If you've seen the third film then you will know what happens next. That and I don't want to give too much information away. Craig is quite the perfectionist and has a very clear vision for how he wants this film to look, I am happy to be able to work with him on a different level. We're talking in

depth about props at this stage and looking into a replica knife, and sugar glass. He has already ordered the costume from America, it's being custom made and of course he'll be playing the part of the killer himself. Something I think he'll pull off well. I very much look forward to being part of the filming and seeing the final outcome.

Continuing along the theme of films, we have finished the short film we've spent around six weeks editing. It has been a huge learning curve and without the help of Simon, and the two Daves we'd have probably pulled out hair out by now! Mind you, I'm sure they're sick of the sight of us!! I've added a couple of stills from the film, firstly the logo I designed.

We chose the name 4sight for out group. It works on a few fairly obvious levels and the 'bleeding cowboy' font works well for the film! You will see it at the end where it is inverted. The second is a still from the credits that Sue made. Using a series of photographs taken around the caravan park where we shot part of the film, she turned them all sepia. Photographs of us appear in the titles too. Showing any other stills from the film will give it away too much.

Again, watch this space for a link.

Once again staying with the running theme of film, we've been having lectures with Dave Robinson for a few weeks now. They've been some of the most interesting and useful lectures we've had since arriving I think, covering the numerous buttons and settings of the camera, and how they come into play when filming. This week we had two one-hour sessions, the fir

st was on sound, how there are three main components, music, sound effects and dialogue and how these can change a film's mood or set a scene. We were shown a fifteen second silent clip of The Birds and asked to give it sound using any means at our disposal. We were split off into two groups, ours used laptops, a narration and Foley style sound effects to give ours life while the other group chose a mainly silent approach which although comedic, also set a somewhat creepy feel. Well that was until they played Achmed the dead terrorist at the end!

Later that day we had our second session, it has recently come to my attention that Dave is rather fond of springing things on people unexpectedly. 'Sixty seconds in sixty minutes' was the name of the game, a sixty second short film in an hour, we were split up into groups we'd never worked with before and asked to come up with any idea we wanted for our short film. Dan, Chris, Alex and I sat around f

or ages trying to come up with something, we were really stuck. The idea of a treasure hunt was suggested and suddenly we flew into action!

Some of the stipulations were that we couldn't use After Effects (much to the distaste of the level fives), sound effects were ok, but no visual effects. We also had to film the footage on our mobile phones. Just to be sure we wouldn't cheat Dave took all the footage from the different groups and put it on his laptop. We're to get together over the next couple of weeks and edit the footage as a group before we have a showing. It was actually quite a lot of fun and it was great to be able to work with different people :) Although this picture may not mean anything to anyone (who wasn't in our group) it was the start and will be the end of our picture. Once again, watch this space for the video. It's hardly going to be a blockbuster but it was a hoot to make!

Moving masks and making movies

At the risk of a. sounding totally cliché and b. jinxing our good fortune, isn't the weather we've been having amazing?! I'm astounded at how the sunshine has come out of nowhere, old men everywhere are pulling on their sandals over their socks, there a pasty limbs EVERYWHERE and the air is rife with barbecuing meat everywhere you go. Yay, good times.

There is one thing I will say about this weather though; it is damn near impossible to photograph chocolate!

Anyway, on with the show! It'

s officially the Easter break (woo!) and uni was open between Monday and Thursday last week, I had two sessions booked in the studio, the first was with Lewys. As those of you who read this drivel know, I photographed him a couple of weeks ago in the studio wearing the masks he made for one of his art projects. Last Wednesday I went in to film him in a short film where he uses expressive movement to interpret their meaning.

Sadly, there was a mistake in the bookings for the big studio, so we ended up in what is called the 'dark room' (for obvious reasons) it is much smaller and very hard to light considering it is entirely black. But with a little help from Colin and a few lights we were good to go. The filimg didn't take long, and once we had solved a few Mac-related issues (rar!) editing took even less time.

Here's the final product, I'm not overly happy with the way it turned out. When we got the video into Final Cut (RAR!) I wasn't aware that you had to change some settings, so it was set on widescreen, so we edited it that way. When we found out this couldn't be ripped properly to DVD we had to hunt the project down, when we found it and changed the setting to the relevant sizes it shrunk the video down. Lewys goes off screen a lot, whereas when we filmed it, this didn't happen. But there we go, lesson learnt! And it was a video I filmed and (mostly) edited alone and so it was good practice!

The next day, I met up with Dave who was home from Australia with no where near the tan I thought he would! We watched out short film it was the first time he'd seen it and had a few helpful suggestions and picked up on things neither Sue nor I had noticed before. Once again the Mac's (RARRARRRR!) sound was annoyingly and drastically different through headphones and speakers and so there's still a little work that needs to be done. Including a scream of pain I omit! There's a scene where I get hurt and we tried several times to get a decent and realistic sounding 'argh/ouch' out of me. I won't tell you what Sue thinks it sounds like, but it was

n't pain that's for sure! So when we go back to uni, I'll hit the small sound studio and try to get a scream that doesn't sound like a dying animal!

Dave and I then went into the big photo studio so I could work some more on my still life and finish off shooting for stock. As I mentioned at the start, warm weather doesn't make for great chocolate shots. I don't know about

anyone else but when it's hot, chocolate is usually the last thing I want as it melts all over the place and that's just icky! A lot of chocolate went into the bin that day! Still I'm sure I'm all but done, and just for bunny lovers everywhere (and of course because I'm never going to shake my new moniker this is for the Paris crew too!)

As we were finishing up the last shots of the bunny (the above shot isn't the final shot going into the stock series) I introduced Dave to my pet Bob (I realise that that might sound *VERY* wrong to some people - innocent!! Honest!!) it's a tiny bug that lives in my camera! Seriously, he's been there for a number of years now, despite cleaning my camera several times since. I think he is somewhere in the eye piece. If anyone has ever own sea monkeys then he looks a little like that. Dave was surprised to see him, but I think after so long its endearing to see him crawling across my viewfinder while I snap photos. He does jump occasionally though, when I catch him off guard, sorry Bob!

Following last week's lecture with Dave Robinson, he asked if any of us wanted to take part in a short film to help young peo

ple with learning differences recycle. Some of us showed a clear interest then and there, we met him on the Thursday morning and organised everything. Meeting on Friday the 22nd at Talacre where we would be using my sister's newly renovated kitchen for the film. Sue, Dave and I were there and we met two students from the second year, Dave and Helen and of course Dave Robinson. With three Daves it soon got confusing, but at least I could remember names that way!

I don't know about anyone else, but I was expecting to be helping out, but when we arrived Dave R told us we were going to be in charge of the whole project! Being thrown in at th

e deep end was a little daunting, especially the first time I got on the camera! But with a little help from Dave 3, I was away. We thought about each part of the film separately, all the different types of shots we needed keeping in mind that continuity was vital. Although I've used my SLR on manual for years, I've never used a camera on manual, and there were lots of things to remember, but most were identical to my SLR (and with the XH-A1 being a Canon, lots of things looked familiar).

We had to show how to safely recycle tins, plastic, glass, food and paper. We filmed Helen putting on gloves, washing the glass, plastic and tins and then came the food. We needed to show food being scraped from a plate into a small recycle bin that would later be emptied into a bigger bin. We looked around the kitchen and eventually decided to look in the actual waste bin where we found salad from the previous day (it smelled so bad!) but once it was on the plate with a couple of pieces of bread and some ketchup it looked quite attractive (not edible!) so I couldn't help but take a picture of our handy work.

We all took turns working the camera, looking for the best shots and getting plenty of variety. Ensuring the focusing, f-stop and that the tripod was level, it was all very helpful practice!

It was a beautifully sunny day in Talacre, a million miles away from what it was when we went for the first day of filming for our short film; really dense fog!!

I had told Dave F about our lectures with Dave R and he expressed an interest in coming. Even though our numbers were one down on Friday

anyway it was good to have him on board and no doubt every bit as helpful to him as it was to the rest of us! We all went in our days off, but I don't think anyone really minded. It was also great to be able to work wi

th different years and for a cause that was completely detached from our usual art groups. Just like we did with the sound department at Plas Coch when recording the song for our music video. Editing for that starts when we go back on May 3rd.

By the time we had finished 3pm had rolled around and we were all famished. Walking back to the main road it was like a completely different world to the one we had parked in five hours previously. People were everywhere! I've never seen it so busy, even in the middle of summer. This unexpected burst of sunshine, and the extortionate cost of fuel has meant that people are staying close to home this Easter. We stopped at the local chippy for some late lunch and then were stuck in traffic for almost half an hour just trying to get out of Talacre. But anyway, a massive thanks to Dave R for giving us the opportunity to learn so much, and to Dave F, Sue, Helen and Dave 3 for making it a great day!

This week on my neglected blog : melting faces!

Hello

I've somewhat neglected my blog as of late, this is due to unforeseen circumstances out of my control. However, after a little time to find my feet I seem to be back on track!

Today I had some time booked in the studio to work on my still life. I've been toying around with a French theme for a while but not wanting to go along with the obvious. While we were in Paris, I bought an Eiffel Tower near the Louvre which I wanted to use in the shots. The one I've posted here was one of the few I took that I was happy with, but I imagine I will go on to tweek a few things before being happy with the final shots. The photography

projects are now finished except for the joiner, and the printing. I'm happy to say they've been quite fun, and interesting to do. Not so much the street photography, that was a little unnerving as I don't think people were too happy with me pointing my camera at them. Then there was that incident with the guy in Manchester who punched my camera...

After playing around with ideas for the still life part of our project I had some free time left on my studio spot and Lewis (a friend who is doing art) had asked me to photograph him wearing the masks he had been making. It was a lot of fun, as the masks were exact copies of his face, and some a little freaky. My favourite was the one made out of glass (clear with purple bits) which looked a little like his face was melting! It was nice to collaborate with someone from a different department.

Due to the aforementioned unforeseen circumstances, I've been away from the editing side of the short film. But luckily, Sue has done an amazing job, and the bulk of the editing. It is coming along nicely and we're into the final stages of editing now, including opening sequence and credits and the music. I'm feeling very confident about this one, keep your eyes peeled for a link to

youtube!