Dartmoor and Ashburton

A drive on Dartmoor through the mist, lunch at The Studio Tea Rooms in Ashburton, a perfect day.

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It was such a shame that the weather yesterday was atrocious. Today there's a bright blue sky. Typical.

I had wanted to stay and photograph the Fashion Show, but after hanging around for a couple of hours in the bitterly cold wind, I was shivering,I had to leave to get warm.  But it was a great event.

I have only recently purchased a Nikon D300 so I'm just getting used to using it. Its much heavier than my Nikon D40 and I have problems holding it still for sharp images. I don't like carrying a tripod around. My daughter suggested that when I'm sitting watching the TV, that I should get a couple of food cans from the cupboard and practice exercising my arms. She may have a point there! Its worth a try.

I have also realised that as I was unable to afford an expensive lens, this doesn't help my images either. So the next purchase I make will have to be a decent one. Photography ... its such an expensive way of life!

Exhibition Presentations ... Contextual

It was the second week of our Contextual Presentations. The groups had obviously benefited from being "the audience"  last week. The presentations were well researched and polished. I am now more worried about ours next week. We have not discussed our ideas together regularly and I feel we are lagging behind a little. One of our group was missing today but in spite of this, we made our artist choices and began to compose our text.

I had worked on my Book Making Assignment yesterday and handed in my images to Creations for printing. I am happy with the results although it is going to be a rather simple book. I had intended to add text, but as I am not particularly adept at using Photoshop, choosing my images, sizing them, organising them, took me most of the day. There isn't enough time to create something spectacular. On Thursday during the workshop, I will prepare as much of my book as possible. I can then write my evaluations and the assignment will be complete. The deadline is the 2nd of June. This is a 10 credit Module and it does not affect our end of year results.

The Complementary Studies module has been a worthwhile exercise; its good to learn new skills and try something different. I may not make any further books in the traditional sense, but I do love any kind of books. My intention is that I will create a few books to accompany any exhibitions that I may hold in the future. But I think these would be more inclined to be similar to "Sketch Books" as opposed to the Bound Book.

Yellow

I find yellow is a difficult colour to photograph. I can never seem to match the colour I'm seeing on the physical flower to that which I capture through my lens. One of the mysteries of life .... at least for now until I find out what it is that I'm not doing ....

Book Making

My Little Book of Surrealism

I still have quite a lot to do for this Complementary Studies Module. I haven't started a sketch book. I have attended all except one of the workshops and completed my practice books. Now I'm thinking about my final submission, a book that we have to craft ourselves and choose a subject that relates to our own photography practice.

Sensing Light

I had initially intended to use my Chasing Shadows, Sensing Light project, but on reflection I think my Allotment project would work better. My idea was to make A Little Book of Metaphors, but Marcus advised me that I shouldn't use too many words. I'm thinking of using short, sharp sentences of no more than four words.

I've been searching through my Allotment images; I have so many. I've been photographing the space since October 2010. I need a theme .........the flowers and plants, the re-cycled items, the benches and chairs, my favourite places .. ..... I'm not limited in my choice which probably makes the decision more difficult.

A New Sketch Book 

Book Making had originally been my second Complementary Studies choice, my first choice had been Creative Writing.  I requested a change because I had read about an artist who creates a limited number of books to accompany his Exhibitions. I thought this was a really good idea. I love books, one of the many reasons I enrolled on this Degree Course was to increase my image making confidence, develop my creative skills, and I knew I wanted to make photographic books or journals.

The module has been a welcome release from academic study. I looked forward to Thursday afternoons when I knew that being completely focused on making my books, everything else would leave my head. It was an almost zen like. I was totally engrossed in what I was doing, I was "in the moment" and thoroughly enjoying the processes.

Now, I need to choose my final images, and then consider the text I will add. I want to have completed this by Tuesday so that I can submit the files to Creations for printing. I will have to use Photoshop to size the images and save them as Tiffs which will add time as I am not a Photoshop fan.

  

360 Degrees

Today I walked to The Hoe where I found the Camper Obscura parked on the Promenade. Led by Emma into its small space, I witnessed an amazing tour, 360 degrees of delight. A "Wow" moment. And next .... another 360 degree journey.

I hadn't climbed to the top of Smeaton Tower for many years, but today I felt drawn to it.

I wish I'd brought my film camera with me, my digital is not performing well, probably because I dropped the lens! Time to buy a new camera.

 

I was pretty scared at the top of the tower. I'm not good with heights, and this plateau had other scary aspects .... namely the intimidating wind trying to push me off the top. Well, that's how it felt to me, up there. I held on tight as I tried to frame my shots.

Next time I'll have to be braver, take more time, get some good shots. Next time I want to get the shots that I'll enter into the competitions to photograph the landscape in its many forms. Our course leader, Dave Kinney, informed us about these competitions last week. Its important to enter competitions for many reasons. Winning a local competition is an opportunity to showcase work in the city. Winning a national competition is a great opportunity to be "seen" by those who have influence. Even entering and not winning could be an introduction to someone important in the photographic world. Who knows.

But my problem with competitions is that I lack the belief that my work is good enough. I am having a confidence crisis again. Some of the photographic work by other students in my year group, really show some amazing skills. I am not sure that I have enough talent to make it. I sometimes wonder.

Today was about looking at the whole picture. Seeing life and all its intricacies from every angle. I need to think about this.

Monica Fishbein Lecture Beyond Fashion

It was good to hear one of our own lecturers discussing her background, her experience and her work as an artist. Monica is something of a mystery.  She always dresses in black (almost always), she advocates self discipline, and has a strong work ethic. She is a good lecturer, always willing to guide and facilitate our learning, and I was interested to hear more about her.

This was the first time I had seen any indication of nerves from Monica, she is usually confident and very little seems to phase her.  Her nerves were an endearing trait as they made her seem more vulnerable. When I spoke to her today, she explained that the close proximity of her audience was unnerving and that it was her need for space that caused her to feel uncomfortable.

Monica is Hungarian.She said that during her teens she watched MTV and was obsessed with "New Romantic" music. She mentioned that at school she learned sports in preparation for the Olympics indicating where her disciplined attitude stems from. She did some modelling in Italy and Budapest and worked as a Make-Up Artists in London for Lancome and Inglot. Her work experience in the world of fashion is extensive and includes assisting the photographer Peter Richwcisz.

Later moving to Devon, she decided to enrol at Plymouth Art College to study Film and Photography. From here she has continued to develop her own practice alongside her teaching role at the college. She labels herself a Minimalist and Constructivist. She showed her personal and professional work which was in stark contrast to each other. The professional sharp and clean, her personal work shot out of focus, creating a more atmospheric and darker mood.

A quote by Manuel Alvarez has remained with her, it is "There is Time," She explained that this quote made her realise that her fast pace of life was not always necessary and that there is time to slow down.

I have looked at Monica's website and she has some beautiful images, both the portraits and other images are a haunting reflection of her creativity.

www.monicafischbein.com