Northern Culture and the Laing Art Gallery – Newcastle is one of my favourite cities. I was born in County Durham only around 30 miles from the city. It was a real treat to go to Newcastle with friends. The nightlife as a teenager was fantastic! It is also true what they say about Northern women. They actually do come out and queue for a nightclub in the skimpiest of club wear in sub zero temperatures. They really aren’t bothered by these freezing temperatures either. As a Northern woman myself, I actually know about this phenomenon, having once been part of this weekend ritual myself. Apparently psychologists have tried to analyse this behaviour. However, the simple fact is that if you wear a coat you need to carry it with you throughout the night. It is either that or pay a cloakroom fee. This involves either parting with cash and/or facing long cloakroom queues. Hence lots of women preferring to stand queuing outside in the cold with very little attire. It really is that simple. Yesterday was my birthday and as a treat I decided to stay for a couple of nights at the Gosforth Hotel a couple of miles […]
A Quick Photoshoot – It’s my birthday today, so I’ve decided to take a day off. Yesterday I discovered that my camera is pretty poorly! The autofocus on my prime 105mm Sigma macro lens is not great. Every time I part depress the focus button it makes a strange noise. I’m struggling to work out whether it is the lens or the camera itself. This is not great! I was helping my daughter set up a shoot so she could do a response to a Claire Luxton (photographic artist) and I took some test shots for myself. The focus is definitely not as sharp as I would like it, although I was quite pleased with some of the results. It looks as if I’m going to have to get my camera overhauled which in the great radiation of photography is not going to be cheap! Watch this space. In the meantime here is the result from my shoot. Overall I was quite pleased with the composition of the image and the editing, but sadly the focus is not great.
Amazing Ethereal Creations Using Layers and Light – My Responses – David Spriggs produces large ethereal installations using layers of hand painted acrylic and light. As a creative photographer I have played with similar concepts for many years, but never on this scale. Examples of Work by David Spriggs The reason I’m so drawn to the work of David Spriggs is his creative use of light. I feel this is similar to my own practice of photographing oil on water. These materials only come to life with the addition of light. Once light is added, they too create an ethereal appearance. My Responses to David Spriggs I actually shot the following experimental work, before I discovered David Spriggs. Indeed I was already some way into experimenting with different layers of substances with the addition of strong natural light. I have included my work here as a response to David Spriggs’s work because it is a similar way of layered thinking. The work below was created using glass, water, blue ink, layers of acrylic prisms and of course strong natural light. I feel these experiments were useful and could work well as a larger installation, borrowing […]
