PHOTOGRAPHY CLASS > WEEK 8 PART II

While we were on the roof taking pictures of the panoramic views in this weeks photography class we also had to take a "squinty" picture. That sort of goes against the whole point in taking pictures right?

It was to use in a Photoshop tutorial so away I went taking pictures at an angle to use later. We then took the image into Photoshop, copied, flipped and rotated the single image until it looked like the picture above.

What a great technique and one I'll definitely be using more of.

PHOTOGRAPHY CLASS > WEEK 8

This week in photography class we went up to the roof of the 13 floor college to take pictures of the view. We were lucky it was such a gorgeous day and I think you can tell this is a rare occurance in Glasgow due to the slightly obsessive way I try to get as much of the blue sky in the frame as possible. The brief we were given before we started shooting was to take some pictures that could be stitched together to produce a panoramic image and a "squinty" picture that we could use in a photoshop experiment.

I always think that if we had more days of sunshine this city would have it all and looking at these images confirmed this for me. They instantly remind me of the grid structure of the roads and street's in New York and Barcelona. I took some shots looking straight at the sun and although I've never been something about the resulting image makes me think of San Fransisco.
What do you think?

PHOTOGRAPHY CLASS > WEEK 4

This weeks photography class was all about panoramic images and how to create this in Photoshop with my favourite "tool" ever; Photomerge! This is where you import 5 or 6 images and click "Photomerge" and it "stitches" all your images together for you.
First of all we had to get the photos so we headed to the Glasgow Necropolis, (a Victorian cemetery) that sits on a hill and has amazing views of the city.
This week was pretty important to get our settings correct to suit the light and objects as next week we are working with black and white FILM!
Yeah that's right no option to flick through the images you've taken and delete the ones that aren't. Eek!
This week I was pretty pleased to finally get my head around setting the right exposure, it helped that the evenings are a lot lighter than they were when we started back March. The last image is actually 6 images stitched together and this was an excellent class.

GOALS FOR 2013

So how many of you made New Year resolutions?
Personally I'm more of a fan of reflecting on all the good things that happened and making goals that will hopefully make the future year even better. Apparently if you write them down you stand a better chance of them becoming a reality. So here goes!

1. Take photography classes.I feel like you should constantly be learning but sometimes life takes over and you need to allocate a specific day to let you concentrate on a project. I have always wanted to learn how to take good quality images, especially as images are so important in my work as a graphic designer and I love how you can capture a moment or memory forever.
I have signed up for a 10 week evening class that starts in March can't wait to get started.

2. Create a T-Shirt design.

I absolutely love a cool T-Shirt design.
There's nothing better than pulling on a fresh T-Shirt for that perfect night or day "look" and I am planning to design a beautiful, simple, one colour design as I feel "less is more" which will be able to be worn with either sequin shorts or skinny jeans.

3. Create a Tote Bag design.

I never have less than two bags with me at all times. I try and fit as much as I can in each day so you can easily find me going to work, then the gym or meeting friends for drinks. Any girl that's worth her salt has her token handbag to hold the essentials but I find I always need an additional shopper style bag, whether its for my lunch, workout gear or a change of clothes.
I want this bag to look as good as the rest of my outfit so I decided to create a design that will be printed onto a black tote bag in metallic ink. I just need to work on the design now!

4. Travel More.

Goal no. 4 is to travel more this year but 5 (Rome) and 7 (Berlin) are two specific places that I am aiming to go to. Image 4 is of the Sagrada Familia in Barcalona, a beautiful building inside and out. I try to visit as many places as I can so I tend not to visit anywhere more than twice but Barcelona is the one place where I felt at home instantly. I have been five times in the last six years and every time I go I love it a little bit more and have still got tons of things to do and see.
I honestly feel that travel and places are good for your soul.

6. Run a Half Marathon.

I generally like to keep fit but I do get bored heading to the gym 3 times a week. I've always liked running and joined a local running club at the end of 2012 this helped motivate me to give 100% at the gym and also look into mixing up my fitness regime with Yoga and resistance training with weights. For me exercise helps me feel relaxed and creative - for some reason all my best ideas come to me at the gym. I also became aware that to stay motivated I need a goal to work to so I have decide to keep my fitness levels up I will work towards a half marathon in Sept 2013 (a full marathon just feels too scary at this point!) and use 10km races along the way to help with my training.

Good Luck with your own goals and I'll let you know how I get on. Fingers crossed!