Busy Bee

I've been so busy over the past few weeks, and it's been so much fun. Starting from my last post, a week after it I went to New Word Alive, then started my third and final term for this year (year 1 is almost over!), and then the photoshoot requests started rolling in like nobody's business. All very, very good things to have happen. I had to re-read one of my texts as I'd missed that it wasn't just one person but an entire group that were asking me to take photos of their work. What's more, it's a bridal project. I think this might mean it has something to do with weddings, though I could be wrong if it's some terminology I'm unfamiliar with :P I'm going to take the literal stance with this. If I'm right, it also means that I could well have some content in my rapidly growing portfolio that could set me up to take wedding photos should I so choose. Bonus!

Anyway, back to New Word Alive. In short, I loved it. Every single minute. I especially liked lying under the stars next to the beach at night taking long exposures. The talks were of course very good with several fantastic speakers. Jerry Bridges was so popular in fact that they had to change venues for him. I went to one of his talks but that was all I managed. I'd have gone to more but there were so many things I wanted to go and listen to it kinda got put to one side. Several of the things I wanted to go see happened at the same time too. I learnt after my first full day there that it was very easy to burn yourself out from going to too many things, Jonathan (our church pastor who was also there with his family) wasn't wrong there. One morning I'd wandered down to listen to Jerry Bridges talk and sent a text to a friend of mine who I knew would probably be going too. I got told that he was in fact going to Snowdon with a bunch of others. I figured he wasn't going to invite me so I invited myself. One of the best things I did for myself all week :D I literally ran back to my caravan and got changed, made myself a packed lunch and grabbed my camera equipment. Not too long after all this he turned up and led me to the 2 or 3 cars that were waiting.

It took us all around 45 minutes to get there from where we were staying. It was a fantastically sunny day which by this point wasn't anything new (it was glorious sunshine all week). The views on the way there were wonderful. I got a little concerned that I'd be too cold in my shorts and t-shirt, I had a jumper though so I figured I'd be fine. I was. I was actually glad I was wearing shorts about a third of the way into the walk because your legs heat up so much from the constant movement that to wear anything else that day would have been fairly uncomfortable. We passed quite a few on the way up, and there was one scary event where a german shepherd slipped its collar and started trying to find a quick way down. It wasn't a fantastic scene to witness. Thankfully everything was fine though. I took pictures of the views all the way up which can be found here on my Flickr photostream. We got to the summit about 2 and a half hours later, and it took us another 2 hours or so to get to Llanberis which is the village at the foot of the mountain. All in all it was an amazing experience and I'd do it again without hesitation. The views are simply stunning. It's good exercise too! Out of the week, that was my favourite day. The day after was pretty good too. Next year I'll make sure I bring proper walking shoes. Trainers were fine but my ankle has been playing up.

It wasn't long after I got back home to South Wales that I started to get back into the swing of college work again. I did two photoshoots with a different model than originally planned since the designer's model had cancelled on her at the last minute. Needless to say it was irritating for both of us because not only had I come in that day just for that shoot, I had the studio booked for the entire day. I either had to find somebody and hoped it went well or just cancel the entire thing and rearrange. Obviously, the second option wasn't viable. Thankfully I remembered a model from a previous shoot who turned out to be pretty good at modelling. She was up for it and came to the studio. The clothes looked fabulous on her and she did an excellent job, saving the day. I'm still editing those photos though and need model release forms, so I'll be getting those up soon (along with the other photos I said I'd get up but never did).

With my portfolio growing this quickly, I figure it's about time I have my website up and running. I have more than enough content for it, so it's just a matter of finding out what I want it to look like, what I have to design, and then stitching it all together. I'm aiming to get it done in a week or two.

Absence...

It's been a bit quiet here recently, sorry about that. It's just I have no internet at home at the moment. I should have it back sometime next week, all going to plan. As I write this I'm sitting in college listening to tunes on Spotify.

So, what's new? Well as usual I've been taking photos of the firemen on mondays, which has now come to an end. Or has it? I've decided to carry on with the project a little beyond my college brief as I enjoy it so much, so it has life beyond this. I won't be going there this week due to them being away somewhere doing an exercise in some building, and due to health and safety reasons I'm not allowed to be there. However, the week after they're cutting up cars outside, so I'll see if I can go along and have a nosy with my camera. It sounds pretty interesting! I've also started having a go at learning how to make my website. I found a program that comes with iLife that I haven't used yet called iWeb. I'm not going to use it to make the site, but after fiddling around with it and posting the website I made in around 30 mins to a local folder, I could get more of an idea on how things worked. I'm going to have to stock up on sugary things though so I can get tech support from a friend of mine. Sweets are the agreed payment in return for help :D

Also, I had my first driving lesson yesterday! It was awesome. I took things in pretty quickly and he could see I was eager to get the car moving. I went a bit fast around corners to which he told me he could see I wasn't afraid of the accelerator. We went over and over checking the blindspots, starting the car, changing gear, slowing down, turning and stopping. I stalled a couple of times, but I soon learnt how to avoid it. It was a lot to take in in an hour and a half but he's a really good teacher and he's going to take me on a quiet road next week.

I'm going to Birmingham next week to an event called Focus. I have to be in college uber early so I'm gonna have to plan ahead for that. It's only a day trip, but I'll be trying to get some photos for the blog. It's basically a huge gathering of photographic companies trying to sell me stuff. But you do get some good deals and it may be an opportunity to network. I found some good stuff at Vision last November in London. That reminds me, I need to buy the ticket...

On to another topic, I've been using a printing company online for my Friday lecture photographs. They're called Photobox and they're really quick and have good quality 6x4 prints. To give you an idea how quick they are, I ordered my prints on a Tuesday, and they arrived on the Thursday. Very well packaged, and I'm very happy with them overall. You get the option of gloss or matt, with a border or without a border. There are other sizes available but I've only been using 6x4. When you first join you get 40 free prints. The price goes down the more you order. I think you have to reach 500 before it goes down to 5p a print, so if it's value you're after, try Asda. They have 40 free prints available online too, but the price goes down to 5p after you order 200+. I uploaded 240 6x4 photos to Asda (after a bit of hassle) and got 40 free, and since I'd reached 200, it went down to 5p per print, which meant I only paid £10. The postage was around £1.50. Have a look at http://www.freephotoprinting.co.uk/ and you'll find hundreds of free prints available to you. I can't vouch for every company, but I've had no trouble with Photobox and Asda. Have a look at the star rating for a rough idea of how good each company is. I found the page when I was in college one day convinced there was another way around paying loads of money for prints that would be used once.

In more recent news I'm going to something interesting today - since it's Fairtrade fortnight, church are making their annual huge banana split down an arcade. I'll try and get some photos and some banana split goodness. I couldn't go last time but it looks like I can this year!