My thing is photography. I would love to one day be able to travel europe (especially visit Pripyat, Chernobyl) and photograph old and desolate buildings as thats my main passion. I start university in September where I'll be studying towards my BA Hons Degree in Photography.
It's so scary to think that today is the start of april and this time next week I'll be on holiday soaking up the sun in the Norfolk Broads. I'm planning on taking my camera so don't worry I'll take lots of photographs which for the readers that are following my facebook page I shall upload them onto there and write a blog about it when I get home, I'm sure I'll have plenty to talk about.
I have some absolutely amazing news which I keep meaning to tell you but kept forgetting to write on here. As you know in my last post I was getting my portfolio ready for university interviews and was very nervous. However it seems I didn't have anything to be worried about as my interview for University Campus Suffolk went alot better then expected. He asked me many questions like why I wanted to do the course and he loved my determination for reapplying this year after getting rejected last year. With that he offered me a place there and then on the spot which was amazing. I was smiling like a goon the whole walk home and my mum is so proud of me. I can't really say much for my dad he didn't give much away but I'm sure he is proud too. I cannot wait to start uni in September. I was distraught last year when I didn't get in but I'm so happy now knowing I got in by doing it all by myself.
For those of you that are interested I'll tell you what my portfolio consisted of. First of all I put my black and white film photo's of my Childhood Memories project that I'm doing (I'll write an extra blog entry about that once I've scanned all my images). I then went onto my macro and nature photographs some of which you have seen already in past entries. I ended my portfolio with my photographs of Charlie Simpson and Tom Law. The guy that interviewed me really liked them and the way i took advantage of the available lights.
I didn't get the chance to use these photographs as I took them at my nan's and by then I had already had my interview. I took them with my digital camera and loved the chance to photograph all the toys that my dad grew up playing with. My brother, sisters and me also played with most of them whenever we visited. I think these two photos are my favourites out of the ones I took. But I'm not really sure as to why. It might have something to do with the contrast and the feeling of being a kid again when I opened the cupboard and saw all these toys and games that haven't been touched in literally years.
I'm going to go now as I've just seen the time. My next post will be about my trip to New York I took last year, so make sure you come back. I'll being posting it on Wednesday.
Good night.
P.S remember to follow Tom. You can do that by clicking on his name (it's highlighted)
Hey guys.
I can't believe its been almost a month since I last wrote an entry. I'm so sorry about that. I suck at keeping up with this thing.
Anyways I've not really been up to much in the past month. However, I am starting to get ready for my university interviews which are in a couple of weeks. I'm going to be printing my digital photography work tomorrow, which seeing as I don't really have a theme for it it will be a mixture of stuff I've taken over the last couple of months. I'm also going back to college on Tuesday to use the darkroom so I can print my film photography work. This will have a theme as it's a personal project I have been working on lately. I'll upload the photo's once it's all finished and ready to go :). One of my old tutors from college has been so lovely and is letting me go in so I can use the facilities. She's one of my favourite tutors and I had her for 3 years. She's so helpful and really encourages you and helps build up your confidence. Plus you can talk to her about pretty much anything.
I'm actually sat here multitasking right now. I'm typing this up for you whilst choosing my digital shots and also watching Jeff Dunham: Controlled Chaos. It's his newest one and it's hilarious.
Anyways I'm drifting off topic. I have interviews on the 14th and 15th of March. The 14th is my interview for UCS (University Campus Suffolk) my local university and one I have applied for a couple of times and was sadly unsuccessful. I have my interview for Anglia Ruskin University on the 15th. Thank god it's on payday otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford my train tickets to go there and come back. Which would not be good at all!
Tom Law
Last month you might remember I mentioned I was going to a gig in London. It was amazing. I finally got to meet the lovely Tom Law, who is even more amazing live, and he is such a lovely guy. I got to take a fair few great shots, some had to be deleted due to the fact that I couldn't get the settings on my camera right due to the lighting. I eventually decided to try out shooting in Monochrome and Sepia. This one is one of my favourites out of them all. I sent him the "non ugly" shots as he asked and the lovely fellow that he is uploaded them onto his facebook page. He's even given me the go ahead to use a couple of the photographs in my portfolio for my interviews. My younger sister bought him a blueberry muffin simply because he has a new song called "Don't Go Saying" which includes a line about them. I'll upload the video below. If any of you haven't already you should really go check out his music. http://www.tomlaw.bigcartel.com/ - You can buy his CD and he even has stickers which he designed himself (bless him) his CD is still pretty much on constant replay on my ipod. The only times I don't listen to him is when I feel like rocking out to a bit of My Chemical Romance or Escape The Fate. Yes I know my music taste is very strange and very muddled. I have to admit I'm a bit of a rock-chick at heart but I do have my moments of wanting to listen to something a little more subtle. If you saw the music on my iPod I think you would actually get confused at how much my music taste can vary between one end of the spectrum (ie Tom, Adele, Andrew, Ed Sheeran and Charlie Simpson) to the other end (such as Blink 182, Sum41, Simple Plan and Taking Back Sunday) I actually confuse myself sometimes haha.
Andrew Balkwill
Another person gigging was Andrew Balkwill, who was great as always too. They both met us at the venue Tom gave us hugs and said hello then went off to do his soundcheck as he was a bit late, and Andrew stayed with us and had a beer whilst we all sat and had dinner before the gig. We (me Abbie and her friend Leanne) made an afternoon of it as we traveled down to London on the train in the afternoon. We had to get the tube which we hated but we couldn't really avoid it.
Anyways back to the gig. Andrew played first, and I got a few shots of him whilst enjoying his set. I haven't asked him yet but I'm hoping he'll let me use the shots of him in my portfolio too. He doesn't have any new songs out at the moment, but he did tell us was recording his new E.P before he goes off to Texas. I'll definitely be getting a copy once it's released. Don't worry I'll keep you informed for those of you that have checked him out and like his music just like me. And those of you who haven't yet, he has a couple of songs on his youtube channel. My favourtie is "Lady Light the Way" it's such a great song. We'll get to see him again when he plays with Charlie Simpson on the 21st of March in my home town. Seriously cannot wait to see him live again. As of today it's only 18 days :D. We get to meet him and get a photo and a signed set list and a guitar pick. I'm definitely taking my camera again to get some more photographs.
I'm going to be off now, I'm getting tired now which is very surprising as I don't fall asleep til about half 2 usually but it's been a very long 2 weeks of very early morning, and I need to catch up on my very much needed beauty sleep.
Wish me luck for my interviews if I don't write before then.
See yars
I absolutely love this house. It's in my local park and is currently standing completely empty. I'm not really sure why it's there but surrounded by all the woodland and plants, it feels kind of lonely and it seems sad to see such a beautiful house stood there, going to waste.I've photographed it a couple of times, the last time was using my film camera (Pentax K1000) for my college Final Major Project.
This is another photograph I took on Sunday. I had to edit this photo a tiny bit as the snow looked very grey and the rest of the image was a bit dull. Whilst I was editing it all I did was adjust the contrast in the photo to brighten the whiteness of the snow and making the rest of the image slightly darker. The only thing I would change about this photo was that if I took I would get the couple to hold hands, just to add a bit of emotion to the photograph. I think it would also add a bit more sincerity to the photograph.
Don't forget to comment below and also pass on the link for my blog to other people. And also check out my photography page on Facebook, I'm sadly only at 23 likes. Makes me a little sad.
I'm sooooooo sorry about not writing even though I keep promising on twitter and facebook that I was going to over the past couple of weeks. I've been so lacking in motivation lately that I just haven't been able to think of anything to write so when I did open my blog page to write a new entry I would just sit there blankly looking at an empty text box. Anyways I'm here now so I suppose thats what counts right?
Just to give you a little image in your head of where I am right now and what the weather is like, I'm sat in my bedroom at my desk waiting to see if my best friend will ome online tonight though I don't see that she will be as she's usually talking to me by now lol. I'm sooo glad I'm inside and not out there it is freezing cold and I don't envy you one bit Russia or any other European countries. From what I've seen on the news a lot of countries have had about 10 times more snow then we have so I could say that we've got off lightly though it is still about -3 to -4 during the night. (Thats just a guess as I haven't tried to go outside to check)
So today I'm going to talk some more about my photography work again, finally. I went out on Sunday, wrapped up nice and warm in my scarf and and bright pink coat, and took a fair few photographs of a few things that were covered in fluffy white fresh snow :). I love snow simply because it seems to bring out my inner child not that it takes much for me to act like that anyway. One of my favourites is this photographs off a squirrel sitting in a tree. Nature photography is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me as you can capture some very beautiful and magical moments, and people will always wonder how you took them. Without being big headed I kind of feel like this photo is one of those moments. It was so amazing that the squirrel seemed to sit there and waited for me to take my camera out of my bag, attach the appropriate lens ( I used my canon EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 lens), which allowed me to zoom up nice and close from the ground, and then stayed in that same position whilst I took 3 or 4 photographs whilst adjusting the manual settings. Once I had got my wanted image, only then did the squirrel move.
Another photo I really like is one I took of our local allotment area. There's something special about this. The way all the sheds rooftops are covered in snow and even the houses in the background makes everything seemed, some what peaceful. Especially as not surprisingly there was no one on the lot that day. I don't blame them it was absolutely freezing. I also like the way the depth of field works in this photo. Alot of the time when you take a photo using an SLR the background blurs to draw attention to the foreground. However this time the foreground was what went out of focus, which resulted in the background being what catches your eye instead.
I did take a few more photographs which I will upload separately on here. For the rest of my photography you can fid it in the usual place of: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Thompson-Photography/145795518848615. More news on my photography work is that I have an interview for the University Campus Suffolk, one of three uni's I applied for. So up until the 14th March I shall be focusing on my portfolio work. So my apologies if my next entry isn't as frequent as my previous entries.
I have a fun filled next couple of weeks. I'm going to London on Saturday to see Olly Murs in concert ( some of you might not have heard of him) then on Sunday I'm going on a photoshoot with my friend Josh visiting lot's of abandoned buildings around the county of Suffolk. Then on the 25th February me , Leanne and Abbie are all going down to London to see Tom Law and Andrew Balkwill (I've mentioned them a couple of times in previous blog entries) as they are gigging together. It will be the first time I've seen Tom live and my third time seeing Andrew, he's amazing live and such a nice guy I can't wait. Don't worry I'll make sure I take plenty of photographs of the guys performing.
I'm now off to bed now as it's 10 past midnight and I'm getting fairly tired.
Goodnight everybody
x
I know I've kind of put this post off seeing as, well most of you may have noticed that I had said that I would post something on wednesday or thursday and clearly I didnt. So I'm super sorry about that, but there is a reason behind it. Firstly I've been soooooo busy this week, what with babysitting my foster sister on all day whilst my mum went shopping (kind of gutted she didn't take me with her) However, she did buy me an amazing Animal t-shirt from the Disney store. As some of you may know Animal is my all time favourite muppet, though Kermit is closely following behind. I'm not really sure why he's my favourite he just is, maybe its to do with his crazy personality and his wild nature who knows. Anyway I'm drifting away from what I was talking about so back to the babysitting thing. I had to babysit my nephews on thursday afternoon which was hilarious and I loved it as always. I even got to start my personal project.
My personal project is about childhood, which will involve me taking photographs of toys, games and books. so far the only photo's I've got are of a teddy bear and a wooden train set. I promise I will post some of the pictures on here and write about them once the project is complete.
Hopefully, by then I'll have some university interviews. This is my second time applying for uni as I was unsuccessful last year. I'm convinced I'm the only person off my college course that applied for uni and didn't get in. It sucked so much as all my friends are usually now always busy everyday during the week so I hardly ever get to see them. As a matter of fact I can't actually remember the last time I saw them all together. The only friends I really get to see is soph (whose my best friend) and the guys from work, and that's only when I'm working. If I go out clubbing then I see a few more of my friends or the 'clubbing gang' as we used to call ourselves, sad I know but we were young then lool.
Another reason I'm only just writing this blog is because I was busy Friday finishing off my ucas form and sending that off and then ended up going to a gig in the evening down at a localish pub. Two of my friends are in bands that played at the gig. You should go check them out, both bands are amazing live and both have E.P's. Sadly I'm not sure how you are able to get hold of either e.p's unless face to face but I'm sure they'll arrange something at some point. Callum is in a band called Turning Days and Jamie is in a band called Rogues Cradle. The facebook page for Turning Days is -http://www.facebook.com/pages/Turning-Days/171711936204475 they have some of their music on there. I can't actually remember the name of the song I like the most but I know that if Callum was to read this he would only say that I like it because its about alcohol and something about me being an alcoholic. Which I must add I am not lol. It's kind of a little joke the 2 of us have with each other. Rogues Cradle also have a facebook page- http://www.facebook.com/roguescradle?ref=ts&sk=app_178091127385 . Make sure you check them out.
Lastly I had to do a double shift at work yesterday which seemed to be the longest day ever. Thankfully it was the last christmas function of 2011/2012 so there are officially no more parties until the end of the year (you can let out a cheer if you like haha) All the customers were very drunk and one or two of the male customers said that I had a gorgeous smile and could get away with murder with it. Now I wouldn't have minded this if both men hadn't been old enough to be my dad. Another worrying thing was that they started talking about kidnapping me because I knew where they were. It was all abit weird and I was so glad when they all went home.
I'm going to go to bed now seeing as it's nearly half 1 in the morning and I'm getting tired, plus the roulette casino is on the t.v and the guy is doing my head in. Sorry about my blog not being up to much this week guys I feel like all I did was explain why my post was late. I hope you enjoyed reading it anyway. Remember to let me know what you think and don't forget to check out my photography page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Thompson-Photography/145795518848615 :)
Speak to you soon everybody. Goodnight
Hey guys.
I hope all of you are having a fantastic start to 2012 and a fabulous Christmas. It's scary to think how fast 2011 went. I promise this weeks post won't be as long as my last one but don't hold your hopes up haha. Also I won't be writing about my photography work this week just to give you a little rest :). However I shall include a couple of photos that I took over the Christmas period.
As always I'm watching the television whilst I write this though I'm not really sure what I'm watching and seeing as my sky remote is near my pillow and I simply can't be bothered to get up and get it, it looks like I won't be finding out anytime soon (lazy I know but hey what do you expect from me.) So far all I can tell is that it's a programme about a bunch of large woman trying to lose weight and become beyonce lookalikes, it's a bit weird :/.
I've decided that 2012 is going to be one of my best years yet, I don't care what gets in my way. So this year I have a couple of resolutions. My first one is to lose weight and get in shape. I started slimming world in 2011 but so far it hasn't gone to plan so this year I'm going to really buckle down and work super hard to get to the shape and size I want to be. I've already written a food plan which I will try to follow as of Friday, which is the day after I weigh-in. It's my first weigh-in of the year and after feasting out over the past couple of weeks on Christmas pudding, sweeties and booze, I'm ready to jump straight on the horse as they say and make a fresh start. My second resolution is to completely stop biting my nails. I try this every year but I always seem to fail face first haha, but this year I will do it even if it means having to wear nail varnish everyday, which for me isn't a problem unless I have work but I usually end up applying a new colour when I get home or the day after depending if it's a night shift or not.
I really feel like 2012 will be great. You may remember last weeks post where I mentioned that I had been asked to do the photography work for a local gymnastics centre. Well you will be happy to know that I received some amazing news that I will be doing it every year. I am so excited, I know I said that I wasn't going to talk about my photography work but I'm just so happy that I got this gig :D. I'll get to use my brand new flash gun which I bought only the other day :). I may even try and take it with me when I go to see Charlie Simpson in March.
Talking of gig's or concerts I can't wait to also see Olly Murs in February (wow thats alot of capital letters) even if we haven't quite worked out how we're getting there yet. I'm also hoping to see a few of my friends bands play at local gigs and the such. I'm a big supporter of local talent and I'm always willing to give people a helping hand in getting their music out there. That is why I go on about Tom Law and Andrew Balkwill a fair bit. I haven't been able to stop listening to their music, it's on constant replay on my iPod. I even got Tom's E.P Dropping In for Christmas from my younger sister for Christmas with a little message from Tom written on the inside cover :)
I have a new singer for you guys to check out now though. His name is Calvin Roche. I saw him at a gig at the Relentless Garage about a month and a half ago when me and my sister went to support Andrew. His voice is beautifully soothing and I'm looking forward to him releasing an E.P at the begining of this year :) Check him out he's on facebook:-http://www.facebook.com/pages/Calvin-Roche-Music/104116106353241 where you can find some of his songs. So far my favourite has to be 'Lie About The Truth' (I'll post the video below) I'm not sure why but it's one of those songs that I can easily find myself listening to without even realising it. He's also on twitter so head over and follow him - https://twitter.com/#!/Calvinrocheband. You'll regret it if you don't trust me. Here's a little video for you to all check out :).
I've realised I'm starting to drag on abit now, which isn't surprising. So i'll love you and leave you now with a couple of shots I took over christmas. Please don't forget to check out my photography page on facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Thompson-Photography/145795518848615 and don't forget to let me know what you think :). I love you guys, I don't know how to say that in all your languages but I do appreciate your support :).
MERRY CHRISTMAS GUYYYS!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Or happy holidays for those of you who don't celebrate christmas!!)
I hope you've all finished your present buying and are having a wonderful holiday season.
I'm slowly looking forward to it, which is about time as christmas is only less then 2 days away (scary stuff.) It just doesn't seem to feel christmasy at all. Maybe it's coz it's still quite warm outside and there's no snow yet. :(
It's hard to think that this time last year we were knee deep in snow that was slowly turning to ice. This country is rubbish when it snows because everything seems to come to a complete stand still, anyone would think we weren't prepared for it.
Anyway's, I've finally finished my christmas shopping, minus getting my little sisters present, which I will be buying tomorrow. (thank god for payday.) There are soooo many things I'm looking forward to about the holidays is seeing my family. I have my older sister, brother-in-law and their 2 boys are all coming over tomorrow (christmas eve) and boxing day. My auntie, uncle, cousin, her husband, and possibly my other cousin are all coming down from london for the day tomorrow to exchange presents ect. Then my older brother and his fiance are spending christmas morning and lunchtime with us before heading else where. There's something special about spending christmas day with family. I also get to see my bestfriend tomorrow so we can do present swap, I honestly hope she likes the stuff I got her because it was a nightmare to wrap (even if it was a box.) I can't wait to see what goodies both her and her mum got me :D.
What are everyone's plans for the holidays?
A majority of the christmas functions at work are over now I think, thank god I don't think I would be able to cope doing yet another double shift and now that i'm older my wages have gone up too so more money for me yaaay.
So last weekend I did some photography work for a local gymnastics group. I didn't get as much work done as I would have liked but I'm going back in the new year to redo everything and make lot's of money from people buying my photo's of their younger relatives doing their best. Some of the performers were so cute dressed up as little elves and fairies. The older gymnasts were amazing and so talented too. If i'm honest it made me a little jealous lol.
We spent two days down there, neither of which went to plan. We spent the first day trying to put the studio, or what we had of it, together. Trying to put studio lights together with no instructions and after never having done it before was quite a challenge to say the least. It took us a whole day to work out the layout for the lights and also the settings we were going to need on one of our camera's. I had my Canon ISO 500D and the guy I was with had his Nikon with him, I'm not sure which series number it was I'm not great with Nikon's they're too confusing haha.
After finally working that all out I did get round to taking a few photo's of the performances during the second half. It was alot more tricky then I had anticipated. Out of the 300 or so photographs that I took, only 70 or so photo's were actually suitable enough to be able to upload onto my Facebook webpage.
After the first day didn't working out we had to try and complete a whole two days shoot in one day. Sadly we didn't complete, but as I said earlier we're going back in the New Year to redo all the posed portrait and group shots.
If you want to check out the rest of my photographs from the Extravaganza just check out my Facebook page at this link:- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Thompson-Photography/145795518848615
I also have a twitter account which is connected to my page so if you want to follow me on there just click on one of my tweets. Don't forget to comment which photo's you like or if you have any questions just post them in the comments below and I shall answer as soon as I can.
I'm off to bed now to try and get some sleep before seeing all my family tomorrow and also to help get over this annoying and stupid infection.
I'll leave you with a little something to help you get into the Christmas spirit. Some of you may remember a singer called Tom Law. Well he supported the feeling in Brighton and Bath this past week which is sooooooo cool seeing as I love the feeling, I haven't listened to them in ages, and also Tom, he's pretty damn amazing too if you haven't checked him out already. He did a little Christmas song medley. And here it is....................
It amazes me how he managed to fit the songs together so well.
Goodnight guys and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
P.S
I can't help but notice my posts get longer and longer each week. Oopsies. I'll try not to make the next one so long.
