One Woman Camera Club

I went home - part 1

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 15:08:56 +0100

I went home - part 1

I went home - Part 2

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 15:02:00 +0100

I went home - Part 2

Week 6/7 - Photo Essay This last part of the weekly...

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 12:56:00 +0000

*Week 6/7 - Photo Essay*

This last part of the weekly assignments is dedicated to the photo essay, somewhat combining all the elements from previous weeks. I decided to revisit my local garage where I shot in week 1 and try to capture the relaxed and quirky atmosphere of the place.

The guys there are extremely welcoming and didn’t mind in the least to have a photographer hanging around them all the time. In fact there are people constantly dropping by for a chat (for example Derek who is making a cup of tea in the third image doesn’t even work there, he just hangs around there all the time!)

It’s also worth mentioning that this was my first go with my new Fuji X-Pro1 camera and I absolutely love it! So these are my favourite shots from my days with the lovely guys at the Cremer Street Garage.

* Week 5 - Environmental Portraits * This assignment was all...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:10:00 +0000

* Week 5 - Environmental Portraits *

This assignment was all about making portraits of 3 different people within a certain environment as opposed to a neutral studio-like background. Essentially the environment becomes a descriptive part of the portrait or lends a bit extra to the character of the sitter.

First is Vijay, a stylish young man who works in a very cool Mod shop on Carnaby Street that his father started in the early 70’s.

Second is James Gardner who is the fourth generation running a Market supply store near Old Spitalfields Market, a store that’s wonderful maze of bags, tags and scales.

I meant to carry on the theme of family businesses that have been running through generation but when a couple of shoots fell through last minute I was forced to go down a different route with my third portrait. That one is of a Northern Irish busker who I’ve seen playing the harmonica around Hampstead and Camden a few times, he’s been busking in London for 27 years and always plays a very cheery tune.

All of my sitters were extremely friendly and obliging and although I perhaps didn’t go as planned I’m very glad to have spent some time with them.

*For best viewing quality, please enlarge the images in the gallery by clicking on them.

* Week 4 - Formal Portraits - Part 2 * As well as shooting...

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 18:05:00 +0000

* Week 4 - Formal Portraits - Part 2 *

As well as shooting classic style medium format pictures I decided shoot a cross processed chrome film with a very simple Canon Prima Mini analogue compact camera for a more saturated and gritty “behind the scenes” type of thing.

Just for fun!

*For best viewing quality, please enlarge the images in the gallery by clicking.

* Week 4 - Formal Portraits - Part 1 * The fourth assignment was...

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 18:01:00 +0000

* Week 4 - Formal Portraits - Part 1 *

The fourth assignment was about formal portraiture (that is portraits within something similar to a studio setup as opposed to environmental portraits).

Here we have two shoots using medium format b&w and colour films, featuring the lovely Max and best friends Signy and Halla.

(p.s. I would have killed to get the DOF in that last one right, contemplating a reshoot just for that)

*For best viewing quality, please enlarge the images in the gallery by clicking.

Week 3 - Human Relationships - Part two For the other parts of...

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:28:16 +0000

Week 3 - Human Relationships - Part two

For the other parts of the human relationship assignment I went to a craft club meetup, a friends electro-band practice and a choir practice. Some of these situations were slightly tricky to shoot but these are my favourites.

Week 3 - Human Relationships - Part one For the third week we...

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:50:00 +0000

Week 3 - Human Relationships - Part one

For the third week we had to capture human relationships, moments of emotion or interaction between two or more people.

I spent an afternoon with the lovely friends Disa & James, they had lots to talk about and were terrifically animated.

Week 2 - Street Photography Assignment

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 00:56:00 +0000

Brief: Shoot about 300 images of street photography or candid moments in the city.

Technical Criteria: Use a fixed lens, either a 28mm, 35mm or 50mm. B&W, 400 iso, Manual focus, manual exposure. No cropping or photoshopping. Don’t worry if a lot of street images don’t work; a few will, and will work very well (…hmmm)

I was pretty exited for this assignment since I generally love doing street photography, but the tricky bit was the time limit. Less than a week to shoot a load of presentable street shots with a manual film camera is quite a challenge, especially when it’s freezing, grey and snowing during most of it!

But I still enjoyed it despite these obstacles and was happy with a few of my shots from this assignment and they seemed to get better as I went along. So here is last week of wandering around the streets of London in chronological order.

Hyde Park

Hackney Road

Hackney city Farm

Broadway Market

Kingsland Road

The Barbican Centre

Columbia road flower market

Liverpool Street station

Bank (with foggy lens)

Waterloo - Had a camera-off with this cab driver who was lined up in a taxi rank, hurriedly took some shots in the middle of the road with the rank moving up. Some were out of focus…

… one in focus

…and then out of focus again. A very brief but friendly encounter.

Southbank

Tate Modern

Revolving door in Saint Paul’s cathedral

Stray cat in Hackney

National Theatre, Southbank

Week 1 - Person at Work Assignment

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:31:00 +0000

The brief: Complete the assignment with 3 different subjects in different locations in a week. Make a series of images that show clearly the job or activity that they are doing, and something about the nature of that job and the relationship of the individual to their job. Shoot roughly the equivalent of 3 rolls of film per subject. The photos need to be natural and no direction is allowed.

Technical Criteria: B&W, 400 iso, either a 50mm or a 35mm lens. No zoom lenses. Use manual exposure and manual focus only. No cropping or photoshopping.

We got this assignment on our first day and it was due in a week’s time. It was strongly encouraged that we try to seek out people that we didn’t know already since part of the assignment is gaining access and spending a few hours with the them in order for them to relax around the camera. This was obviously a challenge to complete in a week but a very good one.

Because of my analogue background and more importantly, lack of money, I only had a film camera to shoot with which made me a tad more nervous and gave me some more time constraints what with processing and scanning. Plus when shooting film, there’s the present dreaded nightmare of the films coming out blank… or just plain shit.

My three chosen subjects were: a local car mechanic, a bookbinder and a cycle courier.

First was Francis the car mechanic who works in a quite a jumbled up and picturesque garage around the corner from my house. I spend a few hours with him and got to know the friendly people that frequent there.

Next up was Amelie the bookbinder. She works at Wyvern bindery in Clerkenwell, a place that’s always caught my attention when cycling past.

Again I spent a few hours with her at the bindery which is a very cluttered place and a bit difficult to maneuver without getting in people’s way. She was mostly doing the same thing at her desk facing the wall throughout the session which was a bit tricky, but the place itself was still very inspiring and atmospheric.

Last was Barry the cycle courier. Now this one was tough. I was somehow exited about a cycle courier as a subject sine I really enjoy cycling in London. I thought this would be quite an interesting angle to this assignment but as I set off I realized this was going to be very hard to pull off.

I basically followed Barry on my bicycle and because he was leading the way I really only got successful riding shots of him from behind with my slr strapped around my neck whilst trying to focus via distance, haphazardly framing and manually winding. On my second roll I overzealously wound on my film, not realizing I was at the end of the roll and broke it which put an abrupt stop to our journey as I needed to extract the film in a dark-bag.

So unfortunately I didn’t manage to get the shots I wanted to complete the assignment to my standards. I was however pleasantly surprised that I got some shots in decent enough focus considering the conditions.

So happy with two out of three, live and learn. Also found out that using film for these kinds of assignments puts a lot more time related stress into the mix so will definitely try to get a digital camera for the next weekly projects.

One Woman Camera Club has undergone a bit of a change in...

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 23:08:00 +0000

One Woman Camera Club has undergone a bit of a change in direction. I’ve started an MA course in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography so instead of the odd Lomo shot on here now and again, One Woman Camera Club is going to follow my journey through the course as a tool to share my experience with everyone and learn from it myself.

I hope you’ll enjoy finding out about my (hopefully many) triumphs and (hopefully less) failures.

Over and out!

Svala

Ingibjörg Þorbergs Since an early age, singer and songwriter...

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:58:00 +0000

Ingibjörg Þorbergs

Since an early age, singer and songwriter Ingibjörg Þorbergs has been a well-loved figure in Icelandic music. Her songs and lyrics have become starndard nursery rhymes that have melted into the collective memory of generations of Icelandic children. Despite a frail physique and waning eyesight at the age of 85, Ingibjörg still writes music and lyrics with a remarkably youthful spirit and tenderness.

A while ago I spent an afternoon with Ingibjörg at her home in Keflavík where she gave me coffee and cakes, told me stories and played a couple of songs. Magical woman.

Dec 2011 - Sun mist

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 08:54:16 +0000

Dec 2011 - Sun mist

July 2012 - Spire

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:43:09 +0000

July 2012 - Spire

March 2012 - Nightride

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 10:42:04 +0000

March 2012 - Nightride

July 2012 - On The Road

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:06:23 +0000

July 2012 - On The Road

Aug 2012 - Missing Summer

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 09:22:12 +0000

Aug 2012 - Missing Summer

Jul 2012 - Homesick

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 09:23:07 +0100

Jul 2012 - Homesick

August 2012 - Vertigo

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 10:51:47 +0100

August 2012 - Vertigo

July 2012 - Shake & Flare

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 13:33:29 +0100

July 2012 - Shake & Flare

One Woman Camera Club

I went home - part 1

I went home - Part 2

*Week 6/7 - Photo Essay* This last part of the weekly...

* Week 5 - Environmental Portraits * This assignment was all...

* Week 4 - Formal Portraits - Part 2 * As well as shooting...

* Week 4 - Formal Portraits - Part 1 * The fourth assignment was...

Week 3 - Human Relationships - Part two For the other parts of...

Week 3 - Human Relationships - Part one For the third week we...

Week 2 - Street Photography Assignment

Week 1 - Person at Work Assignment

One Woman Camera Club has undergone a bit of a change in...

Ingibjörg Þorbergs Since an early age, singer and songwriter...

Dec 2011 - Sun mist

July 2012 - Spire

March 2012 - Nightride

July 2012 - On The Road

Aug 2012 - Missing Summer

Jul 2012 - Homesick

August 2012 - Vertigo

July 2012 - Shake & Flare

Week 6/7 - Photo Essay This last part of the weekly...