It’s the little things my mind commits
To etch behind my eyelids
Like getting stoned when we wake up
Coffee grounds in coffee cups
Your silhouette in high top sneakers
And hardcore from laptop speakers
The classics to the more obscure
From Minor Threat to your old roommate’s band
A new series for the snapshots and little moments from my everyday life. These are over on Flickr, but I thought it’d be nice to have them on my blog too. I take a lot of photos, and I’m trying to capture more video from my everyday life too. It’s fun to look back as the seasons change.Read more…
Before I became interested in photography I never gave much thought to the seasons. The months and years came and went, but I didn’t pay attention to the details. My view of the world has changed a bit over the last few years, and these days I do notice the seasons change because of the role natural light plays in both photography and filmmaking.
For all of my organisational needs, for instance with my Lightroom workflow and folder structure, I follow the astronomical definitions of the beginning and end of each of the four seasons. Ed and I disagree on this. He follows the meteorological definitions, insisting that June is a summer month and that I, born at the very start of September, am an autumn child. What we can agree on though, is an informal and less prescriptive definition of the first day of spring. It is a definition that we leave in the capable paws of our 14 year old cat, Minou.Read more…
At the start of winter I hoped for snow and for the first time in five years it came. I love snow, as it covers the detritus of a big city in mid-winter and makes the world seem brighter and more inviting. Winter in the UK is usually mild, grey and damp. It stretches on for what feels like eternity, and is more of an endurance than a pleasure. Winter is the season I dread, but snow breaks up the monotony and makes it seem more interesting.Read more…
In 2016 I wrote a post all about how I make my digital photos look as film-like as possible, in camera, and in that post I touch on the use of presets. Today I want to talk a little bit more about presets, specifically Replichrome film emulation presets, as those are the ones I have been using for the last three years, and I have been very happy with them. This is not a sponsored post, I just like their presets as a paying customer.Read more…
It’s that time of year again, the time for My RØDE Reel, a film competition which challenges filmmakers of all levels and abilities to put together a three minute short film on a theme of their choosing. Last year I entered the competition with a short about my husband Ed’s running. We filmed it together in an afternoon up at the Lickey Hills in Worcestershire. We both enjoyed the process so much that I wanted to make a film again this year, too.
This year’s film is a gliding documentary, and stars my father-in-law Roger, who is a glider pilot. It’s set in the Cotswolds at Cotswold Gliding Club near Stroud in Gloucestershire. For the uninitiated, gliding is a competitive air sport. Pilots fly unpowered aircraft, and stay airborne by finding and using thermals, ridge and wave patterns. Some gliders also have small engines for the purpose of sustaining flight in sub-optimal conditions, but the aim of the game is to stay in the air and traverse long distances by following thermals, ridge and wave patterns across the landscape.
So, to the film. I wanted to make a documentary, as it’s my favourite form of filmmaking. I love making really natural films and keeping things simple and real. As such, I knew that I wanted to follow Roger as he arrived at the airfield, set up his glider and prepared for launch, just as he normally would when going for a flight. My plan was then to cut the footage together with a voiceover of him speaking about gliding, explaining how he got into the sport and the reasons why he loves it so much. I also hoped that we would have a chance to get up for a short flight for some aerial footage, but gliding is so weather dependent that I was unsure if a flight would come to pass.Read more…
