I’ve been drawing like crazy this past week. I’m aiming to do a sketch a day and it’s going well. I’m rapidly working my way through my sketchbook and it feels like I’m improving considerably. Especially when it comes to more realistic portraits.

I was reading last weeks Independent Saturday Magazine today, and it had an interesting article on a young photographer who goes by the name of Eleanor Hardwick. She’s only 15 and has a rather impressive portfolio of images. Impressed by the ones I saw in the paper, I had a look at her Flickr page and there are hundreds of very nicely composed images, including some very tastefully done Photoshop alterations.

Anyway, reading about it got me thinking more about Photography again. I began to focus quite heavily on music photography, but since there hasn’t been too many gigs that are all that accessabe to me and my camera (the last few ‘bigger’ gigs I’ve taken it too, I’ve had to spend a lot of time and energy convincing the security there to let me keep hold of it), the whole music photography thing has gotten a little quiet. But I’d like to try experimenting with some other things. Portraits and work involving people and models has always intrigued me, as well as trying my hand at some classic black and white work.

Whichever way I go, I’ll hopefully start having some interesting photos to be uploading in the near future.

Today I decided it was a nice day to head out and take some photos. I’ve taken a lot of photos at gigs recently, but not so much of things like landscapes and wildlife. The plan was to have a wander around Deptford and get some photos there, but I also wanted to stop by Greenwich; so as it happened I ended up in Greenwich Park, and ended up spending a couple of hours there and forgot all about going to Deptford.

Inspired by Craig I had a go at taking some High Dynamic Range (HDR) shots while I was there. The results seem pretty good, not amazing, but for a first try I’m pleased.

You can see all the photos from today here. I like a lot of the shots I got, and met some rather brave squirrels while I was there.

I’m also in the process of doing some massive Flickr uploads. Over the past couple of months I haven’t had a chance to go through a lot of the photos I’ve taken. I’ve just dumped them on to the computer from the camera and left it at that. Last night (and today) I’ve uploaded about 150 photos, and there’s still probably another 200-300 to go. The latest update involves photos from:

Greenwich Park - 3rd June 2008
Hatcham Social @ 100 Club - 17th February 2008
Photos from Hyde Park - 8th April 2008

I still have a load of photos from a couple of gigs, as well as more from Rave on Air 2008 and 2007 and the London Marathon. Hopefully I’ll all these uploaded soon.

A couple of weeks ago I recieved a message through flickr saying that one of my photos has been selected for an online travel guide, and would it be okay to use it. Of course I didn’t decline this request and promptly filled out all me details confirming that they could use the picture. Today I recieved another message saying that my photo had passed screening and would definately be used in the guide.

The guide is called Schmap and the photo is for Harewood house in Leeds. It’s one of the pictures I took whilst watching Iggy Pop last summer. I’m really chuffed that the image got used and has been published. You can view the original image here and the image in the guide here.

So Rave on Air 2008 is over. On the one hand I’m pleased; this project has been pretty tough and there’s been a lot of ups and downs. But then I guess that’s to be expected of any project, especially something that you’ve never done before. On the other hand it was great fun and a brilliant learning experience. It was something we’ve never done before, and it presented a great challenge. It’s opened my eyes to a lot of future possibilities and careers; it never hurts to branch out a little.

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