If you’d have known me at the age of 24 then you would have seen me with an old clunky SLR permanently around my neck – I loved photography. I had no idea what all the buttons did, or anything technical about this creative pursuit, I just merely loved ‘clicking.’ This love of taking pictures meant that as time passed my pictures improved just through extensive practice. I wouldn’t say my images were anything particularly special… they weren’t awful, but there was and is more talent out there than my own mediocre attempts.
I’m ashamed to say that the moment I began to work at Walford Mill and started my art degree my camera became somewhat neglected – sitting in a corner gathering dust and only called upon to take images of artwork for my sketchbook, it had definitely seen better times, and what ever talent I did have for taking pictures withered away and became replaced with my obsession with metal.
I’ve often looked at my camera and remembered the times when on a day off I would fill my pockets with snacks and head off somewhere scenic with only the company of my Canon, I miss those days, but sadly not enough to make time for them, and these days time off is very rare.
So for week 50 I decided my ‘former self’ would be my inspiration and I couldn’t wait! With gale force wind and rain on the forecasts for my week off, it wasn’t looking good for photography, I’d optimistically set aside Thursday for a trip to Durlston County Park with my camera and my fingers were crossed for sunshine. To my delight it shone!
I headed out in the morning and plodded around the parks meadows and coastal paths stopping every few seconds to take more pictures – I’d forgotten how holding a camera in your hands makes you walk around with different eyes, viewing how light effects colours, and tilting your head at ridiculous angles to make things look how they’ve never looked before – to an observer you could appear quite strange.
I also remembered how obsessive I used to get about particular images, taking numerous shots of the same thing in order to get the perfect result. I probably took over 100 pictures of the see crashing by the Tilly Whim Caves – there was an amazing blow hole, created by a large swell and I couldn’t leave until I’d secured a decent picture.
As the sky begun to cloud over I headed back to the learning centre to work on my pictures on my laptop – cropping them and tweaking colours to create the finished images.
The final images aren’t anything particularly special, they do show my lack of practice, however I was surprised that they weren’t completely awful – I thought that my photographic eye had long since left me, but I think it’s still there and given time it may return to how it used to be. I enjoyed the day I spent with my camera, I hope and want to do it again – I just need to make the time and not be adverse to having it swinging around my next everywhere I go, after all it’s a lot lighter than my old one.
Another good week and a medium I’ve missed. Only two to go, items are coming in for my ‘Ready Steady Make’ in week 52 – some stand out objects include a tennis racket and a mannequins leg, guess what I’ll be thinking about during Christmas dinner!
Apologies for the blog appearing a day late, away for the weekend in Durlston I was lacking an internet connection – quite nice really. So this week’s 51st Make will see me take inspiration from a Graphic Designer, my great friend Andrew Till – he’s responsible for my website and my branding and I’m keen to explore how I can use my wonderful ‘Parrott’ logo to brainstorm new products for my business.
