Setting myself a little challenge...

This week is the final week of Photo Meditations and honestly, I'm a little bit heartbroken about that, I feel like there is so much more I can learn from Susannah and more I can learn about myself and my photos. I'm very glad to say that I've loved every minute and I feel like I've progressed throughout it. 

I haven't taken many photos, but the ones I have taken... here, here, and here wow. I can barely believe that they are mine.

What I didn't expect from Photo Meditations is that I would change as a person, that I would push myself to do things I never would of imagined before, that I would actually want to do things I never saw myself doing... 5 weeks doesn't seem that long, and it flew by, but I feel different, in myself and I know my photos from now will be different too.

One thing I've noticed in my photos is that I don't take many photos of people (I had to search for the ones in this post haha) and over the past 5 weeks I've seen so many amazing photos, by Susannah and other photographers on the course that all of a sudden I want to take more. Not posed photos, more moments...

 I remember being annoyed in the top photo actually that the people were behind those bikes, they were ruining the lines of the wheels and the path behind but today I'm loving the mans hat, the way hes leaning away to look at the bike properly... I love the lady behind who is watching both them and me taking my photo and the little leg on the bike on the left is killing me.

And I love this little boy, his enthusiasm to see the ducks better leading him to get in the water... he looks so determined. I love his Fathers arm reaching out for him but letting him go at the same time.

So instead of challenging myself to take more photos of people, I'm challenging myself to look at people differently, to let people into my photos, not to wait for them to walk past... to use them to enhance a photo and stop being scared that they might ruin it.

Challenging myself to capture their photo the way that I see them...

p.s. In writing this here, I have to do it - you've all seen it now.

p.p.s. Susannah just uploaded a video about Photo Meditations, you should watch it :)

And the camera is...

The fuji instax mini!

A fair number of you got it right and I'm so glad about that. 

{vintage chair by JMK Photos)

 

This beautiful photo by JMK Photos is the main reason that I've decided to experiment more with my instax mini recently - when I first saw it I thought it was a polaroid film of some sort, its so soft and delicate yet the contrasts are strong, I loved it straight away. Imagine my surprise when I realised it was from a fuji instax camera!

The reason I had this little quiz was really a reminder to myself what great cameras and films the instax family are.  They can be considered a bit of a gimmick and normally get a unjust negative comparison to polaroids but I think every camera is what you make of it and if you're willing to experiment a bit and believe that you can produce the results you want then with effort, you can.

You can see the rest of my recent instax mini photos here...

p.s. I normally keep the frame on my instax minis when I scan them but I'm wondering if I should remove it from some, as sometimes it feels like it detracts from the beauty and the quality of the image.

Photo Meditation photos...

I took these during week 1 of Photo Meditations. Every day I walk the same way to work and I have taken a lot of photos of the route but this time I tried to implement what we had been taught that week and see it a bit differently. I'm really happy with the results.

The colours and light this day were so lovely and I loved how the wire seemed to follow the line of the fields so well.

Camera: 35mm Panorama - more details to come.
Film: Kodak ISO 200
Location: Leeds

Photo Meditations...

"I learned that you do not need to be published in books or magazines, or belong to a certain association, or even earn money from your images, to call yourself a photographer. All you need do is hold a camera in your hands with the intention of creating. Recording beauty and decay. Capturing memories. Documenting a scene. Telling a story. Catching a likeness. Exploring your inner world in pixels and film." ~ Susannah Conway.

This time next week I will be starting Susannah Conway's Photo Meditations E-Course and I can not wait. I've been in a bit of a blog rut and I haven't even felt like taking as many photos lately so I'm hoping that doing this will give me the little nudge I need to find my photo and blog mojo again. Hurray!!

p.s. This is my favourite diana mini photo from Paris, the statues were either side of the stairs and I thought they belonged together somewhere instead of being apart... I'm rather proud of it.