Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Just for the pear of it

Last week I found myself waiting in the studio for a friend to arrive and decided instead of playing tetris on my mobile, checking facebook or twitter I would photograph some still life of whatever I had in my bag. On this particular day said random object was in fact a pear. Yip, my forgotten afternoon snack was still residing in my bag. I also found my ipod which after some six years of brilliant music playing has sadly stopped working.

Some prestik, water, earphones and a glass jug later and I was happily entertaining myself with some still life.

  


  








 





Monday, October 24, 2011

A fleeting look back...

 

A fleeting look back at my old home city, London, where I lived for a couple years after finishing school. The place where my enjoyment of photography flourished and started me on my path to Rhodes University to study photojournalism. It is quite strange to look back at photos that I took before I had any formal photography training. These photos were purely about the fun of 'happy snapping' and the best thing is that over the years the fun has never changed!   




The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square

A bus passing over Westminster Bridge with Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament on the left.


The London Eye

Westminster Bridge

Westminster Bridge and Parliament

Big Ben

A view of St Paul's Cathedral

The Punch and Judy in Covent Garden


The Queen's House in Greenwich was the first Palladian building built in England

In the distance is Greenwich University and Canary Wharf. 

Greenwich University

Inside the church at Greenwich University

The Millennium Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral

The Millennium Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral




Tower Bridge


Covent Garden
Covent Garden



Thursday, October 20, 2011

A Different Cinderella Story

Cinderella had a wonderful time at the ball until she heard the first stroke of midnight! She remembered what the fairy had said, and without a word of goodbye she slipped from the Prince's arms and ran down the steps. As she ran she lost one of her slippers, but not for a moment did she dream of stopping to pick it up! If the last stroke of midnight were to sound... oh... what a disaster that would be! 
Out she fled and vanished into the night....

















Thanks so my fellow photographer Dianne Jordan for her help and the beautiful models Anele Ngwenya and Cacha Johnson.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

A Tale of Red Riding Hood

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a village near the forest.  Whenever she went out, the little girl wore a red riding cloak, so everyone in the village called her Little Red Riding Hood.
One morning, Little Red Riding Hood asked her mother if she could go to visit her grandmother as it had been awhile since they'd seen each other.
"That's a good idea," her mother said.

"Remember, go straight to Grandma's house," her mother cautioned.  "Don't dawdle along the way and please don't talk to strangers!  The woods are dangerous."
"Don't worry, mommy," said Little Red Riding Hood, "I'll be careful."

But when Little Red Riding Hood noticed some lovely flowers in the woods, she forgot her promise to her mother.  She picked a few, watched the butterflies flit about for awhile, listened to the frogs croaking and then picked a few more.   Little Red Riding Hood was enjoying the warm summer day so much, that she didn't notice a dark shadow approaching out of the forest behind her...














 





This is the first of my fairy tale re-creations. Dianne Jordan and I decided to see if we could photograph our own versions of a couple well known fairy tales. Little Red Riding Hood was our first attempt and despite the rain I think that they came out very well. 

Thanks to my fellow photojournalism classmate Dianne Jordan and models Tracey Turner and Martin Bleazard for standing in the rain and being so patient through all the "Okay, now just one more". 

Cinderella and the Princess and the Pea (or in our case the Pear) are to follo