a botanically themed photo collection

Rain-soaked rose arch walkway 

Last weekend I visited Kew Gardens in London for the first time since I was about two years old. The weather varied from glorious sunshine to thundery downpours so I took photos with plenty of light and contrast but also with the detail of raindrops settled on petals. My mum recently asked if I could make some cards for her so I'm getting these designs printed off for a botanical themed pack of home-made cards. Let me know if you'd like some too!

This is "Mandela's Gold", originally from South Africa- I love it's spiky shape!

Trumpet Vine

I took this photo before I started logging names of plants but it's very pretty!

Jade Vine

Red Lily just after the storm

Allium, also known as 'flowering onion'!

A collection of cactus roses

officially unofficial...

This is a rather belated post seeing as this wedding took place about a month ago but with video work I hadn't had the time to think about photography blogs! So...

My friends Ed and Jeanna got married last month :-) They got loads of friends involved in doing various different jobs from playing in the band to arranging the flowers which meant the whole day had a really nice feel to it as everyone chipped in to help them celebrate. The job I was asked to do was to be the unofficial photographer which suited me well.

Mr and Mrs Spencer

A simple but very beautiful cake

Flowers by Robyn at Floral Footsteps

As I've said before, I don't enjoy function photography. But this job I loved. I enjoyed the luxury of being able to take lots and lots of photos coupled with the challenge of making sure there were some fairly decent ones in there, but at the same time I didn't have to get the official shots that the bride and groom had specifically requested. So if a shot didn't turn out well, it didn't matter.

I enjoyed getting the 'behind the scenes' photos as I got to the church early so had lots of time to photograph the band, ushers and groom before the service started. Some people seemed to take their roles more seriously than others...

And then there were lots of photos of guests having a good time...

   

I love this photo of my friend Abi, she's definitely a glowing mum-to-be. It's a nice place to finish, with another type of new beginning.

Vane Tempest sessions on a boat!

This Monday we're holding our most exclusive Vane tempest Sessions on the Prince Bishop, a boat that sails up and down the River Wear. During the day the boat normally transports tourists to see the sights of the city from the river but at night it is hired out for birthdays, barbecues and this time round for a gig!

As this is the last Vane Tempests Sessions of the year, it required a nice new set of publicity. I decided to embrace fully the predictable nautical theme but put my own stamp onto it by hand drawing rope and a life belt in the same style as previous flyers and posters. I especially like the coiled up rope, it was simple to do yet effective I think.

I originally only had colour on the blue and white stripes (incidentally, they're from a top of mine that I scanned!) but it looked a bit dull. I tried to make the life belt red in sections but it didn't look good so it ended up being font that was highlighted.

This poster was rather hastily put together this evening because we decided it would be good to have something bigger to catch peoples eye. I think it does the job okay.

I'm looking forward to this event on Monday night. The music is promising to be of a really high standard. Sir Paul McCartney is a fan of Thomas J. Speight which is a promising start and Rams' Pocket Radio is currently on tour with Foy Vance. If you've never made it along to Vane Tempest Sessions before and you don't have plans yet for next week than this isn't one to miss! Even if you have been before, this is looking like an evening on a par with Dry the River and Flight Brigade.

See you on Monday!

the June Project report video: a creative collaboration

A couple of months I was asked if I was interested in getting involved in making the June Project report video 2011. (If you don't know what the June Project is then check out the Kings Church Durham website.) Chris, who oversees art and media at the church, had seen the video I made for Durham University a little while back and wanted me on board. So of course I said yes!

Getting behind the camera. A first for me but so much fun!

Early morning filming. Free coffee for commuters.

I worked with another guy (confusingly also named Chris!) on this project and it was really fun to bounce different creative ideas off each other. I came up with the idea of using a map that we'd pan over during the video so that people could see where events were going on and Chris then suggested dropping polaroids onto the map that videos could spring up out of.

Original hand drawn map of Durham

We did the majority of the filming between the two of us although we did rope in some helpers when our timetable got too crammed! And we edited the footage together along with the very talented Andy Dykes who did all the effects on the map. 

As the June Project ran until Saturday and we needed the video to show in church on the Sunday morning, we had to do an all-nighter, working from about 11pm until 8am but it was worth it and we were very happy with the end result.

You can also see it on YouTube which may be a bit better quality.

Hope you like it. I'll keep you posted on the next Kings Church Durham video project: the June Project documentary!

my day job

A couple of months ago I started a new job at A Way Out in Stockton. It's an amazing charity that really does saves people's lives. I'd fully recommend you to check out the website and the work the charity does.

My job title is Fundraising Admin Assistant but I'm not entirely sure whether that gives the right impression of what I do. It sounds quite office based and a bit boring (at least that's what I thought when I was offered the role)! But in fact I love my job! It does have a more admin side to e.g. writing thank you letters to people who have donated money but that's a nice thing to do anyway. 

Our first big event - a jumble sale with a twist

But the vast majority of my job is to do with event planning. I'm one of two staff members in the brand new Fundraising department which means that we get to be really creative. All the work we've been doing so far has been centred around local, community events. These range from gig nights to fashion shows, golfing days to glamorous balls. So on a 'normal' day I might be pricing up Gucci boots for a designer jumble sale before heading out to a country estate to negotiate prices on a golfing day, then creating a running order for a gig and maybe designing a poster to advertise it!

I've blurred out the address as it was somebody's home

The poster design aspect of my job isn't one that I anticipated being allowed to devote so much time to. But good publicity is essential to promoting an event and so spending a bit of extra time making it look eye-catching and attractive is worthwhile. I've really enjoyed getting some more practice in graphic design and I really like thinking about the target markets for different events and trying to think of something that will really appeal to them.

Our under 18s warm-up to the festival season

I consider myself lucky to have such a fun job (even if I still have to write risk assessments and keep budgets)!

a springtime cosy for rainy days

I made this tea cosy several months ago but it's taken me this long to get round to posting about it. It was one of the first projects I wanted to do when I brought my sewing machine up to Durham at the beginning of the year because it would a) not take too long to make, b) not require me to buy much fabric as it's nearly all recycled bits and pieces and c) be useful - we didn't have one in our house before!

I bought the green background but it was only a fat 1/4 and came very cheap from the quilting stall (which I frequent regularly) in Durham's indoor market. Although you can't see it in these photos, the tea cosy is lined with some checked material which was left over from a hat my Mum made me when I was about six. The floral Liberty fabric is the same that I used for my pincushion and the pink printed material was brought back from Ghana by my aunt and uncle when they lived there about fifteen years ago. And as you can see, my Mum found something useful to do with it back then but I've somewhat outgrown the trousers and top now.

I designed the cosy myself and made a paper pattern for it which I've hung onto in case I make one of these for a friend. It did become quite fiddly sewing on the letters and birds though as I wanted the stitching to be invisible so it was done be hand and had to be quite precise. I also spent longer than I needed quilting the background, pinning and tacking it first to get the distances and angles right before realising that I had a quilting foot on my machine which would do all that for me!

Dress to skirt in 10 easy (or not so easy) steps!

I saw this dress about four years ago in a sale and loved the material so I bought it even though it was a size too small. I've never really got a lot of use out of it though because it wasn't very comfortable to wear. So this year I made the practical decision to transform it into a skirt. Luckily for me, my Mum who is great at dressmaking wrote out a nicely numbered set of instructions, which I followed (nearly) to the letter.

I had to buy a zip but the buttons I pinched from an old t-shirt that wore out. The most time consuming thing was definitely lining up the fabric because every time I thought I'd got it right and the pattern matched up, it would slide around and end up wonky again! But I'm happy with the end result and it's a pretty popular wardrobe choice for work these days...