Wednesday 15 June 2011

Une mise à jour bridgeman

Well well well, I'm in the middle of my second week at the Bridgeman Art Library and I'm still very much enjoying it.

This week, due to picture research, I have been learning about our British Empire (and much more). Now most of you are sitting there thinking I did that for GCSE/A levels whatever it may be, but considering I did not do history even for GCSE's I may be a little behind than some! However, I have found it to be rather interesting, learning from the Caribbean sugar plantations to the Opium wars. Now why could they not make history interesting back in school?
But all this picture research is for the Scholars Resource website where sets of Bridgeman art works (amongst other vendors) are put together for universities and schools. This Friday I will be in a conference call with a lady from the website, so hopefully I have been doing things the right way!

Today I also pulled some pictures from our archive for the National Gallery to use within lectures they hold. I also submitted my ideas for future Bridgeman apps, which I hope that one idea might be successful! I will at least be keeping my thinking cap on.

On top of this I have also been asked to extend my stay and take on a role to cover the Managing Directors PA. Hopefully I do a good job and prove myself!


Excuse me if I got the title wrong, I don't speak French, but I do use google translate tools!

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Bridgeman Art - Bonjour

This is the end of my second day at Bridgeman and so far so good. At this moment in time I am trying to find a part of my brain that will help with creative app making. I will keep you updated.. We are very much at the starting line with this. Hopefully we can kick off something amazing!

I have also been doing other little tasks here and there but currently I am mainly supporting the Bridgeman education department. It is early days at the moment so not a whole lot to report, other than I am a happy bunny! It is not everyday that you work alongside some amazing people, and the amount of French spoken in the office it will not surprise me if I am soon fluent.

Au revoir!

Saturday 4 June 2011

Quick update



After much hard work at university a very welcome break came along. Last weekend my family jetted off to Jersey for my cousins wedding, despite weather reports it turned out to be a lovely day.

After a great weekend, the start of the next weekend was to bring even more good news. Our final (but still provisional) results were available, and if my maths is correct I should be walking away with a 2:1. Very pleased indeed.

Now, to write on this blog I have interrupted my packing, which is taking awhile, for staying with my sister for the next month whilst I am at my placement at the Bridgeman Art Library, which I am very much looking forward to! So if I can I will try and regularly update my blog on my time there. Stay tuned...

Monday 16 May 2011

Book!

Well I got my third and final book today. I was nervous and felt rather nauseous, but I am really pleased with the final product.. Lets just hope those who are marking it feel the same!





Thursday 5 May 2011

Books

My books arrived today, whilst at uni in a review, oh how it was exciting/nerve racking thought to be coming home to them.. only I didn't. But don't fret, because it is with the neighbours. Only for them to not answer their door all afternoon or evening! I want my packages. Where are they? Hopefully they didn't go away on holiday this afternoon.. However I must say one thing I can be impressed about is the speedy delivery, hopefully I can be just as happy with the rest of it! (Sorry for the poor quality of blackberrys mobile cameras!)



Funnily enough, as I was typing this and having a whine, guess who knocks on the door, my neighbour. My oh my how happy I am with the books. I haven't finished the project yet, but how it has spurred me on to continue what I am doing. Which means the study will look even more like a bomb site in the next few days. I am literally surrounded by books and loose photographs. All a methodical mess I must add! (I never understood this till university happened).

Well I promised some photographs so here is a little taster of the books.



Tuesday 26 April 2011

The Slog

Ah hello. Today has been (and still is till about 10 o'clock tonight) spent slaving over the computer again, with photoshop and InDesign. Oh how I love them but resent them right now. Here is a lovely picture taken with my mobile of my work 'desk'.



As I'm scared of my work going horribly wrong at the moment I will promise to show you the final products, providing my books arrive in time for my final hand in...otherwise I do not know what I will do... Slip away into abyss or cry forever, turn around and run away screaming from university, I don't know, but I'm sure it would be really dramatic and then I'l be embarrassed by it all.

Saturday 23 April 2011

Oh wouldn't it be nice

For a photographic blog I apologise again for the lack of imagery! In the last week I have not left this house, unless it was to go food shopping, or pick my mum up from the train station, or enjoy a spot of lunch in the garden. Otherwise, 10-5, gradually becoming 9am-9pm and even later, I am welded to my laptop with InDesign and Photoshop. So much so that I think my forefinger and middle finger on my right hand have become worn down, not joking. Colours have also started to blend, focus has started to soften and white balance and all that has begun to p*** me off. It's also annoying that viewing a laptop screen out in the sun is just not possible.. Hopefully the weather will hold out for when I do have some time to do nothing!


Sorry that this is short and sweet, but for now, I must try and relax, unwind and forget. 


Happy Easter! 

Thursday 21 April 2011

panic/sunshine/calm

It's a miracle... I post again so soon! Today I spent time in London on my own to go portfolio hunting, who knew it would be so time consuming, energy consuming and money consuming! So overall quite draining. To top it off the sun was hot and tiring, but if the sun wasn't shining, I would have been one miserable git. I enjoyed an hour in hyde park for some gorgeous sunshine in the hope to get a bit of 'glow' as in the last week of this fine weather I have been glued to my laptop screen (which I fail to see clearly in bright sun) or at work. 
Most people are happy for these two long bank holiday weekends, but for me and many fellow students I am sure, it means less time being able to go to the library, print things, buy things needed for projects, etc.. all in all a bit of a nightmare. So here I am, when I should be editing my 600 odd photographs, having a subtle panic attack. 


So for now, Auf Wiedersehen. For the next few hours it will be me, photoshop and Einaudi ludovico. 

Monday 18 April 2011

I Apologise

Once more, how rubbish have I been at blogging!? I should set myself a target of at least blogging once a week. I may seriously take this on board. Maybe every Sunday at the end of the week to at least update you? But for me there really is no end of the week. Days roll into other days, days roll into weeks, weeks roll into months, being in my third year there are no weekends anymore. I feel guilty even taking one day off, unless I am just stupidly exhausted.

So what have I been doing which meant I didn't blog? Well I suppose everything. Got work experience/job/future to think about. My final major project and degree show to which I handle the accounts with a fellow friend. On top of this there are portfolios to be done, reports, websites (to which mine went and crashed and have no idea how to rescue it). As well just being able to socialise. There are not enough hours in the day.
But having said that, I like being kept busy, I feel productive and achieved something worth while. It is a nice feeling. So with it all coming to an end am I going to miss it? Yes and no. Bring on new challenges please!

I was thinking about the future and how I would love to go abroad for 3months - a year and help out in a third world country to make a change. Build a school, hospital or homes, provide water, malaria nets and such like. Or help in an orphanage or help educate. It would be such an achievement and it is things like that in the world that I feel matters the most. Just one more thing on my tick list to do.

However the next pit stop is to graduate.

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Whilst tweeting

Whilst on twitter today lpv magazine tweeted 'I'd be impressed if a photographer rigged up their own car with the same equipment Google uses for Street View & drove across the country' - to which someone has done, on an amazing scale. Alastair Thain is the man that is in question. The very man who used such high quality equipment that NASA uses the same technology. One particular project comes to mind when his name is mentioned. In 2007, Tate Britian held an exhibition called How We Are: Photographing Britain, to which Alastair Thain and many other photographers exhibited work. Thain displayed huge portraits of Royal Marines who had just been training, showing the exhaustion and the strain that it took on these individuals. The raw emotions screamed through the quality and scale of the work, every tense muscle, sweat drop and gland are available to see making these images very powerful and compelling. 


However if we go back to the point I was originally making, it was made available to me that Alastair Thain has done a 'Google street view' piece of work, with this incredible bit of equipment. Not exactly subtle. I quote.. “The idea behind it is that I can drive along the streets at night with a large-format camera and capture life, because people don’t notice you if you’re in a car. It’s a completely arbitrary process, but the advantage of digital is that you can take 10,000 shots and get maybe 50 revealing images.” OK I understand the digital part. But really? No one notices you if you're in a car? I think people would notice the large amount of equipment and the 'epic flash' that goes off in their faces! At least being in a car means you can drive away from those people who believe it is against their right to be photographed without permission, even in a public space. 


This is something else I don't understand. If you aren't doing anything incriminating and a photograph of you is taken in a public space why be angry about it? You're captured on CCTV 100s of times a day, what is the difference? OK that might sound a bit naive, but it is effectively the same concept. Obviously there are boundaries.

I diverted again, but I think this post was a good chance for a bit of a ramble. 



Anyway if you wish to read further this was the article I nabbed the photograph and quote from. 

Saturday 19 February 2011

Oh Christmas Tree

Posting a little late...

Our Christmas tree malted a lot this year.
The hoover came out regularly.
Our carpet was about an inch deep in pines once we took the decorations off and the tree down.

Monday 17 January 2011

Surely not?

(taken from guardian.co.uk)

This photo is incredible, it looks like it has been constructed for some hollywood film purpose. But no, this is not the case. Apparently in Spain they ride a horse through a bonfire in honor of Saint Anthony, the patron Saint of animals. hmm..? OK. You learn something new everyday.

Monday 10 January 2011

'To infinity and beyond!'

Today I'm feeling inspired and motivated to take on the world! Ok perhaps not the world but at least university. This semester I'm hopefully going to get a head start and power on through to do things I am proud of. I do work hard, I'm not saying I don't, but I want everything to count, every bit of effort to ooze out of my blood and sweat for the next six months. This is the plan anyway, but how many plans do we ever stick to? This one I plan, to plan, to stick to.. This could get confusing, so I will stop.

Dissertation is well under way and coming to an end. An end that will have a beginning again with re-drafting and prof-reading but oh well, it will still be an end. Not that this is necessarily a good thing, I have enjoyed it and learnt a lot from it, so maybe I will feel sad when it becomes finalised. We will soon find out.