Things I like

Well, again I haven’t taken many photos this week, aside from some stuff for my project and my photoshop coursework and a gig on saturday night. I’m getting better at it, but I’m looking at other things, other photographers and sources of inspiration. I do find that I have to work at the photoshop stuff a lot more than I’d hoped.  I’ve never been great with software really, but it’s just a case of being persistent. I won’t get anywhere with photography if I’m not persistent, and through the persistence I’ll get more experience and therefore more confidence.  That’s my take on it anyway.

So as I’ve been getting sidetracked from photoshop quite easily recently I’ve been looking at other stuff on the net for inspiration in general. Here are a couple of things that I’ve found inspiring recently, in no particular order…

Damien Lovegrove / Lovegrove Consulting www.prophotonut.com 

I went to a photography business seminar held by skillset and Damien Lovegrove back in May, and though I’ve read everything he said in various broken up bits on forums, it was great to have a living breathing person in front of me confirming everything I thought about what I need to do and how I need to be to be successful. He obviously has a great head for business and his photography is fantastic. Really simple and elegant, very well thought out. Some of the photography on his recent blogs has been nothing short of stunning. If only I could afford one of his dvds.

www.eleanorjane.co.uk

A friend (www.thegingerbread.co.uk) sent me a link to this blog/ website a few weeks ago and I loved it. Updated roughly every week/fortnight I guess, eleanorjane has a really nice eye for things, and her photos just have a lovely feel to them, kind of reminding me of www.kirstenmcternan.co.uk  ‘s work. Really contemporary, but with a nostalgic finish if that makes any sense.  She also appears to be doing very well for herself at the young age of 24 – When I was 24 I’d just finished my film degree, had no direction, went back home to live with my parents and got a job in Virgin Megastore where I stayed until it shut, 8 years and two name changes later. This girl is really really good.

Nadine Ballantyne www.soundscapemagazine.com www.nadineballantyne.com

I’ve known Nadine for a year or two now, we’d been flickr contacts for a while and I introduced myself to her at Swn Festival in Cardiff a couple of years ago before Future of the Left came on. I don’t know how she manages to fit so much in to her life. I swear her days have two more hours than mine. If she’s not blogging, doing college work, updating or sorting stuff for her magazine or taking photos she’s playing on her xbox. I swear she doesn’t sleep, whereas I seem to have turned into a lazy old cat in comparison. I was immensely jealous when she bought her Canon 5D mk2, but then countered with a 7D of my own. I love my 7D, but the first time i went to photograph a band with her I realised I’m still jealous of her 5D.  Anyway, jealousy aside she’s a great photographer (and designer) who seems to be getting better all the time.  Her live band shots are really good (she likes more exciting bands than me too) and her understanding of flash is way better than mine too…

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/07/summer_is_here.html?camp=localsearch:on:twit:bigpic

Yeah I got this link from Twitter, from Rob Sheridan who is no slouch when it comes to digital media/ photography/ whatever. Do a search if you don’t know him. He’s great to follow on Twitter because he tweets fairly regularly with really interesting stuff, and I think it’s through him that I came across this link. Well, this is this week’s link, but I’m sure he’s linked other’s before.  The big picture is a selection of photos from across the world from news stories that particular week- such a wide selection of photos covering every aspect of life (not every week admittedly, but trawl the archives) and some of it is inspiring, whether it’s because it’s a photograph of something you want to see or do, or a photograph you wish you’d taken.

Right, time for food. No time for sleep before the football. I can’t wait until the world cup is over, I don’t know why I’ve put myself through it. I’ve watched nearly every match and I can barely remember anything.

What shall I have to eat?