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.

  

  

 

 

 

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

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.

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

The still of life

Last term my photojourn 4 class was working mostly in the studio in order to learn how to work in a completely controlled environment. Our studio work was divided into two section. They were studio portraits and studio still life. Now portraits were no problem and loads of fun as you could interact with your subject, put them at ease and try and get different shots. Still life on the other hand was well .... very still! What can I say? I was not inspired at all. I mean yes there is the challenge of dramatic lightning or finding the perfect lightning to suit the object being used but I found that I really missed having an actual subject in the studio.
But as we all know you live, you fail, you learn and you do better the next time. So I put my differences with still life aside and threw myself into the project.

I will let you all be the judge of whether they are any good. I was not unhappy with them in the end and found that in a way I did enjoy photographing a subject that listened completely me :)

A small wooden mannequin possessively holds his Hunter's Extra Dry in studio, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa, 29 March 2011. (Tarryn Liddell)

Lucky beans from a Erythrina tree and coffee beans lie in a pile on a wooden table in studio, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa, 23 March 2011. (Tarryn Liddell). 

Condensation drips down an ice cold Hunter’s Extra Dry in studio, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa, 28 March 2011. Hunter's Gold was launched in 1988 as one of the first alternatives to beer within the South African liquor market. Ten years later Hunter's Dry was launched (Tarryn Liddell).

A small wooden mannequin poses with his paintbrush in studio, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa, 28 March 2011. (Tarryn Liddell)

A quick succession of bubbles flow in studio, Grahamstown. Eastern Cape, South Africa, 1 March 2011 (Tarryn Liddell).

The Casablanca lily (more properly known as Lily ‘Casa Blanca’) is an oriental lily and is one of the most popular in this class. Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa, 24 February 2011.  It is generally accepted that the meaning of this lily is celebration.

A high key studio photo of a Barberton Daisy (Gerbera jamesonii), Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa, 24 February 2011. (Tarryn Liddell)

Two lemons, a tambourine and a roll of film

Venturing into the studio with Karin Reum is like following the white rabbit down the rabbit hole. You truly have no clue where you will end up. 


It all began with an empty studio space. This space provides an isolated area in which both photographer and subject can experiment with ideas of identity, expression and how we construct meaning through images. It is a space that according to David Campany is a mixture of a stage and a confessional where you are free to express and act our your desires and fantasies. It can be the stage for a simple idea or elaborate plans.


In the case of Karin it provided a perfectly lit stage on which she could bring her many 'selfs' out to play. A drama student at Rhodes University Karin is no stranger to the stage and feels comfortable immediately in front of the camera. In fact it was like I was not even there. 


Describing herself as:
'Yoga, orange trees, crispy green lettuce, the booty hop,muesli, worry, kindness, number 11, timtams humanity, habitat, squirrles,friends, marshmallows, laughing, talking to myself, slippers,fruit, wearing slippers to the shops, blue cheese, pictionary, music, whiskey and soda, visionary, loyal, curvy, loving,OCD, honest, sunrise, mail,, eat/pray/love, roadtripping, europe, family and speckled eggs!'


you can maybe then understand the diverse range of photographs that we managed to get in the short studio session that we had.