Topshop x Olympus Pen Summer School

After hearing that Topshop where hosting a series of summer schools over May/June to do with Photography, I leaped at the opportunity. Usually, the creative subjects are lacking a diverse range of courses, the sciences (medicine, veterinary) and essay based subjects (English, history) are bursting full of chances for students to spend the day at a University listening to talks and partaking in classes to do with that subject to get a "feel" for it. Sadly, I am often let down by the lack of creative push from my school - roughly every week I receive 4 or 5 emails abut a new science or law talk, yet only twice has there ever been something about the creative arts. This disappoints me but I am at an academically driven school so I am not surprised when it cannot cope with the growing demand for creative opportunities. Nevertheless, there are classes and courses being run frequently (admittedly it is hard to get onto them and they are mainly for older students so they run throughout the day) but after digging around a bit you can find something. Being on study leave meant that I was free to do what I wanted with each of my days without an exam (I assume my school would have wanted me to stay at home and revise) and I chose to attend to one of these classes.

Admittedly, when I first arrived at Topshop for the 'Shoot Street Style' class with Jay McLaughlin (street fashion photographer) , Yanin and Leanne (both fashion bloggers) and released that I was probably the youngest (17 years old) and least experienced (after all I am no blogger or photographer yet, I am still doing my AS Levels), I was definitely nervous. Surrounded by fashionistas, bloggers and uni students, I did feel out of place and quickly sent a text to my mum stating it might had got the wrong idea about this event. But there was no time silently slip away (one reason being the fact that there were only 11 of us and it would be incredibly obvious) as the talk began. Thankfully, it was a relaxed and easy environment, with Jay sharing some top tips that will certainly be of use at some point in my future. We then got to grab an Olympus Pen Pl-7 camera, which unfortunately might have been the most beautiful camera I have ever held and that I may have to spend £400 on one for myself, and shoot some photos of a model that Topshop had provided for us. As I'm used to shooting some of my closest friends I found it a bit awkward at first, but because we were shooting as a group at the same time on the streets of London, it started to become a lot easier. Initially I had the camera on the usual colour settings after swapping the 35mm for a 45mm lens to get a shallow depth of field by putting the camera on a shocking low f1.8, but then I began to mess around with it to increase some of the contrast in the photos (and I do mean mess as the camera was set to German meaning I had no idea what I was doing) and was really pleased with the outcomes. The camera was so easy to use and the touch screen and WiFi capabilities made it all that much better. Thrilled with the outcomes and below I have included some of my favourites from the day. Big thank you to Topshop, Olympus, Jay and the model Charlotte.

(High colour contrast setting)

THE GENERAL ELECTION 2015

Initially when planning this post, it was going to be unbiased without stating what political party I lean towards by using code words and confusing language to disguise it, but frankly it just didn't seem worth it. And also because I'm not ashamed of the party I support, and nor should anyone else be - we have the privilege of freedom of speech and the right to say what we like and yes we may come into conflict with people but isn't that a good thing? It makes our values stronger and fortifies our beliefs when we have to defend ourselves. And as women, I believe we have the responsibility to vote every time an election comes around as my mother once told me as a small girl, "women fought for us to vote. Women died to secure us this right, so you must always vote no matter if there is no one you agree with". As a turning point in my life I think it has been deeply embedded into the person I am today hence why I get upset, and frankly angry, when women all over the country take no interest in politics and refuse to vote based on outdated views such as "it makes no difference" or "there's no one worth voting for". There will never be one party that reflects everything you want to happen but as cliché as it sounds, every vote matters and truly does make a difference.

 

Polling Station - photo by The Guardian

So what was the General Election result? Conservatives have won a majority of 331 seats, Labour with 232, Liberal Democrats with a measly 8, Scottish Nationalist Party with an outstanding 56 (out of 59) and UKIP and Green Party winning 1 each. And this was just the beginning. Conservatives have increased since the previous 2010 election where they won 306 seats meaning that they had to join coalition with the Liberal Democrats. However the backlash from this formation has hit the Lib Dems the most with them now dropping from 57 seats to the shocking 8. But the biggest shock of all from this election was the fact that the predicted polls had it so wrong. Going to bed on Thursday night, we all imagined we would wake up with a hung parliament - a parliament where no single party had won a majority but as the votes were counted and the numbers flooded in, the decision of the British public was clear: Conservatives would get another 5 years in power. For me this was a shock, had people actually bought Cameron's miserable attempts at relating to the working class and pretending that he would genuinely try and make the country better for them? Because obviously tax evasion and avoidance, zero-hour contracts and non-dom status is a great thing for our country and that by putting Cameron in power we are definitely doing the right thing. But it's clearly not this easy and voting is a difficult task as we have the Lib Dems who have predominantly back tracked on everything they said they wouldn't do (University fees, VAT increases, tax cuts to the millionaires, the list goes on) and Labour who wrecked our economy in the previous term in parliament.

What will the next 5 years bring? With Conservatives stealing the majority of seats, their plans for the next years are mainly decent but can we trust a party who seems more concerned with making the rich richer and poor pay for the funding our country needs? David Cameron plans to provide £5000 of free childcare, have an income tax-free minimum wage, seven day access to GP service and give an annual £8bn boost for NHS funding. These were just some plans that stood out to me but some stood out even more such as repealing the Hunting Act and that they are committed to four-boat Trident nuclear deterrent. Honestly to me these don't seem like things the country should be trying to promote - increase the sport of hunting and the development of submarine and war machines which, as Plaid Cymru, SNP and the Greens have said, are "unusable and indefensible". And I'm obviously against the fact that Cameron has turned a blind eye to the rich avoiding tax and pursuing the elitist nature in our country. And what I find most unfair is the fact that Conservatives can get away with the fact that the banker's bonuses have risen by 64% in 1 year (while my mum is 12% worse off under Conservative leadership because her salary hasn't increased with inflation), food banks usage have risen by 700% and 1 million people are employed on zero-hour contracts and the list goes on (in fact 100 more reasons are viewable here) and to me this doesn't seem like a successful 5 years at all.

After the news this morning we have had three resignations; Ed Miliband (who's speech can be seen here), Nick Clegg (who's heartwarming speech can be seen here) and Nigel Farage (which can be seen here). It's sad to see the Labour lose so many seats after such encouraging attempts at trying to prove they are the better party but most of all, the Lib Dem catastrophe has to be the worst with Clegg loosing so much because of being the smaller party in the coalition and having to take the backlash of it. Especially as Nick Clegg's speech was heartfelt and honest, something that seemed to be genuine and truthful, which sadly we haven't seen a lot of lately.

All in all, we have dangerous yet exciting times ahead of us, what will happen with the EU question? How will the Scottish problem be solved? Who will become the new leaders of Labour, Lib Dems and UKIP? Hopefully we'll find out soon, if not see you in 5 years time...

Black and White Film

After handing over £20 to get 35 6x4 photos and CD of my black and white film, I made a silent prayer that this would not be wasted and that the photos would come out well. A week later I turned up again bracing myself for the worst, but all in all, bar the few that came out blurry, I am thrilled at my first attempts of black and while film all taken on my Canon AE-1.

Somerset House - Canon AE-1

Some of these were the first photos I took on my roll of film and as you can see the top left photo was underexposed (shutter speed was too fast) meaning it has come out rather dark at the top. Some came out rather grainy but personally, I quite like this look in the photo as it adds to the aged feel of the photograph.

Somerset House

The next set of photographs were from the Secret 7" exhibition at Somerset House that I recently went to (review about it here). However from this, I have come to the conclusion that because they were such colourful pieces of art that they would have worked best on colour film as black and white doesn't quite capture quite how bright and unique they are and that black and white is better suited to people and buildings.

Below is a photo of just some shots I took when travelling around London one night - surprisingly film is perfect for capturing night time scenes as everything looks more atmospheric. 

London at night - (from top left clockwise - Albert Bridge, Piccadilly Circus tube station, Piccadilly Square and London Victoria station platform 10)

My final photos are from a lovely day that felt like summer when myself and Anna went around the park on our bikes. It was a beautiful day and makes me excited for more days like this in the future.

I love the lack of colour in these photos, particularly this photo to the left, as it increases the contrast between the light and dark tones and for me it makes the photo more detailed as you are less distracted by colour. I love the complexity of the branches and the shadows they have created and it makes the photo look slightly surreal.

Below is a picture of Anna (I love secret photos) who only realised the photo was being taken until it was too late and then promptly asking to see it, I had to tell her that she could not because neither I nor her could as this was film. She was just going to have to wait until it got developed.

Anna - Canon AE-1

Overall, I am pleased with the black and white outcomes, but sadly this is a far too expensive hobby to keep up, so after I use up my last roll of black and white film, I may have to limit myself unless I start developing the film myself.