Morningside Montessori

Or do not.

?

Here are a few RAW's from our first half day shooting for Morningside Montessori Nursery. In: a mad rush and: 2hours, we pulled together some beautiful images. The old adage about working with children is only true if you dont want to do what they do, and I was all ears and eyes for suggestions! The silence is simply amazing. It is just unbelievable. The kids come in and get busy at their own thing. They can spend all day at one task if its how they're feelin. There's no "Cap'n Jimbo's Deluxe Monster Garage" or "Queen Larissa's self-indulgent Pamper-a-Tron" here. The toys are all really organic and simple. But fun too it seems! The children choose what they want, respect that others do too and get on with it quietly and patiently.

They have music and drama classes and they paint or draw ad-hoc! I'm waiting for adult membership so i can build arches and count to one thousand! Lots more to come.

Deep fog

I love the fog. Then again i am an unwavering pedestrian to the soles of my shoes. But come ON...check that fog?

Its like a bridge to a different world, not as severe as snow is, but it completely transforms the landscape. The pace, the mood, the textures, the colours -everything changes. It turns simple street lights into big sheets of glow. People appear and disappear around you. And you sink deeper into the collar of your coat. Nothing that happens does not feel completely cinematic. Instantly you are the Third Man.


I would definitely enter negotiations at trading the sun in for fog

Strollin' with the homies

Indulging in the finest of luxuries this week, meeting with some estranged but dear mates (Yeah, Real people!) It simply is where its at. Me, The White Whale and The Other Eoghan took to the Mosque kitchen for all the finery on offer. Amazing penny cuisine, the great outdoors, brilliant music conversation and pigeon hunting season. The White Whale serenaded us with outlandish Billy Joel before disappearing, as ever, into the mists of time, with a single flap of his fin.

Spent a gorgeous weekend languishing around a spring-creeping Edinburgh. Coffee and cake, then breakfast and tea, ignored a really disappointing match.... reverse engineering the day as we went. Surely there can be no finer things!The lovelier the light gets, the further i am from ever getting up for a sunset...

The White Whale

The Other Eoghan

The missus

Playing CATch-up

So if im beginning work with children i may as well bumble on to animals too. And hark.

                                           

Me, the lovely Andrea and the "adorable" Cosmo put up a nifty backdrop, some lights and set the mooood for photographs. We had loads of time, we were at leisure with maltesers and we were just waiting on for the magic to happen....and for a cat. Allegedly the worlds most personable cat spent two hours fascinated with all the corners and book shelves. She acted like she had never seen the underneath of a couch in her life. She was, needless to say, working on her invisibility. 

And successfully. Would she come when called? Would she stay for a cuddle? Would she even pose? She would! But all i had do was just raise the camera and she would travel impossible distances in half a second. Anything but let us get what we were after. There's no equation to cats. If i have my dastardly way my future pet is going to be a giant sea turtle. Tragically slow, so i can get at least ten costume changes in the time it takes him to cross the room. And in the evenings, for the price of being my foot rest, he can have all the celery he wants.

So yeah.

                                    

Cleaning up a mess

 

I've scattered myself to the four winds to get some projects done. I can announce with great pride that I have proposed and begun a documentary project long on the burner as part of my college graded unit. I'm looking at those who bear our traffic lollipops morning and evening, weeks in and out. Ill keep some posts rolling in on that, since it, while being a logistical nightmare, is so interesting. The boundless knowledge of the local lollipop man/woman...you can only imagine! But since im only running for shoots it would be nice to post up some of the amazing things im learning in the process.

I started this morning (ow) a separate project for a local Montessori Nursery shooting their corporate work. I know! Corporate...and kids? Eh...dont think so?! We'll see and its shaping up to be quite fun indeed if not...half impossible;)

Spent another portion of this week on the wing in Glasgow with the insurmountable photographic behemoth Hamish Campbell. The speed which im growing and learning under his guidance would warren a fine i reckon. Ils ont le sculpteur dans la nuit mercredi!

On top of it all im gonna get out and organise some shoots! Hear me now, my trigger finger has gone unitched long enough. Its nearly monday  and there's loads to look forward to.

A hand in everything

Even...my own photos. I took this when out on the search for InFrA ReD light this week. Using an IR filter over the camera, the sensor only receives infra red light, so the entire image is red with the occasional mysterious purple. But the purple is not the only mystery! Ta-daa. Why anyone would practice this on an ever-again scale, now there's contemplation.

Shooting IR digitally introduces colour to the process (RED) that requires elimination in a post pro bandy. For me, god there was no excitement in it. It was like a dreadful cycle of darkening the same bits over dozens of minute slider values. Oh yes, indeed, can i truly boast that my slider sense was tingling.

The process: I put on my cape(optional). I take a photograph. I then put on my pitch black filter and retake the photo, waiting twenty something seconds for my sensor to register (my camera, it seems, is very good at blocking IR). Meanwhile, the sun doggedly flares my images without pity. And all i can do is assume a number of lotus positions huddled over the tripod to obscure as much light as possible.

No Avail.

It sounds really funny and it is, its great (no) but what is exhausting about it is with all the post-pro
you could achieve the same results with both files and just skip the kung-fu training!
I know! Appaling

A monday of accolades

A few weeks ago one of my photos was selected as the winner (by the college's entire photographic department!?) in a competition organised by one of my classmates. There's a few notables here:

ahem

Firstly, wow-what? This is the first award i have ever been en-titled. There is something really driving about receiving praise for your creativity and, what more, in the field in which you wish to dedicate yourself. Standing out is something we all desire in a way and what could be more satisfying than doing so unintentionally.

The Second notable is really the competition. For it was the loveliness of Ali Cleary that set the competition in motion with no ideas of grandeur or gain other than those for her classmates. "A sense of space" was the brief with any format and framing accepted. A really open book and one which offered a wildness of creativity that was challenged by only 5 people sadly enough. Regardless of how few entrants, it doesn't overshadow the incentive and imagination on Ali's part.

So given the traditions at the podium, my thanks go soley to Ali, for the opportunity to do some tasty self-proving, and lest it not be mentioned, my prize:

ZING!

What was, for me, a seemingly impulsive entry, turned into something small and quite meaningful for my future. Something i will always have.

What i will not always have however, is the gin. Nor will i have much of a future either if i do what is expected of it on my own. So....gonna share some gin!

Below is the winning image.

Space is Above...ladies