Urban Decay - Some Thoughts...

Nok Woz 'Ere

I have a love/hate relationship with urban decay. On the one hand it's terrible - a blight on our cities and towns. A lack of respect for public and private property and our communities. On the other hand it makes for great photography! Am I saying let's keep trashing our towns in order to give me something to photograph? No. I hope that by taking these photos I will both offer a kind of beauty and inspire people to clean up their act. I'm making a statement - a commentary on urban decay. Sometimes I simply take the photo because I can't physically or safely remove or fix the offending item. But I won't lie, a dumped trolley in a frozen pond is like catnip to me and my camera..!

The Ditch

Dog Ends

The Boot

The Skip

Pondlife
Until next time,

Emma ♥

Free Giveaway Winner!!!

...And the winner is... MySaviour!

Congratulations on your win! I'll be in touch.

A massive thank you to everyone who entered - you will all recieve 10% off any print from my Etsy or Folksy shops. Just mention it in the checkout and I'll refund the difference.

Love,
Emma ♥

It's FREE GIVEAWAY time again!

As a thank you to all my loyal blog followers and to celebrate reaching over 100 (157 at the last count!) I'm going to offer a giveaway of prints to the first lucky winner 'out of the hat'!

The prizes: Any TWO large prints - 8"x8", 8x10", or A4 - (as available in my Folksy and Etsy shops) plus a goodie pack of postcards, sweeties and the much coveted 'Emma in Wonderland' fridge magnet! Woohoo :-D

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is simply leave a comment below. For extra chances, just Tweet, Facebook, blog or link the competition elsewhere. For every link you'll receive an extra free entry! (This is NOT compulsory and is completely up to you.)

Competition ends on Sunday 3rd October and the winner will be announced on Monday 4th.

Good luck!

Emma ♥

Hello friends, it's been a while..!

The Old Singer

Sorry to have neglected you all for so long. As many of you know I suffer from recurrent depression and boy, did it recur! I'm living like a hermit at the moment (albeit a married one with a small child!) but in terms of my photography it's forced me to think small - inside the box (well, house!)

Ever since I can remember, my Mum has had this huge Victorian sideboard, inherited (I think) from my maternal Grandmother. On it my Mum displays all her blue-and-white china and other assorted antique and antique-looking knicknacks, interspersed with the usual handmade bits and bobs and bizarre strangeness made with more love than talent in my and my sister's school art classes! (I'm sure that last sentence is screaming out with grammatical errors but you know what I mean!) Anyway - the point is that it inspired me to do a whole new series of sepia-toned, vignetted images, evoking the past with a touch of romance. I thought about those Victorian brides-to-be, safely storing away items for their new lives as married women and all the romantic ideals, excitement and anxieties ahead. 'Her Bottom Drawer' is the story of one such young lady - and it all starts with a wedding cake...

A Fine Romance

The Little Russian

The Painted Duck

(In case you're wondering about the giveaway, I hadn't forgotten - I just wanted to make sure I could include these new prints! The giveaway will be my next blog post. Promise!)

Love, Emma ♥

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To buy these photographs:

Folksy (UK)

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Etsy (USA)

Dreamaid on the BBC!!!

...I forgot to mention; the BBC will be featuring Dreamaid on Theo's Adventure Capitalists, presented by the wonderful Theo Paphitis of 'Dragon's Den' fame! How cool is that?!

It'll be shown on BBC2 on Tuesday, 18th May at 8pm, GMT. Get the details here!

(Yay!)

Emma in Wonderland Photography - Now on Dreamaid!

I'm very proud to announce that I'm now selling my work through Dreamaid!

Dreamaid is wonderful organization with a great charity.

You can find out all about their brilliant work HERE!

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...and my shop is HERE!

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Every print sold will include a donation to this very worthy cause!

Shopping with a conscience. Cool!

♥

Until next time,

Emma

♥

(BTW; I haven't forgotten about the giveaway. I'm just waiting for the printing lab to send my most recent test prints, then I'll put together a goody bag!)

Just a quickie...

Just in case you were wondering just exactly how cool lomo cameras are,

Click here for the proof!

Yes - Lomo cameras are cool - official! (But you knew that anyway...)

♥

World Pinhole Day and Something for YOU!

Now before I begin - a big sorry for not posting for a little while. Life really creeps up on us sometimes, doesn't it?! By the time you reach the end of this post, however, you should hopefully feel it was worth the wait!



Anyhoo; I took part in this year's WPD, having been itching to use the true pinhole function on my Diana F+! It was quite exciting! I was busy until 3:30pm (I co-run a film and animation group for people with mental health problems) so on the way home I stopped at a lovely wood near our town centre. Despite being surrounded on two sides by a busy main road and a railway line, it's a nice, peaceful area. The sun was shining and warm too, which always helps, doesn't it?! I went right back to basics - no memory cards, no batteries, not even a lens! I was able to sit and eat my sandwiches while the little box did it's thing - I just had to make sure I kept an eye on the time ticking away! It's a tricky thing to get right (which I didn't, mostly, but that's the fun of learning) and it all depends on how much ambient light there is and how many seconds/minutes you leave the shutter open for.

I enjoyed it all sooo much - I can't believe I waited so long do have a go! I assumed it would be a tricky process, best done by a more technically-minded person. Quite the opposite! It goes right back to the earliest days of photography and was a reminder of how far we've come in a relatively short time - and how amazing it is that an entire scene can be captured on film at all!

♥

Sooo.. this was my very first (and only) successful shot. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and have been spurred on to do more, this time indoors and at night. Watch this space!

Far From the Madding Crowd

Now I know this post was a little long, so thanks for sticking with me. Now here's your reward!

I've now reached over 100 followers of this blog, so to celebrate and say a big 'thank you' I'll be having a free giveaway. Yay!!! I'm getting together some goodies for a lucky someone, so see a future blog post for details!

Until next time,

Emma ♥

B&W V. Colour - Film V. Digital

It's no secret that I have a long-standing and very deep love affair with black and white film, but I also love shooting digitally in B&W. Lately I've started shooting more in colour, too and it really does require a different way of seeing the world. I'm used to framing everything in my mind and mentally converting all the shades and tones into greyscale. After years of doing this almost constantly, everywhere and anywhere I found myself (and with or without a camera) I developed a 'feel' for how B&W film behaves. I pretty much knew how a shot would turn out, using a mix of intuition and the right shutter speed. Now I use a digital SLR for about 70% of my work and have had to relearn. It means getting to really know the camera and that means practice - a lot of it! Two years on and I've learnt a whole new photographic discipline.

The other 30% of the time I use film and was using 120mm medium format B&W almost exclusively, until I forced myself to go back to colour - and that meant relearning all over again! I've really enjoyed seeing the world 'in colour' again!



The shots in this blog post are examples of my very latest work - at different ends of the spectrum. One was shot on colour film, the other in B&W digital. See what you think...

The Arches

Glorious Springtime!

Until next time!
Emma ♥


(BTW; When I was a child I saw old black and white films on TV and actually thought the world was like that in 'the olden days.' I'm sure that's relevant, but I'm not entirely sure how..!)

Just For The Fun Of It!

The Gate

Sometimes it's great just to wander with my camera and shoot purely for myself, with no customers or commercial value in mind. I had two such chances very recently:

Tangle

We were invited to a wedding at a country hotel last weekend and at the very tail-end of it, the next morning after everyone had left, hubby, William and myself went for a wander around the grounds. We stumbled upon a beautiful collection of lawns and walled gardens and right at the back was an 'urban decay' paradise! A wonderful array of old statues, hotel furnishings and various building materials, all piled high amongst the crumbling walls of an abandoned outhouse.

Shears & Sickles

Broken #2

Broken #1

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Last Sunday evening hubby and I took our son over to our local airport/business park, where there is a fabulous flat area just right for a young chap to break his first bike in!

The Arches #1

Reach

Aviators Cafe

Silhouette

The Arches #2

Because all flights were cancelled and the offices and cafe were shut it was so peaceful and quiet. Just an occasional passer-by. It was also perfect weather - for biking and for photography!

Blocks #1

Blocks #2

It was my husband who suggested I bring the camera, thinking I would get a few shots of William on his bike, but I shot much more than that. In fact, I almost did an entire industrial landscape project right there and then!

♥

After both sessions I felt elated - genuinely happy inside. It has proved to me once again that photography really is good therapy for me. Long may it continue!

Until next time,
Emma ♥


PS: The above are a selection from all the shots taken. I don't know if any of them will be put up for sale yet. I'll gauge everyone's reactions and decide then, but if you do specifically want a print of any of the above - or any of the rest from my Flickr gallery - please ask!