alicethewhale

… Well, it’s the end of first semester anyway :D

I handed in my essay this morning at 9:45am having worked on it the entire week, with just one solitary hour in the pub to make up for it… criminal!

I took four attempts at a self-portrait on film this week, using my tri-pod for the first time in aaaaaaages! This was shot on my me super with discontinued Fuji Superia Reala 100, how exciting! :P

This is another one of my attempts, I quite like it but decided on the ‘book for a face’ one in the end :-)

I’m off caving this weekend, haven’t been in so long and I’m pretty excited as I’ll (hopefully) get to go to a cave I’ve wanted to explore for over a year now, called Charterhouse Cave (viastuartgardiner). Who knows, I might even make my own video…

Watch this space.

A very uneventful week filled with revision and exams. I’m so glad the exam part is over though, I actually feel mildly human again :-)

I’m thinking that it’s definitely acceptable to ignore my 3000 word essay (just for today) and head down to the Three Tuns tonight for free beer and fun times with the friends I nearly forgot I had!

I had no time for film photography this week unfortunatly :-(

But the day after my first exam I felt so generally crap that I spent an evening procrastinating in the photosoc Penthouse scanning the film I shot over Christmas and in Rome.

It’s so cool in there, especially at night and I’ve been meaning to take some photographs for ages. I thought it would look really cool with the reflection against the awesome view and had quite a few go’s at the composition… and trying to keep the camera steady without my tripod! This was the result, I probably could have done with some adjustments on light room to sort out the slight yellowy-ness but I haven’t got hold of it yet/ I’m lazy.

I’ll hopefully get another film portrait in for week 4, I’ve got a few shots left on a roll of colour print in my Pentax mesuper which means I don’t have to worry about trying to shoot a whole roll of (decent) photographs whilst writing 3000 words about male sexuality…

To portraiture! … and fun :D

After 4 days in Rome, Alice the enthralling intellectual (as ever) has her two favorite Italian words - fizzy and sale (because I didn’t want fizzy water and as it was January, there were sale’s EVERYWHERE). 

Whoop! Black and white film portrait :-)

This actually came out slightly better then I expected which makes me happy. I’m not sure about the big blob of out of focus rock hogging up the middle and maybe it could do with some cropping (?) but I think the background looks pretty cool and I’m liking the fuji acros 100 speed film as it’s so smooth.

Rome overall was awesome. We went to all the usual touristy places (Colosseum - in which the above photograph was taken, the Vatican city, the Trevi fountain etc) and all the walking was knackering but definitely well worth it both photographically and for the amazing experience. I know I’ll definitely go back there at some point in the future.

A few things I would do to make it better:

1. Look up online/go to recommended/rated restaurants rather then wandering around in the tourist areas - some may look like they are out in the sticks but they are well worth a visit!

2. Managing to take a photograph of a cool looking person on a vespa.

3. Not killing my new Pentax MV by dropping it down lots of steps.

Right, now back to revision *sigh*

This feels slightly odd and terribly vain. It’s almost like I’m 14 again, holding my camera in the air, taking moody pictures for myspace. Yet in a way, it’s also quite exciting; for the first time I’m publicly documenting a year in photographs. I’ve kept diaries before but they’ve always been of the secret kind. This however is all new to me and I’m not entirely sure where it’s going to end up…

New Year’s Resolution: Must stop biting my nails!

I also made some other resolutions/goals - I thought I should write them down here, then maybe I’ll try harder to achieve them… supposedly anyway ;-)

1. Average at least 65 this year (a 2/1) - I’m ‘studying’ Sociology at Bristol University, but it unintentionally seems like a bit of a side project in my life at the moment.

2. Shoot a roll through a super 8 film camera :D

3. Try out medium format film photography - I’m not sure I’d ever buy a medium format camera myself but I’d love to give it a go.

4. Get much better at guitar - I was going to say learn a new song every week but that’s not very realistic. I’m can currently play 2 songs… badly. But I really enjoy it so I guess I don’t mind too much.

5. Make a film of Iceland - I’m determined that this will happen and I’m sure I’ll write a longer post about this at some point. I really want to document a tour round the whole of Iceland, planned for June/July 2010.

6. Get a summer job - hopefully at ‘End of the road festival 2011”.

7. Camp in a cave - I love to go caving and I love a challenge. The ultimate combination of these would be to take part in a “through trip” (from the entrance to the end) of a cave called Dan yr Ogof, sleeping overnight half way through.

That’s all folks.