Morecambe Winter Gardens

Managed to get a trip organised with a few other explorers to visit Winter Gardens in Morecambe - It was a great trip out and felt good to be allowed to roam around the place - Anyway, heres the pictures from the day:

Food!

A friend who works in a Salad bar asked me to photograph some of his creations, so I did - here's a few of the shots from today

Iphone Hipstamatic App

I downloaded this app the other day and since then Ive been taking loads of pics of random daily things that catch my eye. I love the way this app makes your iphone images look like oldskool toy camera prints - lovely colours. Its got me shooting a lot more than usual cos its a camera that I can always keep handy, so its good for giving me inspiration - 5 stars!

New Photos

I was assisting Amanda Littler on a photoshoot recently and was able to get a few snaps in for my own portfolio use. We went to an abandoned shack in Ormskirk. The left hand image is from a reccee mission to the location to scout out for ideas, and the second image is one from the fashion shoot.

New small project

I did a small project where I looked at the different ways in which people utilise the landscape to leave their marks, whether that be for artistic reasons, to show that they were there, or simply to mark a memorial place. It was a small project, more of a personal experiment to see what came out of it, but in the end I decided the images were too personal to the people that made the landscape statements, so for now at least, this little project will remain a little project.

Here's the pictures - forget me not.....

Future in Progress

Got my copy of a new book today called "Future in Progress" - A book that we being produced by The International Fashion Institute and the University of Central Lancashire. I was asked by Elena Gifford to submit some work and also to help out on a shoot idea she had planned - so I produced the photography for the project. Anywho - here is a small selection of the images and the book can be purchased on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Future-Progress-International-Fashion-Institute/dp/1901922723/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266440020&sr=8-18

St Josephs Orphanage

I found these old negatives a while in Preston, and from what I can make out they look like they were taken inside St Josephs Orphanage. I was thinking that even though the chances are slim, maybe someone will know one of the people in the pics. If you know anyone in them and would like the negatives then let me know and I will forward them on. I know as a photographer how emotionally valuable photographs can be.

Creedle Chronicles

I remember my first ever "photo book" called Creedle Chronicles - it was a photo book done by Snowboard/skate brand "Volcom". They used a lot of images by Chris Brunkhart and this is the one image that stood in my mind for years before I properly started my interest in photography - it evokes a sense of nostalgia of all the times Ive had with my mates snowboarding, travelling and having fun. On March 6th I'm heading out for a snowboard trip to California and whilst I'm on this trip I'm gonna try and get some really nice shots like this - inspired!

Image by Chris Brunkhart

Smooth Skin

Today I had a bit of spare time in which I brushed up on my brushing, airbrushing that is! I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of air brushing, but for main fashion mags it seems that completely smooth skin is a must, so today I got stuck back into my photoshop work and did this nice subtle effect - not too "in ya face" (no pun intended) but realistic airbrushing of the skin. If you ask me personally, I prefer the un-photoshopped image, but in the photographic industry one of the requirements is that of knowing how to airbrush skin and what-not, so it cant hurt to keep on top of the skills.

Whilst on the topic of photoshopping - this is a nice little film from Dove about how our perception of beauty has become distorted by the use of photoshopping images
http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.co.uk/#/features/videos/doveFilms.aspx[cp-documentid=8367188|video-id=2]/

New projects

Over the last few weeks I've been playing around with a few ideas running through my head, and recently started going to Winter Hill with my old Hasselblad just to see if anything inspires me or provokes a project idea. I've been around Winter Hill and Rivington countless times over the years with my family and friends and then 2 years ago when my dad passed away, we scattered his ashes on the moors there.
When I was there last week I was thinking about the history of Winter Hill and how for thousands of years people have used the area to pay respect to the dead, for example there are 2 mounds of rocks which is reported to be a Saxon burial ground, also a memorial post to a George Henderson, who was murdered on the moors in 1838 and another memorial post in memory of the victims of a plane crash that happened in 1958. As I was wandering on the moors I came across even more recent "make shift" memorials comprising of stones laid out in the shapes of crosses, flowers laid down amongst rubble and tributes hand etched into boulders.
I'm still thinking of ideas for a project based around this love and respect for the great outdoors and how we deal with death in different ways, but in the meantime heres a couple of the images I took from a few trips ago to Winter Hill.......more to come

More Exhibitions

I just thought I would advertise a couple of other exhibitions where I am currently showing work (or will be in the near future)

Currently I am showing 2 pieces of work at the Waterside Gallery, Sale, Manchester.
So if your around the area and have a spare few mins then go in and have a look around - there's loads of work from a variety of artists, and there is some really inspirational pieces - well worth a peek.

I've also been invited to exhibit my work at The Chapel Gallery in Ormskirk. The exhibition is based around the theme of "Recollection" and it runs from the 24th April til 5th June 2010.

Great site for inspiration

Found this nice little site a few weeks back  - its a great site if you're just looking for images to give you inspiration or ideas

Blogging......again

I had enough of my old blogs and never really paid them much attention over the last year, so today I start with a clean slate. I guess I'll be pretty much using this site as an online storage of photos - whether that be latest shoot ideas, behind the scenes, trips, or anything else I find interesting or inspiring.


I'll try my best to keep this up to date as much as possible, but in the meantime, check out my portfolios of work at Spin Photography and jctaylor.co.uk


Bye for now


John