Documenting Nature

As nature seems to move faster than I can keep up with I am largely relying on my camera to keep me up to speed with the developments in my garden.
Almost every day I ferrit around in the garden, looking for new arrivals sprouting, blooming or dying. Summer seems to be a constant barrage of new flowers springing up left and right, my drawing skills would be in overdrive if I tried to study everything first hand, so Im relying on detailed images of every plants stages of growth for refrence when the flowers are long gone. Here are a few of the more artistic results: (Its bees galore at the moment, which Im enjoying)

Spring is sprung

As the spring flowers bloom and colour begins to blossom everywhere my recent trip to Matlock allowed me to take a number of photographs of flowers and nature for my project. Below are some of the images which I believe may be inspirational within my project:

In the bleak midwinter ... Long Ago.

Crit for 'In the Bleak Midwinter ...' was today. Presenting all of my work was enjoyable as ever and it felt especially strange to observe everyone elses knit and weave compared to my own and how differently everyone interpreted the brief. This project struck me especially as very personal to everyone and the ways in which the brief has been interpreted are so different. Some people have chosen to look at colour, texture or pattern, I personally chose texture.
Here are some photographs of my mounted samples on display and of my finished sleeve and neck ruff:

Sleeve:








Ruff:




Kindly Modeled by Nat.

Sixty Degrees North …

With ‘In the Bleak Midwinter …’ in full swing and progressing nicely I attended a lecture given by Phil Brooks. The lecture was the first I have ever attended with people from mixed subject areas, I believe it was open for anyone to attend. Kay urged us to attend, I left my knitting quite reluctantly, feeling that I was on a roll so to speak, but after 5 minutes of the lecture I was listening intently and felt very interested and involved.
The subject on which he gave his lecture was his 14 year venture ‘Sixty Degrees North’, A photographic study of life between 60 and 70 Degrees around the world. I felt engrossed in the topic, his landscapes especially interested me. His social commentary images were also very rich with culture and message, but artistically I preferred his landscapes and cityscapes.
I think I felt quite a close connection with the lecture as travel photography is something I’ve always wanted to do, although travelling through Russia, Greenland, Iceland and Lapland etc in those incredible temperatures is a step beyond.
The imagery of his lecture was brilliant, I’m not sure it really made me consider my project in a different way, but it did appeal to me from a photographers perspective. And seeing those icebergs on such a grand scale and such vast icy bodies was quite inspirational in an artistic sense.

In all I thought the lecture was a fantastic insight into a practicing photographer living his dream, even if he admitted to not making any big bucks at it. But after all that’s not what it’s about is it? There is a difference between having a job you love and having a job that pays, a big difference.