Rutland Water

Took a trip down memory lane and spent four hours in very pleasant company at Rutland Water on Friday. Think I caught the sun - well my nose is a little red today which I think is a fine indicator.

Shots from the day that stand out for me:

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The Little Red Rooster

I am the little red rooster

Too lazy to crow for day

I am the little red rooster

Too lazy to crow for day

Keep everything in the farm yard upset in every way

The dogs begin to bark and hounds begin to howl

Dogs begin to bark and hounds begin to howl

Watch out strange cat people

Little red roosters on the prowl

If you see my little red rooster

Please drive him home

If you see my little red rooster

Please drive him home

Ain't had no peace in the farm yard

Since my little red roosters been gone

Willie Dixon - as sung by the Rolling Stones

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Business cards arrive

Moo have been super fast - well they should I did pay a premium for a quick turn around of my 200 business cards. They arrived yesterday and look smashing. I'm all ready for New Blood now as well as more networking events which pick up again week after next.

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Source Magazine

Have been featured in Source Magazine in connection with my Free Range exhibition. Have a peek.

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Percy Bysshe Shelley

"And the sunlight clasps the earth;

And the moonbeams kiss the sea.

What are all these kissings worth,

If thou kiss not me?"

Percy Bysshe Shelley - Love's Philosophy

(1792-1822)

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Cup of Tea anyone

Right - who fancies a cup of tea:

Kettle's on

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New Blood

Getting quite excited about my work being exhibited at New Blood next week. New Blood showcases the best in graphic design, visual communication, advertising, digital media, illustration, photography and other commercial creative arts. There will be extraordinarily talented people showing their work to interested people who are looking to commission work. Very pleased to have the opportunity to talk to people about my portfolio and the future direction of my work.



The logo for the exhibition has a postively vampiric feel to it! Rapture.



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Business card redesign

I bit the bullet and ordered 200 new business cards. I have paid a premium for them as I would like them to arrive before I go down to London on Thursday next week. They should arrive on Tuesday.

After doing my research on what to put on the front of my cards I decided on this design:

The front

The back of the card will have one of 40 different images. I don't know who is going to pick up my business cards so address is just as important as twitter, facebook or website. The QR code takes you straight to my website.

All set for exhibition next week and portfolio review with Le Book and Making Pictures.

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All-in Wrestling

"If it's all-in honey, why wrestle?"

Mae West

Happy

"If you were happy before you met someone,
then you can be happy after they are gone."

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London baby

That was the most enjoyable trip to London I have ever experienced. Went to Free Range to top up my business cards and left some postcards. Everything still looking good and there were quite a few people looking at my work - even on a quiet Saturday lunchtime.

My work getting photographed

Went into the Whitechapel Gallery to see the Paul Graham exhibition. My favourite image of his was 'Sunny Cup'. Took a sneaky pic of it.

Paul Graham - Sunny Cup

I was also fascinated by the UK Government Art in gallery 7. Very interesting - it all belongs to us so it was nice to get to see it. What was fascinating was seeing who had chosen which pieces of art. Seemed the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service loved abstract art. Go Sir John man after my own heart. I loved one of his choices - Jim Lambie's 'The Doors (LA Woman)' 2005.

Jim Lambie - The Doors (LA Woman) 2005

Found it very inspiring and am developing an idea involving huge prints and rephotographing them. Will tell more as the ideas progresses in my head.

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Private view - what a ride

What an interesting time setting up the exhibition ready for the Private View at 6pm on 16th June. Logistical nightmare, hard work, tiring - but all very effectively accomplished through determination, perseverance and team work. Support and help gratefully accepted from all quarters and all work was up on the white walls and the room swept and cleaned ready for the official opening time at 6pm.



Very proud I am

 Some of the VIP invitees attended including Ed Swinden and Frede Spencer... always nice to see familiar faces and pleased the invites got out to everyone.

Ed Swinden has a look at Chris Mear's work

Very happy with how my images looked. Think next time I might go bigger, much bigger, perhaps A0. The room is big the big images looked stunning. Mine fit perfectly into the space they had so they were certainly the correct size for this exhibition.

Very surprised at how quickly my business cards were going. I had approximately 25 cards made with images for the 'Smalll World' project on them and they had all gone by 7.30. Later on a guy was searching through all my cards and I asked if I could help, he said he wanted a card with the blue image on it. I had the postcards and gave him a copy blue image and the large image. He was very happy. Wonder if he will be in touch.

I am guessing that the following days after the private view will be much quieter but I will take more cards with me on Saturday to ensure they don't run out.

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The Diaries of Paul Klee

Treated myself to a new book from the Whitechapel Gallery shop - The Diaries of Paul Klee 1898-1918. Decided I needed to see what other artists have been through - creative block, inspiration seeking and emotional personal rollercoaster rides and how they grapple with them. Decided on Paul Klee as he was around in the late 19th Century as the century moved into the 20th, photography had been around for 50 years or more and he was a "painter" but he dabbled in music, literature and photography. I am looking forward to getting stuck into this book and finding inspiration and affinity within.

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Newspapers and Tote Bags

OK my title is not as lyrical as Mike d'Abo's 'Handbags and Gladrags' - but getting very excited about my very first London based exhibition. Bags have been screen printed which you have already seen, but today we picked up the newspapers kindly printed by Burton Mail - and they look marvelous.

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Joy Division

After seeing my post about James Welling I received a comment that it reminded them of the cover of the 12 inch single of Joy Division's - 'An Ideal For Living'.

I think it was the scaffolding that made the connection - but aren't connections wonderful.

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Bogart

"You know how to whistle don't you Steve?

You just put your lips together and blow."

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Women In Business Network

I attended the launch meeting of the WIBN Burton last Thursday at Dovecliff Hall Hotel. I enjoy networking and it gives me the chance to refine my offer and think about the type of work I want to do. I made it very clear that "I don't do weddings" this is becoming a bit of a USP for me - it also made a room full of women laugh.

I used my iPad to scroll through some images whilst I gave my 60 second piece about who I am, what I do, and what business I am looking for. I got some really interesting feedback about my images. There was also a lot of interest about my offering 1-2-1 training and before I left the meeting I had two people asking for more information.

I have decided to join WIBN. They meet monthly and there is very little overlap with the local network I belong to.

Dovecliff is in a beautiful setting and I have been a few times back in my former career as Tourism Manager and East Staffs BC was hosted a meeting there. I am looking forward to taking shots of the hotel/grounds as the year progresses.

Rebecca, who runs the WIBN meeting, asked me to take some shots at the launch meeting which will go onto the website at some point. In the meantime here are a couple of my favourites from the event:

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Portrait shots - JMBMC Ltd

Out this morning to take portraits of staff at JMBMC Ltd for their website and printed material. Weather not very interesting - some shots will be outdoors - but at least it is not raining like yesterday. Need to make sure I cover all angles as I have not seen the designs these images will slot into. I will try some candid shots too.

A very pleasant morning spent with very interesting people. Here are my favourite shots:

The lovely John Merison

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Hash tags, user names, optimising searches and all that Jazz

I have been reading up on all the things you can do to help people find you, connect up with you and make it easy for people to find you online when they are searching.

I recently changed my twitter name to @PhotoJoanne.

I thought I should have a look at what other things could be changed.

Facebook is now - facebook.com/PhotoJoanne

Linkedin is now - uk.linkedin.com/in/JoanneCooperPhoto

With all these on my business card it's going to be crowded.

I'll have to think of a way to abbreviate these. Bit of research into what others have done is called for.

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Mid-Summer (almost) Sunrise

It's almost mid-summer. I have never before been awake this early and opened the blind. The sun rises in a whole new part of the sky. Decided to capture it on my FujiFilm JZ.

I know my windows are a bit dusty filthy after the rain yesterday

Whilst doing that I noticed an odd mark has appeared on the screen on the back of the camera. This remains visible even when the camera is switched off, which sounds ridiculous. See if I can find a way to show you.



The black blob on the left and the horizontal line coming from it

should not be there



I think the camera and I need to take a trip back to Jessops. That does not look nice. It does not affect the final image as you can see on the sunrise shot - but this is not good. I shall dig out the receipt.

The other interesting thing to notice when looking at these two images is the difference in the size of the sensors. The top one and more square sensor shape is the Fuji 1:2.3 size and lower one is the Canon DSLR in the traditional 4:3 size. I know and understand the reason for the difference but never really consider it except when processing images after a shot - but this side by side comparison really brings it home.



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Canvas prints

Have some ideas to stimulate interest and ideas at my next network meeting - which will be in two weeks time. I have ordered 4 canvasses with my images on to give people ideas. These are my most popular images:

Blue Bottle

Fuchsia

Foremark Sunset

etype Jag

Update:

These canvasses arrived on 11th August. After waiting 2 months I was expecting great things. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. They looked rushed and carelessly crafted. After a chat with the proprietor I am resubmitting my images with some tweaks and hopefully they will take more care with them this time. I have therefore still not used them as a promotional tool - which was the intention. Patience.

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James Welling

This week I was given some feedback about my work after someone had visited my wesbite and they asked how and where my inspiration comes from for some of it. This got me thinking about one of the earlier black and white studies I did and I remembered how I had been inspired by James Welling. If you are a regular visitor to my website you will have seen this image:

Olympus OM10 - 50mm lens - FujiFilm Pro 160 film
hand processed and printed

and the inspiration for it came from a set of work by James Welling:

www.jameswelling.net

His website is well worth a visit.

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More business cards - honestly

I was correct after a busy day of networking I am running out of business cards. I have so many ideas on what I would like to see on revamped ones that perhaps I should turn my attention to it over the weekend. Things to consider... Add twitter name... Add QR code... Make card look like a piece of film... Review 'logo'...

My creative juices are twitching.

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Portions for Foxes

"I keep on talking trash, but I never say anything.
And the talking leads to touching,
And the touching leads to sex,
And then there is no mystery left."

Rilo Kiley - Lewis, Sennett

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Time Lord

I am a Time Lord and this is my TARDIS:

I can freeze time.
I can bring back memories.

I can transport you.

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Business cards

Lovely. My new business cards have arrived from moo. These were free after creating my about:me landing page. Lovely.

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Be Creative

You just have to try this. What a feat.

Bb 2.0 music and spoken work collaborative

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Invites

Helped with some envelope stuffing today - getting the invites prepared and ready to send out once the letters have been signed. The invites look wonderful. Thanks to the very talented Laura.

Have been to speak to the Production Editor at Burton Mail - who is printing the newspaper we are giving away at the show. Had some great news - he can do more than the 300 print run for the same price. All very happy about that.

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Bags

The screen printing of the 'stc' bags occured today. Something I have never tried -screenprinting. We created a production line and the 25 bags were created very quickly. I still have no idea how the 'screen' is made but I'm very impressed with how they look.

Bags will look very impressive when we hand them out at Free Range. It is only a week away - hope the invites start going out soon because people need to make travel and even accommodation arrangements.

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One day like this

What made me behave that way?
Using words I never say
I can only think it must be love
Oh anyway, it's looking like a beautiful day

Guy Edward John Garvey

Yes

I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I say yes to say yes and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going mad and yes I said yes I will yes

James Joyce, Ulysses

iPad Eye Injury

Here it is the black eye caused by my iPad.



Right eye - ouch



OK - so an explanation is required. I have all my Ian Rankin books on my iPad in my iLibrary and love to read when I get into bed. Without my lenses I am extremely short-sighted so need the iPad to be quite close to my face. I therefore balance the iPad on my chest and as I breathe it rocks back and forth. Just occasionally it rocks too far forward. So far it had landed on my nose three times and my eye twice. Last week it caught me just right and the result is the black eye. My current inability to sleep for more than 3 hours along with the black eye make me look like I am suffering domestic abuse, but it's just technology and human frailty. There will be an end to this and it will come soon otherwise exhaustion will take over.

Right eye a week later

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Arts and Sculpture

As the regeneration of the Ashby Woulds area continues we are starting to look further afield and linking the other areas at the heart of the National Forest. We know there is a lot of interesting sculpture and art in the villages that are within the triangle formed by Ashby, Measham and Swadlincote - but no-one has ever considered it as a whole before.

We have set up a Steering Group of interested people who will pull all the current art and sculpture together and find ways of adding to it, representing it, encouraging people to visit to enjoy it and attracting artists to contribute to it.

Two pieces of sculpture I love are these:

Dunblane Flame at Conkers Waterside

Swadlincote Woodland sculpture

I am very excited about this project and hope that I feature information and images about it on here so you can all see.

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DAB Digital Radio

Am thinking of buying a DAB Digital Radio for the office - I want it to have an i-pod dock too. Torn between the Roberts Idream CRD42 or the PURE Siesta iDock.

PURE Siesta iDock

Roberts Idream CRD42

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Hicks Lodge Cycle Centre - Official Opening

It's all official - it's open. What a gorgeous building and what a great attraction to be opening in Ashby Woulds. We are so lucky living here - so many regeneration projects that encourage opportunities for inward investment, tourism and enjoyment and it lifts the spirits as a resident to see people using and enjoying themselves in the area.

Some of the many bikes available for hire

Hicks Lodge Cycle Centre from the lake

Hicks Lodge Cycle Centre from the car park

The Ashby Woulds Town Council Mayoral Chain

Councillor Laurence Ordish

Must get my bike sorted and go and try out the new trails that have been created. I have the whole summer so that should easy to achieve.

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