Leeds University Danceshow Highlights 2012

Filmed and edited by Beth Murray

Leeds University Danceshow 2012 was really great to watch, talents from all types of dance from the beginners to advanced. Some of the types of dance include; ballroom and latin, modern dance, bellydancing, street dance, ballet and much much more.

As part of the Dancesport society, ballroom and latin dance, I think they put on a brilliant show. A popular event of the year and enjoyed by everyone that went to see it. I wan't using the best camera so apologies for the bad quality.

Mersea Island Regatta - Fireworks

Later, when the rain had stopped, we returned down to the sea front to watch the fireworks. Really pleased how these photos turned out and I really enjoyed taking them. A stunning performance..

Mersea Island Regatta - Night

I was playing around with my camera settings, waiting for the fireworks to start, trying to see what was best for night photography. These three photos are the strongest in terms of atmosphere and colour. ;

Mersea Island Regatta - Day

For the past five years I havn't been home to be at regatta week in Mersea, this year I went back home to visit family and have a quite a few photos to share.

The round the Island race is novelty for the public who try to get on the Island while the race is on, there is one road onto the Island that gets flooded when a high tide occurs. The boats are lifted over the road by volunteers, it's quite fun to watch...

On the saturday there are ususally fun races, the greasy pole and local stalls of food, photography and raffles..

Unfortunately the heavens opened at 5pm and a lot of people took shelter in the Yacht Club, I had fun running home in the rain to fetch the car with James;

My link with the London 2012 Olympics; Saskia Clark

Before you click off because you have heard too much about the London 2012 games just read this first..

When I was eleven years old I appeared in my local newspaper along with a few sailing friends. The reason we were featured was because Saskia Clark had come back to her home village (MERSEA ISLAND, ESSEX) to coach a few budding, young and enthusiastic sailors. Saskia is on the left in this photo;

My mum kept the newspaper snipping and last year when packing my things to move to University, I came across it. This was around the same time that I competed in my last Mersea Cadet Week before I moved away from home. I won first place in the topper class of 2011;

I saw Saskia's name when I was look who had previously won the trophy, she had won the same cup in one of her cadet weeks. I followed Sakia as she came into the London 2012 Olympic games, a cardboard cut out of her was up in my West Mersea Yacht Club and so, of course, had a photo with her. Although, she looks a bit serious here;

I have continued to sail at Mersea but just for fun! A hobby I don't think I will ever stop doing, I couldn't have asked for a better place than 1st in my last year.

Saskia Clark achieved a silver medal in the 470 class along with team-mate Hannah Mills. Just pipped to the post by the kiwis, they are still really proud of their achievement. I look forward to what she can achieve next...

Cushion/Pillow

I had some spare materials in the same colour scheme for the pillows I already have. Making a cover is pretty simple sewing is something I want to improve at. As I am in student accomodation at the moment my bedroom is my living space, I wasn't sure to call it a cushion or a pillow as I use it for both.

Will probably embellish and re-post...

August 2012

Well this post is a little bit of everything.

I have been doing little projects of photography, drawing, clothes, materials, textile designs. Most of the outcomes I will post on here once they are finished, but for now, here is bits and bobs of photogaphy, editing and drawing. Enjoy.

This is my lovely friend Annabel, just showing basic use of photoshop. Have you ever noticed that when you finally decide to show people your work you notice something that is wrong with it? It's so fustrating. Hopefully you won't notice...

I'm not usually one for collage, although I am brilliant at getting paints/fabrics/pastels EVERYWHERE, with this technique you risk getting your image messy. My old school friends will know I am not afraid of glue and I love arranging images to make my own, so I really can't put my finger on why it doesn't appeal to me.

The inspiration for this was butterflys from Vogue magazine. In one of my projects this year at university I looked at the concept of nature and man made objects. Whilst flicking through the May edition of Vogue I realised that half the magazine focused on florals and nature whilst the rest was promoting jewellery and accessories. Therefore as a 30 minute project I ended up with this-

This is one I actually drew last year, don't ask what type of guitar it is because I don't know. My friend really liked this guitar at the time and I have never thought about drawing a musical instrument. The cat is there because I think we had a random conversation about him also liking cats. So there you go...

My grandma has these funny little figurines, they are really entriging so I decided to photograph them. My grandma had positioned them on a window ledge which automaticall became a great background for my photographs.

Chickens!

A strange title for a creative blog, however, my Uncle has three fabulous looking chickens that I photographed a couple of weeks ago. Having so much fun editing photos in photoshop, the only aspect that I wanted change in these photos was to enhance the detail and colours of the animals. I edited out objects that were distracting in the background but otherwise I havn't altered the scenery. I used the sharpening tool, also the burning and dodging tool to pick out highlights and darken shadows.

I have my favourite, which one do you like best?