My 2021 One a Day 365 Photo Project.

Happy New Year, albeit somewhat belatedly. I hope you have a happy and healthy 2021.

Like most photographers, my photographic output dropped dramatically in 2020. In part this was due to a lack of photographic opportunities caused by Covid19 Lockdown measures but also due to adapting to home working and all the other adjustments we have all made to life in the past year.

I started on this photo a day for a year project on the first of January 2021 but it is certainly not a new years resolution to participate in such a project. I generally avoid new year resolutions, I think that they put a pressure on individuals that they just don’t need. I will endeavor take and post a new photograph everyday but I won’t feel too guilty if I miss a day or two along the way.

I will post my 365 project photographs on a daily basis to my flickr album: 2021 365 project | Flickr

If you want to see more of my photography you will find my regular flickr stream here: Alan Taylor | Flickr

On a weekly basis I will update this page with week’s photographs.

If you have any questions or comments please let me know and please subscribe to my blog to get regular updates on the project.

Day 001

I kicked off the project with a silhouette of a couple of trees and a couple tentatively walking on a slippery pathway in Fernbrae Meadows on the outskirts of Glasgow’s South Side.

I really wanted to capture the colour in the sky as we approached dusk and the couple happened to slide into view as I prepared to take the photograph. I thought that by quickly recomposing I could use them to balance out the trees in the left hand of the image.

Day 002

After a particularly chilly sub-zero January night, a sheet of ice had formed in a large container at the side of my house. There were interesting shaped formed around the edges and I tried a variety of angles to find an interesting shot. The converging verticals in the background are from my frost covered decking and the pale green running through the ice is defracted through the ice from the grass below.

Day 003

The sheet of ice which was the subject of my Day 2 photograph came in handy on Day 3. I set us the sheet of ice on my garden furniture and positioned a ¾ size plastic skull behind it. I shot the skull through the ice and experimented with off camera flash in a few positions until I got an image I was happy with.

Day 4

After three days of outdoor shoots, a home studio shoot seemed to be the order of the day. The sheet of ice from the previous garden shoots came into the kitchen and served as the backdrop from a product shot of a miniature bottle of Jack Daniels.

The shot was lit with an angle poise lamp, hence the warm colours in the highlights in the background ice.

Day 005

Day 5 was another home studio shot and did not turn out as first planned. I intended to write words with the unwound tape. This was partically successful but I had underestimated how long it would take for me to set the shot up so I reverted to the scene you see in the photograph.

The home studio set up was very simple; two pieces of black card as the background and an angle poise lamp for lighting.

Day 006

I am a huge fan of the rock band KISS and have a set of McFarlane Toys KISS figures. This home studio shot was composed by placing the action figure on a mirrored tile in front of my pc screen with a stage lighting image as the backdrop. Again the angle poise lamp was used for lighting.

Day 007

Back outdoors again and it is a cold misty day!

Headed out to a favourite spot on my lunch hour to look out for some deer or foxes in the mist. They were being smarter than me and obviously stayed indoors but I liked this view and the recession caused by the rear lighting this copse of trees.

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Balthazar and the WCS HND Makeup Artistry Showcase

As buds form on the trees and new shoots burst through the cold soil marking the seasons change, so to is it time for photographers to celebrate the opportunity to photograph the weird, the wonderful, the beautiful and the grotesque at the WCS HND Makeup Artistry Showcase year end show.

This year I had the pleasure of shooting graded unit of Make Up Artist Stacey McKillop and the showcase event in Glasgow’s SWG3 venue.

We met to shoot on a crisp dry March afternoon in the grounds of Erskine Hospital where Stacey put the finishing touches to her recreation of “Balthazar” from the reboot of the TV show Charmed.

We worked outdoors in full daylight but with a trio of speedlights, some coloured gels and a bit of experimenting we created a night-time look. We also created a few strange looks from the dog walking fraternity.

 

On the 2nd of May the make up artists and models had to do it all again for their showcase event and visitors were wowed by the creations.

Unfortunately I don’t know the names of the models or make up artists in each shot, so if you identify yourself and you would like me to add a tag or a link, please message me.

Or if you like my work and would like to collaborate with me please get in touch.

You can see more of my work on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alantaylorphotography/

Vampire Goddess

Sunday was a busy day, three very different photoshoots in a single day to test my concentration and keep me on my photographic toes.

Each shoot required me to capture a different feel to the images. A beauty shoot, a gritty drama shoot and this, the fantasy horror shoot.

The whole look was the vision of Make Up Artist Stevi Stuksis for her HND graded unit. First time model Brooke did a fantastic job of bringing the character alive.

As the photographer, this character brought varied photographic opportunities, from outright horror to beauty to dance. All making for a great shoot.

Once we were set up Brooke got into character. I asked her to move about a little and then she came to life and her first posed instantly gave away that she was a dancer. She then hit a series of fantastic and unexpected poses, each one better than the last.

The horror beauty shot was lit by a large softbox as the key light with a gelled speedlight providing the hair light. By this point in the shoot Brooke was hitting great shapes and making really interesting shots.

And second last shot of the day, and my favourite image from the shoot is the classic horror shotwith theatrical lighting. Just before we wrapped up I put the softbox right down on the floor and pointed it up at a 45 degree angle at Brooke and I coaxed her into her best contorted demon face…and she nailed it.

You can follow Stevi and see more of her work on Facebook.

Please subscribe to my blog to follow my photography and check out my flickr stream

Next time, a set of beauty portraits with Anu…

 

Casualty of War

April is a great time of year for photographers. Not because of the lighter nights and the delicate quality of spring light that we start to see in the landscape. No! April is a great time of year because student make up artists are preparing submission of their end of course graded unit which invariably means some sort of gruesome special make up effects…and this year did not disappoint.

This year I was privileged to shoot the graded units of three talented make up artists, Nicola Sturrock, Stevi Stuksis and Linzi O’Connor.

Today’s post features the work of Linzi O’Connor who was inspired to create a scene featuring a severely wounded World War I soldier convalesce in his hospital bed.

It’s incredible to watch the make up artists at work, transforming their model into a work of art. On this occasion the make up brought to life the realities of the horror of war, made all the more poignant as the photoshoot took place only a few days after an allied missile attack on chemical weapons facilities in Syria bringing international conflict a step closer.

Linzi’s make up realistically depicted burns and as photographer I wanted to showcase the make up and also convey the feels of the injured soldier coming to terms with his wounds.

You can follow Linzi and see more of her work on Facebook and Instagram.

Please subscribe to my blog to see more of my photographs of students’ graded units and follow me on Flickr to see more of my Photography.

Next time, the beautiful but horrorifying vampire goddess created by Stevi Stuksis….

 

Don’t Look Now…

Over the next few weeks I have a series of student make up artists’ special effects graded units to shoot.  The themes of these shoots tends to be of a horror or fantasy nature so I thought I would warm up my horror lighting skills by setting up a creepy home studio shoot and explain here how I got the final image.

To make it easy on myself I wanted to create an image that didn’t need a model or make up so I took to every photographers best friend, Ebay, and got searching for a potentially creepy looking doll.  I bid on several vintage dolls with cracked porcelain heads but in the final minutes the prices always rose beyond what I was willing to pay.  In the end I got a 30″ tall, 1980’s plastic doll, who in her worn state looked a little creepy.

I wanted to create a low key shot with only shafts of side lighting on the doll, picking out here eyes in particular. so I needed to find a suitable backdrop and method of creating the shafts of light.

Sticking to my budget approach, the background is a simple A1 sheet of black mount board and the shafts of light were created by shining an angled desktop lamp through slits cut in another sheet of mount board.

I experimented with the positioning of the lamp and the slit mount board until I got the effect I wanted on the doll’s face.

I spot metered from the highlights of the light shafts on the doll’s face.  I shot three portrait shots and one landscape.  I liked the landscape best and took it into Lightroom for some minor editing.

In lightroom I adjusted the contrast, shadow levels, clarity and added grain.  As you can see I did a small amount of localised editing on the eyes to bring them to prominence in the image.

Overall I am happy with the final image.  However, if I was to shoot it again I would bring the doll forward from the backdrop a bit more to let the shafts of light extend behind her on the backdrop to provide greater separation.

Hope you like the image and a little insight into how it was created.

You can see more of my work on my flickr stream: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alantaylorphotography/

Don’t have nightmares.

 

 

 

 

Leith Docks Cranes

Saturday morning kicked of with a journey from Glasgow to Edinburgh with my mate and fellow photographer, David Brown, to shoot The Edinburgh Angling Centre’s open day.  In the afternoon we were free to head into Leith to get some shots for our own portfolios.

This set of images are of the Stothert and Pitt cranes on the Leith Docks.

These rusting behemoths looks like some sort of industrial dinosaur looming on the dockland skyline.

The shapes and textures of the machines make for great photographic subjects, almost spoiling the photographer for choice.

 

South Lanarkshire College – Make Up Artist HND Showcase

I was privileged to have an invite to South Lanarkshire College’ Make Up Artist HND Showcase event as the guest of two students, Susan Hardman and Elizabeth Newlands – thank you ladies.

Getting to South Lanarkshire College for a 6pm start when leaving Glasgow City centre at 5:30 was always going to be a challenge and despite fairly clear roads and a lucky run of traffic lights I was late!

Fortunately the event was running late and I caught the whole show.

It was every photographer’s nightmare…far away from the runway, no clear line of sight to the runway and really low light levels and multiple lights of all different colour temperatures – argh!

Unfortunately, the first couple of models were beyond my lens reach but after a bit of scouting around the room I found myself a workable position although working at ISO 6400 didn’t make for a great night of photography.

The talent and imagination on display was superb:

A wonderful evening and I hope all the students enjoy success in their future careers.

And finally, Susan and Elizabeth with their creations which have been subject to previous blog posts.

Please follow my blog and see more of my work on flickr.

Symmetry…or not

Following my City Centre wander on the 3rd of May, I really enjoyed the architectural photographs which focused on the apparent symmetry of buildings.

With these photographs in mind, I took my camera out yesterday at lunchtime to see if I could add some more similar images to my portfolio.

The lead image is my favourite of the day, the facade of the rear of the NCP Car Park on Glasgow’s Glassford Street.

The precise horizontal and vertical lines give the impression of having been shot with a tilt shift lens.  However, that’s not a piece of glass I have in my kit bag.  Therefore the converging verticals were all corrected in LightRoom.

The final shot of my outing continued with the geometric nature of the architectural shots above, but with more emphasis on colour and shadow:

If you enjoy these photographs and want to see more of my work why not follow my blog or visit my Flickr photostream: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alantaylorphotography/

 

Which song, artist or genre do you think rapresent best this place? (sic)

It was a beautiful day in Glasgow today, the cloudless sky a rare sight in our city centre.  It was too good a day to sit at my desk over lunch, so armed with my trusty Nikon I headed out on a lunchtime wander.

I’ve often driven by an old blue Police Box that sits nearby Glasgow Cross so I set off to see if I could capture an interesting shot or two of it.

The mid-day sun and harsh shadows were always going to make it a challenging day for photography.

Shooting from a 45 degree angle to the box I was able to incorporate the harsh shadow into the composition, providing something of a lead in line into the image.  In the bright sun, the blue of the box and the green of the grass were too strong and I felt a mono processing could help to make a more pleasing image.

When taking the shot I then spotted the sheet of A4 paper and orange felt tip pen blue-tacked to the side of the box:

Which song, artist or genre do you think rapresent best this place?

The sheet of paper asked a questioned but it posed a lot more…who put it there, why, how many people had written their answer and why had no one taken away the felt tip pen?

I wonder if the poster of the question was trying to influence the answers toward “rap”?

Heading back to my office I took a detour via St. Andrew’s Street and found a fabulously symmetrical block of flats and the harsh mid-day shadows became the photographer’s friend and provided a great subject for a pattern shot and an architectural shot.

And finally, as always, a little 3D shot to finish.  You will need a pair of cyan/red glasses to see the illusion.

See more of my photographs on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alantaylorphotography/

 

Whitelees Wind Farm

I went somewhat unprepared for the howling wind on Sunday evening’s wander with a small group of camera club friends to Whitelees Wind Farm.  The clue of course was in the title.  Had it been called the Whitelees Gentle Breeze Farm I would have been perfectly attired.

We visited the wind firm in the hope of shooting some star shots against the foreground of the imposing wind turbines. However, the heavy evening cloud had other ideas.

We followed the path around the wind farm heading towards the view point.  On route we came across the scene above.  The solitary tree, the lone hill and the single turbine were visible for some  time.  Each of the elements of the scene sat nicely on a third but called out for something else to help complete the composition.  A further walk and a perfect lead in line appeared in the form of a fence.

Using my tripod was useless and the gusts of wind were too strong for it to stay steady but a helpful gate post gave me something firm to steady my camera on to get the shot.

I don’t regularly shoot landscapes but I am happy with the composition and processing of this one.

You can see more of my work over on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alantaylorphotography/