My History

(^me^)

My interest in Photography & Graphic Design began 5+ years ago. 

The first Graphics editing program I used was Fireworks, once  I picked up the basic skills I moved on to Photoshop. I would say that since I was little Ive always noticed the design of things and the way they were designed.I remember at secondary school when we were asked to create websites (using powerpoint) or leaflets etc and everyone used to go for bright rainbow colours etc, id think about what colours I wanted to use and if they would work together. Anyway, after getting Photoshop I carried on experimenting with making graphics and began following tutorials online to make designs. I slowly started getting people asking me to design stuff for them such as flyers for event etc. I noticed that I began to develop a knack for being able to create things in photoshop such as mobile phones etc just by looking at a picture of them and breaking them down into shapes and looking at what effects would be suitable in creating a  lifelike image.I then went on to study it at Alevel.  

Some examples of images id created just by looking at a "source" image.

Mobile Phone and Dog Tag

Magnifying Glass and Pen

Television

(You may have seen some of these in earlier posts :p)

My first "experience" so to speak with photography happened around the same time. I'm not actually sure what sparked it. It could have been the fact that I noticed that photography and graphics go hand in hand. Or something like that.... anyway... my first camera was a Sony Cybershot W55 and then a Sony H5. Just your average point and shoot. I decided that I wanted to do a "photo-shoot" with some of my friends. Looking back I can see that the images aren't great. But thats something that comes with experience and knowledge (Id like to say Ive improved , still got lots to learn though). I found an interest in photographing still life, nature and all that more than people and events.

Im not going to lie all of these pictures were taking in auto mode. As I didn't fully understand the manual setting. Even though technically I did not manually set the camera I still read as much as I could about photography and looked at blogs/websites/magazines as a way to try and gather as much information as possible for when I could finally get a DSLR.


Yeah so to be honest, my total knowledge and understanding of photography was not very deep at all. 


Anyway I managed to get into Uni and get my DSLR camera. And since then its been such a learning curve. Initially even though the course does start from the beginning, I felt abit lost and all the technical info was going over my head. (I especially struggled with film photography and using the darkroom) But then one day it literally just clicked and I understood it all. Im not saying Ive suddenly become a photography master or anything - far from it infact.But I feel like I suddenly understand the basics and now its just about improving and gaining as much experience and knowledge as possible. 





One of the things Ive really enjoyed at uni was being able to use the studio and all the different equipment. I want to eventually purchase my own set of studio lights but again it comes back to finance.














I did however manage to purchase my own Nikon Speedlight which will help to expand what I can shoot :)
As I said in one of my earlier posts Im not sure what kind of photography I want to do be it fashion, landscapes etc. Im happy to just experiment and explore for now :p


I did have more to write but its kind of gone for now.


Peace out,


Arissa
xx