What Do I Want From You?

I would like this blog to be a platform, to go with my Phonar work for my Coventry university photography course, for anyone to share a story, or their feelings about nature. You can comment at the bottom of any blog post.

All of your thoughts on nature of things you have seen will be collected together and shared in a book. I am thinking as it is almost winter now there might be enough leaves left on the ground to create a book using leaves. I could write all of your ideas and thoughts on separate leaves and sew them together into a book. If I cannot find enough leaves I will either create leaves using paper, or just publish your thoughts as a blog post with some of my own images that I think are appropriate.

I hope you can help me with my work, and that I will learn what people notice and enjoy about nature. I hope this blog can run for a long time, adding awareness to the nature that is all around us.

 

My Leaf Story

I am always here under your feet, but you hardly notice me. I do not have a voice; I cannot speak out to you as you walk past. I am at the mercy of the wind; it carries me wherever it wants to go, I am a prisoner. I used to be high in the sky, waving happily in the breeze. I watched you walk by me everyday, sometimes you would look up at me and I would catch a glimpse of your face. In spring I was born all vivid and fresh, in summer I had the best days of my life, and in autumn I started to fade away, my life was coming to an end, or so I thought. I still remember the day I hurtled to the ground, what looked like a graceful leap to you was a terrifying ordeal for me. The start of a new life. Once on the ground I was at the mercy of the wind, it took me to places I had never seen before. I started to enjoy my new adventure away from the clutches of my maker. I met new friends, ones who had taken the same journey as me. But the winter slowly drew cold and dark; I started to want to return to my home, high in the sky. I know I can never go back, but do not feel sorry for me; I am with friends, until the earth reclaims me. My only sadness is that I never see your face; you don’t look at me anymore. I am nobody, just a leaf lying underneath your feet.

The writing for my Phonar final piece which you may have seen before, this post is just to remind myself to do something with the narrative. I may illustrate it, I can’t draw that well, but I think the drawings don’t have to be perfect when the writing is meant to shine.

Seagulls

There were quite a few seagulls on Arrow Valley Lake when I went down to feed the ducks and they were flying around trying to get any bit of bread they could. Which gave me the perfect opportunity for some photographs of them with the beautiful sunset behind them. I found it quite hard to get them in the centre of the image, but looking at my photographs now I like them, as they show the movement of the birds but also the amazing sunset in the background.

Im Back! Sunset over the Lake

Im back after the christmas break and have many photographs to share with you, and I’ll be taking more over the next few months. Here are a few photographs I took of Arrow Valley lake in Redditch, the sun was setting the ducks and seagulls were being fed by a family next to me, and I loved how the lights was being reflected on the water giving the image a magical feel. I do like sunsets and how they change the lighting and atmosphere of a place really quickly, but they dont last very long each day, so we must look at them when we can.

Phonar Final Task Video ‘Nature Laughs Last’

 

This is my photo-film video telling the life in a day of a leaf. Showing how we dont really notice the nature around us, and dont appreciate it. I want this film to heighten the awarness of nature in people’s minds, and maybe when they go for a walk one day, they will notice the nature they pass.

Never Stop Looking

I got this quote as a comment on my blog and felt that it really relates to my project and my work. I want people to notice all the nature around them, it’s easier for me being a photographer I never stop looking for photo opportunities, but people have so busy lives they need to slow down and smell the roses, as the saying goes. I will never stop looking for nature to photograph, so expect this blog to grow over the next year with many different photographs showing the seasons, im hoping for some snow over christmas. I will also photograph things related to people’s comments and ideas, I love reading things people enjoy about nature, knowing im not the only one that appreciates it.

Nature is my Inspiration

My inspiration for this task was what was always around me, I walk through Gosford Green park everyday, and have seen it change from a park full of vivid green leaves on the trees, to a park full of brown leaves on the trees, to the point when all the leaves fell off the trees and stared to blow away. I noticed the leaves and thought about writing people’s comments about nature on them, but after thinking about this more, I realised that the comments juts wouldn’t last if I wrote them on normal leaves, so that’s why I used the leaf-shaped post-its instead.

I am always inspired by nature and this project has let me be able to follow my inspiration further and really create something that I can continue working on for a long time.

Nature is so Complete

“Nature is so complete, everything fits together so well, its only the human race which is disconnected, unconcerned and arrogant.”

This is a comment I received on my blog, and I thought it fit quite well with my project. I want people to notice the nature around them more and appreciate it. The human race could be killing nature without even knowing. I hate when we chop down trees so we can use the land to build more homes, our population is too high already. But anyway, that’s not what this blog is about, this blog is about looking at the nature all around you, maybe stopping for a few seconds to appreciate how beautiful it is.

Post-It Nature Comments

These are a few of the comments I have received from people at the moment, written down on post-it notes. I chose to use leaf-shaped ones instead of leaves, because I couldn’t get enough leaves that I wanted to use and post-its will last longer. I want this project to be on-going. I photographed them on a wooden table to show that nature is all around us, even if we don’t notice it.

Holly Bush

“Theres something about Holly bushes that I like, maybe it’s because they remind me of Christmas!”

I received this quote on my blog and thought it best to pair it with one of my own photographs. I agree with this person when I see a holly bush, even without the red berries on it, it always reminds me of christmas. I start to think of cold nights wrapped up warm with hot chocolate watching the snow dancing down from heavy grey clouds. It makes me smile thinking of holding that special someones hand. The holly bush is a symbol of all that for me, so I always look at them when I see them. I had to stop to photograph this holly bush because it had such vivid green leaves, and I knew they would stand out when I photographed them.

Leaf Trapped in a Holly Bush

I saw this leaf that had blown into a holly bush and had to take a photograph, because of the beautiful contrast in the colours of the leaf and the bush. I like how shiny the holly leaves are, and how the spikes on the holly bush leaves go with the spikes on the brown leaf. I almost feel sorry for this leaf being blown into such a sharp place as a holly bush, but I know the wind will just carry it off to another place soon. Im looking forward to being able to photograph the holly bush when it has berries on, the vivid dark green contrasting with the red will be a nice photograph.