Photography Influences: Annie Leibovitz

 Annie Leibovitz was born on 2nd October 1949 and is a third generation American, her great grandparents being Jewish Immigrants from Central Europe.
During her school years she studied writing, painting and music and developed her photographic skills whilst working in various jobs.















In 1970 when she was 21 she began her career in photography and worked for the Rolling Stone magazine until 1983.
During this time she realised that she could work for magazines and also continue to work on personal projects which was extremely important to her.






In 1978 she became the first women to photograph Joan Armatrading for an album cover. She also shot images of John Lennon and Yoko Ono for the Rolling Stones Magazine.














In 1991 Leibovitz launched an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

















In 2009 she was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal & Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in recognition of a sustained significant contribution to the art of photography.






Exerts taken from:Annie Leibovitz
Photographs courtesy of: Google Images

debraburgess-lim  LRPS

Church coffers swelled by catwalk cash: 13th March 2013

The United Reformed Church of Melbourne held its annual Fund Raising Fashion Show on Wednesday 13^th March at the church rooms, Melbourne.

The Annual Show had been organized by Barbara Nadin for the past 10 years, Barbara was born and grew up in the village and is a member of the Social Committee at the Church where they organize events for the village.

All the models were members of the Church community, or family and friends, although in previous years the Revd. Jane Barron has been known to take her place in the line up.

The event was attended by approx. 30 members of the local community and Church, who were entertained by the models who took to the catwalk with professionalism & gusto.

A small entrance fee was charged and a raffle organized to raise funds for the Church, the money raised will go towards building repairs and Church renovations.

Clothes for the event were provided by SOS Clothing Company who obtain their clothing from top fashion chains such as Next, M & S, Dorothy Perkins & Next to name a few. The clothing consisted of current fashions at knock down prices with some items on sale for as little as £5.

There were clothing bargains for all ages and  this is definitely an event to put into your diaries for next year…

Summary:

The brief for this assignment was to go along to this event, held in the United Reform Church Hall and take photos of 'anything relevant'.  As usual arrived a little early to check the location and lighting and to chat to the organiser to gain some information about the event and names of the key organisers and participants. The room was already set out with some visitors already in place. The catwalk was surrounded by chairs and so I had my reservations about how easy it would be to get close to the models on the catwalk. Lighting was also a concern, the hall had very high ceilings and the available light was poor.

I was using my Canon EX430 II flash on Camera, however I did find that during the fashion show, it was difficult to get close enough to the models for the flash to be really effective, I needed to be much closer than I managed to get or to have more powerful lighting.

Before the start of the event I managed to get all the models to pose for me, this was in a pokey back room with all their clothes hanging on the walls, however, the resulting shots that I managed to get worked well and as the ceiling was much lower I could bounce the flash thereby avoiding shadowing behind the models.

The images that I did get of the actual show itself I was not overly impressed with,  the lighting was poor so I had to use a wide aperture, I could not get close enough to get a clear shot of the models so I had the back of the audience's heads in the shots. A major problem was also that the models were family and friends and did not really work the catwalk (as the terminology goes) so they looked awkward which did not create great images. However, as the paper only used the lineup shot which they really liked and was definitely the best image, it was not a major problem.

Most press photographers would have the experience to know that they had the image for the paper after this early shot and then leave. As I am fairly new to this type of photography, I like to hang around in case I can get further great images. Tonight, this was not the case.

Equipment & Camera Settings:

Canon 50d DSLR, Canon EX430 II Flash 

1/125sec; 22mm - 43mm; f/5.6 - f/11

debraburgess-lim  LRPS

Photography Inspirations: Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus was born on March 14th 1923 and committed suicide on July 26th 1971 aged 48. An American photographer and writer, she was known for her Black & White square photographs of deviant and marginal people, and was often referred to a photographer of freaks.

When she was 18 she married her childhood sweetheart, Alan Arbus and together in 1946 they set up a photography business contributing to Glamour, Vogue and Harpurs Bazaar.

 In 1956 she quit the business and went on to study photography with Lisette Model,  where she  developed her own unique style. From this point she worked on assignment for the big magazines usiing a Nikon 35mm camera, but in 1962 she switched to a twin-lens reflex rolliflex camera which produced square images.

In 1963 she was awarded the Guggenheim fellowship for a project on American rites and customs.
Throughout her life Diane Arbus experienced periods of severe depression and on July26th 1971 she took her own life by ingesting barbituates and slashing her wrists with a razer. Her body was found in the bathtub two days later.

One of her more notable images was
child with toy hand grenade, Central Park



Information & extracts from Wikipedia
Images Courtesy of:  Google Images

debraburgess-lim  LRPS

'Dine for Macmillan' Charity Supper: 9th March 2013

The UK’s biggest dinner party event to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support, was held in this area by Craig and Jayne Williamson who held their event in their Village Hall at Weston on Trent. 

Tracey Townend, the fundraising manager from Macmillan Cancer Charity attended the event and spoke to give thanks for the support, saying that 98% of the charities funds come from fundraising events such as this one.

 

Craig Williamson a Parish Councillor for the Village of Weston on Trent, said they wanted to support the charity in some way after a neighbor died of cancer last year.  Craig and his wife Jayne have lived in the village for 17 years, Jayne who is a kitchen assistant at Melbourne School, cooked the meal with the help and assistance of Vicki Whithy, Shirley Goodman and Audrey Yeomans. 

All the ingredients for the supper were donated from local Companies and Craig also gained support from his employer the Florette Salad Company (Litchfield), who donated the salad.

The children were entertained in the early part of the evening by Cheney Magic before devouring a supper of sausage and chips, kindly donated by Shelton Lock fish bar.

The evening was a huge success with over 60 adults and 22 children attending the event from the village and further afield, Darlene Taylor celebrated her birthday by attending the event with family and friends.

The three-course supper was followed by music provided by Smooth Radio who supported the event with four hours of non-stop soulful music. A raffle and ‘Roll the Penny’ contest helped to raise further funds. The total raised by the event was £906.00 with a further donation from Easy Jet who chose the Starlight Supper event as the winner of their monthly charity draw.

Special thanks go to Supporters of the event who provided the food and entertainment

Vicky and Simon Whithy

Florette Salad Company

Alan Blount,

Anthony Coates,

Langleys of Allenton

Shelton Lock fish bar

Cheney Magic

Di Molly & Nicky  - selection of desserts.

Info: Smooth Starlight Supper Events are organized by Smooth Radio (www.smoothradio.co.uk/starlight) the radio hold this annual Starlight Supper to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Charity

Summary:
Arrived early in order to chat to the hosts, check the lighting and location and obtain some information for the editoria.   I am feeling much more confident to approach people to organise the photography that I need to take and to make sure I  stop them and re arrange the groupings.
However, there was an opportunity to get images of each table, but I felt that as a press photographer this was not really part of my remit.
The background for the images was not ideal however, there was not really anywhere else that was suitable.
Use thEquipment used: Canon 50d DSLR; Canon EX430 mark II flash, 
CAmera Settings: F/11; 1/125sec; 28 − 50mm

Images uploaded to photoshop and levels adjusted and some images cropped. Saved as jpegs 300dpi and then uploaded to dropbox.  For the editorial, I researched the macmillan trust and smooth radio/starlight suppers to obtain background information and this with the information from the hosts enabled me to write some editorial.

Note: My editorial was used for the first time unchanged in the April Edition of the Village Voice.