Belinda James Photography

                                                Belinda James Photography

Belinda James is a British photographer who specializes in fine art and commercial photography. She started her photography career as a press photographer. Since then she has feature in vogue and taken photographs of the Royal Wedding of HRH Prince Andrew & Sarah Ferguson. She has also won the International Gold award due to her amazing photography and has been runner up in the Guild's All Round Photographer of the Year 2012.

I like Belinda James even though she is fairly unknown to the general public. One reason I like her is that all her photos in her portfolio online are different. She takes different types of photos like people, animals and even simpler items like plates and coins. I also like her photos as I feel like she doesn't over edit her photos too much so the shots look more natural.

I couldn't get any photographs of her work due to copywriter but you can view all her photos at 

http://www.belindajamesphotography.com/

Xmas Nails

Xmas Nails

I took this photo of my Christmas nails with the 5 megapixel camera on my Motorola Moto G smartphone. I thought this image was a high quality since the megapixels aren't that high and it's not a top end smartphone camera like on an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy.

I added a instagram filter called Lo-Fi which made the background darker so it made my nails stand out more. I also sharpended the picture as it made the glitter top coat on my nails sharper and not blurry.

I really like this picture as the bright nail polish contrasts with my pale hand colour. The only thing I dislike about this picture is that the top of my thumb has been cut off. This is because this photo has been posted on instagram and on instagram, photos must be square shaped . I also feel like some quality of the photo has been lost when posting this photo online and it actually looks better on my phone. Overall, I am happy with the way this photo turned out.

selfie stick

In the past few years, taking selfies (photos of yourself) has became really popular. This is probably becuase most mobile phones have built in front facing camera which makes it easier to take a selfies as you can see how you are taking the photograph of yourself.

While I was on holiday in October I saw someone with this kind of long stick with their iPhone attached to it. I thought it was strange but when i got home i realised that this "stick" was like a new craze. It was called "selfie stick". As of December the 21th 2014 the "selfie stick" can cost as little as £3.98 on Amazon. It's basically a extendable pole and at the end of the pole is a secure holder for you phone.

A selfie stick

I think a selfie stick is a bit pointless for a "normal" selfie like a kind of selfie that you would take at a party or at home. I  think it would be useful for going on holiday and taking a selfie with a famous background like Big Ben or the Eiffel Tower since with an extendable pole you can position yourself so that you can see the full background in the picture.I feel like if you take a selfie with a normal phone that you can feel quite squashed in the picutre and it's hard the get the whole picutre in the photo.

Bibliography : http://www.amazon.co.uk/UFCIT-Handheld-Monopod-Ajustable-Blackberry/dp/B00J53T9WS

Aperture and shutter speed

As my old camera broke , I decided to buy a bridge camera instead to a regular digital camera. I went for a Pentax X5 Bridge Camera. During the last week i have played about with the shutter speed and aperture and here is what i got:

I set the aperture on F3.1 for all three photos as it was quite dark outside, so the lighting wasn't very good.

1/5 F3.1. 

This photos was very bright as the shutter speed is low. I quite like the photo as it brings out the colours of the lettuces and the snow.

                                                                        1/20 F3.1
This would probably be the picture that the camera would take if the camera was set on manual.

1/160 F3.1

I dislike this photo as I thought the shutter speed was too high so it made the picture dark and unclear.

Sunflowers

I took this photo of a sunflower with a digital camera in September . I like the photo I took since the colours in the picture which are green and yellow complement each other. The image is well focused and the sunflower stands out because of the bright,yellow petals. The only thing I dislike is that there is too much green and the vent in the wall creates a distraction from the main aspect of the photo which is the sunflower.

I decided to edit this photo so that there is less green in the photo and also to make the vent disappear. The black background focuses into the middle of the photo which is the sunflower and that is the main part of the photo. There is also a good contrast in the photo between the black background which is dark and dull in colour and the sunflower which is yellow, bright and colourful. Overall, I am pleased how the photo has turned out.

Alternative image to the Coliseum

I took this picture on a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W310 when i was on holiday in Rome. I zoomed into the photo 4x to get this close up image.I positioned the camera upwards to get a different angle. If I took the picture looking straight at the Coliseum you wouldn't get the light from the sun which gives a nice reflection in the gaps of the Coliseum. I had to zoom in to take a decent photograph as it was very busy with people so it would make the photo very cluttered and uninteresting.

I didn't want to edit this photograph as i thought it looked good naturally and I didn't want to spoil it.

Disc Camera

Disc Camera

Disc cameras were invented in the 1980's but never really became popular with the general public. They were made by Kodak in 1982.The disc camera was made for an inexperienced photographer as the camera easy to use and was automated. It was also quite a small and compact.

The film for the camera was a flat, circular cassette which could hold fifteen pictures that rotated 24 degrees over a spool in the camera. The negative of the photos were 8.2mm x 10.6mm.

Since the negative of the photos quite low, the photos of the disc camera were of low quality, small and grainy. Disc cameras didn't sell well so Kodak stopped making the cameras in the late 1980's and they were the last company to sell them.

Disc camera and film for the disc camera.