The Sun's Illumination

Photography Blog

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In The Tide Shoot

One morning I was out on my bike cycling when I came across a blue bath that had been fly-tipped. This sparked the start of the In The Tide shoot. When looking on Pinterest I found nothing relating to the picture I had made in my head. I knew that I wanted a reasonably ordinary landscape with my model and newly found bath to spice the whole atmosphere up. So after some brain storming I came up with the idea of someone having their last bath before committing suicide by walking into the sea and never returning. It’s very deep, I know (no pun intended).

So down the beach me and my friend Niamh headed. I got Niamh to sit in the bath, I originally thought that it would look interesting if I got her to act out having a bath but as I took some photos I started to realise I liked the ones of her just sitting looking out to sea more. I then asked her to step out of the bath, with just the towel around her. The weather was perfect for the shoot, cold, rainy and very gloomy. In my opinion it added pain and depression to the photos creating my narrative that she was getting ready to walk off into the sea and never come back. 

[thesunsillumination]

Martin Parr

Martin Parr is one of my favourite photographers. I always love the colours in his photos. The vintage vibrance creates a comical feel. Even though I love to shoot images in black and white I feel very influenced by Parr's work when I shoot in colour. 

He often uses a flash even in daylight which is what brings out those colours. His style of documentary photography was very up and coming at the time he started however now, it is quite popular. This is not to say that Martin Parr is out dated as even though his images start from the 70s they still seem very modern. 

Parr’s work to me is very iconic and he was one of the first documentary photographers I ever got into. He is one of the reasons I can’t leave the house with out my point and shoot!

[thesunsillumination]

Medicinal Marijuana

Marijuana is usually just considered a recreational drug but this plant is saving lives and improving people’s quality of life all over the world. Medical marijuana is legal in many countries and states in the US and is usually prescribed by a doctor to patients 18+, you are given a card which allows you to purchase the medical marijuana. This is usually for people dealing with pain, people suffering with anxiety disorders and can also help treat many different things such as chronic headaches and nerve pain. It can also benefit people with cancer going through chemotherapy to help deal with nausea. It's even for people suffering from poor appetite caused by chronic illness such as HIV or nerve pain.

One of the most amazing things about using cannabis for medical use is the quick effect it can have on someone who suffers from muscle spasms caused by diseases like multiple sclerosis and seizure disorders. Seizures can be stopped within seconds of applying the oils from cannabis to the bottom of their feet known as hemp oil. This form of medical marijuana contains very little THC. THC is what gives marijuana the high when used recreationally but is still illegal in the UK if it’s THC content is higher than 0.2%, despite its amazing effects.

Using hemp oil can also help with women dealing with bad menstrual cramps. Many women suffer from menstrual cramps, they can sometimes even make it almost unbearable to go about their daily lives. However as this is something that every woman has to go through and as the medical industry is very male orientated it is often pushed to the side and goes unrecognised.

Whoopi Goldberg and Maya Synergy saw a massive gap in the market and decided to help women dealing with this issue. The two have now got a signature line of many different kinds of medical cannabis products specifically made for relief from menstrual discomfort blended with other natural ingredients that are also beneficial. One of their most effective products is the Medical cannabis body balm, a herbal blend is white willow bark, the active ingredient in aspirin and ginger which increases blood flow and circulation to the abdominal area.

All this being said, marijuana is slowly becoming more acceptable with people realising its benefits! I think it’s very clear that we need to do more research on the amazing herb and find out all it’s potential. At the moment it seems it’s just going to waste!

[thesunsillumination]

Daniel Caesar - Get You ft. Kali Uchis

Yesterday I was scrolling through Tumblr just like any other normal day and I came across a YouTube video. I could tell by the title it was a song so because I am always looking for new music I clicked and wow! Daniel Caesar, what a beautiful voice he has! The song is about love and him falling for someone that he thinks is too good for him. His voice and the rhythm seem to be soulmates because the music is like sex to the ears. Not to mention the beautiful aesthetics of the music video. The whole mood and sound I feel is very 90s R&B, that just makes you want to grove and kiss with someone. The lyrics are very intimate and relatable if you’ve ever had or have a lover.

And when we're making love Your cries they can be heard from far and wide It's only the two of us Everything I need's between those thighs Every time I look into your eyes I see it You're all I need Every time I get a bit inside I feel it

[thesunsillumination]

Why I am a Vegan

For nearly three years now I have lived life as a vegan. If you knew me before, you might think I was lying as I was such a meat eater back in the day! I would chomp on endless amounts of chorizo, chicken nuggets, bacon, you name it! Yet the decision to make the change was one of the best choices I have ever made. Everyday I feel so much more connected to the world spiritually and physically. I chose to lead this lifestyle after realising that I love animals way too much to kill them simply because they taste good. After this, I began my journey of realising that veganism is quite literally one of the best things I could do for myself and the rest of the planet in nearly every aspect. Below is some pretty mind blowing  facts about how the lifestyle is so revolutionary. However putting the economical reasons aside lets face it, murdering innocent animals for their taste is actually quite disturbing when you give it more thought. There is no other reason for eating animals, as a plant-based diet is one of the best things you could do for your body. 

Over the past three years I’ve seen a tremendous growth in the lifestyle which makes me really proud! To think that thousands of people are starting to see the truth and start caring about the planet more is so beautiful! Veganism is more popular than ever and if you are a meat eater, vegetarian, whatever, please look into it. Maybe try it for a week, who knows what will happen but I promise you it’ll only be good!

[thesunsillumination]

The Red Light District

On my trip to Amsterdam, being the typical British eighteen year olds we are, we had to take a trip down the red light district. This for me it was a very strange experience. I would definitely consider myself as a feminist and believe it’s great that the women on the red light district are making their money the way they chose to. However, I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable seeing these women stand in shop windows like objects. This being said, I totally think it’s great that they are free to make their money how they wish too, not to mention the country have very strict, fair laws to keep everyone safe. The whole experience got me thinking of how we are taught to think in such strange ways when it comes to sex. Many people feel very awkward about the whole subject yet everyone knows it’s completely natural and actually pretty damn fun. From school we are taught that the only reason people have sex is to make babies. Then by the time we start to become more aware of media we learn that sex is this major deal and it’s constantly portrayed from a mans point of view. It’s all very confusing and twisted and I hope that in the near future the whole subject becomes not so taboo and simply a normal act people like to do in their private times. 

[thesunsillumination]

Amsterdam

The summer just passed me and my best friends visited the beautiful city of Amsterdam! I had a few ideas about what to expect but it’s fair to say that I didn’t expect to see such beauty everywhere I looked! From the moment we left the airport in Dam I noticed how impressive the architecture is. For a modern city it was no concrete jungle, in fact it was very green. 

On our trip we visited numerous tourist attractions from the A-DAM lookout to the sex museum. One of my favourite things we did was go on a canal ride. On the boat we really got to see all of the city in a very relaxing way, not to mention the unlimited beer and wine! We also went to Rembrandt Park, a stunning greenland and perfect for picnics! 

One of the highlights of the trip away was going to the Heineken experience. Being great beer enthusiasts, we couldn’t say no to paying fifteen euros for a tour of the factory, being shown how they make the magical liquid and three free drinks. However, at the end of the tour we got friendly with the workers there and they ended up giving us all a load of free tokens for more beer. We may have all got a bit rowdy, met other Welsh people and ended up being kicked out but hey ho, it was brilliant fun whilst it lasted! After that my friend, Niamh got hit by a cyclist and the amusingly drunken night began...

Here are some of my pictures I took whilst on the trip.

[thesunsillumination]

Brecon Trip

At the start of the uni year, my lectures arranged a trip for us first years to go to Brecon. The point was for everyone to essentially get drunk and to get to know each other. That definitely happened and I think it’s fair to say some got a bit more typsy than others but all in all everyone seemed to have a great time. The day we arrived everyone sorted out where they were sleeping and had a gander around the huge farm house we were staying at. That night the lectures prepared us all a lovely vegan curry which I am forever grateful for! Afterwards we all headed down the local pub where we played pool and socialised some more. After that the night was a bit of a blur... 

The next day, after a long and needed lay in we were set some photography tasks. This gave us the opportunity to explore Llangorse, the village we were staying in. There is a beautiful lake in the area that I remember going to as a child. It brought back some great memories of summer times, swimming and rowing on the lake. 

It was a great night away from Swansea and I left with new friends and fun memories!

[thesunsillumination]

Christmas Abroad

This year I experienced my first christmas abroad in one of the oldest countries in Europe, Portugal. My auntie, uncle in law and younger cousin have recently moved out there so seeing as it was their first christmas in their new home, the rest of my family decided to join them. My uncle is from Portugal so the new and unfamiliar traditions to us, were the normal ceremonies to him. 

Christmas in Portugal and some other European countries isn’t actually celebrated on the 25th, like it is here in the UK but instead the evening before. Religion is a much bigger part to their christmas as Catholicism is very prominent there. Families often gather around the christmas tree and a crib to celebrate the birth of Jesus and then open and give their christmas presents late in the evening. For dinner they traditionally eat codfish with boiled potatoes and cabbage, so a bit different to our turkey, stuffing, veggies and gravy. Then for desert they eat a lot of fried, sugary donut type foods and rice pudding topped with cinnamon. All these differences being said, the atmosphere was just the same! People smiling, laughing, drinking and eating with their loved ones is what’s best about christmas! On the 25th we then celebrated christmas again yet in the British fashion but being a vegan, I still avoided the turkey!

I decided to take my 35mm point and shoot with me to document the holiday they way I love best, through a personal snapshot style approach. I wanted to capture the Portuguese christmas in a natural and honest way, which I hope I did. Here are some of the results!

[thesunsillumination]

G39

When I visited the G39 gallery in Cardiff I didn’t really know what to make of the art displayed there. The gallery was featuring two artists at the time, Lydia Meehan and Holly Davey. Firstly, lets talk about Lydia Meehan’s work. Meehan’s work plays with the border between creating and living. Her pieces are both artworks and objects that can be used for day to day activities. On display in G39 at the moment, is a desk/table she created that displays her drinking mugs with unique short sentences printed onto them. I did enjoy Meehan’s work as it made me question and think about all the different ways we could use objects and repurpose them.

Holly Davey was the second and main artist displayed at the gallery. Now, I’m struggling to decide what I think about her work. I don’t know whether I dislike it simply because I don’t understand it, or whether I do genuinely think the her way of displaying her concept was way too abstract that it actually didn’t make any sense. I unfortunately didn’t take any images and I regret not doing this now as I would like more time to look at the exhibition. Davey’s work was called The Convocation and was based on an archive that she had inherited. She has created a room in which everything was linked to parts of the folder she was given like the sounds of the birds, projections, a movie clip, and huge cut outs of wood. I liked the concept behind her work but I don’t think the way she displayed it did it any justice and it could have possibly been done better. For me, everything was unorganised and didn’t fit together. This being said it was well worth the visit and interesting none the least!

[thesunsillumination]

Turner House Gallery

Today I visited the Turner House gallery which is a beautiful building, located in Penarth that is dedicated to photography art works. Currently, they are displaying and photographer called Mike Perry. His work displayed there at the moment is called Land/Sea. The work tackles environmental issues that we face in our modern plastic world. Perry’s take on the problems we face is in two sections as you might have guessed from the title, the Land and the Sea. The downstairs of the gallery is where the Sea themed work is displayed and upstairs for the Land. I personally really liked the downstairs Sea work the most, as it had the most impact on me emotionally. Perry has photographed and created montages of litter he had found in the sea and on our coastlines. The texture in each image was really impressive and I often caught myself thinking that I was in fact looking at the actual piece of rubbish found rather than a photograph. The images were displayed in a very interesting way as he had collected pieces of litter of the same object like plastic bottles and shoes. To me, Perry did a great job of displaying the unnaturality of these man made objects in contrast with our sea and showing us how they do not belong together. Upstairs in the Land section of the exhibition displayed huge stunning, yet also very moist landscapes of Wales. I always find it difficult to connect with landscapes in an abstraction type of way. This being said, the photos themselves were truly impressive and the locations definitely looked completely untouched by humans. My favourite part of the exhibition was a glass cabinet filled with what I first thought were rocks and crystals until we were informed that they we in fact pieces of plastic. Even though they looked pretty, the truth was completely the opposite, they were pieces of litter from our oceans. This really put into perspective of how big of a problem plastic is on our fragile world. 

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Deadline Day

A short while ago was my very first uni deadline. It is needless to say the experience was quite nerve-wraking. However I was well prepared, happy with my work and as a result as calm as I could be. The topic of my work was veganism and below are two out of six of my final images. On the day of the deadline, our final task was to put our images up on display and then access three other peoples works. I really enjoyed the task as it gave everyone a chance to go and look at everyone else’s work. A few days later we were given our feedback from the other students and I was really chuffed with mine. Each evaluation was very positive and encouraging. They all mentioned that they could see how my concept fitted with the title and that my work made them think about veganism, which was exactly what I wanted. I think this first project was a success! I’m happy!

[thesunsillumination]

Vintage Fair

I recently visited a vintage fair with my mum and brother. I always love those kind of events as you never know what you may come across. I have also been on the hunt for a new 35mm camera, which you can often find for a bargain in these type of places. I came across a few interesting things but unfortunately nothing seemed to catch my eye. After about an hour of scrummaging through about a tonne of tacky china and 60s jewellery, me and my brother had enough. We decided to go venture outside the building which seemed colder than outside and discovered some more stalls. Once again nothing exactly caught our eye except for a yellow van which appeared to be covered in all sorts of paintings and objects. Immediately we went over to see what it was all about. The man who’s van it was had about 50 random boxes full of junk scattered around it. I didn’t want to bother him as he looked busy so I just asked if he had any cameras, to which he replied “I have no idea, I don’t keep track of this.”. I found that quite amusing as there was so much rubbish I wondered why the hell this man had all of it in the first place. Minutes later he came over to me and asked if I had found anything. I hadn’t but I was so intrigued by his van I just had to ask him about it so I did. “What’s the story behind your van then?” I asked. He went on to tell me that it was one of his art pieces and he changes the design every few months or so. Currently it is covered in all different post modern art. Along the top of the van titles “Coves and Hovels”. The man (I now regret not asking his name) explained that his inspiration behind his design was his anger with todays society constantly having to rely on technology and thinking we are so advanced however spiritually we are so far from it. He then went on to tell me about some books I need to read and that once I know how my brain works I’ll know how everyone else’s works too. I’m not too sure about that logic but what I think he was trying to get at was, us humans are all the same. 

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Inge Prada takes on Klimt

Here are three of my favourite photos from Inge Prader’s recreated series of Gustav Klimt’s most famous art works. Her recreations are highly impressive featuring all of the props, attention to detail and accuracy of the models. The images are truly stunning and what I especially enjoy about them is that she hasn’t cheapened the original paintings at all. I feel that Prader has respected the originals with the amount of effort she has put in to her own images to maintain and emphasise the beauty of Klimt’s work. Rich with colour and quality, these recreations are in my opinion master pieces. 

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Pointlessly meaningful

“Consider this: You can see less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum and hear less than 1% of the acoustic spectrum. As you read this, you are traveling at 220 km/sec across the galaxy. 90% of the cells in your body carry their own microbial DNA and are not “you.” The atoms in your body are 99.9999999999999999% empty space and none of them are the ones you were born with, but they all originated in the belly of a star. Human beings have 46 chromosomes, 2 less than the common potato. The existence of the rainbow depends on the conical photo-receptors in your eyes; to animals without cones, the rainbow does not exist. So you don’t just look at a rainbow, you create it.” NASA Lunar Science Institute, 2012

Above is a quote from the NASA Luna Science Institute. I personally find stuff like this really interesting, like I’m sure most people do. However, there is something about space and our existence that has fascinated me since I can remember. I think the thing that gets to me most (especially about this quote) is that we, us, me and you are so pointless yet at the same time that is exactly what gives us such meaning. Doesn’t is baffle you how it came to be that we ended up here, right now, with certain people we couldn’t live without, with our own beliefs, destinies and paths. It’s all so pointlessly meaningful. Life is weird.