St. Paul's Cathedral

Now that my trip is coming to an end, I'm able to reflect on all of the London Adventures that I've had. Out of everything I've seen and experienced, I have to say that St. Paul's Cathedral was one of the most amazing places I've ever been. The size is just unreal and none of the pictures will ever do it justice. It really is just one of those places where you have to see it in person to fully understand its' beauty. 

Victoria & Albert Museum

One of my favorite class field trips throughout the course was our trip to The Victoria & Albert Museum. This museum is 7 miles long if you walk through the entire building. We were able to get VIP passes and go into the study room where they pulled out actually David Bailey photographs (along with others) that we were able to touch with our bare hands. To be able to say something like that is truly amazing to me. Since I did my personal project on David Bailey these images were even more special to me because I put forth research and understanding on David Bailey's life and past work. The images that I found online within my research are just incomparable to actually seeing them and touching them in real life. This day is definitely something that will stay with me forever.  

Shoreditch Photoshoot

Shoreditch easily became one of my favorites spots in London due to all of the design oriented book stores as well as the Arts and Crafts stores. However, once again the street art is just amazing and also perfect for experimenting with portraits. Kylie, Ryder and I thought it would be a cool idea to make our own adventure back into Shoreditch so we could take pictures. I think they turned out great. 

Shoreditch Sight Seeing

Shoreditch is the best place in London (that I've come across) for street art. The colors are vibrant and full of life. Some had more obvious meaning behind them than others but all were extremely visually appealing. I was even fortunate enough to run across a couple original Banksy's. 

Paris

Last weekend I visited Paris for two short days. While I was there I saw The Eiffel Tower, The Louvre and I ate some amazing macarons from Lauduree. If you know me then you know I am slightly addicted to macarons ever since trying my first one in New York last year. 

Shutter Speed Activity

Link to view Shutter Speed group activity:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Tm9C3LxNgHZJW-XXxDECZ3weHX-rOM4xnHaa-zZ-L-k/edit?usp=sharing

Lacock Abbey

Yesterday, my photography class had the privilege of taking an overnight excursion to Lacock. While we were there we were able to tour the Lacock Abbey and saw many historical scenes such as where the first negative was taken by Henry Fox Talbot. We were also lucky enough to be able to work in one of the oldest dark rooms to develop our photos that we took on an old 4x5 camera last week. Being able to stay the night in The Old Rector's Bed and Breakfast made the trip that much more of an experience and something that I will never forget.

Outside view of one of the oldest darkrooms

Where the first negative was taken by Henry Fox Talbot

Lacock Abbey Interior

Lacock Abbey Interior

Lacock Abbey Interior

Village of Lacock

From one of Lacock's Apple trees  

Balance in Kew Gardens

Photos with B A L A N C E

Below are some photos that I gathered from exploring through Kew Gardens in the London Borough of Richmond. Kew Gardens is the world's largest collection of living plants and was founded in 1840. My class spent the day exploring the gardens and taking photos. Although I left with close to 400 photos, here are a few that fall under some categories of balance. 

Symmetrical Balance

Symmetrical Balance

Asymmetrical Balance

Asymmetrical Balance

Strong focal point

Strong focal point

Little negative space

A lot of negative space

Classmates

After taking a field trip to Kew Gardens, I was able to learn more about my classmates. Two being, Kelsey and Ryder. Kelsey is a senior at Morehead State. She is working on a degree in convergent media journalism and multimedia production. Kelsey always liked journalism and production but after taking a class that dealt with this subject, she fell in love with it. Her ultimate goal is to become a photojournalist.

Ryder on the other hand is working on a future in interior design. She's interested in hospitality design, restaurants, and even design magazines. Ryder loves photography and her friends love film photography. This class, for Ryder, is just for fun but she thinks it will help with overall knowledge for the topics she is interested in. 

ISO Comparison

Today in Borough Market, I snapped two pictures of "The Market Porter". In the first photo, I set the my Nikon camera to an ISO of 400. For the second photo, I set the ISO to the highest it could go, which is 3,200. The two photos are pictured below. 

Photo A

Photo B

In the zoomed-in photos below, you can tell the difference the ISO settings have, especially if you focus on the area around the text, "BAR MEALS". To the left of the text, in Photo B, there are many pixels. However, if you compare that same area in Photo A, you will notice that Photo A is much more precise and sharp. To the right of the text, the word "Available" is nearly invisible in Photo B, yet much more legible and smooth in Photo A. Through these photos it is clear that the ISO setting on your camera is very important when taking pictures in order to get the best possible shot. In this case, the 400 ISO worked much better than the 3,200 ISO. 

Photo A

Photo B