Let It Snow

So in my uni course I get weekly photo tasks that I'm actually a little bit behind in, but one of my weekly tasks was to photograph temperature. Fortunately in that week there was one night that snowed, which I had to snap up that opportunity. One of my favourite photos would be the last photo, I liked the concept of having snow on and around the little chimney, as the chimney is meant to symbolise warmth because you'd use a chimney to start a fire and warm yourself up. Admittedly it might seem like the most obvious thing to photograph but trying to photograph temperature or come up with an idea for how you could photograph temperature is actually rather hard. Which leads me to my question of the day:

If you had to photograph temperature, how would you go about generating an idea and/ or what would you photograph?? 

Making A Splash

 Last week I put up a triptych of 3 splash photos I had taken, so this week I thought I'd edit my favourites and put them up. As I didn't have access to a studio when I took these photos I had to improvise and make do with what I had, this made it a little more difficult to set up the shoot. The best way to set up a studio for a moving object would be to have a strong light on the subject (this is something I didn't have access to or owned in my house). I stuck my camera on a continuous shutter which if you have enough light on the subject works brilliantly. You could use flash but the results wouldn't be as effective, you'd get one brightly lit photo and the others would come out rather dark. I plan to try this out again as I wasn't fully happy with my results but with that being said, here is my attempt of splash photography making best of what I had.

Triptych

I recently learnt how to make triptych photos (for all those who don't know what a triptych photo is, it's basically 3-4 photos presented in a sequence usually presented in what looks like a boarder). Using a triptych allows you to tell a story about something. For example making the perfect splash ... 

The Trip That Should Have Happened

A couple months back I made a blog about a new adventure that I was meant to go on this week, a uni trip to New York. I've wanted to visit America since I was 5 so obviously I was extremely excited to finally make this dream come true. At the beginning of this year I lost my nan which broke my heart and I had lost the motivation to do anything (which is why I've been slacking with my blogs, sorry guys :s). The only thing I had to look forward to was my trip to New York, I made sure I had all my paperwork sorted and my passport was valid and still in date. So February 7th slowly made it's way around, I woke up at 4am, I already had my clothes picked out, got ready and made my way to uni to meet up with the rest of my classmates. With frozen fingers and excitement tingling we all waited for the couch to pick us up and take us all to Heathrow airport.

We made it to the airport happy and safely. When it came to checking in everyone checked in and got their boarding passes fine ... Except me. Because I have an Italian passport I always get trouble (i.e. applying for job, proving I'm British ect.) I had to provide an ESTA/ visa which I had but I had gotten the passport number wrong by accident (just my luck). So while everyone else went to get their hand luggage checked and to chill out, I had to stay behind with one of my tutors to reapply and repay for my ESTA, which I'm fully aware was my own fault. Sure enough I got the ESTA finish and paid for, got my boarding pass and made it fine through passport control. I thought I would have been fine after that, once you get through passport control and given a boarding pass surely you should be fine to travel ... I should be so lucky.

Once I had reunited with my group and we all made it to our boarding gate, again everyone else swiftly got through fine. Until it came to me, the woman looked at my passport, looked at me and asked, "do you have a second passport?". Rather confused I said no (correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure you can only have one valid passport at a time??) this woman then consulted with the guy she worked with who pulled out a book and started flicking through said book whilst looking at my passport.  I was convinced that neither of them knew what they were doing by this point. The head stewardess was then called over and she told me that I wasn't allowed on the plane because my passport photo was stuck into my passport book and laminated instead of being digitally printed (apparently in 2005 the legislation requirement changed, I was 10 in 2005 so I had no idea this legislation existed), that is just how an Italian passport is done (or at least that is how I know passports to be done). The passport was still perfectly valid. I had researched that if a passport wasn't digitally printed in the passport book that you needed a visa ... Something I had to reapply AND repay for that very morning. But the stewardess was having none of it, I wasn't getting on the plane. I thought surely if my passport didn't meet the legislation requirement to enter America, surely I shouldn't have been given the boarding pass or had made it that far. 

But everyone was now on the plane and I was left sat by the window watching the plane that I should have been on get ready. Eventually this 6ft ridiculous guy in a suit arrived to escort me to my suitcase. But first I had to spent 20 minutes in immirgration to check out from my flight. I was then escorted to the luggage pick up point where I was told that it could take a while for my bag to arrive, by this point I was feeling rather tired, fed up and bitter about the whole situation to which I replied with a bitter "don't worry, I've got time to kill". Obviously this bouncer looking guy shot me a look that said he didn't have time to kill. When he told me it could take a while, I wasn't expecting it to be 2 and a half hours. Throughout the whole time I was getting dirty and worried looks from other people, I was being made to feel like a criminal or an illegal immigrant at every checkpoint that day. And Mr Ants-In-His-Pants went to ask where my bag was 6-7 times and every time he went he'd turn to me and say, "I'm going to see where your suitcase is, stay there and don't move." ... Really?? What did he think I was going to do?? It's not like I was going to jump into a suitcase while he wasn't looking, I'm not an illegal immigrant! I was born in England, I'm British!! 20 minutes before my suitcase came out the escort turned to me and asked if I had seen my bag yet ... I mean I know I said I had time to kill but seriously?? Of course I hadn't seen my bag yet, I would have said something!! (I'm not normally an angry person but he really did test my patience, thankfully I know how to keep my mouth shut).

Eventually my suitcase came out of the little flap door on the convayer belt, by this point I just wanted out. So I pointed out where my suitcase was (apparently he had to grab my case, by this point I didn't really care though). Once I had my case I followed the escort to freedom, I thought that considering he had to stay with me for so long throughout the day that maybe he'd stay to make sure I got picked up safely. Thankfully not, he was very quick to get away from me actually, not surprising really. I wouldn't have minded so much but I was left outside of this massive airport that has so many different entrances and exits, I had no idea where the hell I was and I wasn't from that area either. After 20 minutes I was found by my parents who very nicely agreed to make that hour and a half drive to pick me up.

All in all, I was appalled by how I was treated in the airport, I knew I should have been on the plane. I had made it through passport control so the stewardess made a decision that wasn't hers to make. I was heartbroken that I had to miss a trip of a life time and I'm now £760 out of pocket plus £18 as I had to pay for the ESTA twice. Everyone was off having fun while I had to stay behind, being treated as if I was a criminal. Just when I thought I really needed a break away from everything. 

This was a trip that should have happened. I should be in New York right now getting all the new things I'd have gotten packed ready to travel home. I should have two 32GB memory cards full of amazing photos for me to use in my projects and I should have had a blog up everyday this past week full of photos from my mini adventure away. 

But thank you British Airways for well and truly ruining this uni trip for me, this is the first and definitely the last time I ever travel with BA.