Eat Your Eyes Out - Images for Cupcakes

I can't wait to get these images printed onto edible paper!

Even though Hannah is squinting slightly from the bright lights, I still love this image, I like the colours and the composition.

Eat Your Eyes Out Set 1

It's been a couple of weeks but I finally completed the Food - Eat Your Eyes Out shoot!

The first set I have completed, is the Literal Louise shoot, with the eyeballs, I am really pleased with the results.

Here is the strongest image from the set, as always, click on the image to see a larger version:


I am so glad I bought the black gingham fabric, as a really do feel it makes the image. Louise really is the perfect model for this set. Her porcelain skin contrasting with her dark hair and red lips are so striking. There really is something delicious about this photograph, despite Louise 'eating her eyeballs'! I think this is helped achieved by the juiciness of her lips, and the sheen from her pearls and bow, and the wet blood running from her eye.

I've not retouched this photo in anyway, just straightened it slightly and added the copyright. Some people are born with flawless skin I suppose!

I like the images from this set in a sequence. I've never really used a sequence of images in this way before, and I feel it works pretty well for these. For the sequence I flipped the photo's over, to give them a better flow. I think if I was to display these I would print them separately; I would love to see them in some OTT gold frames!

We were debating whether or not to use the knife and fork, but there is something about the fact she has abandoned these to use her fingers, that adds to the mood of these photographs.

Edible Eyeballs

I was just going to roll balls of mazipan and either ice the irises in or use the blue round liquorish allsorts, but I found this blog by a girl called Lauren Meader, showing how to make this amazing looking edible eyeballs! Perfect for my 'Literally Eat Your Eyes Out shoot'!

I think these with a drizzle of edbible blood will look devine! Mwahaha!

Here is the recipe:

"Lindt white chocolate truffles (used in this recipe) OR aBag of “Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Crème Bites” (this is really good and inexpensive for the KIDS!!)

1 Egg White
2 Cups Sifted Powder Sugar

Decorating Icing
In a medium bowl, whip 1 egg white with a beater for approximately 3 minutes or until
fluffy white. Gradually mix in 2 cups sifted powder sugar until thoroughly mixed.

Using icing coloring, make small batches of green, blue, brown and black icing. ( I just used blue)

Using a paint brush, or frosting bag, paint colored circle on end of candy for the iris of the eye.

Use black icing to paint in pupil.

Use end of paintbrush to dab on a white spot in the pupil.

Repeat until you have desired number of eyeballs. Place in fridge to set frosting for 1 hour.

Serve as desired."

I can't wait to make these they look so tasty!

Checklist

So I have the lighting studio booked for Wednesday 11th February 5pm - 9pm, which should be perfect.

Pre-shoot check-list:

• Create chequered black and white back drop and table cloth
• Make marzipan eyeballs, with liquorish irises
  
• Buy black blindfold, or black fabric if blindfold not found
  
• Buy LOADS of sweets
• Bake LOADS of cupcakes
• Make lots of different coloured icing
• Buy edible glitter if possible
• Make candy jewellery
  

• Select wardrobe and accessories for models
• Experiment with candy make up on models
• Work out how hundreds and thousands will stay on lips!
  

I made some vegan cupcakes today, last time I attempted these they went horribly wrong, but this time they worked a treat :)


I am going have lots of cupcakes in my shoot I think, lots of sweets too which I should probably start collecting now (and try not to eat them!)

Candy Girl

I really like this image, it includes lots of elements I would like to incorporate in my own set. The colours are bright, clean and fun, just like candy. The full lighting suits to colours in that it's bold, and I really like the composition, and the models pose, her eyes are amazing!

http://iusedtobeacat.deviantart.com/

Idea: Literally Eat Your Eyes Out

I think I may do a shoot to respond to the brief quite literally... I am thinking model sat at a table, blindfolded, knife and fork poised... a plate in front of her, with some delicious looking marzipan eyeballs with candy irises, a drizzle of red icing... bon appetite!

My new baby: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens

I have just bought a new lens! The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens... I am so excited, I can't wait for it to arrive so I can play with it!

Here it is:


Eeeeeeeeeeeee!

It cost £75, what a bargain I was looking more expensive ones for ages but the reviews for this were just too good. They say it's not a lens for beginners... so I will have to play around with it, but I can't wait to start experimenting! 85mm lenses are supposed to be best for portraits, but my cameras (Canon 400D) crop factor of 1.6 makes the 5omm lens the equivalent to around 80mm... so I am almost there.

I'll post my results as soon as I get my new baby and have a go!

David LaChapelle Photography

Brooke Shields - David LaChapelle

Death by Hamburger - David LaChapelle

Of course I have to look through the work of my number 1.

Edible Photography

I have found a website that will print your photographs onto edible paper using edible inks!

http://www.eatyourphotos.co.uk/whattodo.htm

Knitted Cupcakes

Look at these adorable knitted cupcakes! :o)

Knitted cupcakes by littlecottonrabbits@etsy

Ama Lea Photography

Ama Lea is an American Photographer, who's work mainly consists of 50's style pin-up photography, with a modern twist.

She uses fantastic, vivid colour in her work. Her playful photography is in a style I am very much interested in myself.

I have found some images that link well with my brief, and include food in fashion and beauty photography. I would like to use food in this playful, colourful way.


The bubblegum colours associated with candy are vibrant, and cute. This innocent use of colour mixed with the sexiness of the models make for really powerful images.


This style of photography is particularly loved by women, but it is still sexy; it's a classic style that truly stands the test of time.



I would like to respond to "Food - Eat Your Eyes Out" in an equally playful way.

Audrey Kitching is one of my favourite models, she herself looks good enough to eat. I'd like the whole of my images to look edible... maybe they could be? I could print some on cupcakes!! :o) And then take photo's of people eating my photo's?! How exciting!!

Anyway I love this composition of Audrey Kitching shot by Ama Lea, I'd love to do something similar but have my model surrounded by cupcakes and candy.... sugar heaven.


Ama Lea's Photography can be seen here: http://www.amaleaphoto.com/

Emailing Magazines and Fashion Houses

I have constructed the basic layout of the email in which I will be sending to various companies. As an example this is the email I sent to Dazed and Confused magazine:

"Dear Mr. Ledger-Lomas,

My name is Fran Bailey and I am a student at Leeds College of Art and Design.

I am currently collating a portfolio for application to a photography degree, and would one day love to be a fashion photographer.

I love Dazed and Confused, and find a lot of the photography inspiring.

My next project is to respond to a client brief. I was wondering if you would possibly be able to send me some examples of briefs you have given your
fashion photographers in the past?

I would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks for your time,

--
Fran Bailey

Access to H.E. in Art and Design
Leeds College of Art and Design "

Fingers crossed this particular editorial will get back to me, as it is one of my favorites.

125 Magazine Briefs

125 Magazine is one of my favourite editorials. They describe themselves as "the only magazine in the world, which acts as a completely unbiased photography gallery, open to both emerging and established artists, and making affordable art available to all.

We are dedicated to providing a platform for artists to produce work that would not be viable in conventional magazines and are proud to have published work by 200 different contributors from across the globe resulting in the most open minded and truly fascinating publication in the world, a magazine that sits alongside the most luxurious "coffee-table books" and leaves most in its wake."

The magazine is comprised purely of submissions of work responding to a brief given in the previous issue.

This is the brief from the last issue. The deadline has past but it would be a nice brief for me to work towards independently.

125 MAGAZINE #13

LUXURY

Contributors deadline: 1st December 2008
On sale: 1st March 2009


CONTRIBUTOR GUIDLINES
In order to achieve the highest possible quality 125 uses the latest print and profiling technology. Below are important instructions put together in consultation with our printer and pre press partner which should help ensure that your work is reproduced at the best possible quality.

If you do not normally supply your own CMYK conversions and proofs we highly recommend that you pass these details to your lab/repro house. We will look at work not supplied to these instructions, but if accepted for publication we will expect you to resubmit.

All work must be supplied to 125 as follows:
Re-touched, ready-to-print Tiff files without any LZW, Zip or JPEG compression when saving.
Resolution: 350dpi (8 bits/channel) at 100% of printed size for best quality.
UCR: Combined Colour density of images should not exceed 330%
Files must be presented in CMYK colour space only using the ISOcoated_v2 profile which can be downloaded here.
We prefer images uncropped (with a cropping guide if necessary) using our page dimensions of 23x30cm.
With guide prints for reference (these can either be desktop prints or photographic but not thumbnails).
If your work is accepted for publication you will then need to produce CMYK match prints to ensure accurate colour reproduction.

With a fully completed CONTRIBUTORS FORM.
You should aim to fill 10-16 pages, and your work must form a cohesive ‘story’, we will not accept single images.
All contributors must include a title and a short passage of text that explains the idea or inspiration behind the work -
this will be printed alongside your images in the issue.

Any questions should be sent to contributions@125magazine.com

The full completion details can be seen here: http://www.125magazine.co.uk/index.php?p_id=5#

Amateur Photographer Monthly Forum Photographic Competition 2009

I find this brief a really good one that I could easily work with. I could select some of the most interesting months to me and respond to them in my own personal way. Because this competition is aimed at amateur photographers, I will submit my work, as I won't feel to incompetent! If I look at professional photography competitions, I may use the brief, but I don't think I have the confidence right now to submit my work.

Amateur Photographer Monthly
Forum Photographic Competition 2009

Thanks to you, and the moderators (especially Siuya) this monthly forum competition goes from strength to strength. The quality and quantity of entries continues to rocket in an upward direction, and, far more importantly, so does level of enjoyment we are all deriving from it. So thanks for making it such a success and for taking part. Those that have yet to enter should do so at the earliest opportunity.

Thanks is also due to our wonderful sponsors – Nikon. The company very kindly supplies us with a delightful Nikon Coolpix S560 for the winning entry each month.

As you will also no doubt know, the second and third placed entrants win a top of the range, fully waterproof, ‘AP loves my pictures’ mug.

Please read the POSTING IMAGES – MAXIMUM SIZES etc sticky before posting for the first time as this contains important and useful information.

You can catch-up with all the chat about each round and see the entries and results in our monthly competition forum area

Best of luck to all of you, and I can’t wait to see your pictures.

Damien Demolder


* January –
The long night – pictures after dark

With winter’s short days the night is long – so make the most of it. Show us a picture taken outside at night that capitalises on those strange colours, the empty streets or some other unique aspect of the world after sunset.

* February –
Food – eat your eyes out

Food tastes and smells, but it looks too. You know what it will taste like from the colour, the texture and the sheen – but there are always surprises. Shoot something to eat in a way we can taste it through our eyeballs. Use colour for taste, backlighting for texture, glistening for stickiness, steam for heat - and your imagination. It’s easier than you think.

* March –
Looking up – a change of perspective

We spend our lives looking straight ahead seeing only what’s right in front of us, so get yourself a different view on the world. Look up. Inside or out there are new things to be seen, and surprising angles on that which we thought we knew. Get under the table, lie down in the street and make yourself see afresh.

* April –
No bigger than my thumb – mini-world

I can’t measure my thumb because I don’t know where it starts – but you get the idea. Shoot something small, and show us the details we’d normally miss. Macro or not, I want to see good lighting, careful focus, a well-chosen subject and a thought-about backdrop.

* May –
Looking through – frame it

We feel depth because we can tell some things are closer than others. Our eyes understand perspective, so well we hardly think about it anymore, but that only makes it harder when we want to show depth in our pictures. For this round create a photograph with a beginning, a middle and an end. Shoot through a window, but show the frame – look through an open door, between the trees, beyond the pedestrians and use them to demonstrate the fact our world is in 3D.

* June –
Man-made landscape – the urban jungle

Cityscape, town planning, the heart of the village, industrial wasteland, shopping heaven. Photograph the man-made world as you would the hills, looking for the shapes, the textures and the undulations. Use the light and make Charlie cry.

* July –
An orange – just add boiling brain

How do you treat an orange? Do you drop it in a tank of goldfish to create a splash of saturated fireball on blue? Or do you idolise it as Edward Weston did with those peppers? Balance it on a stick, ice it in the freezer or suspend it from the moon. You’ll all start from the same place – an orange – so winning is about what you put in to make what’s common unique.

* August –
Natural graphics – God meets minimalism

The planet is made of lines, edges, borders and junctions. Shapes and forms, angles and curves show the structure of the landscape as fields touch the sky, hedges split the fields and rocks puncture the plains. Show us a landscape that emphasises the graphic qualities of the natural world.

* September –
Soft portraits – subtle and muted

Shoot a sensitive portrait using soft light and muted colours. Keep the mid-tone contrast low so we can see smooth shapes and delicate form, and maybe just use window light and a reflector. Close-up or distant, make it peaceful, relaxed, soft and natural. Venture away from the energy high street studio.

* October –
Step back – something old…

…something borrowed, something sepia toned? Find something old and photograph it in way fashioned to its era. Transport us to the warm-toned 1880’s with a window-lit wooden toy, or to the sixties with a muddy naked hippy in faded colour-print, rations and the blitz in black and white or the garish ’80 with Basildon-chic and over-sized electronics.

* November –
A good long look – open shutter

What’s the shutter speed of your eye? The lower the light the longer the ‘exposure’, and motion becomes blurred. Shoot a long exposure – longer than usual – and make it show in the picture. Combine the still and the moving, streak reality into art or create an effect to catch the eye.

* December –
Wet – fluid, drips and drops

Shot wet, in the rain or in a puddle. Reflect the world or magnify it. Saturate a colour, wash it away or soak it through. Take a picture that uses water or shows its powerful effects.

See full completion details here: http://www.amateurphotographer.com/competitions/5267

Getting Started

Because I would like to do editorial photography when I have completed my degree, I thought it best to find a selection of client briefs to work from, as this would be the way I would be working more or less in industry.

I will source briefs from various locations. I will collect a few competition briefs that interest me, and I will contact fashion magazines; particularly photography focused ones such as Pop and Dazed and Confused, to see if they could possibly send me examples of briefs that they have given their photographers. I will also contact fashion houses and request the same.

Another idea is to find some local fashion designers, possibly students, with their own up and coming line, and ask them if they would be interested in me shooting some of their work, free of charge. If they use my work... that would be a Brucey Bonus!

I plan on working on a few small briefs before Easter, and then focusing on a self directed, or maybe a real client brief (like the local fashion designer ones)after Easter, and then using this work as my exhibition pieces.

The idea is that the smaller briefs will give me some practice, before the final piece, and help me develop ideas.

Preperation for Self Directed Practice/ Respond to Client Brief

L E E D S C O L L E G E O F A R T & D E S I G N

Course Title	Access to HE in Art & Design	Student Name	Frances Bailey
Module/Unit Title	Preparation for Self Directed Practice/ Respond to Client Brief	Year/Level	Level 3
Brief Title		Tutor(s)	Sue Garland, Vince Hudson, Adam Stone.

Context

You are now at a stage in the course where you will be focusing more specifically on your chosen specialism, in preparation for portfolio interviews for progression to degree level study. As well as identifying the media, concepts, approaches and visual language you wish to explore, you will be aiming to establish appropriate methodologies to working practices. This brief asks you to consider two distinct options, i.e. working in a purely self-directed way or responding to a given brief.

Brief

Choose either: a) Preparation for Self-Directed Practice, or b) Respond to Client Brief, according to whether you wish to set your own theme/concept/visual problem to respond to, or whether you wish to work in a more problem-solving way by responding to a given project, e.g. a live brief. Whichever of these two options you choose, you are required to present a brief to a group of your peers which complies to the standard college format. This brief will identify your aims and objectives for at least the next three weeks, but may take you right up to Easter.

Preparation/Research Suggestions

You may wish to refer back to ideas/themes/processes identified in previous projects, which you would now like to explore further. Or you may start afresh, identifying your ideas through brainstorming, reflection or media experiments. Alternatively, you may consider the life briefs given to you, plus any others you may identify yourself. If you choose to use a live brief, you must still present a brief alongside to show how you will identify your concept/ plan your time/ select appropriate processes etc.

Briefing Date 15 January 2009

Preferred date of completion 22/23 January 2009

Unit Outcomes & Criteria In this module students should be able to: Evidence required Preparation for Self-Directed Practice 1. 1.1 Establish a range of possible starting points for self-directed work in relation to her/his chosen specialism. Identify and briefly comment on a range of starting points appropriate to her/his chosen specialism. Presentation. 2. 2.1 2.2 Select and communicate appropriate aims or objectives in relation to her/his chosen area of activity. Communicate individual aims and objectives to tutor and/or peer group. Give a rationale for the selection of chosen aims and objectives. Presentation. 3. 3.1 Establish appropriate methodologies and processes in relation to aims and objectives. Identify and select methodologies in relation to aims and objectives. Completed brief. 4. 4.1 Establish possible restraints Identify and describe different types of constraints, e.g. time, costs, resources, availability. Completed brief. 5. 5.1 5.2 Construct a self-directed brief Produce a brief that assists development of individual studio practice against the set of declared aims and objectives Produce brief that takes account of established constraints. Completed brief. Respond to Client Brief 1. 1.1 Establish possible starting points for responding to a client led brief Identify and comment on a range of starting points appropriate to working from a client led brief Presentation. 2. 2.1 2.2 Interpret and clarify the aims and objectives of the client brief Communicate understanding of client aims and objectives to tutor/peer group Rationalise interpretation of aims and objectives Presentation. 3. 3.1 Negotiate appropriate methodologies and processes in relation to client/brief requirements Record the proposed methodologies and processes agreed with the client Completed brief. 4. 4.1 Establish potential constraints of brief requirements Identify and communicate different types of constraints (eg material, time, cost) Completed brief. 5. 5.1 5.2 Establish potential constraints of brief requirements Produce action plan for realising agreed brief outcomes Incorporate established constraints into action plan/proposal Completed brief.