Sidmouth Donkey Sanctuary

Sidmouth Donkey Sanctuary

We have recently made our annual visit to The Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, as a family of donkey lovers this is a charity close to our hearts.

A bit about the charity ..

The founder of this charity is Dr Elisabeth Svendsen MBE, she loved donkeys from an early age, when she was finally married with a family in 1969 she had the chance to own her first donkey.  The donkey family grew and grew and in 1973 she finally had a registered charity.  Over the years more and more donkeys have been taken in to care and to date over 14,500 have passed through the Donkey Sanctuary Gates.  The charity doesn't stop here, they work extremely hard to care for donkeys all over the world and are now the worlds largest donkey and mule charity!  

If you ever have the chance, please visit, there are lots of donkeys that need fussing and with the sanctuary being set in the picturesque country side you can sit and enjoy some lunch, visit the gift shop, walk your dogs and learn lots about these beautiful animals! There is something for everyone, all ages!

Find out more: The Donkey Sanctuary Website

My Photos ..

And of course if you are a photography lover like myself they do love to pose so make sure you don't forget your camera.

Here are some snaps from my latest visit:

 

 All the above images are copyrighted to Melissa Wale ©

With Love, Milley xx

 

Still Life: Hidden gems

What is Still Life?

Still life is a piece of art portraying usually an inanimate subject matter, and started way before cameras were even invented through the art of drawing and painting.  The subject can either be natural, something that you have come across for example, rocks, flowers, or bones or it can be man made and set up by you for instance, a vase, a fruit bowl or coins and pipes.

Unfortunately the popularity of still life seems to have faded due to the possibilities digital cameras have given us to record the wider world about us, but personally I still love it, whether it be set up by myself in the studio or something I have found when least expected.  Still live gives you a massive free reign on what your final image will turn out to be, you can use as many or as few light sources as you wish, you can experiment with various exposure settings to create different tonalities or you can simply work with daylight to keep a sense of simplicity and realism.  Your images can either be a selection of found objects or an attentively constructed tableau.

Things to remember ..

I thought i would share with you a few things I try to remember when shooting still life.

• When wanting to work quickly choose either an area with natural lighting or you can use a plain background with flat, open lighting, just try not to lose atmosphere.
• Using a dark background really helps to intensify colours, and if your subject is light it will bring out the outline.
• Use a shallow depth of field to concentrate attention to the plane of focus, this really helps to bring elements together without taking the attention away from the main object.
• If you are using a dark backdrop, try deliberately under exposing and using some soft lighting to create a moody feel, try and keep your images atmospheric.
• Don't be scared to play around shooting from unusual angles, you can end up with some interesting abstraction and it always draws viewers in.
• Try adding another element of light in to your images, perhaps candles, their presence in still life images can sometimes create a sense of intimacy and warmth.

Hidden gems ..

While on the subject i'd like to share with you some images that I shot last week when taking a stroll along the stoney beach of Paignton. As usual, with camera in hand I was on the look out for things out of the ordinary or interesting things to photograph and I come across a couple of things that really caught my eye.  I kept the images really natural and simple, just like the subject matter.  Personally I think they look really cute as a set, I can see them printed on canvas on the bathroom wall.

'Lifeless Rose' By Melissa Wale ©

'The balance of holding on and letting go' By Melissa Wale ©

'Heart made of stone' By Melissa Wale ©


With Love, Milley x

Photo Montaging

Making an image your own

After finding the Banksy style street art and getting home and doing more research I found that although I think the images I captured were interesting, they were also pretty common and nothing was making them stand out from other peoples pictures.

So I sat down and had a little think about how I could put my own individual stamp on them and I thought about photo montaging.

Montaging Images

Photomontage is a widely used technique that has been carried out by photographers, artists and graphic designers for years.  It consists of layering images or cutting and cropping pieces of an image to create the illusion that all of the photo elements are part of the same image.  This made me think of some other photographs I had taken the same day at a near by nature reserve 'Berry Head', I thought that by layering my Banksy images on top of relevant photographs of the coastal walk I would be creating something completely individual and putting my own twist on the work of the anonymous street artist.

Here are my Results:

'Flying Without Wings' By Melissa Wale ©

'Summer Loving' By Melissa Wale ©

'Watch Me Go' By Melissa Wale ©

I used simple photo montaging skills to do this, obviously this technique gets a lot more complicated than this, maybe I can have a go at some more complex photo montaging later on.  But like Banksy's style of graffiti I wanted my end results to hold the same simplicity and 'speak for their self' style.

How to ..

1. Using Photoshop, open the bottom image (the image that is going to be the base).
2. Open the second image, these may open one on top of the other, if this happens select 'arrange documents' at the top, on the middle bar and select the '2 up' option.
3. Then using the 'move tool' drag the second image and drop it on to the first image.
4. In the top of the layers box there is an option 'opacity' drag this up and down until you have your desired opacity on the top image.
5. Finally using the 'gradient' tool you can slightly blur the edges if you find them a bit harsh.

Have fun photo montaging! Please share with me your results!

With Love, Milley x

Brixham Street Art

A trip to Brixham 

I have recently just got back from a week long trip down south to Dawlish, Devon.  We spent each day travelling to a different area on the south coast to see what hidden treasures we could find.

On day five we decided to head to Brixham, a picturesque town home to reams of galleries, seaside shops, a beautiful harbour and plies of history.  We had high expectations heading to Brixham and knew that we wouldn't be short of any charming things to photograph.  

When strolling down Market street I noticed an interesting piece of stencil street art so i stopped and took a quick snap of this interesting artistry.  As I carried on I noticed another one, this being a rat with a camera, this is when I realised I had seen this art before; it was that of the famous London graffiti artist 'Banksy'.  So I decided to google 'Brixham street art' to see if i could find out more about what I had found, turns out that this is the work of a copycat artist who has been leaving duplicated pieces of Banksy's art work all over the town. I found the edginess of these pieces of art with the quaint streets of this little town as a backdrop really interesting, so spent the rest of the afternoon walking around in search for more!  Unfortunately I found that some of the controversial art had been removed by either the council or the owners of the buildings or had been defaced by other, less talented graffiti artists, but I did photograph the pieces I did find and thought I'd share them with you. 

Banksy Style Street Art

All the above images are copyright to Melissa-Jordan Wale ©

Let me introduce myself

Hi, I'm Milley-J

This blog is dedicated to all the other birds who are struggling to fly ..

I always find that starting something is always the most difficult part so i'm just going to introduce myself and tell you a little bit of what you need to know.

My name is Milley, I am a 21 year old photographer from Coventry, I live at home with my mum, and my two little chihuahuas Bambi Roo & Binky.  I love all things girly, travelling, spending time with my friends and of course creating images. Up until last year I was studying photography at University and was the owner of another blog however circumstances have changed and my studies have been put on hold, but i have decided I don't want to give up blogging, it is a great way to both share and learn so here I am.

This blog is going to be my way of sharing with you the ups and downs that are ahead now I have stepped out into the real world, it will be a place for my thoughts of both my industry and life, my successions and my experiments. 

If I learn a new skill or discover a beautiful place, I want you to know.  

Please don't be afraid to contact me, and all feedback is much appreciated, you can do this by leaving comments or by contacting me when i'm offline by email: milleyjordan@live.co.uk 

With Love, Milley x

Please state that all images on this blog unless stated otherwise are copyrighted to Melissa-Jordan Wale.  Please do not use these images for personal use unless you have consent from myself to do so.