Anybody can take a photograph, but it takes a little something to take a great photograph. That something is an alternative point of view. Taking a picture of something straight on often creates quite a generic image. Try crouching down and angling your camera up at the subject or tilt the camera so it isn’t quite straight on. Taking your photo from a different angle can completely change how the image looks.
Lighting is also very important. Change the place you are standing in to see how sunlight or artificial light changes the image. The middle of the day is the worst time for taking photographs outside as there are no shadows, so everything looks flat. If you take photos earlier or later than midday then shadows add depth to the image. If you are photographing at night then you need to utilise the light sources available to you – think about what is illuminated and what is not.
Placing the sun behind the subject.Using artifial lighting in a darkroom to experiment with portrait photography. Model – Miriam.Night photography in Austria.
(All photographs are (c) me 2014. Please do not use them or claim them as your own.)
I’m in my first year at university, currently living in halls on campus, and since December hit I decided to spruce up my room with some Christmas decs! I had a great time putting them up while listening to Christmas music. I thought I would share some pics of my little grotto!
Couldn’t resist getting this when I saw it!A nice star I have hanging on my door.Snowflakes hanging from my shelves.A little white tree which changes colour!Tinsel!Some decorations on my pinboard.I made some paper snowflakes which is surprisingly hard!This is my advent calender.
As much as I love uni, I’m very much looking forward to Christmas this year as I will get to go home and see my parents for three weeks.
Mockingjay Part 1 continues from Catching Fire as Katniss Everdeen finds herself amongst the rebellion in District 13. Distraught at the Capitol’s capture of Peeta, Katniss must battle with herself to bring herself back from the darkest places of her mind. A propaganda war ensues as President Snow attempts to quash the rebellion, and District 13 hope to rally the districts to their cause with Katniss as their symbol – the Mockingjay.
It is firstly important to say that this review is coming from someone who has read the books, and is a massive fan of both the books and the films. Yet again, the film is very close to the book. A few small changes have been made but arguably for the better. One example is that Effie has a much larger role in the film than she had in the books, which I don’t mind because Elizabeth Banks does such a great job at playing her character.
To people who have not read the books Part 1 may seem a little slow. I’ve seen a lot of people commenting on how they found it boring. That may be because it isn’t as explosive as the first two films. All the books are split into two parts, and if The Hunger Games and Catching Fire had been split into two, people would think the ‘Part 1’ films were boring. That’s just the structure of the books, the way they work. Mockingjay Part 1 does a very good job of building up to Part 2. There is still a lot of action and suspense in Part 1 and there are plenty of twists and turns to keep you interested.
You get a much better insight into the characters in this film. They have gone through so much, now we get to see how they deal with it. There is a lot of character development in this part, especially with Katniss and Finnick. One thing that wasn’t so good was Gale. He just sort of floats around, still the same as he was at the start, I feel like they could have done more with his character. There is one scene when they are in District 12 in which he describes how it was destroyed which gives us a glimpse into him. I just feel they could have done more. Overall though the acting continues to be stupendous. Julianne Moore does an excellent job with President Coin.
Overall, yes go see it! If you read the books then definitely see it (I expect that’s a no brainer though). Some people think it’s boring, but if you think that then bear in mind it will be worth it for Part 2!
So, I finally caved and got Twitter. Still not sure how I feel about this. I’ve never really been than interested in getting it, but someone advised me to join so I could follow other writers and publishers and I thought why not? I’m still trying to figure out how on earth to use it, though. If you interested, here I am: https://twitter.com/mtwilsonwrites I’ll mainly be posting about writing type stuff. We’ll just have to see how this experiment goes…
I went into London for the day on Monday to meet my parents. Since I’m at university it had been a few weeks since I had seen them so it was really nice to meet up with them. I went to Harrods with Mum to have a look around. The Christmas Shop was really disappointing though, there wasn’t much there and there wasn’t even Christmas music playing! Then we met Dad at Covent Garden and had dinner at Maxwell’s Bar and Grill. The meal was very nice and the service was good too. As the Christmas lights were turned on the night before we had a wonder around, looking at the lights around Covent Garden.
Then we went to Victoria Coach Station to go on a night bus tour with Golden Tours. It was an open top so it was good for taking photographs, though it was very cold! The route was good, it went past a lot of landmarks and we went over the river several times so there were lots of opportunities to take pictures of the Thames. The tour was an hour and a half in total which was a nice length and the tour guide had a lot of interesting things to talk about. I’d never really fancied going on a bus tour before because I thought it sounded boring, but going at night was great because the city looks so different. I would definitely recommend it.
So you’ve decided you want to write a book, but you’re not sure what to write. Maybe you have a few ideas and you’re not sure which to pick. Hopefully this short guide will give you a few things to think about.
Firstly, why are you writing? Are you writing for fun? Do you hope to one day be published? There are many ways to approach what to write. You could come from the direction that you want to pick something that is highly publishable in the current market. I, personally, dislike this view and think that you should write whatever you want! Just because something isn’t popular now, doesn’t mean it won’t be a few years down the line.
If you hope to finish writing your book you need to pick a project you love and will enjoy writing. You need to pick an idea that makes you excited and passionate. Writing about something you really care about will produce the best results.
If you have several ideas and aren’t sure which one to work on set them side by side (physically or in your head) and consider: how original is the plot, do I like the characters, does the idea excite me? If you’re really not sure you could put them in a hat and pick one at random!
Or, you want to write a book, but you don’t really know what to write about. Don’t force any ideas, let them come naturally. Immerse yourself in music, films, games, books, art, anything that you could draw inspiration from.
Whatever you do, just remember to actually get to the writing part!
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Ideas suggested in Writing Corner are just that, suggestions, and may not suit every writer.
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Jessica Chastain
Runtime: 169 minutes
Genre: Science-Fiction, Drama
Watched in: 2D
Star rating: 4/5
Interstellar tells the story of a group of explorers’ journey through space to save humanity from extinction. The protagonist, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), is persuaded by a scientist (Michael Caine) to embark on the mission, which means leaving behind his two children. They must travel through a wormhole in space in an attempt to find habitable planets in another galaxy.
This is a very long film, and at first it was quite slow to get going. The descriptions and trailer don’t give much away about the plot so I wasn’t sure what to expect, and wasn’t sure where it was going at first. Despite a slow start it does pick up fairly quickly. The visuals are stunning and the amount of detail used makes it incredibly real to watch. The end of the world aspect of the plot isn’t all that original, but the story is very well executed. There are a lot of twists and turns in the plot which means you never know what will happen next.
As well as being a stunning science-fiction film, Interstellar also deals with family relationships and conflicts. The aspect of the story of Cooper having to leave behind his children runs through the whole film, and you wonder the whole way through ‘will he ever see them again?’. The portrayal of the family relationships is done very well and gives the film a lot of depth that meaning science-fiction films lack in their attempt to provide a visually stunning thrill ride. This film, however, balances action and drama very well.
The acting in the film is excellent. Matthew McConaughey is excellent as Cooper, portraying the ups and downs of the mission very well. Anne Hathaway and the rest of the cast also play their roles well, showing how different characters deal with the situations presented to them.
At times the plot was very confusing, and perhaps would have been understood better with more scientific knowledge. That said, even though I don’t know much about science I still got what was going on. At times the scientific jargon was a little confusing though. I think, like with Inception, it will take at least another viewing to fully understand everything.
I would definitely recommend seeing this if you are a fan of science-fiction, and even if you are not, the family drama makes it likeable for a mixture of viewers. Do bear in mind that it is a very long film, and you will need to think a bit to understand what is happening. It is very much worth a watch and is probably one of those films that needs to be seen in the cinema.
Release date: 20th November 2014
Release date: 7th November 2014
The Last Book On The Left 