A sneak peek...

At a couple of images from a new project I'm working on for Behind the Bike Shed's wonderful collaborative work BE STILL MY BLEEPING HEART. Robots, machines, computers, cybernetics and more....The finished piece is planned as a slideshow, partially stop-animated, with a specially composed score.

I believe submissions are still being accepted so check out the link above if you're interested!

A belated Movember tribute...

...with Rupert Cross.

WINNER from WHOOP-DE-DOO Part 3

Goodness me, what a lot of people have been visiting the blog to check out the images from the past year. Apologies for the technical difficulties which might have stopped you entering!

I am pleased to say that our third and final winner is SIOBHAN!

Siobhan says:

"Continuing the theme of love and appreciation for the way you photograph little tiny things, my choice this week would be this one: http://katherineleedale.blogspot.com/2011/09/test-shot-for-ten-things.html. They are so adorable, and a little bit ginger. Perfect.
xxx"

Thanks to everyone for their kind words. Let's have a look at all the winners...

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Quite an eclectic mix, but that's a natural consequence of my gnat-like attention span! I think the shot below should get an honorable mention, as three people voted for it this week.

 

Congratulations to all the winners - I'll be working on the final prints next week so hopefully they should be a lovely additional Christmas present from me to you to say thanks so much for reading! Normal service on the blog will resume after my house move next week.

Updated website live

Lest you lot think all I do all day is write excitable competition blog posts with loads of exclamation marks and so on, here's a sober, worky sort of post. 

My brand spanking new (well, not really, but it is updated) is now live! Click on the image below or visit www.katherineleedale.com to see a selection of commissioned and personal project, work for clients etc.

WHOOP-DE-DOO Part 3 with a twist...and the WINNER from Part 2

The blog is officially one year old!

Due to a slight scheduling conflict I didn't post the winner from last week's round of the WHOOP-DE-DOO competition yesterday as planned. Sorry everyone! 

The winner is EMMA!

Emma says: 

"Have had a most enjoyable time browsing through your photos (whilst at   work...) You have a wonderful way of looking at the world! My favourite from what I have seen so far is probably http://katherineleedale.blogspot.com/2011/10/autumn-and-competition.html. I also really like http://katherineleedale.blogspot.com/2011/02/incredibly-small-and-impossibly-cute.html as a trio of pictures, but don't think I could chose just one of them on its own! Happy blog birthday!"

Thank you for your comment Emma, I'll be in touch shortly about which of the images you want to claim as your prize!

For this week's final round of the competition, the format stays the same - but with a twist. The winning commenter will not only receive the print of their choice but will also get to commission an entirely new image! WOW! 

The winner can provide me with a brief - which can be as specific or as vague as you like - and you'll receive a second 8x12in print with the commissioned image alongside your choice of print from the blog. 

As with last week, here's the instructions; just add a comment to this post with a link to your favourite image from the blog and the reason why. For those who can't or don't want to comment here just email your choice to katherineleedale [at] yahoo.com. This will not affect your chances of winning. 

Lord Mayor's Fireworks

Despite turning up an hour early to nab a good spot, there was no way I was setting up my tripod in the crush. I'd have been lynched. So the planned beautiful long exposures, flares unfurling like flowers, went out the window, and in came some wide-aperture abstractions.

 (This one's not a firework but a lovely sparkly bow in the hair of the little girl in front. Dammit, she was so excited she couldn't keep still for me to take a pic that's in focus but I'm rather enjoying night-time images that have a certain twilight quality to them.)

 

Altogether now, oooh, aaah.

WHOOP-DE-DOO Part Two and the WINNER from Part One

It's nearly BlogBirthday...

And what a terrific reception the first round of the WHOOP-DE-DOO competition has had! 

Thanks to those who commented. I am pleased to say that commenter Vera Chok is the winner! 

Vera says:

Such a fan. Impossible to choose my favourite, but here is one that is topical for me http://katherineleedale.blogspot.com/2011/08/circus.html

Thanks Vera! I'll be in touch very soon to get details as to where to send the prize and so on. 

For those of you sobbing into your post-work snacks right now because you didn't win, or didn't have time to enter, or are only lucky enough to find out about the competition now, you've got TWO more chances to win! 

To enter this week's round, once again please just leave a comment on this post. A random winner will be chosen next week and there'll be an exciting secret additional prize in the third week! 

Now, unfortunately I have heard that some people who wanted to enter were not able to leave a comment on the blog for whatever reason. I'm really sorry about this, folks.

If you want to enter but don't want to or can't leave a comment JUST EMAIL YOUR COMMENT to katherineleedale [at] yahoo.com and I will post on your behalf!

nb. This will not affect your chances of winning.

WHOOP-DE-DOO Part One

Folks, it's time. Here is chance number ONE of THREE to win a signed, dated, 8x12in print of ANY image that I've posted on the blog. 

(This is all to celebrate the fact that the blog is nearly one year old. How time flies...sniff...seems like only yesterday I was looking at the empty pages and now...)

Ahem. To business! 

All you have to do to win the print of your choice is to leave a comment on THIS post, telling me what your favourite image from the past year is and why. (Leave a link to the blog post in question too, so I can be sure I'm sending you the right one!)

Entries for this round will close at noon on Sunday 13th November and I'll pick one entry at random. The winner will be announced in the WHOOP-DE-DOO Part Two post on Monday 14th November!

All clear?

Get commenting!

Making My Own Museum, III

Making My Own Museum, II

Second of three sets from the Natural History Museum.

Making My Own Museum, I

 

From the Natural History Museum.

A Blog Birthday and The Competition!

Well, well, well ladies and jellyspoons, this here blog has been open for business for nearly one entire year. The anniversary proper is on 21st November; all that way back in 2010 I kicked off with two posts in one day (ker-azzzeee, right?). So in the weeks leading up to that momentous date, you'll have not one, not two, but three chances to WIN an 8x12in print of your choice from any of the images posted on the site. 

Wow. I mean, wow. 

All you'll have to do to be in with a chance is to comment on one of the special WHOOP DE DOO posts going up on the 7th, 14th, and 21st November, and leave a comment telling me your favourite image from any of those posted herein. Have a browse around - you'll find work and personal, 'straight' and 'doctored' images, paper cut-outs, collages, street and studio and seaside shots. Which is your favourite?

That's right! That's all! I'll then choose a comment from each post at random and that person will receive the print of their heart's desire signed and dated by me.


Thanks so much for viewing. Any other comments on my work are, of course, gratefully received.

Helianthus

More papercraft / photography, inspired by, in part, the Cottingley Fairy images, and the turning of the earth away from the sun. This was my first shot yesterday afternoon but I think I'll be using three of the later shots, flowers cast on stony ground. Unlike yesterday's shot, this is edited digitally but not manipulated. The paper flowers are planted in the soil.

Autumn and a competition

Another experiment in combining papercraft and photography. 

 

A teaser: the blog is almost a year old (how time flies!) and I'll be announcing a competition to celebrate that fact we get nearer to the day itself so keep your eyes peeled.

Collages

Sometimes when I run a bit dry on the old photographic ideas I want to keep a creative hand in. And when that happens I make collages. Here are three I made today. It's a kind of run-on from the Birdbook illustrations I did for Sidekick Books, which were a combination of papercraft and digital manipulation, but these are just good old-fashioned cutouts, paper, scalpel, and glue.

NEW VENUE - Brixton Empire

A new venue in Brixton is the latest addition to my client roster. Brixton Empire is housed in St. Matthew's Church and opens TONIGHT with this terrific production of Laurence Holder's When the Chickens Came Home to Roost. Directed by the Empire's Artistic Director Daljinder Singh, it's the story of the relationship and power struggles between Elijah Muhammed and Malcolm X. It runs until November 4th so get your tickets in! My photographs below feature Peter Landi as Elijah Muhammed and Ricky Fearon as Malcolm X.

 

www.brixtonempire.com

A Girl in a Red Gown

 From my set of production photographs of Shiver, the newest production to open at The Yard (where I'm resident performance photographer).

Self portrait: Beautifying

 

A little series inspired in part by a talk at the National Portrait Gallery a couple of weeks ago on the use of self-portraiture by contemporary women photographers (given by Camilla Brown, who is a wonderful speaker, as part of the museum's brilliant free lunchtime talks). Additional sparks came from a few nights out lately where the slap and hair has been at more intense levels than I would usually bother with.

I've been trying lately not to be so rigid about projects and plans. I have a tendency to procrastinate wildly and use the excuse that something's not perfect or final in order to put off actually acting on any of my ideas. So this and several previous posts can be seen as sketches in order to try and loosen me out of this habit.

Test shot for 'Ten Things'

Testing out the lighting for a small project that I hope to share with you in the next couple of weeks.

Adam and Eve in the 21st century: work in progress

 Captions L-R 'What are WE doing here?' - 'UGH!' - 'No signal...'

Caption: 'We will stride forth like colossi to conquer this new world'

 

Captions L-R: 'Although it is charming here...' - 'Perhaps we should accept our lot?' - 'We'll live and love in harmony'.

I don't usually like to show people my work until it's 'done' - or at least, as 'done' as possible. Which usually means 'done' until I look at it again six months down the line and hate it and begin all over again. But I have been faffing with this mini-project for over a month and it's time to get it out there. 

I am trying something new with this - I wanted to get the feel of a comic book or photo-story. You probably can't read the little captions at the bottom of each frame so I'll write them up underneath.

It would be great to get any comments on what you think of these - does it work for you? What about the layout? (I had envisaged these as three separate prints, hanging one above the other with the squared-off set in the middle and the portrait-landscape-portrait at the top, as above). I hope you like them - having them in the public sphere will certainly make it easier for me to see them with a clear eye.

Young Vic goes underground

Saturday was a busy day - as well as my work for The Yard (see post below) I was also shooting for the Young Vic in the afternoon. Here are some of the delightful participants from a community choir in Brixton, performing in the Leake Street Tunnel.