Blog

Not necessarily a blog per se but I have been invited to exhibit my work for The Shed Photography's INSTANT Summer Exhibition. The inspiration behind the title is capturing a particular moment in time. As quoted by their website 'Tell the audience your story, your inspiration behind that INSTANT'. The exhibition runs from 18th - 31st August 2016 @

Malthouse
Lyme Regis
Dorset
United Kingdom

I will be exhibiting a total of four pieces which include: Romance is in the air, Tunnel of Light, Boat and Pom Poms, all which will be available for sale during the exhibition. Please do come along and visit if in the area. There will be a selection of fantastic images from various photographers, and a sample of work can be viewed @ theshedphotography.com

See you there!

Why angels and cemeteries you ask? It's certainly not a place I'd ever envisaged photographing until I stumbled across a grade II listed cemetery in Southampton, UK. I've always found cemeteries to be rather depressing places where I'd make any old excuse not to visit. Not so much about life and death (life as there's plenty of flora and fauna in abundance here) but this place had an aura, if not a little emotive, but most importantly; an historical significance. And what a wonderful opportunity to capture some interesting images: elegant angels, warped tombstones having lost their inscriptions and one of my favourite images: trees. With this in mind came my mantra - photography with feeling.

The place was actually next door to Southampton Common which incidentally was hosting some kind of fayre so there was plenty of noise, music and quite a few people walking through. Even the odd runner was making their way through the cemetery's pathways, water bottle in hand as if they were training for a marathon. I therefore found myself at ease with camera in hand photographing some of Southampton's most beautiful angels. What really struck me about the place was just how old some of the monuments were - some were over 150 years old and many were rather grandeur despite some with absent limbs and features through the ravages of time. Packed with different lenses, two struck me as the most useful here: the Sigma wide angle 10-20mm and a newly acquired Lensbaby. There was something weirdly romantic about the angel statues and I imagined the Lensbaby would be the best candidate for capturing such images (and a good excuse to try out the new lens). If anyone has ever used a Lensbaby, the creative kit for shooting interesting shaped bokeh is great so I kept the heart aperture in rather than fiddle around changing different ones - well I'm sure I spotted a rat amongst the uneven undergrowth and didn't want to lose part of the kit by rummaging around if I had dropped it! So you may spot some interesting heart bokeh in the Lensbaby shots!

When on any photographic expedition, I always try to plan ahead on what I'd like to achieve therefore the Lensbaby came into its own for capturing such images and the wide angle sensed a more haunting view of the cemetery as a whole, and converting to infrared through Photoshop was just what I wanted to achieve! Note: Infrared - I would've rather captured it in camera but sadly conversion was the next best thing. A converted DSLR camera will be on the birthday list!

The reason for this blog is that this subject matter is something most people who know me would most definitely not expect from me. Photography can take you on some particularly interesting, if not, unexpected journeys at times.

I'm so glad I had the opportunity to visit this historical place - check out Old Cemetery, Southampton TripAdvisor's reviews! It may not be every person's cup of tea but I think it was well worth the visit!

Debra Cox