MEDI 118 (Personal Story)

 The Reason:

I have chosen to write the personal story based on one of my hobbies. This hobby is called Live Action Role Play or LARP for short. It’s a mixture of Role Play and fighting that instead of being a computer game or paper based RP such as D+D happens in the flesh, in real time, often in costume! It uses foam and latex weaponry and spell cards as the basis of a combat system and although it may be viewed as dorky its great fun. It’s also a very good work out as it’s so immersive you often don’t realise all you have been doing is running around a field all weekend. The reason it appeals to me as a hobby and that I have chosen to write about it is because I am by nature an escapist and I love fantasy with a passion. Also LARP is very personal as some of my closest friends have been made at events, fighting side by side and having to depend on one anouther forms very close friendships being often more like a family. In short, I just think its awsome and very much a part of me!

The Story:

There were fierce screams filling the air as she ran through the lines. Part of her hated running and it was a rare sight to see but here things were different, here lives depended on her running.  She saw a flash of a tartan that she recognised and dipped in to grab the body.
“I’m going to drag you now, it’s going to be fine” She helped the man to his feet. He was a friend of hers and she placed her hand upon his chest and began to sooth his wounds, his chest was badly damaged but at least now he was out of enemy lines. She knew once he was on his feet he would return to ensuing maw but this was always the way it was. It was as he wandered off and she scanned the field for more of the fallen that one of her closest friends swaggered up looking war torn.
“I think you better look at this Fionn, it feels broken” The kilted man flopped his left arm in her general direction. She checked him for wounds and sure enough the arm was in a bad way but it wasn’t fatal and although it hurt to turn her friend down the battle orders were clear.
“Sorry Eric... All healers low on power have been given the order to save it for fatal wounds... I only really have about two shots left.”   She thumbed through an odd looking necklace and he nodded. He couldn’t wield his two handed axe so she instructed him to take the stick she had at her side and grabbed his pair of short swords unsheathing them very quickly.
“Can you actually use them lass?” He was a bit taken aback at the sudden weapon swap.  She chuckled at him and explained that of course she could use them. She was a dual wielder and used to use two short swords before they were stolen by raiding Drow, he nodded; she had told him before when they swapped their life stories. Sticking one finger in the air she leaned in a little closer to him.
“Plus I’m really bored and I want to hit go hit things, Fionn has had enough she can be angry now she’s not much use as a healer anymore. “ After she had finished speaking their fingers were lowered. They exchanged nods, darting their separate ways into the fray. Later she would drink and sing around the fire with all her friends but right now both parts of her brain just wanted to join the scrap.

MEDI 111 (Black and White Photography)

For my black and white photo project I have decided to base my prints around the idea of the balance or struggle between city and nature in Plymouth and also to a certain extent the balance of old and new.  I’d also like to incorporate some elements of mysticism and my own personal spirituality. The print I have developed already I feel captures this. I’d like to focus on landscapes more than anything as I would like to have a nice selection of nature shots and intermingled trees and cityscape to choose from. As much as I can I want the places I photograph to be fairly ambiguous and magical looking so that they will hold interest and spark the imagination of the people viewing them.

MEDI 114 (Photo Shoping)

In our photoshop workshop we have been learning some nifty tricks in photoshop so I thought I would apply this in making myself a new profile picture for facebook. Now since my net nickname is often 'Nights-flame' I thought I'd make it flame based so I took some stock images from google of fire and merged them together till I was happy with the results. So here is the resulting pic. I'm pretty happy with it you can still see me behind all the fire. I have chosen to have the colours contrast fairly sharply.

MEDI 127 (Black and White Photography)

Ok so we have been producing black and white photos. We all had to use an SLR camera and a 400 film. Taking the photos proved harder than I had thought by far since you have things aperture, shutter spead and exposure to consider. The actual photoshoot was very fun. Developing the film in the soloutions and putting the film on a spool in the pitch black is something I have never done before and despite a few hicups I still very much enjoyed it and it was a thrill to see my negatives developed (even though some of the film didn't) But the enlarging of the negatives in the dark room has been very enjoyable. They were printed in a dry dark room with a 14 secound exposure. Also the red filter used for the pictures of the tree was a 3 which is why its not as sharp as the 'tomb' because the red filter was a 4. Its rewarding to have a tangable print in my hand especially after so much painstaking work to get to this stage. I very much enjoy black and white photograpy. I'm going to post up my pictures. They are poor quality as I have taken them with a web cam but I still like them. (They are black and white the colour effect is the result of the webcam)

MEDI 114 (Iconic Image)

So we were asked to find an iconic image that represented something we hated and me being very anti the Medias current portrayal of women decided to pick a photo of twiggy since she was one of the original ‘pioneers’ of the skinny look. I also did a little research into my topic and found some links. The Medias portrayal of women over all is very demeaning and the idea of a ‘perfect’ woman seems to be thin with huge breasts, which are both dangerous and unrealistic. During my readings I also found some shocking things about eating disorders and the Media influences on them.

Here are the links:
E-zine: Battles Against Media's Idea of "The Perfect Woman"

"Sexy house wife"

Lies the Media tells us

WHERE ARE ALL THE FAT PEOPLE?- Lynne Murray

MEDI 118 (Personal Picture)

For my personal image I have chosen one of my favourite photos that I have taken. It is personal because it’s my work and one that I am very fond of. The picture itself is obviously of mushrooms in an autumnal forest area but there is a wealth of connotations to be drawn from it. My own personal attachments however may vary from someone else’s in the fact that everyone infers different things from pictures. For instance all the autumn leaves to some people could mean coldness as some may find autumn a very bleak time of year. I however am very fond of the season and thus have a great sentimentality attached to it that perhaps maybe furthers in some way the fondness of this picture. Also the mushrooms themselves are sometimes considered horrible and pests by people but I think they are very remarkable in the fact that they grow and survive and are very persistent. I think however the browns and the rotting conkers evoke a feeling of decay that is a sharp contrast to new green shoots, this I think represents nature very well in its cycle of death and rebirth but maybe someone else would not infer that. The pattern of the mushrooms also adds depth to the shot.
I do think that most people would see in their minds a scene of bleakness from the colours and apparent chaos of the dead leaves and broken twigs.  But then others still could infer a sense of hope as the mushrooms are thriving in the apparently bleak autumn. 
Of course it’s hard to think of pictures connotations when it is personal to you and because everyone will infer something different based on their experiences.