Rome | Travel

Hey,

For a moment I forgot my blog wasn't just another outlet for me to post photography, I miss just sitting down and writing so I thought I would talk about my trip to the beautiful city of Rome. Back in March myself and my dad took a mini break away to Rome, I've never been to Italy but I have seen the Lizzie McGuire movie so it felt right.

We only went for a couple of days but it was absolutely amazing, it's one of those cities that people on instagram always seem to be visiting and its plastered all over travel sites as the "ultimate city break" but in all honestly I only ever seem to be interest in attending holidays if they're to Disney. That being said I loved every second of our little getaway!

We started the trip off by going to a restaurant around the corner from our hotel where they served what I can only describe as the best bread I have ever tasted, it was so good we went twice. Months later I miss this bread so much.

The next day was our first proper day and we decided to go and see what we had decided was the Spanish Steps (that is exactly what it is not) it's a monument where there is an anonymous Italian soldier inside that represents the Italian army and he is guarded 24/7 - this monument became a  "we are lost but near our hotel" spot.

We spent the rest of the day walking miles, eating ice cream and exploring.

My all time favourite day was our guided tour of the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. Both myself and my dad love history and we love to learn, I had barely any knowledge about gladiators so it was so interesting to learn all about that form of entertainment. My favourite part of that day was 100% the Roman Forum, walking around all the ruins yet still being in the middle of a huge city was a bizarre experience. Learning the value of the ruins and how the Romans used to go by their day to day was so interesting to me, was like walking in the past. My dad then went back to the forum and I laid in bed and watched Glee - my perfect holiday really.

We spent the rest of the holiday relaxing and hitting the top historical destinations, we happened to arrive the week all the historical activities were free - would be rude not to. Unfortunately I did not get to see the pope but maybe next time.

Here is a collection of images from our time in Rome - thank you dad for a lovely time even tho it was months ago. Where do you want to go next?

If any companies wanna send me on holiday for free don't be afraid to get in touch.

Facing My Fears & Life Update | Career

Anyone who is trying to pursue a creative career will know just how difficult and exhausting that can be. The photography/media industry is one of the hardest industries to break into but ya girl is trying and trying hard.

Since completing my degree last summer I moved back home to Newcastle to try and make some money and build my photography portfolio but with that comes facing a lot of fears and pushing myself so far out of my comfort zone I cant even see it. My comfort zone is a dot to me. (That might be a friends reference im not sure I think so)

Since summer of 2018 when I graduated I have really pushed myself hard to try and make this career work for me. I spent 11 months (left like 4 days before a year which is annoying for CV purposes) working in a call centre for a building society - yes I am aware that is the very opposite of what I want to do but ya girl has bills to pay) and I met some AMAZING people there that I will love until the end of time. But during that time I spent weekends and evenings editing, networking and just trying super hard to work in the media.

In order to push my skills and myself I had to branch out from just taking pictures of my friends. Which has been a wonderful and magical experience and I hope to always take pictures of them but in regards to my career I needed to get my name out there.

In order to move forward my next logical step is to reach out to modelling agencies and this has been something I've toyed with for practically the entire year, since I shot with the stunning Reanna back in February. However.... it's scary and im a baby.

With this in mind I decided the next step for me was to reach out to photographers.  The beautiful model Beth Harris recommend I speak to a local photographer called Laura. Who is so nice and talented and really made me feel like I can do anything I want. I met for coffee with her and I learnt more in that hour and a half than I have on my own well.. ever. Laura was then kind enough to let me tag along on one of her studio shoots as I have never had any experience in the studio and I LOVED IT!!

The feeling I had when I walked into the studio, meeting the models, watching Laura shoot, learning about lights and backdrops was "euphoric" if that's the wrong word sorry but it was magical. I left with the feeling of "yes this is what I want to do and I am going to do everything in my power to achieve it" so that's what I've been trying to do.

Since meeting with Laura I joined a Facebook group with local photographers and aspiring models and I have done a couple of photo shoots with new faces from that and I've loved every second. Learning and progressing is something I am thoroughly enjoying.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me get to this point I am truly LOVING MY LIFE, from every person who's ever modelled for me, Beth for helping me with all the behind the scenes, my dad for helping with my portfolio and to all my friends and family who have supported me so far!

I got this!

Soooooo...... I wrote this a few months ago (I have so many blog posts drafts I just forget to post) and well I have very exciting news!!! I have recently got a new job editing clothing items to be published on the website to showcase the products. I have only worked there a couple of weeks and my lord is it difficult. I have basically been taught Photoshop all over again, everything I knew how to do well.. I don't need to do that. It is a very exciting but scary adventure and i'm having a whale of a time.

K peace out, if my new employers somehow read this please don't cringe I am very sorry please don't fire me im having a lovely time.

Classic photo - as you probably guessed I don't like my face.

London | Travel

It's safe to say I really enjoy Harry Potter, I don't know how much I've spoken about that on my blog. This time last year myself and Jasmine went to Harry Potter Studios in Watford, London to celebrate my 21st birthday and the end of uni and it just so happened that Molly and I also went again this May.

I have only been to London a handful of times as it's just so expensive to travel from Newcastle but I have always wanted to see The Vamps perform in the O2. You're probably reading this thinking "wow is Jess not over that band yet" the answer is yes, yes I am but I enjoy seeing my friends and I just have to see it through until the end.

Molly and I decided we were going to spend a couple of days in London see The Vamps and then go to Harry Potter the next day, so that's exactly what we did.

The Vamps was great, accidently spent like £50 on drink in the 02 - London prices man... that and I accidently ordered 4 cocktails instead of 2.
I finally got to meet Maria who I have known for gosh maybe 4 years?! But she lives in USA and I didn't do London this time so that was cute. I would of met Becca who I have known for as long as I can remember but she decided not to attend and it broke my heart but she's currently in Orlando working as a cast member in Disney world so it must be nice to be here. im not jealous. 

Here's some images from that night:

The next day Molly and I woke up a little worse for wear and ventured to Watford. Gringotts had recently opened and holy it was insane. Although I loved the weekend trip I went on in 2018 with Jas it was amazing that Mol and I had no time restraints we could go at our own pace and spend all day there. We walked around taking pictures, watching bts videos and just having the best time.

If you have no idea what i'm talking about Harry Potter studios is a big sound stage in Watford where the majority of the Harry Potter films were filmed and it is now a studio tour that has a tonne of original props, costumes, sets and special effect make up.

It's so amazing walking around learning about things like they built an entire animatronic Hagrid head for body double Martin Bayfield for certain scenes and it is so well done I wouldn't of even known. The wizarding world is so immersive from the books to the online community.

I loved it, here's some pictures from that:

You Put the Lime in the Coconut | Photography

It's been a while since I sat down and wrote a blog it feels almost foreign. I've had a lot of posts in my drafts that I just haven't posted so writing feels weird but here we go.

I have been trying to push myself out of my comfort zone with my shoots recently and trying new props and locations. This shoot started off a complete fail myself and (model) Chelsea and I could not get any shots we liked. It wasn't until we were walking back ready to give up that we stumbled across a street with stone coloured walls and a deep dark door, it was perfect.

I love these shots they're so different and feel very "high fashion" to me anyway.
I had seen on Instagram someone posing with a lemon and I just loved it so I texted Chels and told her to find her greenest outfit so this happened.

Photography | 2018

Yes I am aware that it's June but I wanted to show the work I did last year.
I am going to post the photography I have done so far in 2019 in a separate blog post so look out for that in the near future!

What a year. In 2018 I really pushed myself to try with my photography shooting as often as I can and networking as much as I can. You may have seen a lot of my work this year as I have been trying to post on my social media and blog as much as I can with full photo sets but it's sort of a tradition that on my blog I do a year round up of my work.

Last year I did it month by month and this year I want to do the same. You will see after I left uni in the summer I did a lot more.

February 

My first shoot of the year started the second month in with a photo shoot day, I did some head shots in the morning with Jasmine and went to shoot in Leeds with Molly. February also came a lot of first's for me, from shooting at night with Ellie to shooting with Reanna who is a professional model and friend of Jas' on a different style of shoot. I even did a Valentines day version of the bath shoot I did with Hannah last year. I also tried something new and did my first ever couples shoot with Molly and her boyfriend as well as make Kendra pose in the freezing cold in front of a random fairground in a car park.

March

March wasn't so busy for me in regards to photography as I spent the whole month filming my short film for my creative media course. I loved this module we were on what I call a team of only me, you could produce anything you wanted and I settled on a short film about Living with Anxiety.

Link to my short film (I got an outstanding first - humble brag)

April 

Kicked of April walking round Headingly in our pyjamas with Hannah, we spontaneously decided that we wanted to do a photo shoot after a month of filming together so that's exactly what we did. I also popped home to Newcastle in April and visited Ellie - I wanted to test myself so I only used the Fuji App in Tesco, this was a choice but I am happy with this shoot. My final shoot in April was once again with Hannah we went to a local park playground and took some images I still love.

May

This was another month I was swallowed by university work, the most important piece of work I did - my dissertation. The topic I chose to focus on was the impact of mental health in cinema, was very interesting but I wouldn't do it again.

June

June brought one of my favourite shoots, one hot summers day Kendra and I felt like doing a photo-shoot - so we did

July

In July I did my first paid shoot with the lovely Becca, we had a lush day out taking some fun pictures, I love how this shoot turned out. Also in July I moved back to Newcastle, finally graduated and moved back home so I finally begged Amy to let me take pictures of her. I am so excited for 2019 summer photo-shoots.

August

In August I put out an urgent request on instagram asking for people to model for me, I always want to shoot and if im not creative I get all sad and weird but luckily I know some great people who were more than up for it! First of all I shot with Jonny in St James Park car park - this shoot was something different for me as I wasn't used to shooting low light and I don't get a lot of experience with Male models. I then shot with Torie and Kelsey, I loved shooting with new people and trying new concepts.

September

 In September I really pushed myself out of my comfort zone and thought F*ck it i'm going to try really hard! I decided I wanted to reach out to models for some trade for picture basis and branch out my skills. I posted some recent work into a Facebook group and managed to arrange some shoots with aspiring models. This can be extremely nerve-racking and honestly its summer of 2019 and it's still not getting easier.
I shot with the beautiful ladies; Naomi, Amber, Becca and Hannah. I also shot with a boy that wasn't Jonny, I know I know it's came as a shock, I had a lovely shoot with Sean. This shoot I smashed my phone and months on im still upset about it.

 October

In October I started my new full time job so for the rest of the year my photography was put on pause. Just before I started my job I met up with a local professional photographer for some advice and some insight into this industry - was super interesting and helpful, she was called Laura very nice woman.
I then went on to work with a company called Tiska where Laura was the main photographer and I did some BTS work.
I also shot with Kelsey once again in October, we went to a park and just made it work.

  December  

I didn't get a chance to shoot in November due to the chaos of my new job but I did do a shoot for my good friend Emma who is trying to grow her personal training business so that was something new and fun to do to round off the year.

In 2018 I really began to push myself to better my skills in both photographing and editing, spending hours researching new techniques to try and reaching out to models. 2019 doesn't know what hit it.