Laura Ward

Push The Button

laurawardphotography — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:22:32 +0000

My snappy highlights of the week took place this weekend. Two solid days of frosty, wintery, bright blue skyness.

1. I photographed a beautiful wedding crammed full of delightful details, all organised in the space of 6 weeks. It can be done folks. I love flowers (hint to all reading) so I was thrilled when I discovered Jam Jar flowers were providing the blooms. Swoon. To die in a floral haze for.

2. I got a Polaroid Land Camera called ‘The Button’ for a bargain. A silly bargain. Here’s the first picture. This is going to be a work in progress as the film is sensitive to the cold and it is BRASS MONKEYS* outside.

*cold

What a busy start..

laurawardphotography — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:11:00 +0000

A new year starts and I’m full of my usual gusto to get cracking with my camera and little book of plans. I’ve been given some beautiful hand-made books to cram full of notes and inspiration. It’s been wet and cold which is perfect for this kind of thing. I will be Miss Organisation; making the most of my photography time, planning trips and responding to all of my emails within an acceptable time-frame. How hard can all of that be?

This week…

1 I was keen to use my Fuji Instax a bit more. Sure, it’s not my favourite instant camera (Polaroid SX-70 and 600, obviously) but it’s cheaper and the film is available. Or WAS. One of my real bugbears is ordering film, only to get an email an hour or so later to say it’s out of stock. The last time I ordered this film it was out of stock for 3 months. Great. Now I have no idea when I’ll be using this camera again, but worse things have happened.

2 I planned to focus on using a Prakitica I’d purchased from a market stall somewhere near Wales (vague). Until I woke up in horror to this news courtesy of Kat Hannaford. The words ‘Kodak’ and ‘Bankruptcy’ in the same sentence saddens me so much. Their Portra film is my favourite – heck, so many people adore that luscious film. Kat tweeted me to say ‘race you to Ebay’ which is what the whole film-loving world will be doing if Kodak folds. I shoot pretty lo-fi. I don’t own expensive film cameras, but I might as well if Kodak Portra races out of my budget. Depressing news.

3 I hadn’t expected so many emails and phone calls. In the space of 4 days I’d been booked to photograph 5 weddings. And the best thing about these weddings is that they’re all so different and they like what I do. Perfect. 5 wonderful days for me to start thinking about. This is unexpected but goes firmly into the ‘good news’ pile. What’s more is that I’ve responded to every email I’ve had this week. I think.

4 I’ve been inspired. Some time ago my friend Josie introduced me to the work of Susannah Conway, a self-confessed Polaroid Addict. She reminded me of another Polaroid photographer I’ve been following for a while – Amanda Gilligan. Turns out they’ve put a book together along with Jenifer Altman who produces these lovely cards (I gave to my friend Emma for her birthday last year) which should be out in May. Something to look forward to.

5 I got together with my Effra FC chums on Tuesday for a slide show of our favourite 2011 shots. I love any opportunity to get people together to look at photographs projected LARGELY. Photographs are better seen off-screen. There’s just no comparison. A group of people huddled together around a projector, discussing images in detail or just simply admiring. Inspiring.

6 I’ve thought a lot about producing high standards. Last year a good friend booked a family photography session with a well-known ‘brand’ of high street photographers. The results were dreadfully upsetting. This week she finally got compensation for their poor customer service and final product. What I can’t understand is why they were so bad. When you’re paying many hundreds of pounds on a special photograph for a special occasion you expect professional service and a quality product at the very least. A week into the new year and I’m now thinking about how I would respond to an unhappy client. My ultimate plan of action is to ensure I know exactly what is expected of me and be confident with what I can deliver. Photographing people is a collaborative process. Food for much thought.

7 I’ve got a shoot tomorrow. It’s local and with my lovely talented friend Laura Kidd. I think we might be eating chips too.

Photograph taken with Kodak Portra 400.

Portraits of small people

laurawardphotography — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:26:04 +0000

I used to think all babies looked the same until my friends started having them. I hadn’t taken any baby portraits before last year and it’s something I’m hoping to work on this year. That means my family and friends need to up the baby quota for 2012. Apologies for the not-incredibly-pleasing writing over the pictures of Ella, Jude and Samuel. There are people out there more than happy to steal cute baby pictures for marketing purposes.

Autumn country wedding

laurawardphotography — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:18:58 +0000

Tammy and Paul got married on one of the most beautiful September days of last year. It felt like the height of summer, blessed with golden light hovering over the day. They were married outside and were surrounded by bales of hay and rolling fields.

Sophie and Jason

laurawardphotography — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:54:45 +0000

Sophie and Jason are good friends of mine. They’re both creative wanderers of the world with a fine mixture of nationalities, skills and talent (creative and culinary!) between them. I’m also quite pleased to say that I played a small part in them coming together, though I’m convinced it was meant to be. Last August they asked me to take a few photographs of their engagement and I was more than happy to oblige. Neither are British (and neither will live in London forever), so I wanted to capture some of London in the shoot to document this period of their lives together. I cannot wait for their wedding in Hungary later this year!

Wintery London wedding.

laurawardphotography — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:12:01 +0000

I haven’t posted about weddings in a while. Here are a handful of shots I took at Ollie and Christina’s wedding on a beautifully wintery London day. The winter light was spectacular.

2011 photography review

laurawardphotography — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:14:17 +0000

As 2009 and 2010 I’ve put together a selection of my favourite photographs taken this year. I’ve done a fair number of commissions this year for musicians, families, group exhibitions but I’ve just not had the time to publish them. My selection feels on the thin side. So, for now, here are my favourite published photos from 2011.

Stephen A
Vivitar double exposure
London

Laura
Canon 5D
London

Driving
Vivitar Ultra
North England

Fog
Canon 5D
London

Pylons
Vivitar Ultra
Haywards Heath

Hotel
Canon 400D
Belfast

Sally
Vivitar Ultra
London

Blossom
Fish Eye Lomo
London

Self
Canon 5D
Ely

Self
Canon 5D
London

Fence
Vivitar Ultra
Belgium

Stay warm

laurawardphotography — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:51:09 +0000

I’ve neglected my blog recently due to working hard. Now it’s time for a little rest before the New Year starts. Happy Christmas!

More found pictures

laurawardphotography — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:26:38 +0000

At the bottom of my parents’ old house once stood an old hand made shed. One day, maybe 17 years ago, I ventured in to clear it out and came across an old bag full of photographs, costume jewellery and postcards all dating from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. The names ‘Ruby and Tom’ appear on almost all of them. I still have the sparkly jewellery – talk about finding a box of treasure. I love the carefree happy sunbathing man in the picture.

I did these scans 10 years ago so they’re all pixelated, and I still wear the broaches. It does make me wonder what will become of my printed photos.

30 year old slides

laurawardphotography — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 19:39:19 +0000

Around 18 months ago, my friend Ted gave me a box of slides which he thought were empty. Last year I rooted through them and noticed a few exposures – fascinating treasure for a nosey parker like me. Some bad scanning action later and I find these images. They were probably given to a charity shop or sold at a boot fair and somehow found themselves in Teds hands.

My friend Simon says ‘The typeface should give a clue to the date, but I’m not easily finding a history of Sunday Telegraph typefaces (would you believe it?). The headline looks like it says ‘State puts 56,000 jobs at risk’ – that might be ‘strike’, in which case this could be 1976 and the winter of discontent, particularly as the pic in the middle looks like it could be about F1 or motorcycling. It could be the former and about James Hunt – looks like him on the left – and he won the world championship in ’76 (and he’s English for those who don’t know!). The only thing is that he wore a black crash helmet and not white, but that might belong to the bloke who’s possibly getting behind the steering wheel in the picture.’

These were scanned back to front due to ‘technical problems’ (it’s the only way I could do it). Same clothes, different picture on the wall, new yellow shoes. Loving those clothes. I wish my wardrobe looked a little more like this.

Is that a reflection of a man I can see? Can’t quite make out the camera.

Is that a plate on the floor? I’ve not had a bathroom with natural light in it for as long as I can remember. (edit – that’s not true. It’s been 10 years).

Nice suit.

Scanned in reverse. Something a little early 80′s about this. Nice to see how things haven’t changed on National Rail trips – packed lunch and beer drinking.

I haven’t seen washing up liquid like that since I was a small girl.