Beautiful Weather and Beautiful Flowers

This week we have had some beautiful weather and naturally I didn't want to be cooped up indoors, reading about how to start a business! So instead I spent majority of my time outdoors enjoying the glorious sunshine. I found it a bit too bright during the day to take photos so I waited until the evenings when there was less glare.

It's the first time I've properly been out taking photographs since I finished uni and I have to say it was a lot more enjoyable this time. Not having the pressure of a deadline and worrying about whether my teachers would like it or not makes it a lot less stressful. I feel like I have more freedom now to do what I want!

I just took photos in my garden because I often find that I don't need to go anywhere fancy because looking at anything close up is usually always interesting. There are also some beautiful flowers out at the moment so I thought I had better take some photos before they started to die.

This photo is of a purple Scabious. This has always been one of my favourite flowers because when I was a kid I used to think it looked like a UFO so I've always called it the UFO plant. This was taken with extension tubes attached to my macro lens so I could get even closer.

This photo is of an African Marigold. Its got such a beautiful, vibrant colour and really stands out from the other flowers in the garden. I didn't want to focus on capturing the detail with this picture because I just wanted to focus on the colours. There is only the edge of one petal in focus and the rest is out of focus. I personally like this approach because it draws you eye to that one part of the photo but it all flows well together. This again was taken with a macro lens attached to extension tubes. 

I will be adding some these photos and some more to my website soon. Check it out by following this link www.katherinepowellphotography.com

In the next few weeks I will probably do a post about what equipment I use. It's nothing fancy but some of you might be interested. 

If you have any feedback about my photos then feel free to comment. Or if you have any questions then again don't hesitate to leave a comment and I will get back to you as quickly as possible!

Hope you are enjoying the beautiful weather as much as I am!

Venturing into the World of Etsy

I have been going back and forth about whether to start an Etsy shop or not and I have finally come to a decision... I'm going through with it! It's a great site for people to buy and sell handmade items and I would definitely recommend checking it out if you haven't already! I've looked through their photography section and specifically at nature macro photography and I do feel like I could eventually sell some of my work.

My main worry about setting up a shop is having it turn out to be a complete failure and not sell one item! I suppose this is many people's concern when they are thinking about doing this but obviously a lot of people still go through with it. I've done a lot of research about setting a shop up and it will definitely be a lot of hard work and will take a lot of patience.

It seems to be that getting traffic to the site will be very important because obviously if people aren't looking at your shop then you arent going to be getting any sales! So before I actually set up a shop, I am trying to get more of a following and social media is a fantastic way of doing this.

I have made an Instagram account that is just focused on my photography and isn't personal. I feel like this will be a good way to show my work because of the hashtag system they have. I have a link to my online portfolio on there so if people are interested in seeing more of my work then they can. If you want to check out my Instagram, my username is: katherinepowellphotography

I am also planning on setting up a twitter account when I've set up an Etsy shop as this is a good way to tell my followers when I've put new items on my shop.

There is also this blog, which is my way of showing what I am up to with a bit more detail.

I have looked at a lot of other photographers on Etsy and a lot of them don't just sell prints. They also sell phone cases, mugs, coasters, bags, cushions etc. with their photos printed on them. This is definitely something I am going to look into more and check out prices.

This is just one example of what I could sell. I think my style of photos would work well with phone cases. This particular photo is of a Sow thistle head with water drops on it.

I think it would be good to have a range of products to sell because it would hopefully introduce a range of customers instead of people just looking for a photo print.

Setting up this shop will by no means be what I pay the bills with. I am being realistic with it and realise it will be difficult to get even one sale. It's more of a project for me to do up until I go travelling and then once I come back and get a full time job, it can be something I do on the side. It is also a good way for me to still do photography and I am really looking forward to getting the shop up and running! It will take a while before I do start putting my work up for sale because there is quite a lot I have to think about first and there's lots of planning to do but I am really excited!

If you have any advice on how I should start an Etsy shop then feel free to comment! Any help is welcome by me!

If you would like to see more of my work then check out my website using the following link: www.katherinepowellphotography.com

End of Year Exhibition

As I mentioned in my previous post, a few weeks ago I had my end of year exhibition at university. I thought I would show you what I did and explain why I did it.

So here is my final work. I did a series because I feel with my style of work, it works better having photos supporting each other rather than one image on it's own. In each frame I focus on a specific animal. From left to right: snails, ants, wasps and finally woodlice. Now, you may be thinking "why has she not taken photos of the pretty insects, like butterflies?" Well I wanted to take photos of the animals that aren't usually seen as beautiful or cute, but are just seen as pests, whose lives are often abruptly ended by a quick whack of a shoe! The reason I wanted to have these animals as my main subjects is because I wanted to show people that these animals can be interesting and in some cases can be cute. If I can change someone's opinion about one of these animals then that'll be one less person who is killing them. There is more to them than a lot of people think!

Every animal has its own role in the earth's ecosystem. For example, woodlice help with decomposition of dead plants and wasps help with controlling insect populations. Now these may seem like insignificant acts, but they are vital to keeping everything together. If we didn't have wasps then other insect populations would grow and this would then lead to other problems and it's like a chain reaction.

I really enjoyed doing this project as I haven't focused on taking photos of animals in a long time! It's always been plants or things that don't move. So it was quite challenging because I had to find the creatures, which proved more difficult than I first thought. I also don't have much control on their actions so it was a lot of patience on my end! The ants were particularly tricky to take photos of because they move so quick and are so small! I ended up luring them out with honey, which worked amazingly well!

If you want to see the photos on a bigger scale then click on the following link http://www.katherinepowellphotography.com/#!pests/c21nf

I plan to add more photos to this series soon.