This means my free time can now be taken by doing shoots in studios and my free cash can be spent on more photography equipment. The call centre job is by no means what i’m settling for, at the end of the day, you need money to make money. So this will tide me over for a couple of years until I’m ready to make the jump to Professional Photographer, and a full time one at that.

In the mean time I’ve been doing the odd shoot here and there; here’s a couple of images… more to come soon;

So yeah, expect a lot more from me over the coming months as, like I say, I’ll have more cash to throw at studios and gear etc.

So, after the catastrophe that was my final year at Uni I withdrew merely weeks from the end. Do I regret it? Maybe a tiny bit… but at the end of the day, I’ve had a lot go on which meant I couldn’t concentrate, and my attention span is already short enough.

My final mark wouldn’t of been anything to be proud of either. As a result of this, I’m happy to say that I will be going back to University in September to repeat my 3rd year. Not at Sunderland though, oh no, there’s too many distractions and bad memories surrounding this place that I think would haunt me; leading to me doing the exact same thing again in a years time.

I don’t want that, I want a degree to be proud of, and I want to be in a situation to where I can get on with it.

My choices are Wolverhampton and Canterbury Christ Church; I’ve already had my interview for CCCU, and it went okay, I find out if I get in next week. My interview for Wolves is not until August 21st, but to be honest, if I get into CCCU, then I may not even bother with Wolves. The campus at Broadstairs is awesome and it’s such a lovely little town on the coast. Lots to photograph, lots to inspire, a couple of pubs, but other than that, not a whole lot to do. No distractions.

I think the stance I’m going to take this year is portraits and fashion. I’ve been looking at Dragan’s portraits and I’d loveLOVE to do something similar.

Other than that, I’m due to get a new lens sometime in the next few weeks seeing as I’m currently glassless… I’m torn between the Sigma 18 – 50mm f2.8, Tamron 17 – 50mm f2.8, and Sigma 24 – 70 f2.8. I’m worried about the reports of Sigma’s QC being bad, and having to sift through any amounts of lenses to find one that’s sharp, but saying that, my old 17 – 70 f2.8-4 was as sharp as anything… so what do you do in a situation like this?

the 24 – 70 is the perfect focal range for me, but it’s a huge lens, I like how wide the 18 – 50 and the 17 – 50 are, but think 50mm is too short, the 28 – 75 has length but 28 probably won’t be wide enough. What to do?

Anyway if anyone wants to work with me from August onwards give me an e-mail at crphotography@live.co.uk and we’ll sort something out!

One last thing, I recently cleared by flickr out, take a look at; http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisr87/

Give me a couple of weeks and I’ll give a full update of everything that’s happened in the past couple of weeks!

See you later!

I’ve been working with Scott Spock for the past couple of weeks and needless to say it’s been awesome fun, and I’ve learned so much from him it’s unreal.

I’ve also been busy with my own work, working on my final exhibition piece for uni and trying to do dissertation work, operative word being ‘trying’.

I also did a cherry themed shoot on Wednesday which was great fun, this was another shoot with Camilla, although her friend Eve joined us who was amazing.

I then did a promo shoot for broken few yesterday before heading to a gig in town.

So yeah, busy… and when I get this project proposal handed I’ll throw up some photo’s and write a more detailed blog.

Oh, I’ve also thought about what I want to do when I finish University, and I’ve decided I’d like to open my own studio, and I’ve been looking into this for the past week. I think a business plan for grants and loans will be made once the Dissertation is finished. Exciting. I hope it goes ahead.

Well, that’s all, for now folks.

S-s-s-s-s-s-s-see ya!

Although, when i think about it, I guess I have been a bit busy, as me and my girlfriend moved into a new flat a couple of weeks back, and also got a little beagle pup! She’s called Ellie and probably the cutest thing in the world, aside from our cat, George, of course! She’s a little shit though, and does her business anywhere and everywhere!

Here she is;

So aside from that, I’ve been arranging something with a new photographer in my city called Scott, I mentioned him briefly last time, and it looks like it’s all going ahead. I’ll be assisting him on shoots with things like lighting, post production, and the obvious runner duties.

I’m extremely excited to say the least, Scott and his partner Korinne seem like very nice people, and have also fallen in love with Ellie!

I’ve also just finished a refferal for uni, just on doing contact sheets right this moment then I can finally hand it in. Shame it’s a refferal but I guess it can’t be helped now!

I also finally got to do a shoot with a new model, and needless to say, I was very used to the way Camilla works, and working with Dani was a new experience. She was awesome, and thankfully forgave me for fumbling about like an idiot and generally being a nervous wreck.

I got a few good pictures, if I don’t say so myself, and I would deffinately like to work with Dani again. Maybe it’ll be better to have an assistant with me next time.

So that’s it really for now, I’m currently working on my dissertation and final project, the latter just being in the planning stages. Well, both are really!

I can tell you now that my final project will be similar to David Lachappelle, Dave Hill, Phillip Lorca-diCorcia and Jeff Wall; that’s all I will say for now though, I hope that excites someone other than myself!

Keep checking back!

Certainly a lesson in backing up my work, I’ll tell you that!

Other than that, my documentary work got some very good feedback and has left me on a week long high!

I also popped into a new photography studio earlier this week belonging to Scott Spock Simpson and had a chat with him and his partner about assisting them on shoots, and hopefully it may be happening come February! It’s very exciting and I hope to god they take my on as I could learn a lot from him, he’s deffinately an excellent photographer!! Check his work out at www.scottspock.co.uk and wish me luck!

I also hope anyone who might read this had an excellent christmas yesterday, and got some nice gifts. I certainly did!

Anyway, no images today… I’ve got some shoots planned for the new year though!

Hope everyone has a great new year!

Anyway, so i’ve been carrying on with some university projects this week, and I think I’ll be hitting the deadlines – it’s going to be tight, but hopefully I can get them done in time.

The main project is something that’s a form of phototherapy for me, I’m creating filmic images about the two most influential people in my life; although that’s all i’ll be saying till they’re finished, handed in, and ready to upload.

Another project I’m doing is a documentary book on my friend Ashley and her son Jack… I went to carry on with this today but didn’t get very far with it, as we were at another friend of mines, and his cats distracted me. Cats will always get the focus of my camera, I love them, such intellectual animals… So sophisticated! My friend also drew some camera focus as he’s quite an unusual guy if he doesn’t mind me saying! ha!

Anyway here’s a few images I got of them;

The grey one is called NK and is quite the poser! She loves getting her photo taken!

On another note, I went to Leeds on Tuesday to shoot one of my favourite punk rock bands; Propagandhi. It was a bit of a nightmare, as was the first time I seen them in Sheffield! The venue was hard to find, the lighting was poor, and the sound for Propagandhi wasn’t very good at all.

The only decent lighting was on the centre of the stage, so naturally, this mean’t only the vocalists were in any decent enough light – if only i could afford a flash gun!

Anyway here’s a few images from the show;

I seem to be jinxed when it comes to seeing Propagandhi as something has spoiled both occasions; the first time the stage caught fire and the entire building was evacuated!

I’ve also uploaded some photo’s of a model shoot I did a few weeks ago, these can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisr87/

The idea is to mainly keep a log of what I’m doing, so I can look back to the different blogs I’ve done, and see how my work is coming along. If people subscribe and find this interesting then that’s a bonus, it’s nice to know people are iterested in my work, although it isn’t the main focus of this.

Let me start by introducing my self… I’m Chris Randle, a photographer from Sunderland, England. I’m currently in my third and final year at the University of Sunderland studying Photography, Video and Digital Imaging

So… this week… I’ve finished one small project for university. I feel relieved to have it lifted off my shoulders, I mean, the module it was for isn’t one I’m all that fond of, it feels like a module that should be on the first year of the course, not the 3rd year, as it’s very restrictive and based on technical ability.

I haven’t really put much effort into this project, I mean for the majority of the week I’ve just sat on my arse playing Modern Warfare 2, and had my good friends Ash and Scott over for a night of films and a good long chat.

Here’s a couple of images from the project, nothing special, but like I say I’m not that into this module and it’s showing in the images.

They were shot on a Mamiya RZ67 on Fuji 160s film. I don’t know if it’s because I’m so used to digital, but for 160 ASA it seems incredibly grainy… so I’ve applied some mild noise reduction along with a little bit of curve and colour adjustment!

For the next 3 weeks leading upto christmas, I’m going to be very busy! I have a photo pass for Propagandhi in Leeds this coming tuesday, along with a book to complete and my film stills project.

I’ll update with my progress over the coming weeks as often as possible, although, being as busy as I am… this might not be a lot. I can only try though!