SOS (Save our Shops)

Way back when this whole recession started, we lost Woolworths. This, to me, wasn't too much of a big deal. There were plenty of other places I could go for Pick and Mix, or toys, or music, or DVDs, or whatever else they were selling in there. But now, with the likes of Comet, Jessops, Blockbuster and HMV going the same way, I'm starting to realise the impact this is going to have on my life.
Shopping, for one thing, won't be the same.

My boyfriend and I ALWAYS make a point of going into HMV when we go shopping. Without it, we have to go in search for other places to buy our DVDs and CDs from. This is fine, but Tesco doesn't really have the range we're after. It seems to me like so many people have turned to Internet shopping that normal shopping has become obsolete.

I don't think it should be this way. I love the immediacy of normal shopping. You can buy a DVD and watch it the same day. Yes, you can do that on the Internet, but only if you download it. Otherwise you have to wait a few days for it to arrive in the post. That's great news for the Royal Mail, but it's not so great for you when you realise you have nothing to watch that night. And with clothes, the same thing applies. If you're in need of a dress for that night, you can just pop down to the shops and grab one.

Another reason for me not to shop online is that I have a huge aversion to paying by card. You see, I manage to keep my bank accounts in check by looking at how much I have every time I get money out to pay for something. If I pay by card, there's no checking my finances when I do it.

With these more niche retailers collapsing, I will have to turn to online shopping, and I really don't want to. Jessops is the other example of why I don't want to do it. I love photography. I love my fancy camera and I really want more lenses. When I have a problem, it's Jessops that I go to. Thankfully  there are other places I can go to for buying fancy camera bits and getting prints done, but they aren't in the same place. And I certainly don't want to risk the life of my camera lens by getting it delivered to me from Amazon or eBay. I would much rather take it away with me and cradle it all the way home. A little overprotective maybe, but it keeps it safe.

So, to the main point of this blog. To all my readers (of which there are thousands (pffft)) PLEASE keep going shopping in the town, especially for niche items that are breakable or difficult to come by. The last thing I need to for Waterstone's to go down! Where else could I enjoy the feeling of browsing actual books, of flicking a few pages over and smelling that new book smell?
Certainly not on the Internet.

Some Spring happiness...

Since blogging about springtime being wonderful and so on, I have been taking pictures at every opportunity. I mainly take images of flowers, but recently I have also been taking landscape shots. Do let me know what you think :)

 

 

Showcasing - sometimes it has to be done

So, I thought I would showcase some of my better work from my photography unit today as well as write a blog. I was originally going to show you all my work from another unit called Making Magazines. Hoever, that fell through when the images would not load onto the blog. So anyone wishing to see those will unfortunately have to wait until to turn them into jpgs.

The first, is a set of two portraits which are meant to show the sitters personalities. I think I captured their shyness fairly well in the first.


As we were about to go to New York here, we had a moment where I decided to go for a Statue of Liberty pose. I think it worked quite well, though it did not answer the brief:


My next set of photographs are a little more interesting. They stemmed from a brief about movement, but eventually I got to the stage where I really liked the idea of dressing people up as fairytale characters.

Alice falling down the rabbit hole:


Snow White, scared, running around in the forest:


The Red Queen (Alice in Wonderland):


Snow Queen:


Red Riding Hood walking through the forest, on the way to her grandmother's house:


The Swan Queen, Swan Lake:


Cinderella looking back for her glass slipper:



So, those were my final pictures, but there were some that I left out that really need t obe shown to the masses. All are Alice in Wonderland inspired, mostly with the red queen threatening her in some way:


And there you have it, an exhibition of some of my prouder achievement of this year.I hope you like it and feel free to comment.

No abuse, but constuctive critisism and especialy praise are appreciated.

Thanks!
Kyra

Why photography is no longer my hidden talent

A small post?! I must be out of my mind, having not many words to write and all. But I do have exciting news. I'm branching out:

Ever since I got my camera a few years ago, I've been trying to build up some sort of portfolio of really nice pictures to put up on display somewhere.

I have had a few compliments on my photography skills so I thought I had better show everybody.

And now, after much deliberating I have finally decided to put them on the internet for all to see, on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyraoreilly/

I really hopethat this link works, as I havn't had much luck with it so far. Thankfully I have a very nice friend that decided to help me.

Some of the photos I have uploaded are really, really old and some are very recent, so try not to laugh at some of the wobblier ones, they're on there because I like the effect.

Feel free to have a good look at them and tell me what you think. The more comments I get, the happier I am!