morgynedwards.com

I have a very small exhibition tomorrow based on the work that everyone who went on the uni trip to Berlin took. I am really excited as I feel the work I have put up is a starting point for a project I wish to spend alot of time and money on once I finish university. It is based on the experiences of people with the Berlin Wall. Apart from that I have been trying to earn some money and carry on doing uni work while helping organise the end of year show. It has been very crazy recently.

I finished university yesterday and handed in everything on time. I surprisingly didn’t feel nearly as stressed out as I did last semester, and I don’t think I was the only one who was eerily calm. Almost everyone I spoke felt the same way.

Some of my classmates were saying yesterday how suddenly they felt bored by having nothing to do, but I feel like I am going to have thankfully busy summer. Not only is my family coming over from the US next week, my mom is getting married, I’m going to see my dad in America and I plan to start researching my dissertation and my final project while doing my work experience. I am really looking forward to doing to my work placement. I have an interview for a place in two weeks and I don’t want to jinx it, but I really really want to work there.

So this summer expect comments on essays and little snippets of information about the theory of photography.

I spent Christmas this year with my family in America. It was quite a nice holiday and i got some great pictures of some abandoned houses in the area for my next semester as well. I’m hoping to go back this summer and do some travelling within America since I have never really explored it before. I’ve only really been to Europe so the plan so far is to travel around the Gulf Coast and southren Texas, maybe some other places if I have the time and money.

I still have lots work to do on those photos and loads of work for uni.

I’m in Prague at the moment. We took a coach here and it took around 20 hours, luckily though the coach wasn’t too full so I was able to get a couple seats to myself and sleep a while. And there was a beautiful dawn haze over the countryside as we passed through Germany.

When we first arrived at the hotel they put 4 of us into a room for 3 so I had to move into another room. That turned out to be a good thing as I ended up sharing with Marcia and we get along really well and shared a room together in Berlin last year. Then last night after dinner, a few of us were even having a nightcap and Ed came over and said Marcia and I were told to move out of our room by 8am. It was already 1am. We weren’t even told where we had to move to, so being a little drunk on Czech wine we moved into one of our friends rooms. So I am back in a room meant for 3 that has four.

Aside from that little drama, the trip has been nice so far. I seem to keep taking photos of creepy things in Prague. Mainly that means marionettes, I’m not really sure why there are so many shops that sell them here but I watched someone make one the yesterday. They are the weirdest things.

I also walked up to the Castle in the most round about way. It’s a long way up the hill and we ended up taking a route that took us further up the hill than the castle was and having to walk down the hill a bit to get there.

We didn’t go inside any of the buildings but just looked around and took photos of the people. There was a man doing metal work in one and also (what we think was) an archeology dig. Although all they seemed to be uncovering was plumbing.

By the time we got back to the bottom of the Castle it was lovely and sunny and the colour just seemed to pop off the roofs of the buildings along the river. We headed down to the Charles Bridge and saw the glowing, marching Penguins, and some really creepy baby sculptures. By this time the sun had started to go down and we reached the opposite side and were able to look back at the Castle as it lit up, really the most amazing thing, it was so beautiful.

Perhaps it is the romantic in me but the city is much more beautiful at night than in th day. Then again it could just be the night owl in me.

So although I am officially behind on my uni work, but I have a plan! I am going to catch up, all it take is a little help and some determination. Which I have tonnes of. There is no way I am going to fail this course I love it, photography is my life.

Thankfully work have given me two weeks off (well, one was already booked for my Prague trip with uni), but it means I can do research and collect materials for the essay that is due the week after I get back. AND finish off my costume for Halloween…

Have I told you about it yet? No?! It’s going to be amazing! I am so excited! I am going as a victim from Alfred Hitchcocks’ The Birds. Expect lots of drunken Halloween photos. Hopefully I will have time upload some before I go, otherwise there is going to be a massive Halloween/Prague post.

Heeheehee! Can not wait!

Ok, so it’s the first week back and I feel like I am already falling behind. This is not good. The way work has me scheduled and the days I am at uni is crazy. I actually have no days off until the 30th of October. Excatly when I am meant to take photos and do essays I am not sure… I guess it was a good idea to buy that light kit last year as it seems I will be doing most of my work in the evenings after uni and work.

I’m going to try and get into a rhythm and get a momentum going that will last until I go to Prague.

Ah, Prague, I cannot wait to go. I am already unbelievably excited about it. I hope I don’t work myself to death beforehand, perhaps I shall just crash and burn while I am there and take no photos except snapshots of the evenings out. Though that is highly doubtful.

It’s not all doom and gloom though at the moment working so much means I get paid lots in the run up to Christmas and I have managed to do part of a project tonight. Doing the research for a project is ok it’s just the actualy execution of the photos and printing.

Please don’t let me get ill.

I think I have finally got my site sorted out and almost finished. I have finally figured out how to upload a Wordpress theme, which I have linked to my site. Now all that is left to to learn how to configure it so it goes better with the rest of my site but also stands out as it will be updated often and will show my current project ideas. I also need to place my email on my site somewhere, but hopefully that will be easy (famous last words!). Which leaves my visual studies portfolio and essay, and my digital photography portfolio and essay. Also I got a light kit. Yay me!

University trip to Prague in November, also stopping in Cologne for two nights which will be awesome. And cold. Probably.

Like I mentioned in my last post, time at university is ticking away. It seems strange to think my first year is almost over. I feel that this year was a lot of technical learning while next year will challenge our creativity, it should be fun/interesting…

I am going to Gatecrasher Festival at the end of May. I am thinking of taking my beloved Polaroid camera which reminds me I need to buy some film for it.

It really annoys me that they are getting rid of Polaroid film. I know it seems unnecessary in this digital age, but there are some of us who are still in love with it. They could at least sell the license to another company and let them produce it. Although I have heard rumors that other companies are having trouble selling developing products. I hope that the ease of digital doesn’t take too much away from the fun of seeing your photographs developed in the dark room. The darkroom always makes me feel better, I started to miss it during my year off. I also realize that I am sad for feeling this way!

I got back from Berlin this weekend, and I have to say I was kinda sad to come home. I would have liked a bit longer in Berlin to do some more exploring and taking more photos. Often the light was quite hazy so the best time of day was sunset. Also I liked the fact that the bars stayed open till you leave. Which was 7am one night!!

There is something about the city that I love. It certainly calls me back, and I think my parents are annoyed I keep suggesting we go there!

When we were in Berlin I used color slide film since I had never used it before I was curious to see how it would come out. I am still waiting for it to be developed.

Last night though I was messing about with my flatmate and generally being childish covering the light fixtures with tin foil and cutting designs into them when I started taking pictures. Honestly our hallway is like some kind of strange art gallery with glowing tin foil. I ended up trying to photograph the lights outside my room from my window. I think this one came out quite nicely, especially considering I don’t have a light meter or cable release!

(click for full view)

Currently I am in Florida visiting family and stuff. I was meant to go to Texas, but since there was flooding and a hurricane headed that way, we never ended up going.We drove through Gulfport and Bolixi on the way back from Grandmothers house and all the beautiful houses are gone that were on the water. People have had to paint trees and signs to identify where their houses were. Most of the industrial building are still just the structure with nothing around it. When Katrina hit, you heard a lot New Orleans because of the floods, there are worse areas that were barely mentioned. Gulfport, Bolixi, Waveland. Waveland was basically wiped off the map, there’s nothing there anymore. And it’s been two years since it hit. I wanted to take some photos but there wasn’t anywhere to stop since we were on the highway that ran along the waterfront.

I want to come here for a while and drive around the real south and take photos of all the dilapidated houses and the ghost towns along railroad tracks.