Duck Egg.

I wish I had more things to paint, painting is so much fun, although it's much easier to do it outside without a little cat trying to interfere every few minutes.

So, my Gran handed me down this box, she says it's called a butter box but she couldn't tell me why as she's always used to use it for extra bathroom bits. I figured it would come in useful for us so that we wouldn't have to worry about Dolly tearing up all our toilet paper (something that's happened before). All it needed was a lick of paint, so I figured why not.

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Once again, Wilkinson saved the day with their sample pots, although I don't think these shades went as far as the ones I used before as I had basically run out by the time I was finished. The amount was fine though and I think it's best to have the exact amount rather than be over or under.

I went for 'Duck Egg' and 'Tealtastic', two of my favourite colours.
The 'teal' was a bit more blue than turquoisey but I still think it complimented the duck egg well.


Before.


I decided to paint the inside of the box too, which was much more hassle than painting the outside. It is better I did though, mainly because it had seen better days and was kind of mucky, but also because the mushy red didn't go to well with the clean, crisp colour I'd chosen for the rest of the box.


After.
I'm quite happy with the end result, and although our bathroom is mainly white - with the grossest shower curtain, which is why I haven't shown it to you - most of the accents are a turquoise/teal colour, so I picked everything so it would go.


RIP sanding block, this was Moon's contribution to this project. obviously we couldn't wait to buy smaller screws to screw the handle back on (we totally could have), so he improvised and used my sanding block to hold everything in place. It's a good improvisation to be fair and means that the handle holds well, and it does look a bit silly but hardly anyone would ever know...

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I'm quite pleased with this little project and it took a lot less time than the chest, probably because I only stuck to two colours more than the fact that the chest is a lot bigger. Now the toilet rolls have a safe home!

You mug!

I'm really ill, which is a total bummer because I had planned on doing a few important things, ironically one of them being registering with the local GP, but I'm too sick to leave the house, so things are on hold. I only hope that I'm a bit less snotty and achey for my driving lesson tomorrow as my test is in less than a month, don't ask me why I booked it, I don't know either.

I'm placing full blame for this lurgy on my sister and Moon's brother, I can't blame one or the other as they seem to both have the same thing and have been ill for the same amount of time, and I've been near both of them, my immune system was doing so well until about 11pm last night, unacceptable.

In slightly more fun news, I finally got around to taking part in the 'Yours & Theirs' project this week and my image is up on both their Facebook and blog, so I'm pretty chuffed.
The theme was 'Your Favourite Mug', and this is the photo I entered.

This is neither my mug, or even a mug I use, it belongs to my Gran and it's the one I give to Moon whenever we're there for a cup of coffee. It's so funny and difficult to hold, as well as being ridiculously tacky, but it's definitely one of the best mugs I've seen.
I'd love to take part in similar projects as it was so easy, perhaps a downside being that 'Yours & Theirs' is Australian; it would be great to be part of something a bit more local, for no other reason other than to have another, more focussed outlet to share my work.

I'm going to give this week's theme a shot too, it's 'A Place You Like to Go', and if you're a long-time reader of this blog you'll know there are quite a few places that I like to go, a lot, so I'm sure I'll be able to get around to capturing something.
Here are a few of my favourites from the 'Your Favourite Mug' entries.

Lucy White


Candice Wilde


Alana Dimou
Why not give it a go yourself? It's so much fun to see people's different takes on such simple subject matter. If you know about any similar UK projects I'd also love to hear about them.

Must-haves.

Must-haves (2011)
A series created as part of the Self-Led brief in the third year of BA (Hons) Photography at the University of Portsmouth. The project attempts to address the problems surrounding the acceptance of fashion consumerism and the absurd logic that is often used to justify purchases. These items of clothing go unworn at the back of wardrobes or at the bottom of draws.
Ruth Johnston; www.ruthjohnstonphotography.com
+44 (0) 7795465749
Flickr set

"It was in the sale and compared to the original price, it was a bargain. The hood broke quite soon after I bought it and I have been meaning to sew it back together, but I just haven't. It is so warm though and I can quite easily fix it so it's not really worth getting rid of it."

"These have been too big for me for a while and I don't ever wear them, but what if the chance to do some painting comes up?"

"My mum brought this back for me from Hong Kong. There is just something about it that I really hate. She never lets me get rid of anything though."

"I don't think you could just wear this. It's quite classy and feels like the kind of outfit that you need to wear to an event, to make an entrance. Unfortunately, I don't have anything special events to attend at the moment."

"This thing! I was doing some internet shopping and this jumpsuit was delivered by mistake. It was refunded and I was told to return it, but I didn't. I know that I am never going to wear it so I thought I could sell it, but I probably won't ever do that either."

"I dreamt about this dress for such a long time. My boyfriend bought it for me for our first anniversary. I love it, but I got paint on it. No one will notice it but I can't bring myself to wear it, because of what it means, I can't throw it away but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do anything else with it."

© Ruth Johnston 2011.

Because everyone else seems to be doing it.

Oh, how I can't wait to get my replacement 18-105mm lens, it will make everything so much easier to have a mid-range lens again. This was taken on my phone and because my prints are big and I don't have very much floor space, the layout is pretty pants, but it doesn't matter, I'll put a great one of them up at the exhibition.

My next post will be of all the images, but anyway, tomorrow is the deadline for my last ever University project, crazy stuff. It feels like only yesterday that I was practically weeping as my Mum dropped me off in halls...

I'm not really sure what to do with myself, I mean there's still Viva to go, but I know the half-Chinese project practically inside out, I just need to rehearse.

Text and Display.

So all I have left to do is to write about how my work is going to be displayed and the advice that I was given regarding text panels. I'm a bit gutted that I only got the final advice about text 5 days before the deadline so I can't get the 'proper' ones done in time, but I think I've printed and mounted these ones well enough that it won't matter. I wouldn't say that they're perfect for the exhibition, which is why I've sent them off to be printed and mounted at The Print Space, but they're adequate for the project hand-in.

Example display

I'm preparing my work for my Viva, which means re-printing my text panels for the Half-Chinese project and trimming them down. I don't think I'll bother re-mounting the images as I'm not showing the A3 versions anyway, which is apparently bad of me but I don't think it makes much difference and the images are of higher quality when they're smaller because I messed up the way I edited and processed them.

In other news, Topshop are allowing me to return a bag without a receipt because it broke for no reason after only a week of me owning it. They are doing this because I tweeted about how ripped off I felt, I'm quite amazed that they got back to me, something like that would never have happened five years ago, technology is great. I'm a bit sad because I liked the bag and it's out of stock online and was the last one in the shop because of this I either get my money back or an exchange for another bag up to the same price. Despite their high prices, it is nice to know that Topshop place their customer service and satisfaction in high regard.

ALSO, I am in the process of helping establish a Portsmouth Student Union Media NUJ Chapel (that's going to be a long acronym). I'm quite looking forward to getting involved, I have also managed to possibly do a fashion photoshoot for the University newspaper.

Possible layouts.

I figured that as I haven't done any real work since Wednesday I should at least do one of the easiest parts of what actually have to do. So I've done some exhibition presentation mock-ups for my project report. I'm in two minds as to which ones I want to use but I'll probably go with the five, not just because it's cheaper but also because with the jeans the story isn't as relevant as the others so I'm not sure. I want to include the jeans because I like the image and I want to include Gabriella, but her text was more about practicality rather than absurdity so I'm sad that I'll probably have to miss her out, especially considering she as probably helped me out most out of everyone.


The interview for Gareth's documentary went well today, he says it's going to be a while until he edits it all together but I'm looking forward to getting a copy of the pilot in the post, and if he puts it on Youtube I'll get it up here too.
Here is a clip from his documentary 'A Pioneer Perspective', which was broadcast on the Community Channel in 2008.

Initial text planning.

Here are the jottings for what text will accompany my images. I've written a piece for each item. My main concept basically evaluates how stupid people are, that is all, I should probably jazz that up a bit.
So I'm going to whip these into InDesign tomorrow and print them onto nice card for Tuesday. Fingers crossed I don't mess up on the font or sizing, and that I can cut them properly.

Current possible finals.

At the moment I have two items of clothing from each person, three in two cases. I'm hoping the crit will help narrow down which ones I should have as my final five. I'm going to print them out at around A2 size, which looked pretty decent on a basic print out I did of some of the previous images I have shot.

But overall I'm pretty chuffed with the quality, I just need to spend the rest of the weekend working on the text to go with them because I feel that it's pretty important to anchor the concept in that way.
I know the dyptychs are different widths apart but it's not for presentation, it's because I'll be printing them out A1/0 sheet at a time and it's easier to put them together. Obviously they won't stay like this because I need to pick certain ones.

© Ruth Johnston 2011.

Grey test.

I hate following advice when I was perfectly happy continuing with the way I was going, but here is my test shoot using a grey backdrop with the name labels pinned into the clothing.

I'm unsure how I feel about this. I need to get on with writing some text so I can give a better idea of how the series will work.

© Ruth Johnston 2011.

We'll see what they say...
I have to say I'm disappointed with the current set-up overall now though because initially I was using one light on the lowest setting to light from above but I am now needing to use two, otherwise the backdrop looks shadowed and stupid. I think it's something to take up in the tutorial tomorrow. I'm unsure as to whether these are beginning to look too clinical or like bad product shots..

2nd Test.

So here are my images with some lighting. Excuse the backdrop. it will probably need to have the creases edited out. I hope they don't tell me to use the Uni studio because it's not like their backdrops are much better quality than my humble sheet anyway — why buys black bed sheets?

So hopefully this gives more of an idea of what I'm trying to do, these aren't all the items of clothing that I've got and I've since discovered that the wire that was given to me is too stretchy to maintain the weight of some of the clothes, so I'm going to have to work on that to get it tidier and more exact to what I really want. I quite like the classic lighting and I was pretty surprised due to the fact I ended up only using one light, but I wanted more of a contrast to the fabric than an even spread. I might take out a medium-format camera to see if I can get higher-quality results, but I think it's likely that once I've tidied that construction of my subjects that I will just stick with digital. I tried to break away from traditional backdrops but then, I guess there's a reason things are the way they are. I thought the brown looked weird.

© Ruth Johnston 2011.

Obviously these are unedited, but I'll probably get them up to scratch for the crit on Tuesday, I'm hoping to have my first crit of the semester where my work doesn't get practically torn up in front of me. At least the lighting is nice, that's one thing I think I have in my favour so far until I get some proper fishing wire. But I think the 'empty forms' theme is coming through slightly too...

Abbie.

I have decided to simplify the text even more and accompany the images with one-word responses. Maybe this is becoming more about identity than consumerism, which is annoying because I seem to always end up within 'identity' confines.

"Surprised"
Abbie has even more clothes than I do but it didn't take that long so my time spent shooting won't be so bad, if I eventually end up with any strangers. People have taken the tear-offs but just not utilised them, annoying.

© Ruth Johnston 2011.

I quite like the close ups of the wardrobes and I've put the three next to each other in print form and it's looking quite promising. I just hope I'm not told to light the wardrobes from within with 'cool' lights again tomorrow. It's lame, I don't need to elaborate on it any more.