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"I lost my crown for seven years, I'm now here to claim it back"

Extended Specialist Techniques

Explorer In Edinburgh

Being off on Thursday gave me the opportunity to venture up to Edinburgh with my brother Jamie, seeing he was meeting a friend who worked in Paris with him. My first initial thought was 'Great! A day off college! I can go and start Christmas shopping!'. I then thought 'I should take advantage of being in a different location on a working day'. The night before I packed my little sketchbook with pens and pencils and since having the Canon camera on lend I carefully took that with me. Expecting myself to find interesting things I could capture. 

After meeting Jamie's friend we parted ways so I started off doing some Christmas shopping. When an opportunity to capture came my way, I took the camera out and started recording. I felt a little self-conscious at first as I've never really recorded myself outside in the public before but I thought if other people can do it, I may as well try. 

I sat by the concrete stairs at the National Gallery as I thought it would be a great place to use as a tripod as I didn't have one on hand. With the of view of the Christmas Wonderland being put together I sat, ate my lunch and looked around.

I felt like a really enthusiastic tourist 

I loved going around seeing what I could claim on film. Cities like Edinburgh are always full of stories and energy and I wanted to capture people's individual life. I was wary about them turning around to see a camera pointed their way but fortunately that didn't happen!

Later on in the day I decided to sit outside Costa at Princes Mall and take out my small sketchbook for additional observational drawing. I loved the freedom of sitting in my own little world whilst looking around, looking at other people, seeing these people with suitcases, wondering where they're final destination is. 

Since it was getting cold outside, I decided to move into Costa to see what was happening. When I study in a city I can assure you I will make going to Costa a routine. 

Seeing people come and go gives me some form of inspiration. I like to listen to people talk and I also like to look at what people are wearing.

Anyway without further ado, here is my 'vlog' (video blog) of my day in Edinburgh.

Seeing as though my last video I posted was relevant to Flixel, I decided to pick individual frames out and make some more. Of course I couldn't use every frame due to there being a lot of motion in the background.

Last Thursday Jordan asked me to make a Flixel of him shaking a pen. I thought I would add this on as a little surprise ending to this post, so enjoy. 

Last Week In Edinburgh

Our second trip as a class happened on the 29th October when we ventured up to Edinburgh to visit the Generations 25 years of Contemporary Art located in the Scottish National Gallery. Since starting the course I've began to appreciate and admire seeing art in galleries more. I feel really really bad saying this but I thought galleries were quite pointless as I had easy access to the works through the internet. All I can say is that I feel disgusted thinking that as now I think the completely opposite. I love walking into a gallery and being surprised at what my eyes see, what my ears hear, what I feel.

Opening the doors to discover this in my sight intrigued me to what held within.

'Story Of A Sensible Length' Karla Black

Photography By John McKenzie

I walked around seeing the works of artists such as Steven Campbell, David Shrigley, Christine Bolland, Martin Boyce and Sue Tompkins. I admired their creations but the downside was that I didn't find one I felt I connected to, was drawn too. 

Do you have to feel connected to appreciate a work of art?

Of course they gave me an insight into what's possible but I couldn't choose a favourite. I admire Steven Campbell with his use of space within a room, connecting music with the experience. David Shirgley with his clever, dry humour he portrays. Christine Bolland and the task of the sculptures with one specific brief. So on, so forth. 

 I enjoyed the visit as a whole but as I didn't feel a connection to the pieces, I was disappointed with myself. I feel like one visit wasn't enough for me to create an opinion. I also felt like I had to distribute time out evenly to each artist as I wanted to see as much as I could. If I could go back I would sit down and just take it whatever I was observing instead of taking pictures and hoping they would do justice for later use.

Hopefully next time will be different.