I now have two children!!!

Sophie is now 14 months old and thriving and Lynnette Norah Pamela Gunn was born on 25th of MArch 2010 and doing brillaintly! I am so pleased with her progress!

These are my gilrs:

My beautiful little girl has just started to hold things on her own, small rattles etc things but its a step forward.

Everyday she does something new and I get so excited, I want to phone everyone and tell them all about it, however when people go on holiday and others are at work its not really appropriate to tell them. So poor Darren gets home and I bonbard him with all the new little things she has been up to.

She has started to roll on to her side and as you saw in the above picture hold little items, she does not actually pick them up but she does wile them about. Its very cute!!!

As she gets bigger i keep trying her out in new little outfits, here are a few pictures of different outfits:

Her Nanny Gunn loves this particular outfit and photo. In years to come sophie will be able to see her little face in this photo whenever she goes to her Nannies. This was taken at her Grandmar Townsends house.

Sophie with her Great Nanny Gunn in a little dress with cardigan her Grandmar Townsend bought her.

She has also discovered that we have a dog, I took her to My Mums last tuesday with Denny and put her on the sofa. Denny jumped up and sat next to her. She must hasve felt his fur brush up to her arm as she turned her head and reached on the grabbed the fur on his ears and tried to put it into her mouth, thank goodness I was wtching and managed to get his fur out of her hands….poor denny but he still loves her and the funniest thing is he let her do it, lol.

Sophie and Denny on her roll around mat.

She has recived some lovely gifts from family members and people keep buying her little outfits and toys. She is a very lucky little lady. She was babysat by her Nanny Gunn for the first time on Saturday as Darren is taking me out on Thursday night for my birthday and we wanted Darrens Mum to see what she was like and also we had to pop out and get a few things. We came back and she had been good for the most part except for screaming the place down as soon as we had gone, lol.

uncle Jon and Aunti leanne got there first experiences at having Sophie at there house yesterday. Aunit Leanne changed a Nappy and Uncle Jon had a good chatt with her Sophie loved it. We had a lovely pastat dinner with them and then took our little princess home for a bath.

Sophie with her uncle Jon.

Auntie Leanne and Sophie

Sophie and her Daddy.

when she was last weighed she was 6 pounds 13 ounces and getting bigger everday. She sleeps like an angel but if she does not get enough sleep and has tummy ach she screams so loud Darren and i have to shout to talk to each other, she could be a major star one day with her lung capacity.

Sophie in her first bed in hospital the day after she was born. With her Octopus toy

Sophie is now nealry two weeks old (currently 13 daysold). Everyday she gets bigger and she looks slightly different, I don’t notice it unless I look at the pictures we are taking of her, not to many as I want to have memories in my mind that are just mine that noone else can see, I think of it as a reward to the last 9 months.

Only a few days old Sophie is such a princess

Being in the hospital with her was so sereal as It was a shock when she came, not that I was not aware she was coming but I thought I would have hours of labour to prepare me for the first moment with My little girl, not the case. I have about an hour from the ttime i signed the c-section concent form to seeing her for the first time and hearing her first crys.

Sophie is already a Daddie's girl, not only does she look like him but she twiches like him and loves being cuddles by her Daddy.

She is an amazing sweet heart, she already has a favorite musical artist, Celine Dion. During the last monghts of the pregnancy we were finishing sorting out where things were going upstairs in our house. I started having a bath andlistening to music but got fed up of the adverts and brakes with Radio so Darren kindly connected up my sterio and I played a CD’s, now i know the words to a lot of the songs on the celine Dion album I have and so when one of hersongs came on i used to happily sing along. Now at night after she has had a walm top to toe or bath we change her fead her and then she gets rocked to sleep listening to Celine, Darren is inwardly irritated by it but he figures if it gives him sleep he is happy.

She loves to sleep being swaddled wrapped in either her Great Grandmars nitted Blanket or The cellular blanket her Grandmar Townsend Brought her.

She has had so many wonderful girls and clothes already. She is such a luck little bear.

Her Great Grandmar got her a photo frame and put her first picture in it. Her uncle Jon fgot her a Money box carriage for her first pennies.

She got some lovely clothes from her Nannie Gunn, Philippa, Laura and her Grandmar Townsend, she is such a lucky girly.

She also got her first little dress from her Granddad.

She also recieved her very first piece of post.

As I might have already said, every day she grows  a little bit so hear are some photos from today. She has also being trying out her rocker chair yesterday and today.

In her bouncing chair, it vibrates and she lovs the movement.

She is so cute!!!!!!

She has a brillaint nack of spitting her dummy across her moses basket

She blonde and Darrena nd I are brunets so were thinking genetic throw back lol

She has the most amazing beautiful blue eyes just like her Daddy.

She's a wiggler. She loves movement

I just can help looking at my beautiful little girl.

I hope you have liked this addition of my little blog, She is now 6 pounds, she was weighed on Saturday and will be seing the health visitor tomorrow.  Thank you for everyone wh has sent cards, presents and lovely thoughts and wishes.

 On wednesday 13th at 19.27 she was born by c-section at the Banbury Horton Maternity unit. She weighed 5 pounds 10 ounces, had her cord cut by her Daddy and had the most amazing blue eyes. She now weighs 5 pounds 12 ounces and still has thoes amazing blue eyes which eye time they open I see another little sparkle o wonderfulness (soppy I know but I can’t help it).

She hardly cried when they pulled her into the world and was taken to see her Grandmar by her Daddy shortly after so Mummy could be sorted out and put into the recovery room. The section went really well and had no complictions as yet.

The stay in hospital was normal with people popping in at visiting time which was lovely. She got a lovely pink it’s a girl balloon from her cousin Casey and lots and lots of cards to celebrate her arrival. She was so small that most of the clothes we took with us to the hospital did not actually fit so there was an emergency dash round to find some clothes for her after she was born as the stay in hospital was longer than we thought it would be due to needing an emergency c-section.

It came about that an emergency c-section was needed as about to weeks ago I went to the maternity unit afer feeling what I thought was my waters brake. THey took a look and found nothin conclusive to suggest for certain that my waters had broken. However I continued to leak for another two weeks untill i really felt somethign was worng as my bump size had decreased, I was getting more and more pain as she moved and she was not moving as much at all. So after talking it through with my Mum I decided to call and they asked me to pop up for a check up. The took a look and the midwife thought she felt something strange so she asked if I would not mind going for a scan. She popped me on a machine that measures the baby’s heart and that was fine so baby was ok but my blood pessure was high and I had a temperature. I went rond to the scan and the sonographer was quite suprised to find that where I told herI thought the baby’s bumb was was actually her head. Yes She was a breach baby, her feet we curled up on my left side of my pelvisand her knees to my wright kind of like a praying position. She was small but when the consultant took a look at all the imformation he decided that de to a significant reduction in amnioti fluid 9meaning my water had broken when I said they had) and the position of her they could not urn the baby and there was a high risk of fracturing my pelvis on delivery so a c-section was the only way to go. after signing two forms I was wisked to the delivery suite and gowned up and taken in. It was that quick!!!

Daddy (Darren) was allowed to cut the cord on his first baby girl

Because everything was so quick I did not really get a chance to take everything in and all I remember was feeling scared and shattered both before and after she was delivered. It was a bit of a traumer having the eperdural but worth having as its very affective, its a bit like having one of thoes immunisations as a teenager, you don’t want it but you know its for the best. Its not the most comfortable thing in the world and I did not help matters by tensing up. I think I was ery restrained inthe room actually as I did not sware but did say ahow a lot but what do you expect IT HURT! The people around me at the tie we very understanding and comforting. It did make me feel sick and wacked out but I did not have gas and air to help with any of that but they did give me some lovely anti sickness medicine straight through a line which was good and helped fast.

The recovery room was spacious, clean and cofortable and Darren, the baby and I were allowed t spend a nice lot of time together being a family. My Mum was there at first but left shortly after as she was aware how preciouse our tie as a three some was going to be over the next days due to visiting times and also other visitors and Darrens work committments. She did get a cuddle though as I think was very pleased to do so too.

Grandmar Townsend with her first Grandaughter.

My Dad drove 6 hours that night to come home from Landsend to see me and the Baby to see for himself that everything was ok and that he did actually have a grandaughter (I think its a only my own eyes can make it true kinda thing).

Anyways we are now a happy family all three of us and she is such a pleasure, when she cries I want to cry as she is such a sweet thing I want to make her happy ever second but i also know its her only way of communicating verbaly so I treasure every squeek as I knwo she want something I can help her with, its a weird feeling. She is not fond of nappie changing but loves to eat, she is doing wonderfully being breast feed and took to it brillaintly.

So for now I’ll leave it at that but one last thing I have not yet told you her name:

Introducing:- Sophie Joyce Gunn currently 6 days old.

Our little Princess Sophie Joyce Gunn

This is a follow up from a recent post advising that I was going to be going to a fair in order to take some really cool pictures and also get some sound.

If someone asked me what events I look forward to in the year one of the top spots would be filled by the Banbury fair and it always has been and will be. As a child I was only allowed to go one night and we were only allowed on a certain number of rides with the agreement that our dad would come too, which he hated doing! We were only allowed one treat and then it was over, two weeks of waiting for this brilliant event and in one night it was gone. Last years I decided that I should saver the event and get some sound and possibly some pictures. This did not happen due to many reasons, so this years I thought ahead and asked some other student if this would be something they would like to do with me as its not every day that an event come to you instead you usually have to travel. So as this year I broke all traditions and went not once but three times to the fair over three nights, I did not go on any rides due to health reasons but loved every minute of it.

One of my proudest moments was being able to make the equipment I brought with me work for me. On the first day I took round a basic camera to try and get an idea of what kind of images and sound I wanted. I took the opportunity to study that fair in the light and at night. By the second night I knew exactly what kind of images and sound I wanted. On the second night I took a Merance round with me to capture sound both background and specific Vox Pops. On the third night I took my Cannon D450 out with me and a tripod and got some brillaint images that were using 6″ second and F16 I think, this created brilliant images really getting the feel of the lights and action motion of the fair. I also took images without a tripod to try and particuarly capture another affect of the fair, Dizzy drunken haze.

I have not uploaded them onto the computer yet but I am working on that shortly. What I can do and what I’d want to do are to very different matters. After visiting the Victoria and Albert museam over the summer and seeing there exhibit Fashion VS Science I feel that the way you exhibit you work needs as much consideration as the work itself as this can change the meaning and intended affect of the work.

This is simlar to the affect I have bene working on

My goal in all my work is to put across my feelings about the subject and tell my story as not many people get the opportunity to talk to the world about who they are.

So to make this a little easier (no sure who for us or them) we have been divided up into groups by the 1,2,3 approach! I am in group 2 and we have been given a task of making an artifact with the theme of Spectacle….. and that’s ….. it sound easy or hard depending on who you are but I am interpreting it as fun because we can view the three artifacts as separate individual pieces of work. It gives me the opportunity to see what interest me and what doesn’t they don’t even have to be fully polished so I can experiment with different techniques and not worry if I fall on my butt.

My line of interest for this particular project is the idea of personal spectacle ie, weddings or particular spectacles that affect individuals. This project is brillaintly timed as in my town every year in mid October roles in the Micklmas Fair to celebrate harvest. 

I want to try and improve my skills with a camera and not only produce some excellent technical effects but also be able to produce a visual logic to my piece that is enhanced by background sound. I am thinking about using some kind of verbal narrative also as an alternative, but not sure yet. The Banbury Fair is a really important part of my year as I have never known a year without its lights, sounds and feelings. There have always been pictures of the fair dotted around different areas of the town like in pubs and in the local college so the affect of the fair is visible throughout the year. 

We are supposed to document our inspirations on this blog also so people can see where we are coming from and how our ideas are developing.

Sometimes when I am in lectures I get answers to questions or lines of thoughts from weeks months or even years ago. This was demonstrated to me when we had a lecture by Paul M Smith. His work is prodomently photographic, but not photographic in the journalistic nature but firmly in the artist sence. I had asked myself during the middle of last year if photoshop would be taken seriously for more than just the basic retouching needs. I have found the answer to be yes, by looking in a little bit more detials about what work Paul M Smith has done using this interesting and midblowing tool I now understand it commercial and artistis uses. I understood from last year that it could be used in may ways but I was fighting the urge to just tell myself to ignore using it till I had become a better photographer. I know this all sound like a load of rubbish but it was a fact that was really troubling me. I ahve added some internet searches on Paul M Smith below so you can see what kind of work he does.

http://www.paulmsmith.co.uk/

http://www.robertsandelson.com/exhibitions/Smith_2000.html

http://www.coventry.ac.uk/cu/schoolofartanddesign/mediaandcommunication/staff/a/6323

http://www.cokkiesnoei.com/artistpagina/smith.htm

http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/exhibitionInfo/exhibition/68470/lang/1

I ahve also found this really interesting site on Flicker where someone has used Paul M SMith an inspiration and created his own work. ALso withint the company I am currently working for I can see his influence there too but I am suspecting that Paul M Smith was not the only person to experiement wiht the idea of duplication and situationalist photography.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luccoiffait/sets/72157604836625225/detail/

The work that particuarly inspires me is the Action Hero work done by Smith as this linkes with a concept I was playing wiht in my mind. I love the idea of using the hollywood affect in photography and using particular angles and photosho skills to creat a seamlingly impossible feat. When I was looking at action heros I was consumed by the idea of the representation of power on children and the idea of violence etc in there lives I would love to do a photographic project with inspiration from SMith that involved children. However at the moment we are supposed to be focusing on spectacle so this though will have to stay eher untill we move onto that line of thinking.

We were told the most wonderful thing the other day we can use this whole blogging thing as our workbook!!!! Instant structure, instant contents page, instant sanity!!! I have always found workbooks really difficult as where do you start, how do you finish! The only workbook I ever found to have easily flowed through my fingers was a first year second term workbook for convergent media and I can not put a finger on why! But now my dilemma  is that I have done work over the summer but it is not on my newfound best friend the Blog – so in this post which will be updated over a few days – I will be writing more about what I have been thinking about over the summer. 

My original workbook was black, A5 and scribbled in. I took it everywhere with me other the summer to all of the exhibitions, galleries and films I went to see. I also took it with me to meeting i arranged with different people both professionals and friends who could provide me with inspiration or an idea of through. But as I never am convinced with my first try I decided I needed to make it more presentable to the average reader and redo it. I then went onto an A4 more common sketch pad book and neatly jotted down all of my brainstorm’s on each subject followed by the web definitions I had found. I did this because I as I’m guessing many others did felt overwhelmed by the ideas of three such braud topics.

I planned my trips to particular exhibitions and galleries to be mostly on the same day as I could not afford much but really wanted to re spark my imagination.

Since working for a photographic studio (Venture) I have been increasingly obsessed with the clean crisp white background image. I wanted to get away form that form and look at other artists. So I also took time to look back through previous projects I had done and take influence from artists I had already looked at. Elenor Carucci is one of these. But I am still interested in stages works such as Gregory Crewdson and others.

A Major influence over me this summer was my wedding I had spent 2 years planning the spectacle and it was over in less than a day. However I did get a nice two week honeymoon. You can see the photography from my wedding at the following site: 

http://www.lamplightweb.com/eoslive/chardarNew/

The reason I post this hear is because I love these pictures and they are forever a picture of that day in my mind. My mother told me before the wedding that the photographs are something that I wanted to get right as it can help define that day for the couple and there future family. An incident on my wedding day made me think about all the photo’s I don’t have an the staging of the photography to the degree it is staged. What about the picture of the bridesmaid helping the bride pee or the Grandmother shooting one of the ushers a dirty look or the horrified face of the bride as one of the dressed men changes out of her carefully colour coordinated morning suite.

When I was little my dad loves Star Trek and in an effort to try and make my blog different than the rest I’m trying to keep my personal influences in here at all times. I also to try and link in things that make me feel comfortable in everyday life. One constant in my life has always been television, now I know that sounds like a social deprived family life but that was never the case, I had a normal childhood and a loving family, we did everything normally. I got my love of specific types of television shows from my Dad. I love American soap style programmes such as Bones, Stargate Atlantis, Ghost Whisper and many others. Every year my Nan tells me the story that my Dad faked illness to get them to drive home from a day trip to the seaside to get home in time for a television show. Its influence on my life is not that bad but it does fill the SkyPlus planner and is used for a method of unwinding.

I watched a screening of Little Otik a film by Jan Svankmajer described on IMDB as a movie about a cannibal log baby, which I find hilarious. Little Otik starts off as a lovely tale of a man trying to take away his wife’s pain by providing her with a substitute to what she can not have, children. As fairy tales go it is not the Disney stereotype we are used to in the current western society. However if we look back at some of the first documented versions of the classic Disney fairy tales you will clearly be able to see the basic ideas of greed, death and poverty that rings out in Little Otik. I first watched Little Otik in the first year as it is made using stop motion animation and film. I have always loved the stop motion animation style as it has a disjointed look on reality as you can see it is not smooth running film. Another of Svankmajer’s creations through the looking Glass also inspires me as its Gothic nature put a less Disney spin on the tale, the literal interpretations of characters such as the Queen of Harts and the Card guards is also interesting as it reads directly from reality into the dream world in my opinion.

Another subject I have been looking into is cinema Verity, I have picked up this youtube clip:

Pennerbaken’s don’t look back was also screened in the lecture, the film is as you would have seen in the clip part of the Verity movement and drives us through the piece with a visual logic not a verbal one. This idea of a visual logic is quite inspiring as it links more with the surrealist styles that have interested me throughout most f my projects at Coventry.

3 minutes of my life are about to disapeart today as I do the dreaded, present to a university class. I’m not scared but have you ever felt that feeling that time stops and very human being in the world goes silent just for a second to hear you make that first stutter. Some people suggest that you visualise the audience in there underware, other suggest to find a fixed point and focus on that I however just stop breathing get it over then collapse back to my seat

The following URl can lead you to my presentation http://uniisasteppingstontolife.blogspot.com

Basically it outlines some of the ideas I have come up with for this project.