JADE TILL PHOTOGRAPHY

I’ve been lazy, again. 

I really should get my arse into gear and be consistent if i’m ever going to get a good name for myself as a photographer. Currently been too wrapped up in my own personal life and working life to  really get anything going with my photography, but the termination of my employment in 2 weeks should mean plenty of time for me to be a lot more photography-active! Well, inbetween job hunting in leeds and sorting out my mountains of uni-related stuff *sigh*

Anyway, so i’ll be planning on uploading some reviews + pictures about recent gigs and escapades, such as the 5 Less Than Jake gigs I went to the other week, Hit The Deck fest, Groezrock, Slam Dunk + other things! I’m also forcing myself to create a  website. Flickr is great but I have so much stuff on there now, the stuff i’m really proud of gets lost in all the average and not so good stuff. I need a place I can showcase my good stuff which makes me look professional, im also thinking business cards, maybe? why not. if anyone can give me any help/pointers with the business cards + website stuff i’d appreciate it a lot! Remember i’m an unemployed now, so cheap and cheerful ideas, please!
I’m also writing/contributing stuff to an awesome new local (hull)  zine called Crass Nouveau, which has been organised and put together by my lovely friend Jesse Casey, if your interested in independent creativity stemming from the Hull area then follow/like them on…

tumblr ( http://crassnouveau.tumblr.com/ )

twitter @crassnouveau

+ facebook! http://facebook.com/crassnouveau

its only just the beginning but im expecting good things to come from this, they will be a lot from me + others for the music enthusiasts aswell as lots lots more.

Seen as i’ll be unemployed and have LOTS of spare time and £0, i’m going to be offering my photography services to anyone or any bands that want promo shots doing, obviously because i’m wanting to persue this as a career, I will be charging, i cant give out freebies forever (something every artist must realise at some point) although my prices wont be steep as i know times are hard and im hardly a well sought-after proffessional. But if yourself or anyone you know wants some photography work doing, of ANY kind (i recently just did a set of prom photos for a family friends daughter) get them to drop me a message - jadetillphotography@hotmail.co.uk

So i’m going to try and keep myself busy with that lot untill September where i’ll be FINALLY moving to Leeds, to go to Uni. Although last year i was 99.9% set on never going to Uni, I figured I got the best grades I could get at college, so I must be good, plus just being a working girl has pushed my creativity down to a minimum, not exactly what I was hoping for. I want to be back in the creative zone again, and have the opportunity to learn new things, too! I am also DESPERATE to get out of hull and finding out that my job wasnt going to be secure for much longer + not wanting anything else in hull, all these things pushed me towards Uni. I get to live in Leeds, closer to a lot of my friends, much better opportunities  MUCH better bands/venues/ nightlife (obviously important) and 3 years there studying Visual Communication should be enough time to find my feet in leeds and i’ll hopefully make my move out of Hull permanent. 

 So, in not so-much of a nutshell, thats a quick update on my life + plans so far. Hopefully i’ll be blogging a bit more frequently now, and getting some work out there…

watch out for me!

 - Jade x

I’ve had a tumblr before but didnt really use it for anything important. Mostly wingeing and re-blogging pictures of cats and pretty things. This time I promise to keep my posts about my photography. Well, at least 80% of it. I cant guarantee this blog will be completely free of funny pictures of cats…

For those who don’t know me I am a photographer residing in Hull. I studied photography for 2 years at Hull College and since then have decided to take some time out of education. I may go to Uni later on, but for now i’m happy to not be bound by deadlines and hectic pressure. I mainly shoot bands. I do have some small magazine contacts and commitments, which hopefully I will be able to see materialize in the next couple of months :) but other than that I photograph gigs and bands for fun and to build up my portfolio. The way I see it is even if I wasn’t photographing these gigs I would be there anyway, enjoying them, so why shouldn’t I get to enjoy them and be creative at the same time? It also means I have pictures for other people and myself to enjoy. Its really one of my favourite things to do in life ever,  and although I only started officially gig photographing in January this year, I have already had the opportunity to photograph over 30 bands! That ain’t bad going considering i am in no way a professional and havn’t had any big fancy magazine helping me to get the gigs. I got to photograph my first festival too, non other than the Rebellion Punk Festival, getting up close to shoot The Old Firm Casuals, Capdown, Pennywise, The Bouncing Souls (and more) was simply amazing! This is probably my favourite photo from the 4 day festival! 

I’ve also photographed some of my favourite childhood bands like Good Charlotte and Bowling For Soup… if someone had told me when i was 8 and listening to their records that I would one day be photographing them I would never have believed it!

Although this all sounds amazing and pretty easy, it hasn’t been easy, and it has been very hard. I adore traveling and traveling to see bands also, but to fund this I have to work and with work limits what shows and the amount of shows I can go to, its a total Catch 22 situation. Some days I have traveled all the way from london after a gig to get straight to work, and just powered through an entire shift. Its hard, but its the only way I can do it and i appreciate and enjoy that I can do it on my own, off my own back and paying my own way :) it feels great, and it feels even better when someone appreciates the work and compliments you on it. So although all this photography this year hasn’t earnt me a dime and has cost me a hell of alot of money, i believe its all been worth it. Its coming towards the end of the year now, with a couple of gigs still scheduled to shoot. Im hopeing by this time next year i’ll be in a better situation money-wise and hopefully have my name known just a little bit more, which is what i hope this blog will help with :) 

Thats my little bit of my ‘about me and photography’ rant over, so now spread the word that this blog exists, check out my Flickr and Facebook pages (links below) Give me advice, tell me what you think, tell me anything, I want to hear it all!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/greendayjade/sets/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jade-Till-Photography/121698451247287