Youth Centre Opening

On Saturday, 20th November I attended my second event as a photographer. This time it was for the opening of the new youth centre in Widnes. The centre is the start of many new developments for youth within Halton. The centre's opening was brilliant, the council spared no expense and went all out on the hollywood theme for the opening. They had entertaining from singing to dancing as well as a magician. Food was offered and there was a special appearance from Titan the Robot, which personally was the highlight of the day. The centre is state of the art and free to all users, as well as being opening 7 days a week. Overall, I really enjoyed the day and it was a great confidence booster for me, as this was only days after my first attempt at being a event photographer this gave me the chance to work on ideas and gain more experience in this area. The experience I gained was excellent as this was an all day event, I was able to wonder round at my own leisure and photograph whatever I wished with time to spare... so for that reason I found this event to be easier but no less useful. As this was in the middle of the day and the building had windows, the lighting was quite good and was easier to capture shots with good exposure without increasing my ISO, as I did this during the speaking contest and alot of my images had noise on them although this didnt really happen during this event, which was good for me. Below are a selection of images I took at the event...

Halton's Public Speaking Contest 2010

On Tuesday, 16th November I attended Halton's Public Speaking Contest 2010 as the events photographer along with another student from my college photography course, James Wrigley who was also a photographer for the evening. The contest was held at Kingsway College and it is a chance for all schools within the borough to showcase some of their best students from both key stage 3 and key stage 4 who excel in english especially verbal communication. As part of the contest each student has around 3 - 5 minutes to discuss or argue on a subject of their choice... the subjects ranged from global warming, society to music. All students who participated did really well as this isnt as easy as it sounds and I should know as I was one of the competing students in the first public speaking contest although I came second, I really enjoyed the opportunity and it was a useful tool to develop. This was my first attempt at photographing an event as it was only the third week into my course after I had started although I feel I did quite well and the evening went well. It was an excellent learning opportunity for me and I learnt alot, such as how to quickly set up my camera for when I didnt get the shot I wanted and to take as many shots as possible in the amount of time. I feel this opportunity helped me in my course as one of the projects was a documentary based project which is similar to what I did on the evening of this event. Below are a few of the images I captured at the event...

Low Key Wet Photography

As part of wet photography, we learnt about studio work with film and as part of this we looked at low key lighting especially in the work of George Hurrell. George Hurrell was a 1930's and 1940's hollywood photographer who was one of the first to photograph what is now known as glamour photography although as it was the 30's visual content is minimum. Although he made major contributions to glamour, his main style of work was portraits. His clients where hollywoods best including Norma shearer, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo. Hurrell's instantly recognisable work was based heavily on the dramatic lighting which is known as low key lighting. Low key lighting is a lighting effect which creates a high contrast image and a chiaroscuro effect within the image, which accentuates the contours of the subject with deep shadow and bright highlights usually on one side of the subject. Average photographs are created with a three light set up which includes a key light, fill light and back light... where as a low key lighting set up includes a key light and either a fill light or more often than not, just a simple reflector, which is used to control an areas contrast. Low key lighting has a higher lighting ratio such as 1:8 compared to a high key lighting ratio of 1:1. Low key lighting works best in a studio or under very controlled environments as this effect works best for potraits. During this project, I learnt alot about studio lighting and the set ups needed to create a low key lighting effect of which I think will be extremely useful in the future. Also, I learnt about light ratios which is really important and useful. Below are a few images from my low key shoot...

 The first image is the fully exposed contact strip for my negatives... the exposure time was five seconds.

This is my final print before I experimented with the magenta filter, it is the complete shot... I am very happy with this image as I think it has worked quite well. The exposure time for this shot was three seconds. This image is a hurrell replica and not my own set up as I reproduced the set up of which I thought was used to create the original image.

This is the same shot and negative as the previous image although for this shot, I have enlargered and printed a specific part of the negative to create a close up shot. Again, this is before I have used the magenta filter, the exposure was five seconds. I am pleased again with this image as I think it has worked well. Although the original image was a replica this close up image was that of my own ideas.

This is a different shot, although for this image I have experimented with the magenta filter. I increased the filter to seventyfive and increased the exposure time to seven seconds. I think it came out quite well and I am pleased with the outcome. Again, this image is a re-created attempt of a Hurrell image.

This is again the enlarged negative only this time I have used the magenta filter... still at seventyfive although the exposure time was thirteen seconds. I am very pleased with the outcome as I think it is a good example of low key lighting.

The difference about this shot is that it is my own shot, pose and set up where as the other's where Hurrell replica's. This is the complete shot and I have used a magenta filter although it is only set to fifty and the exposure time was five seconds. I am very pleased with this image as it is my own set up and it has came out the way I intended and I feel works really well and also is a good example of low key lighting.

Tattoo Documentary Project

These are the twelve final shots from my documentary project within my photography course. The project was based on tattooing. For the final shots, I had to follow the photo essay structure which had to consist of an establishing shot, which would act as an opening to a story therefore it had to set scene. A medium shot, which is the follow on shot so it would have to bring the viewer closer to the action. A detail shot, which is of course a shot with detail relating to the story or theme. next, was the portrait shot, which is the main character or subject. Afterwards, came the moment shot, which is the peak of the story and the main action/ shot. Finally, the closing shot, which is a natural end to the story. For this project, we had to come up with a message or theme that we had to portray through the images and it had to be consistent throughout the images otherwise it would not be clear what the theme was... the theme for my project was to portray tattooing from the artists point of view as most images relating to tattooing are from the clients perspective or just of the tattoo where as I wanted to try something different. Throughout this project I was able to further develop everything I learnt from the last project and learn new skill such as photographing in a environment out of my control as I have no control over the lighting or the subjects. I found documentary photography really interesting and enjoyable although I think when doing this type of photography the photographer should keep direction to a minimum of which is what I did throughout my time in the tattoo studio. Aslo, I was able to use my imagination alot during this project as I needed shots that where understandable of what the shot was of but I wanted to try to get more abstract and different and more interesting shots rather than obvious shots such as a shot of the studio from the outside for the establishing shot as instead  my establishing shot was of the studios business card with the tattooist in the background but with a shallow depth of field.