Surrealism becomes hard reality

For the first time, since I started my photography course I actually failed to pass a brief... solely for the fact that I never handed it in because I had not completed it... I simply ran in to too many problems and out of time and I was not able to quickly get over each problem.

Unfortunately, most of the blame is my own... I was unable to move on from the challenges of this brief quickly or at all, I let each problem drag me down until in the final week, I just gave up through disappointment. Which now, was the complete wrong thing to do... instead of getting dragged down by the problems, I should have learnt from them and quickly moved on rather than kicking my feet for a couple of days, but coming from a not so good project, I was determined to make this one work and act like my come back, however this was not to happen as at the first signs trouble, I jumped ship.

In this brief I ran into quite a few problems... firstly was my own mind, as the project was set on surrealism, therefore we could basically to anything, and I took to long to settle on a idea as the spectrum was just too wide for my narrow vision. Then I went through a few ideas before choosing my final one, only discarding each idea because it was too cliche. Instead of taking so long, I should have focused a lot more early on to nail down the idea that I would use.

Next, was the artist research and I just did not know how to present it or how many to research... in the end this took me three to four weeks to complete (the project was six weeks long) although, through this I managed to understand what I should do in future briefs for research as I quite enjoyed presenting the research in this project. 

After the research, came to mind maps and development of my initial ideas... this actually went well, this was during the week where my mind was at ease and thinking straight. I was easily able to develop my ideas into effective images, which I thought would be great and as a result got very excited about the end results... unfortunately possibly a little too excited as this is where I made the mistake of setting "my heart" on the way that the project would continue.

There after, it came down to the test shots, I only had three and five ideas wrote up in my proposal and generally in my mind, as I did not know what my last two images should be, however I continued with the three ideas I had... All of my images would be location shoots as the location was extremely important to the image and the location would give the image the atmosphere and stage for the viewers to interpret the image in the way that I wanted. Therefore, I researched local location, and I found the perfect locations, in my mind, and all within walking distance give or take an hour or two. Everything seemed to be going well, I had the idea, the location and my friends had agreed to help and be my subjects... perfect, I was back with a vengeance with this project... or so I thought. 

Roll on the night of the test shots, I am all there at the meeting place and who should be there but... only me... no one turns up, I contact them... no answer. We re-arrange... again, no one turns up. This continued three times, until I gave in and settled for a different location, again no one shows.

So test shots already a week late with two weeks left, I had to completely change the location and subjects, to my girlfriend locate around the corner from her house.

However, the shots did not even turn out the way I wanted, the basic digital camera that I had at the time was not good enough, it was not able to cope with night time photography and therefore the images turned out terrible... over the next week I continued to try to get my test shots, whilst continuing the rest of the project, however, due date... still only half of my test shots, not much that I could have done.

Although, I have learnt that I must not rely on people as much as I did in that project, also when things go wrong, I should get over them as quickly as possible without kick and screaming... as I know I am capable of creating effective solutions. Furthermore, as in the last week I effectively gave up, this was wrong and I really shouldn't of done that and I now know that, that was the wrong thing to do and I can ensure you that it will not happen again.
Luckily, I am able to go back to this project and not only finish it but make sure that it is as good as possible, only this time I will do things differently... firstly, I am going to refine my theme and influence through a selective mood board, then I will just experiment through images an try to be as fluent as possible... thus is all I have planned so far, the next step after this is yet to be seen as I react accordingly to how it goes and the results I get... all i know for sure, is that this time I will not fail again.

Macro Photography

For my brief, of which is based on landscapes and nature, I thought an interesting experiment/technique for which I should try, is Macro Photography, as I believe it will be something a little bit different. For these images, I use a macro lens adapter, which is 10x magnified. The subjects, in relation to my brief where natural, most of the subjects are objects from which I brought from home, to specifically use with the macro lens. For most of the images I used the light box instead of the studio, however for some of the images I was outside with natural light. Before I started, I quickly researched images of macro photography, looking at no one in particular but to just get a feel for the typical style of which I want to avoid. After, a few shots I become very comfortable with the lens adapter and my own style of macro photography, therefore as I already found a shutter speed and aperture of which gave me correctly exposed images there was not much to alter. However, I found that by changing the white balance, it changed the whole colour and atmosphere of the image, and therefore giving it a completely different feel. Also, as I had not previously altered the white balance, this gave me a good opportunity to become accustomed to these settings and a good chance to experiment with it. 

I mainly used the pre-setting options of Incandescent, Direct Sunlight, Cloudy and Florescent White Balance. Each setting had a different outcome...

The effects that I prefer the most are Incandescent and Florescent, which are the majority of my final images...

Studio Photography

The next project that we have done, was based on studio work, therefore we had to create eight final shots all within the studio, to a professional quality. However, it was not quite as simple as this as for the entire project, we had to work with a partner... which isn't as easy as it seems. The aim was that each pair, would work together and ideally complete their work with a similar theme and look, however due to a difficult partnership with my partner, we opted for completely different style's as I went for the low key, dark and moody effect apposed to my partners high key, light effect.

Furthermore, for this project we worked with media make up students, which was a fantastic experience and learning process, as it gave me the chance to witness how the make up was applied as well as giving me the opportunity to work with other people, who have control over how he subjects/ images look, therefore it forced me to work with other people and discuss the outcomes rather than doing it all my way, which was very useful and something I definitely need to be able to do, if I want to become a photographer as a career path. 

The theme for the brief, was Aliens, again which was really good fun and made the studio work a lot more interesting as it wasn't a basic portrait shoot but it had a bit of difference, therefore making it more enjoyable for both myself and the media make up students. 

As previously stated, my theme for this shoot was low key lighting, to create an intense, dark and unsettling atmosphere as I really wanted to portray the subjects as non-human and slightly dangerous. Also, with the fantastic quality of the make up of the subjects, I really wanted to follow through the quality and I believe that the low key lighting creates a quality image without any loss of atmosphere, which for me is an essential part of any image and how it will be portrayed. 

I really enjoyed this photo shoot, as it gave me the chance to really explore lighting options and effects, both low and high key, although I do prefer low key as for me it creates a deeper and darker atmosphere which was extremely fun to replicate in the photo shoot as I think it works very well. Also I really enjoyed trying out different effects to achieve different atmospheres, and seeing how an image is portrayed differently due to the atmosphere..

Below are my eight final shots for this project...

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.