Project Evaluation

Overall, I really enjoyed this project. It was very open and it was fun to see everyone's individual work as well as taking inspiration from each other. I found some new photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz who I really admire now and I would like to try some more cloudscapes on film. My favourite thing about this project is the freedom and I quite enjoyed not having a workbook to worry about. If I did it again I would experiment more with portraiture and possibly do more than one film. 

My favourite image is still one from the first week;

Week 6 Evaluation

Although my images were no where near as successful as Alfred Stieglitz's, I think I did pretty well. Stieglitz's images are much higher contrast and have more range in the tones. I could have achieved this by using an orange, or possibly red filter but I was sadly unable to get hold of one.

Alfred Stieglitz

This series of images was named "Equivalents" and ranged from 1925 - 1934. Stieglitz is highly reguarded to be one of the first photographers to escape from images always having a direct meaning and the images are very abstract for the time period. The series contained about 220 images and it is rare for any of these to feature common aspects of cloudscapes such as horizons and trees although towards the end of the series he did do a set involvng trees.

Week 6 - Taking after Alfred Stieglitz

As I had planned at the start of the project, my film week is studying clouds. This is something I do a lot on digital and after seeing Alfred Stieglitz's work I really wanted to do a fim study on film. With the awful weather and the fact the whole of England has been covered by one huge, unsightly storm cloud, I had to wait for a nice day and was very close to resorting to my back-up plan. Thankfully, the bad weather passed and I managed to get the following Stieglitz-inspired images.

Taken: 29th March, 2010

Edited: N/A

Camera used : Nikon F50

My first cloud image, This one is quite dark in general but I love all the contrast and how the sun is breaking through the clouds in the top right corner. There is a great variation of fluffy, soft clouds and thick, dense clouds.

Taken: 29th March, 2010

Edited: N/A

Camera used : Nikon F50

This is an interesting image in the way the clouds are parted in three places. There is less sunlight in this but more contrast.

Taken: 29th March, 2010

Edited: N/A

Camera used : Nikon F50

This is by far my favourite from the set. With the sunlight very bright to the right, the light gradually fades out until there are very deep, grey clouds to the left. Out of all the images this one has the best variation in tone.

During this photoshoot I also wanted to do some Alfred Stieglitz with a modern twist by adding some man-made structures. This is again, something I love to do with digital.

Taken: 29th March, 2010

Edited: N/A

Camera used : Nikon F50

The phone mast is very central and dark giving a good focal point to the image. I also took a similar image with the phone mast off to the left to go by the rule of thirds but decided I like it more when it is central.

On the way home from my photoshoot I was walking down an ally I walk down everyday and have often photographed with little success. I thought to myself, maybe it will look better on film, so I gave it a go and I really like the results.

Taken: 29th March, 2010

Edited: N/A

Camera used : Nikon F50

Taken: 29th March, 2010

Edited: N/A

Camera used : Nikon F50

The area looks very run down with strange angles and tilted buildings.

Week 5 Evaluation

I wasn't hugely keen on this set when I first saw them but they have grown on me. My idea to stick to famous brands came from the infamous Andy Warhol, in particular his very famous Campbell's Soup image from 1968.  I searched high a low for a can like this but just when I need one, I can't find it.

The idea of using repetition also came from Warhol's work. This image below of Marilyn Monroe made me want to keep the black marks in the images which I originaly wasn't keen on.

To start with I was tempted to re-shoot for week 5 but after more research I grew to like my own images and now I am quite please with them.

Week 5 - Popart

This weeks images were very experimental and I wasn't sure how they would come out. Overall I am reasonable pleased with the images although I think I could have done better. These images were made by taking a photo in my macro light box and then heavily editing them by putting the contrast up high and adding effects.

Taken: 28th March, 2010

Edited: 28th Marth, 2010

Camera used : FinePix S5800

My favourite from the week, when I was researching I noticed many popartists use repitition in their images and I did this by simply copy and pasting the original (The left image) and changing the colours each time.

 This Marmite jar was a limited edition version for Valentine's Day a few years ago. My Mum has collected Marmite merchendise for years so there was no shortage of options here.

Taken: 28th March, 2010

Edited: 28th Marth, 2010

Camera used : FinePix S5800

I carried on the repitition with this image. Again, a well known brand, which is often used in Popart. The three tins were photographed seperatly and then stacked together. The images didn't really change much when edited, possibly due to the fact they are already very graphic and bold. 

Taken: 28th March, 2010

Edited: 28th Marth, 2010

Camera used : FinePix S5800

Yet another well known brand which I put through the same editing and photographic processes to make.

Taken: 28th March, 2010

Edited: 28th Marth, 2010

Camera used : FinePix S5800

Yet again carrying on with the brand theme. Like the syrup set, this design didn't change much, again I can guess this is due to how graphic the design already is.

Taken: 28th March, 2010

Edited: 28th Marth, 2010

Camera used : FinePix S5800

The last in the set and of course, sticking with famous brands. Cola is an extrmely common subject amongst popartists so this was a must-hand in the set.

Week Four Evaluation

I am extremely pleased with this weeks images and I think overall they are a very successful set of images. The original idea was not to make them look scary but I really like this quality they have. The most scary aspect of it for me was going back to something I'd spent much of my childhood building and collecting for. Back then the whole dolls house was very sweet and innocent, now it has that eerie aspect from the images which somehow sap all the innocence out of it. One way I'd have loved to imposve these is by using a proper macro lens rather than a simple macro setting on my camera.

Inspiration
My inspiration for this week was a photographer called Matthew Albanese who I saw on The Sun website with his Mother Nature series.

"My work involves the construction of small-scale meticulously detailed models using various materials and objects to create emotive landscapes. Every aspect from the construction to the lighting of the final model is painstakingly pre-planned using methods which force the viewers perspective when photographed from a specific angle. Using a mixture of photographic techniques such as scale, depth of field, white balance and lighting I am able to drastically alter the appearance of my materials. "

Below are some examples of Albanese' work.

This shows how Albanese creates his work. He simply makes a little world or surrounding to create these wonderful images.

"Made out of tile grout, cotton, phosphorous ink. This model volcano was illuminated from within by 6-60 watt light bulbs."

Another example of Albanese making his work.

"Fields, After the Storm. This model is simply made out of faux fur(fields), cotton (clouds) and sifted tile grout(mountains). The perspective is forced as in all of my images, and the lighting effect was created by simply shifting the white balance."

Sugarland, Made out of 20 pounds of sugar, jello and corn syrup. The crystals were grown in my studio over the course of two months.

Aurora Borealis. This one was made by photographing a beam of colored light against a black curtain to achieve the edge effect. The trees were composited from life ( so far the only real life element in any of these images) The stars are simply strobe light through holes in cork board.

Tornado made of steel wool, cotton, ground parsley and moss

This one is a mixture of many different materials, tile grout, moss, bottle brushes (pine trees) Actual clippings from ground cover and was built on top of standard outdoor patio table (water glass). The sky is canvas painted blue. Coloring was again achieved by shifting white balance.

This is the one which gave me the dolls house idea, although I didn't want to set fire to my childhood. Burning Room, Made of wood, nylon, plexiglass, purchased dollhouse furniture. The model was actually set on fire to achieve this effect.

Week Four - Minaiture Madness

For this week, I cracked open my old dolls house I had as a kid which sadly got ruined. I had originaly planned to keep the images colour but I changed them to black and white as an experiment and was happy with the results. The images look very eerie.

Taken: 29th March, 2010

Edited: 29th Marth, 2010

Camera used: FinePix S5800

My first in this series of images. What I really love about this image is the contrast between the chair and the rest of the image.  The depth of field really helps the chair stand out. All the detail in the little dolls house furniture really makes the images.

This is by far the scariest from the series. While editing this one I put the contrast up to create more of an atmosphere in the image. This was taken in a hallway of the dolls house. The halls are very narrow which made the photograph frame itself with the walls which makes the whole area feel more closed in a chlaustraphobic, adding yet more to the atmosphere.

Taken: 29th March, 2010

Edited: 29th Marth, 2010

Camera used: FinePix S5800

My favourite thing about this image is the shadows. While buying the furniture for this room a long time ago, I remember choosing the fireplace due to the fact it's very similar to the one we have in our lounge at home. I had never realised until I had finished editing the image that there is the shadow of the woman in the dolls house over the fireplace. This made me want to go back and take one just of her shadow.

Taken: 29th March, 2010

Edited: 29th Marth, 2010

Camera used: FinePix S5800

This is the aforementioned image of the woman's shadow. I thought it would look better than it does but overall I am pleased with it. The way the image is positioned looks like it's a bust when infact it was a whole doll of a woman.

This is one I really like from the shoot. I'd probably say this is the most successful in the way that it is the closest to looking like a real room. Again, I feel what really makes this image is the shadows and contrast. The image has graduated tones from the left to right, starting very dark with many shadows to a simple blank wall to the right.

Taken: 29th March, 2010

Edited: 29th Marth, 2010

Camera used: FinePix S5800

Last but not least, this is the outside of dolls house. You can see from here how damaged the dolls house is with the missing door, damaged windows and ruined paintwork. I love the lighting in this image but I don't feel it looks very realistic.