Photographer linked to personal investigation-Heather Angel

Heather Angel-Research

Heather Angel originally had a career in marine biology before she decided to become a freelance wildlife photographer. So far she has founded her own image library, Natural Visions, for marketing images of the natural world, and teaches seminars, workshops and gives lectures on photography. Heather has a passion for photographing animals, plants and macro subjects. So i found Heather through looking up macro landscape photographers, and once i had seen her work on macro photography i wanted to use it as an influence for some of my rural shoots, as i plan to take macro photos within the whole landscape. Also from looking at photos from Heathers seminar (in my glossary post) i then got an idea for one of my shoots, which was taking these elements from the environment and taking macro photos of them in a studio, so its soley just that object in the photo on a blank background. I found the photos that she had taken as quite abstract and so reminded of a previous artist i have searched, Imogen Cunningham.  In recent years, she has invested a lot of time working at Kew Gardens documenting the wildlife there for her book and exhibition Wild Kew and is currently working on a big project about floral structure. Major solo exhibitions of Heather’s work have been on show in London, India, China, Malaysia, and Egypt. Heather has been popular within wildlife photography in Britain for several decades, with her images appearing in magazines and books all over the world. As Heather photos are popular and consistent on wildlife photography, i chose her as an inspiration because her work has given me quite a few different ideas for my shoots. Her work has also been recognised by many awards in Britain and overseas.  Heather Angel was the first photographer that i had researched before i changed my project proposal to being about both the beauty and flawed side of nature and urban environments, so her work is more on the obvious beauty side to nature, compared to Ansel who shows nature in a slightly different way because his is more intensified and unrealistic, because if the audience was actually viewing what he had taken a photo of in real life, it wouldn't look anywhere near what it does in his photographs, where as in Heathers photos how she conveys the subjects of her photos its more natural and obvious. With exceptions to her macro photographs because those are more abstract and does take some time for the beauty to hit the audience.

I found this photo quite abstract, not like Imogen's photos but in the way that its basically just loads of circles. The Lily pad is the main big circle and it has plenty of smaller circles on it and around it due to the rain drops. So photo is a close-up of nature on a pond or lack which is what i will do for one f my shoots and so i will try to re-take the photo. However even though this photo is a close up it does look quite zoomed in so maybe it was taken with a telephoto lens with macro as its zoomed but captures a lot of the detailing the photo. Also because of the ripple of the edges of the pond lily and the shadows that it creates as the light it from above, makes the pond lily appear as if it has been edited onto the water. 

This photo is one of my favourites, because i love how the trees are shown in this photo. Even though the photo is just looking up at the trees like we do all the time, its from a lower height, almost at an ants eye view, but its also got quite a wide angle allowing quite a lot of trees to be visible. The effect of the tress leading up to the sky and the leafs at the top covering the sky is really good, and not all parts of the sky is covered there's cracks which has then brightened up the photo, if the whole canopy layer covered the sky then photo could have a completely different tone to it, it would be much darker. I do want to try and re-create this photo, or a photo of trees in the style of this, but the trees in the UK normally aren't so thin and long in a normally woodland area, so i would probably have to take the photo a bit lower to get nearly the same effect

Out of both of the photos the right one does catch my attention more, because of the contrast between the light and the dark. But when i look at both of the photos i feel like i prefer the left on because of how much the tree that appears yellow stands out from the other trees, even though there is another aspen tree visible, the one with the most leaves still stands more because of its vibrancy. Because the photos are of the exact same area, just a vertical and a landscape version. The photos have almost the same features, for example both have a lower level of the grass at the bottom and the mid-level of the trees, and with the left photo the leaves from the taller trees are slightly visible on the top level. So these two photos are a good example of how when you change you perspective on something the whole meaning behind it can change. 

This photo is of an alone oak tree, taken during sunset as the sky is very misty and hazy and looks like its quite dark from the sun setting, this adds to the general tone of the photo, which is dam because of the black and white filter and how the whole tree just appears black, almost moulding in the smaller tree on the left side of the main one. The sun is also visible towards the right side of the photo setting, the sun isn't affect the lans by lens flare or really having much affect on the lighting of the photo as the weather seems to appear cold because of how hazy this photo is. As the leaves on the three isn't really visible, it looks like this photo was taken during autumn or winter, as opposed to spring or summer, as the tree would have been more full of leaves and so the sun probably wouldn't have been visible through the leaves.

As the leave stand out amongst the background of the dark trees that seem to appear as they don't end and go off onto an endless black background. The filter gave the Aspen tree a chance to appear very vibrant against it, even though this photo appears to be in black and white, but the leaves do almost loo like they are yellow. To me both of theses images give off an eery effect because of the very dark tones in both of this image, especially the vertical photo with all of the trees in a line that continues into the dark, but the audience doesn't know how far that line of trees go. 

Photographer linked to personal investigation- Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams-Research

Ansel Adams was a photographer, writer, lecturer and environmentalist, born in California 1902. He didn't really fit in at school and so he was tutored at home by his dad and aunt. When he was 12 he taught himself to play piano, which was his primary occupation until 1920. He then gave up music for photography, when his parents gave him his first camera, a kodak no.1 box brownie. He then joined Sierra club which was vital to his early success as a photographer, as his first published photographers appeared in their 1922 bulletin. Group f/36 was founded in 1932. The members of the group included Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, John Paul Edwards, Preston Holder, Consuelo Kanaga, Alma Lavenson, Sonya Noskowiak, Henry Swift, Willard Van Dyke, Brett Weston and Edward Weston, even though the group was short lived it brought the west coast vision of straight photography to national attention and influence.Their images were characterised by a clear, sharp-focus aesthetic, which was at odds with the pictoralist methods in fashion at the time. The name f.64 refers to the smallest aperture on a camera, used by the group because it provided the greatest depth of field, allowing for much of the photograph to be in sharp focus. Perhaps the overarching vision of the group was their belief in the camera as a passive observer of the world, better able to depict life as it really was because it did not project personal prejudices. Adam started to struggle finically and so he was compelled to spend a lot of his time as a commercial photographer. Soon after he developed the famous 'zone system' of controlling and relating exposure and development, which allowed photographers to to visualise an image and produce a photo that matched and expressed that same visualisation. Because of Ansel's great interest in the environment and wilderness, his images were seen as symbols and veritable icons of wild America. Even though his black and white images were not truly realistic documents of nature, he tended to intensify  the psychological experience of natural beauty by using filters. Ansel was criticised for failing to include any sign of humanity within his work. For example Henri Cartier-Bresson commented that " the world is falling to pieces and all Adams and Weston photograph is rocks and trees". So he was seen as a photographer of an idealised wilderness that no longer exists. Ansel would normally use large format view cameras e.g 8x10 or 4x5 view cameras. The front and rear standards can move in various ways relative to each other, this provides control over focus, depth of field, and perspective and the camera is usually used on a tripod allowing no affects from the shakiness from hands..He also used filters quite frequently that gave more of an unrealistic view of the scene.

 

(Tenaya creek, Dogwood, Rain)

Before coming across this creek, Ansel was looking for dogwood flowers to capture photos of in Yosemite park, California. To take this photo of the creek, Ansel used his 8x10 camera as he would the majority of the time. During the time of taking this exact photo light rain started to fall and so Ansel used the focusing cloth to keep rain off the camera. Even though there was light rainfall, Ansel was still able to have an exposure of 1/2 a second, which gives a light blurriness to the flowing water stream. Also because of the rain there is more detail and richness within the photo. To me this photo looks more like a painting than a photo, just because of the general composure of the photo it doesn't really have much of a foreground and background separated, even though the background that appears to be mountains, it still mores into on because of the colouring of the photo and the rain. This photo interested me because of how its of a creek and not just normal woodland or a tree. So the creek really draws me in and to me is the part of the photo that looks most like a painting, but thats because of the expire time that Ansel used. I also think that from what i can recognise are the dogwood flowers, are the leaves that come off of the tree in the left section the photo, because these leaves are considerably brighter compared to other leaves in the photo. Because of tho brightness they are more visible and to me makes this photo similar to the photo bellow of the aspen trees because those too stood out from the rest of the trees. From the places where i took my second shoot, there was a river there, but you could only see or get the river if you went through trees, which then becomes very dark because you are completely surrounded by trees. So even though i had water i couldn't quite capture a similar photo that would show how the style i had taken it in was inspired by Ansel's work.

(Aspens, New Mexico, 1958)

This photo is of Aspen trees, Aspen trees are known as the "shivering tree" as the leaves are thought to continuously tremble. Ansel was driving through the mountains with some of his assistants when they came across these aspens in mellow golden autumn tints. For this photo Ansel used one of his larger cameras that he regularly used, the 8x10" plate camera. To capture both of theses images the way he did, Ansel had to ensure that there were no areas of the sky that would've been bright areas, causing a distraction, so he used the tall trees that are visible as a background so that the sky couldn't intrude from behind. Ansel was able to use an exposure of 1 second because there was no breeze, even though aspen leaves do shake in only the slightest winds. Ansel used a deep yellow filter to brighten the leaves and a negative developer so that he could produce this images and not the representation of how the actual scene was. As the leave stand out amongst the background of the dark trees that seem to appear as they don't end and go off onto an endless black background. The filter gave the Aspen tree a chance to appear very vibrant against it, even though this photo appears to be in black and white, but the leaves do almost loo like they are yellow. To me both of theses images give off an eery effect because of the very dark tones in both of this image, especially the vertical photo with all of the trees in a line that continues into the dark, but the audience doesn't know how far that line of trees go. With the photo on the right the thing that most catches my eye in the photo is the whole contrast that is going on with the darkness of the black background against the white trees. Out of both of the photos the right one does catch my attention more, because of the contrast between the light and the dark. But when i look at both of the photos i feel like i prefer the left on because of how much the tree that appears yellow stands out from the other trees, even though there is another aspen tree visible, the one with the most leaves still stands more because of its vibrancy. Because the photos are of the exact same area, just a vertical and a landscape version. The photos have almost the same features, for example both have a lower level of the grass at the bottom and the mid-level of the trees, and with the left photo the leaves from the taller trees are slightly visible on the top level. So these two photos are a good example of how when you change you perspective on something the whole meaning behind it can change. So to me the right vertical photo is far more eery than the left photo because its just of the branches which are white against the dark background, where as the left photo has the yellow hints from the leaves and the tone of the photo is a bit more brighter than the right photo. I would like to try and capture a photo like this within my shoots as i know some places with trees like these, but i would have to edit them on photoshop to get the tones that Ansel achieved, by blocking out the sky.

(Rose and driftwood)

Ansel took this photo of a rose in his home in San Francisco when his mother showed him this rose and so Adam wanted to photograph it. When this photo was taken photography hadn't been established as an art form. So the picture is seen as an early example, and was made before Adams developed his idea, of the "visualization" of a picture that allows the photographer include refined details, as you are able to visual how the photo will be before you take the photo. For this photo Ansel used  a 4 x 5 in view camera. At the time Ansel wasn't the expert in exposure that he became and so he bracketed six exposures (he took the photograph six times with each being a slightly different exposure in order to get at least one of them just right). Because the focus was so close, depth of field was very limited and the aperture was set at f/45, needing a five second exposure, but this didn't cause a problem as Ansel was photographing a still life object. The photo was taken in natural lighting which suited the rose petals as they are translucent. Ansel added the driftwood as a background so there was something to contest with the rose petal. The design of the driftwood is quite similar in terms of the shapes to the petals of the rose as the wood curves and layers over itself just like rose petals do. Because of this i feel like the driftwood has made a big impact on this photo and really pushed it because without the wood being there the photo would be completely different. 

Normally you wouldn't see driftwood and a rose together because a rose would still be attached to its stem on a rose bush, so i find this photo really interesting because even though its not completely weird to see these two items together because they're both from nature, it still comes off as different and unusual to a viewer. I think that Ansel chose driftwood for a particular reason because in terms of symbolism the driftwood and rose match each other as they both curl and curve and layer up.

(Oak tree,  sierra foothills, Sunset city California, 1962, part of sierra club)

From researching Ansel, knowing that he uses view cameras and normally uses a 8x10" one, i have assumed that he used that camera for this photo, with a black and white filter over the lens too because the photo doesn't really look completely realistic. This photo is of an alone oak tree, taken during sunset as the sky is very misty and hazy and looks like its quite dark from the sun setting or rising, this adds to the general tone of the photo, which is dark because of the black and white filter and how the whole tree just appears black, almost molding in the smaller tree on the left side of the main one. The sun is also visible towards the right side of the photo setting, the sun hasn't effected the lens by lens flare or really having much affect on the lighting of the photo as the weather seems to appear cold because of how hazy this photo is. As the leaves on the three isn't really visible, it looks like this photo was taken during autumn or winter, as opposed to spring or summer, as the tree would have been more full of leaves and so the sun probably wouldn't have been visible through the leaves. Even though the photo is black and white the sky looks dark grey and on the corners almost look burned and the very bottom section of the photo, where the grass is, too looks as if it could be burned. For me the sun really sticks out to me, because of how the whole general tone of the photo is dark, but in the distance the sun just appears bright and is un-misable seen though its a very small feature within this photo. Even though the sun does stand out because of its brightness against the dark tones, it still isn't eye-catching and doesn't take any of the attention away from the main tree in the photo. To me this photo represents isolation, as in what looks like a field, only this tree at first look is visible, however after looking at the photo closely the tree behind the main one becomes visible. So to me the fact that theres two trees visible but the bigger tree in the front takes most of the attention represents how even though someone might look looney, they've probably still got someone else there with them. As it is quite rare that you would come across a person who is completed isolated, they may think they are but they're not. So to me thats the same as this big tree, because where i live its a bit rare that in a big field to see one large tree completely isolated.

Influence and summery

On my second shoot, i did try to capture a photo of a tree very similar in shape and size to the tree in Oak tree, but there was too many sounding trees in the background for it to come out the exact sen, but it is similar so once i edited it black and white and add some burring to the photo, hopefully i will have a photo that was inspired by Ansel adams style.

Shoot 2- Clay hill

Shoot2-Clay hill

Plan for shoot

I chose to take my second shoot in the area of Clay hill which is in Enfield because i knew that it was a large area of woodland with some variation of landscape, as there are fields, a river ect. So because i needed to improve upon capturing a better variety of photos from my first shoot i thought this would be the best suited place to improve upon that factor. I also know that its quite a popular place for people to go so there would probably be some litter or vandalism e.g graffiti. I think that the place I'm going to will enable me to capture photos most liked to the style of Ansel Adams.

Contact sheet-Of 60 photos

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

With this shoot, i intended to improve on most of the things that i failed to aheieve in my first shoot, or things that i knew i could improve upon from that first shoot. So for example, in my first shoot i shot in an eara that was relitavly small so the shoot did become repatative and so thats why i decided that my second shoot needed to be in a bigegr place like Clay hill that has a vairity of different landscapes and areas for my photos. In my first shoot i also did not have a lot of influnce in my photos from the artists i had researched so i made such i came to a good area that would allow me to take photos in the style of those photographers. In my first shoot, i didnt really use alot of different techniques, only depth of field, so in this shoot i tried a vairty of techniques. A technique i sued was depth of field, this is shown by the image in my straight images of the tree trunk that has green sap, as i wanted to focus on the tree so i used a shallow depth of field so that the background would be out of focus, meaning that the tree would be more easily visible. Another example is macro photography, using the aperature and shutter speed to see how the amount of lighting would affect the outsome of the photo. An example of this macro technique would be the photo of the tree trunk in my improve photos, as i used a macro lens to take that photo. So in this shoot i do think that i have made progress from my first shoot, as i reflected the work of the artists i have researched, used a varity of photographic techniques, taken a wider varity of photos and i think that the photos that i ahve taken are of better quility compared to my previous shoot.

Straight images

Images to improve

This was one of the first photos that i took on this shoot, as this was the area for parking, so i though that it would be an interesting photo to take as it shows how people literally just dump their domestic waste anywhere, even though  there are dumps to use. So at the time of taking the photo i hadn't really gorton use to what camera settings i needed to use for this photo, as the place that i was standing in was covered by the shade of the trees so it was a lot darker to the background of where the light is, coursing that area of the photo to be over exposed. However i did take multiple photos of this from different angles but as we parker on the other side of the tree the car was in the majority of those photos and from this able i was able to capture all of the rubbish. So i decided that i wasn't going to able to get the best photo like i wanted to, however if i had used a tripod then i probably would have been able to get a better photo. So to improve this photo i would reshoot with a tripod to get better composure and framing  and ensure i have the right exposure.

I took this photo using my micro lens as i wanted to explore the theme of macro photography within the rural environment. So in my first shoot i took a few photos similar to this photo but i just used my standard 18-55mm lens. By taking this photo i wanted to show the detail in the tree and try to link it to abstract photography and artists like Imogen Cunningham, as she photographed plants close up and so her photos to me were quite abstract with the shapes of the plants. So with this photo i wanted to to that with the part of the trunk thats basically a hole/void, which i wanted to try and photograph it in more of a dark lighting so that theres a contrast between the void and the trunk on the outside, so then it would be hard to figure out what it was. However as i used my micro lens only the majority of the left side of the photo was in focus, so i didn't think that this photo was eligible to use because even though the photo is macro the focus should be more central. So to improve the photo i would try to fix the lighting so that the void was darker, creating more of an abstract photo.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, dem,onstrating analytical and critical understanding.

(Heather Angle)

This photo is one of my favourites, because i love how the trees are shown in this photo. Even though the photo is just looking up at the trees like we do all the time, its from a lower height, almost at an ants eye view, but its also got quite a wide angle allowing quite a lot of trees to be visible. The effect of the tress leading up to the sky and the leafs at the top covering the sky is really good, and not all parts of the sky is covered there's cracks which has then brightened up the photo, if the whole canopy layer covered the sky then photo could have a completely different tone to it, it would be much darker. To me this photo reminds me of a race to the top, as all of the trees, due to natural reasons, are racing each other to the top to get the most light. So it reminds me of people trying to get the best things in life, as nearly everything is a competition e.g education. I do ant to try and mimic this style of image in the majority of my rural shoots, because I know that if I just position the camera looking up into the sky when I'm in an area surrounded by trees. To correctly reproduce this style of image, it would be best to use a tripod as low as possible so that I can capture the majority of the tree length.

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I selected this image, because out of the whole shoot I thought that this photo best reflected the style of Heathers work. I took this photo because I realised  that it would be a very similar setting to Heathers image above, even though the trees in my photo are not similar to the trees in the image above I still too the photo from the same ants eye view and the trees are circling similar  to above. However, even though I managed to take a photo similar and in the same style as Heather, I don't think that this photo is one of my best and does have room for improvement. This is because the top level in this photo is over exposed and the bottom left area in the frame seems to be a little out of focus. So to improve it I could try to darken the top areas by using levels or curves. Or I could re-take the image with a tripod so the photo is not affected by blur.

(Ansel Adams-Oak tree)

This photo is of an alone oak tree, taken during sunset as the sky is very misty and hazy and looks like its quite dark from the sun setting or rising, this adds to the general tone of the photo, which is dark because of the black and white filter and how the whole tree just appears black, almost molding in the smaller tree on the left side of the main one. For me the sun really sticks out to me, because of how the whole general tone of the photo is dark, but in the distance the sun just appears bright and is un-misable seen though its a very small feature within this photo. Even though the sun does stand out because of its brightness against the dark tones, it still isn't eye-catching and doesn't take any of the attention away from the main tree in the photo. To me this photo represents isolation, as in what looks like a field, only this tree at first look is visible, however after looking at the photo closely the tree behind the main one becomes visible. So to me the fact that theres two trees visible but the bigger tree in the front takes most of the attention represents how even though someone might look looney, they've probably still got someone else there with them. As it is quite rare that you would come across a person who is completed isolated, they may think they are but they're not. So to me thats the same as this big tree, because where i live its a bit rare that in a big field to see one large tree completely isolated.

On this shoot i did intend to use Ansel Adams as my influence because of the type of landscape that clay hill is. So whilst i was on my shoot i saw this tree and immediately thought of the photo above, even though the tree in the foreground of the photo is not isolated like in Ansel Adams photo, still think that the composition is similar and intention as even tough this tree is not completed isolated, it is compared to the other trees behind that are in the background, whereas this tree is alone in the foreground. When i took this photo i knew that for obvious reasons i had to edit it so that i could make it black and white as Ansel Adams didn't shoot in colour, but i also had to try and fix the over exposure in the sky. So first i used the black and white filter, then i used curves to try and balance out the top half of the photo, however i was only able to decrees the whiteness slightly as the curve was staring to affect the darkness of the mid and lower section. Lastly i burned the lower section of the photo, so the grass, because in Ansel Adams photo the lower section is darker than the majority of the photo.

AO2 Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

This  shoot was taken with a Nikon 3100, for this shoot i used manual mode with a shutter speed most of the time at 1/125 as it was still day time so i could have quite a fast shutter speed but because id dint use a tripod i was not free to have a faster shutter speed as my pictures would be affected by my hand shaking so the photos could have come out blurry. I also shoot in ISO 100 as it was a bright day so i was free to use the lowest ISO my camera had, meaning i would nit be affected by grain. However even though i knew i was shooting in landscapes i used as f/5.6, which should have been shooting with an aperture of f/22. When i started shooting in a slightly darker area when i was walking through the trees, i had to higher my ISO to 400 as the lighting was too dark for a lower ISO.

I edited this photo by using levels so that I could improve the photo and prepare it for a black and white filter, I then added a black and white filter and adjusted the colour settings to the most appropriate for the contrast in the colours of the trees. So I tried  to make the majority of the trees darker by decreasing the green level, so it contrasts with the whiteness of the clouds in the background. I wanted to edit this image black and white because I thought that it was best suiting for the image as its of a dead tree that stands out compared to all of the live green trees. So I thought that black and white was best fitting because it conveys the seriousness of a dead tree.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements

I think that this shoot was highly relevant to subject that my project is on and the research that i have conducted. I think this because i was able to capture a couple of photos in the style of the photographs that i have researched e.g Heather Angle and Ansel Adams. The area that i have photographed also met my intentions that i had of being able to take a variety of photos that clearly link to the purpose of my project, showing the negative effects of people on the environment. I showed this by photographing litter, graffiti on trees, house waste dumped ect. I also think that this set of images are strong have a clear link to my previous shoot, but i have just developed my general composure and the use of aperture and shutter speed to explore different tones. I think to imrpove upon this shoot i could have used a tripod and take photos in camera raw file, so that i could achieve greater detail in my photos.

Blur & Slow sync photography

Definition

Motion Blur-Motion blur is the apparent streaking of rapidly moving objects in a still image or a sequence of images such as a movie or animation. It results when the image being recorded changes during the recording of a single exposure, either due to rapid movement or long exposure.

Shutter speed-Shutter speed means timing and duration of opening and closing of the shutter curtain at the back of the camera. A fast shutter speed will freeze action while slower speed creates blurring effect.

Aperture-The aperture stop of a photographic lens can be adjusted to control the amount of light reaching the film or image sensor. In combination with variation of shutter speed, the aperture size will regulate the film's or image sensor's degree of exposure to light.

 

Slow sync flash-Slow sync flash combines a burst of flash with a slow shutter speed. On compact cameras slow sync flash is often known as night mode and you can't control the speed of the shutter or the strength of the flash but you can with a DSLR.

Rear curtain sync and front curtain sync-Flash Sync Mode, including Rear Curtain. Cameras typically offer a few flash sync modes. The "curtains" below refer to the focal plane shutter, which has a front curtain which opens to expose the sensor to light, and a rear curtain which then closes ,shutting off the light exposure .

Straight images 

Slow sync

This series of photos were taken in the studio at college, for this shoot we used a tripod, artificial lighting-lighting box a black back drop and a light metre to get an actuate reading of the lighting for our photos.  For these photos i used an aperture of 8 and shutter speed of half a second and two seconds. I chose all of those photos because to me all of them gave of symbolism ozone person having two sides to their personality or for the top photo, two people becoming one person. For the top photo i choose i asked my models to walk in a line by each other and so this created the long line of their bodies between the two of them, which to me appears ghostly. The model on the right side of the photo can be seen more visibly as she stood still in that position for a longer time until the end of the exposure, where as the model on the left is less visible and more moulded into the ghostly line. The second photo is just one of the models standing but she went to move but i had a very fast shutter speed of 1/2 a second so the lens only captured her slightly turing. However i ended up liking this photo because of the symbolism and deeper meaning to it. For me its like the other side of a persons personality trying to escapes of some out of the main personality/side of that person. The last photo leads on from the second photo. Even though its a bit hard to notice, just to the left of the centre my models body can be seen but is very dark, which blends it into the background. And then on the right side of the photo she looks like she's almost holding hands with the dark figure, so to me this looks like the main personality escaped the other personality but that personality is trying to hold her back and stop her from escaping. I enjoyed this shoot and i would love to incorporate slow sync as a technique in my further work this year, but for my current project on the environment, i don't think that i would be able to use this technique in a relevant way to the idea of my project.

Motion blur

For my motion blur I decided to go and try it on cars as my slow-sync was of people and so it would have been reparative. For this I had a tripod, all of these photos were taken in a short amount of time and so had the same aperture and shutter speed of(---) However for the top photo of the blue car, I did zoom in to get a different frame. Because I zoomed in on the photo of the car I managed to get a smaller frame for it as it was a smaller object and the background of the photo is darker which allows the whole colour of the motion blur be visible and its not ever exposed like the other photos because the clouds are not visible in the photo which makes the tone more even throught the photo. The other two photos are of larger vehicles so I had to zoom out in order to try and capture as much as possible. I choose the photo of the bus because I thought how the bus covers the last half of the photo was different to my others because I would normally capture them entering the frame of being in the middle, So I think its nice to see the majority of the back of the bus being in the most motion blur and so I have captured the colour of the bus in front of the building. I chose the photo of the van because it was just entering he frame of the photo, which has allowed for it to Cleary be motion blurred but you can still make out the shape of the van, and its not just coloured blur, which I like as its different to my others in this selection. The photo to me also appears to have a wide angle because the floor in the foreground of the photo appears to be curving, however for the both of the zoomed out photos I would prefer if the frame had been slightly higher, which would have allowed me to capture the whole bus. For this technique I don't intend on using it for my shoots because I try just to capture the landscapes without people being in the photos, but so far I have only completed two rural shoots, so depending  on my urban ones, it would be pretty hard and unrealistic to get all of my photos with out a single person, so if there is a person in the frame I may try and get motion blur from them if they are walking, or from a car.

Glossary

Definitions:

Connotation- The deeper meaning than whats implied. All the social, cultural and historical meanings that are added to a signs literal meaning

Denotation-The literal meaning of the photo.

Context- The background and information of the photo.

Punctum- It's that rare detail that makes the viewer feel something and pushes the photo even further.


Semiotics- The study of signs and their meanings. Semiotics of photography is the observation of symbolism used within photography or "reading" the picture. 

Heather Angel-

This photo is from one of Heathers macro photography seminars. I specifically chose this photo from the selection because of how abstract it was and different from the others she had taken. Because of the abstract side of the photo it reminded of Imogen Cunningham's work but it shows more of a beautiful side to the flower, as seen from the colour of the flower, which is not a very common. Even though this photo is clearly of a flower, the first time i looked at this photo, i couldn't really interpret what it actaully  was of. So i had to think about it for a few minuets, i came to the conclusion that it was of a flower that had been taken apart and placed on top of each other in quite a weird way. To actually take the photograph the flower had ultimately been destroyed and so it isn't as beautiful as it would be if it were alive and in the earth. So, even though this photo to me is beautiful and very aesthetic pleasing because of the vibrant blue on the black background, and the softness you can see in the texture of the petals. Its actually contradicted by the flower being dead now just to take the photo, and its not just dead it had been destroyed and pulled apart, so its like as soon as humans see something that is even the smallest bit beautiful to them, they destroy the original beauty of it just to convey a different side of its beauty. Also when i studied the photo again at a different time, the flower started to look like chilli peppers to me, because of how the petals curl upwards and the positioning of the petals allows the viewer to see each one of them individually which then appears as individual peppers stated on each other. The punctum within this photo from me, is the bringing section of the flower petal that almost looks like some sort of seed. The one that stood out to me originally was the one in the centre of the photo, as you can see the shine in it from the light reflection. It also drew my attention because of how abnormal it looks in comparison to the petals, and i have never seen it before because i wouldn't typically take apart a flower, so it just really caught my attention. I think that this little part of the photo really adds to the photo as a whole, because the photo isn't just of flower petals, which is what i would normally see, so it makes the photo unusual to me.

This photo is also from Heathers macro seminar. This photo is similar to the one above as its again of a flower but instead of being pulled apart and only of petals, its of the whole flower including the steam and is still together. Denotation- contrast, tone...

The punctum in this photo for me is the bottom left petal on the flower, as i was drawn to this part first because this petal looks almost dead compared to the bigger petals on the flower. The petal looks dead to me because of how its curled up almost fully closed and how its very wrinkled. All of this typically happens when a flower is starting to die. So this photo now to me has a link to the flower above in terms of the beauty of the flower, this one hasn't been taken apart and 'destroyed' like the one above, but as it appears to be dying, to me its losing it beauty. Ultimately to me this pushed the photo even further because its not just of a flower but of a flower that is beginning to die. To me i find this quite original because normally i would just see  and take photos of flowers that have just bloomed or are in their prime time so thou would think that it makes the photo seem more beautiful. However,  just because the flower is young, it doesn't mean that it would look more visually appealing to the audience. And so in terms of of this photo i think that its symbolic in the way its of a flower that bringing to die because it shows that the flower is still aesthetically pleasing no matter what states it is in.