Final project evaluation

Final project evaluation

(1) Explain the nature of the personal investigation as a concept, idea, investigative study.  

For my personal investigation I decided on the concept of capturing some of the effects that humans have had on the environment and then contrasting those photos with natural landscapes that haven’t been touched and so still have its natural beauty. So the nature of my personal investigation was basically based upon landscape, for this reason I researched photographer Ansel Adams, as he is a well-known landscape photographer. I think even though the concept of my idea for my personal investigation was basic because it was based upon a very commonly photographed subject; landscapes, however I added my own unique stance to the idea of landscape photography as the nature of my investigation was not only to portray the beauty of landscape, but also the downside of the effects that humans have on natural landscapes. I think that the nature of this personal investigation is beneficial because many landscape photographers don’t bother to capture or show the negatives in landscapes like litter or just general destruction because some people think that the photo will lose its beauty because it has litter in it. However I think that its important to investigate and show this side of the landscape to enlighten people of some of the unknowing effects on the environment they have.

(2)  Explain how your images link to the personal investigation and how they link to your initial concept, idea, investigative study.  

For my shoots I decide to have half of them based upon a rural environment and the other half based in an urban landscape. I decided on this because to be able to link all of my shoots to my initial concept for the personal investigation I had to capture and contrast rural and urban environments. So for my rural shoots I had to decided on the most suitable locations where I knew the area was either kept clean and untouched or did have litter or vandalism. I Visited numerous different rural locations so that I could show the beauty or negative effects in places that had would have a different frequency of how many people would visit, ultimately effects how untouched the environment is. I took a range of different photos on my rural shoots as I wanted to try and capture all of the different aspects within the environment, so the trees, the sky, the ground, litter, vandalized trees, water etc. The reason I did this was because in my initial concept for this project I stated that I would take a range of different things within an environment.  In my initial concept for this investigation I said that I wanted to try a range of different techniques and angles within my photography, which I did and is evident within my work. For instance I wanted use macro style photography, which I did experiment with in a number of shoots mostly on trees to show greater detail of objects within the rural landscapes. I also wanted to experiment with different angles, so within all of my shoots I made sure that I used a variety of angles and not just normal eye-view, I frequently would take photos looking up to trees so I would capture the trees and the sky or I would take photos from the floor level which allowed me to capture the ground, trees and the sky. So all of these factors and ideas that I wanted to experiment on steamed from my initial ideas and I just developed them throughout my investigation. To stick to my initial ideas I had to shoots within rural and urban environments. As I stated in my initial ideas, I wanted to capture the effects of people in a range of different urban environments, so I decided to take photos at a built of seaside resort that has decreased in popularity over the years, causing the upkeep of the area to greatly decrease. I then shoot in London city so that I could show negative impacts in a highly popular and built up area, then the rest of my urban shoots were taken within normal urban living areas, like Enfield town and Harlow town. The type of photos that I took within these places conveyed that if areas that have been built by humans are not up kept then the area will start to have negative effects like the rotting of buildings and pipes. So to keep these shoots linked to my initial concept I focused on taking photos of flats, boarded up houses, walls that haven’t been cleaned, litter etc. I do think that the majority of the photos in all of my shoots do link to the initial concept of my personal investigation as I did take similar photos to the photos in my images bank that was linked to my initial concept, therefore I kept that link and developed the idea throughout my shoots.

(3) How your images look visually what are they communicating and how does the work link to the artist research. 

Visually my images are communicating the contrast in rural and urban environments and the negative impacts that people have had within these environments. To do this visually, I captured what I personally saw within these environments, so I took photos of trees that had been burned or cut down, litter, vandalism, buildings that have been left untreated etc. I think that by me capturing these types of images I was able to convey what I wanted to communicate through them. Which were the impacts on the environment and the contrast of both the environments. I think that visually the majority of my photos were good and I showed development through my work, meaning that my photos are visually similar because I used similar techniques and angles in all of my shoots, so the framing, exposure etc. would have all of been visually similar to each other.  I think the vast majority of my work does link to my artist research with the exception of one or two shoots. With my rural shoots my work links to artists Ansel Adams and Heather Angel, within these shoots I always tried to see if what I was capturing would link to the artists, so the type of angles and exposure that they used in their work, and what type of photos they would take that I saw from my research would be clearly seen within my work. Within my urban shoots the main photographer that I used for influence was Rut Bles Luxemburg, as I found that her work closely linked to my shoots that included flats, reflections or in the dark. So my work links to hers because I tried to shoot at night like she would. So overall I think that the majority of work clearly links to my artists and they have had influence in the ways that I took photos for this project.

(4)  How did you select your final portfolio(why)?

To select my final portfolio I wanted to be able to convey my best work and have a cohesive body of work as well as still including photos from my rural shoots and my urban shoots. So I created an electronic photo full of my best photos from all of my shoots that I though showed clear links and development though them all so that my portfolio would show a reoccurring theme and clearly linked to my initial ideas fro my personal investigation. So to do this I needed to ensure that the rural and urban photos moulded into each other gracefully and didn’t just look odd being showed next to each other. So this is why I created the transitions of rural to urban areas, as these clearly showed how even though the photos are of two different types of landscapes they still work together.  So I also made sure that I had several images from different shoots that showed a clear link to each other, for example the photos taken of trees from a ground level looking up to the sky. I think that including photos that are cohesive and link to each other in my portfolio instead of just images of good quality, shows how the rest of my work will be as therefore if images in my portfolio are similar to each other then the rest of my work will be . 

(5)  Have you created a cohesive body of work, explain how you came to this conclusion.

I personally think that the majority of my work is cohesive; this is because I refined and developed my work throughout all of my shoots, trying to improve upon the faults that I would find within my previous shoots. Therefore my body of work would be cohesive as I used the same techniques, angles and exposure within all of my images, I also used the same artists to influence my work on, so my work is similar to each other. However I think that because I capture both rural and urban landscapes which are two opposite ends of the same spectrum, landscape, arguably my work can then not be seen as fully cohesive because of the range of locations that I shoot in. On the other hand I did try to link the rural and urban environments together, as in some of the shoots for my rural side, I had objects that were built, like pavements. So even though rural and urban environments are the opposite of each other, I carried on the same style of photography throughout my whole body of work. So in conclusion I think that I made my body of work be cohesive, because with my edits of the transitions from urban to rural environments integrates both of the landscapes into each other, therefore making my work cohesive because it shows how they work together. Also on photoshop i have morphed some urban and rural photos together that i thought would look well and allow me to further develop my work by bringing both elements together.

(6) In what way has your work been influenced by research? Explain how your critical and contextual research has influenced you.

My work has mostly been influenced by two artists, Ansel Adams and Heather Angel. I had originally researched Ansel Adams because i knew that he was a renowned landscape photographer, so i thought it  was vital of me to research his work and become informed of the contextual background of his work as i would be photographing landscapes. I think that Ansel adams work has influenced me mostly with my rural work, this is because I became more informed on tonal ranges when i researched Ansel Adams zone system and i think this helped me greatly with my rural photographs. I found out about Heather Angels work when i was researching for my original project proposal as i had originally intended for macro photography to be a main theme through this body of work. I thought that her work was interesting and that i would be able to portray her work within mine with the type of landscapes i would be visiting. Ultimately, I think that both of this artists have had the most influence in my work, as when i was shooting i would normally be thinking of how i could relate the photos that i am taking currently to their work.  And so i think that their influence is clear in my photos, epically with the angels, perspectives and tones.

                                                                                   Ansel Adams

I took the image above because the scenery as a whole reminded my of this Ansel Adams photo above mine, so therefore i thought that i should try to replicate the style of Ansel's photo above. So i took a photo from the same perspective and tried to have a line of trees in the foreground that contrasted against the trees in the background. However to link the photo closer to Ansel Adams' style i had to edit the photo black and white as i had originally taken the photo in colour. Ansel's photo also has dark background with the trees contrasting against the background due to the brighter tone, so to try and get the same effect I used the polygonal lasso tool to individually select the trees one by one, after i had fully selected a tree i would edit the brightness adjustment of the section so that i would have the same effect of the trees in the foreground being brighter than the background. I think that by this photo i have shown the influence of Ansel Adams within my work as i fully developed this photo so that would look more like Ansel's style of photography. I think that even though the original photo is similar to Ansel's style because of the perspective, it was still missing some of the key aspects of Ansel's work, like black and white and a range of tones, which after editing my photo i was able to achieve these aspects.

                                                                          Heather Angel

The original photo by Heather Angels above mine has had great influence on my rural work. This is because in the majority, if not all, of my rural shoots I captured at least one photo, mostly of trees, with this type of angle looking up towards the sky. When i had originally researched Heather's work i had been really drawn to this photo because of its unusual angle, and so i aimed to try and replicate the photo. I don't think that i have been able to fully replicate this photo but i have achieved numerous photos in the same style, for example my one above. So to be able to capture this type of photo, i had to use a low angle to try and achieve as much content in the frame as i could, have a high aperture of around f stop 22 in order for the whole frame to be focused properly, and i had to ensure that the high exposure from aiming the lens towards the sky was balanced as well as possible throughout the photo. 

(7) What have you learnt, what have you found out as a consequence of this personal investigation. (ensure that you address this by linking your findings to your initial proposal?

I think that from doing tis investigation I have learnt a number of things linked to landscape photography and how different taking photos in a rural environment is different to taking photos in an urban environment technically. From this investigation I learnt more about exposure setting and what settings are best for the type of photo that I am taking. I also learnt about different types of angles and which angles are best for the type of image I am trying to take or what I want to be the most important and eye-catching factor within the photo. I think that with this personal investigation I learnt factors that are considered as basics that easily improved the quality of my photos, so for example shooting with camera raw and using a tripod. I also learnt editing techniques form doing this investigation, so I learnt how to make transitions on Adobe Premiere Pro, which I think helped my work to be more cohesive and I would like to cry on using Premiere Pro. So ultimately I do think that this personal investigation have had very positive consequences on my photography, in both photographic techniques and editing aspects.   

(8) What might you wish to develop further if you have more time available.

I think that if I had more time available for this project I would like to focus more further into the urban living side, so places like Enfield and Harlow, as I found places like this interesting to photograph.  I would also love to capture a time lapse of an area that is being built up, so for example housing development. To connect that idea to my work, if I had more time I would be able to capture the development of the flats at Ponders end that I capturing being taken down. This way I would be able to show the contrast of the posts that I took of the flats that are going to be taken down because of the state of them, to the photos that I took of the flat being taken down, to then photos of the new flats being built, and then the overall outcome of the area that will then count as newly built. I also think that if I had more time I would create more and better transitions of rural to urban landscapes, because I though that these were enjoyable to create and really summed up my whole investigation.