P&P-Assignment Two; Learning Log; People and activity

Learning log – P&P assignment 2; People and activity

 My Thoughts

When doing this assignment, strangely I felt relatively at ease, I thought that on doing this theme for this assignment, I would run in to a big problem of people looking directly at me or asking me to delete the photos I had taken of them, but instead, people kept asking me to take photos of them!, with their camera of course but at least I was not accosted with confrontation. Oddly enough, by doing what I was doing, people were not concerned, perhaps they thought I was taking photographs of someone I knew.

“You are a big part of your picture. Even when you are trying to blend in and be invisible on the scene, you are still behind that lens. You own that frame, that fragment of reality, so claim it.”

 

(Rena Effendi – from the interview by ENTER – World Press Magazine)

So true, I really try to do this every time but sometimes feel disappointed that I missed an opportunity, as I should have had my camera at my eye more, or I should have as Rena says “claim it”, I will try and take charge (mainly with myself) in the future. Just reading through my tutor’s feedback again and realised that he mentioned Rena in a handy tip on how to sharpen an image, I will try it for my next exercises and assignment.

Here is one of her images where I thought she “owed/claimed it”.

(Rena Effendi – Boy running with self-made toy. Balakhani oil village. Azerbaijan. 2002 - From “Pipe Dreams-A chronicle of lives along the pipe line”)

 

I think this is such a great image, the way she has framed it and used the shadows to her advantage, it also relates well to this assignment, due to the boy playing with his toy. I think it is an active yet oddly peaceful photograph.

 

 

I found a photographer online who I thought was extremely interesting her name is Alexa Meade and she paints her models, so they them self’s look like actual paints, on looking at these images (website below) I was blown away by her talent, these people do 100% look like a painting, here is an example;

She has to be one of the most talented photographers/painters out there and she apparently taught herself how to paint. I thought I would include this as it is something completely different in portraiture photography.

 

Strengths on my assignment

Observing;- Is the depth of field, I like how I have the little girl pointing and the father looking in to the distance

Round and around;- I like the fun portrayed in this image and that they are all linked

Nearly!;- As I previously said, her expression is priceless and I am pleased I managed to get this shot

Couples;- I love the sharpness of the woman, I think it is the clearest shot I managed to get out of the whole series

Speeding;- I like the way it looks like a round tunnel, focusing on the guy in orange in the middle

Professional;- I like the depth of field with this one and the reflection in the blue Perspex to the side of her where there is another person skating behind her

Whoops;- I love the stance of the girl in this image and that it brings an essence to this series of images

Family;-  I like the way I have cropped this, originally, I left the other people’s faces in the background frame, but I think the decision to cut them out was the correct one

Say cheese!;- I like the side profile of this and the little girls face, it always makes me smile looking at it

Blades;- I think this is my favourite image of the whole series of photographs, I defiantly think it’s a telling moment, the reflections look great, as well as the depth of field
 

Weaknesses on my assignment

Observing;- I would have liked to have gotten behind them to view what they were viewing ,as it were. I feel it would have made a more powerful image if I had

Round and around;- The girls are not as sharp as I would have liked, I should have panned better for this shot and used a larger F-stop

Nearly!;- Again, this image is not that sharp, I wanted to include it as her expression was great, but it would have been better with a faster shutter speed to capture her facial expressions in a better way.

Couples;- I should have focused in on the both of them and used a smaller F-stop for this image

Speeding;- I wanted to get an image where there was no one in front, however, it was difficult to do, so the girl in the pink being in front was the best I could create under the circumstances 

Professional;- Another one where I would have liked it to have been sharper on her face and maybe more of a front on/semi to the side shot would have worked better

Whoops;- I regret just focusing in on her feet and hands rather than the whole image, it would have been stronger if I had used a different F-stop 

Family;- I mainly focused in on the little girl, but I should have focus on the whole family

Say cheese!;- Maybe a different angle would have worked better with this one, where I was taking a photo of the person taking the photo

Blades;- Again, I am disappointed with the sharpness of this image, this was the best panning I could get and I was shooting through dirty Perspex, which didn’t help

 

Some of my research sources-Books, websites and documents

The Elements Of Photography; By Angela Faris Belt; (I focused mainly on one photographer in this book;- Adam Jahiel, he did a series of photographs called “The Last Cowboy” which produced beautifully powerful images of working on a ranch in the USA and he works with black and white because “it allows me to boil elements down to their very essence-shape, lines and light” (Adam Jahiel-The Elements Of Photography; By Angela Faris Belt) 

Light Science & Magic, An Introduction to Photographic Lighting; By Fil Hunter, Steven Biver and Paul Fuqua; (This book always helps me understand lighting, I haven’t read it all yet, however, I used sections from it to help me with this assignment.)

http://www.floydphotography.co.uk/ - (To research Paul and examine his photography)

http://www.refendi.com/ - (To research Rena and examine her photography)

http://www.visuramagazine.com/pipe-dreams-rena-effendi - (To research Rena and examine her photography)

http://photos.uk.msn.com/slideshow/photos/your-body-is-my-canvas/2xqugab4#10 – (To examine a photographer I found which I are mentioned on this learning log)

 

 

 

P&P-Assignment Two; People and activity

Assignment Two; People and activity

Object of assignment two

This assignment is to plan and execute a set of images of people in some sort of meaningful activity and produce approximately 10 final selected images, which I can choose between depicting the same person (or small group) at different kinds of activity, or different people at the same single activity or event, I chose to do the latter.

I had to concentrate especially on two aspects; telling moments and ‘explaining’ the activity.

At first I thought about doing a wedding, but as I had done that in my exercises I decided against it. I wanted to try and photograph an outdoor activity, so to give me more light and more actual active things to photograph, rather than people sitting down doing an activity, as it may be to stagnant.

Thinking about outdoor activities at this time of year, there was really only one choice, ice skating. I also chose to shoot on a weekend at half term, so there would be a variety of people and I stayed there for about 4 hours, as the ice rink had change around times, so everyone would get a go, which was perfect for me as it created a lot of diversity for the shoot.

I used one lens for the assignment; - EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS, so to give me the range I needed, to be able to capture people in different situations. I did try my wide angle lens, but felt the images where distorted and found it difficult to capture the ‘telling moments’.

I chose to shoot at the ice rink at the Natural History Museum, mainly because it was a prime location for a lot of different people choosing to skate there, there is a ice rink at Canary Warf and I went there but the light was not really able to reach the rink due to the tall buildings, also as the rink is in the business district there were very few family’s or children there. The day was a cloudy one, and there were a lot of trees surrounding the rink, so I managed to get some dappled light and some strong light at times.

 

People and activity

On researching the photographers my tutor suggested, looking throughout them all I decided to concentrate on two of them, these people both represent in their own right ‘People unaware’ and ‘People and activity’.

Rena Effendi; Rena is from Azerbaijan, her work to me represents people unaware; she has taken images by following the oil pipeline from Azerbaijan to Turkey, with regards to the environmental effect and people surrounding it. On looking at her work on her website, there are some pretty powerful images on there and interesting ones regarding this section of the module. Notably her images in her portfolio of “Last dance of Tarlabasi” where in some of the images people are looking at her and in others they are not, each images tells a story of the poverty which engulfs people, but she captures it in all its glory with strong vivid colours and people which I think links to this part of the module.

Paul Floyd Blake; Paul was the winner of the National Portrait Gallery’s 2009 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. Looking through his work, a few of his images are people portraits where they are looking at him, however, I was more interested in looking at his ‘Commonwealth Games’ images, with regards to people doing an activity, which in turn relates completely to this assignment, for which I was inspired by his work and tried to emulate it in one of my photographs fro this assignment, seemingly the panning images, like this one;-

“Commonwealth games; Velodrome-© Paul Floyd Blake 2002- www.floydphotography.co.uk”

I really love the movement in this image, the way there are there, but not and the black and white gives it a certain edge.

 Books used for this assignment;

• The Elements Of Photography; By Angela Faris Belt; (I focused mainly on one photographer in this book;- Adam Jahiel, he did a series of photographs called “The Last Cowboy” which produced beautifully powerful images of working on a ranch in the USA and he works with black and white because “it allows me to boil elements down to their very essence-shape, lines and light” (Adam Jahiel-The Elements Of Photography; By Angela Faris Belt) 
• Light Science & Magic, An Introduction to Photographic Lighting; By Fil Hunter, Steven Biver and Paul Fuqua; (This book always helps me understand lighting, I haven’t read it all yet, however, I used sections from it to help me with this assignment.)

Websites used for this assignment;

http://www.floydphotography.co.uk/ - (To research Paul and examine his photography)
http://www.refendi.com/ - (To research Rena and examine her photography)
http://www.visuramagazine.com/pipe-dreams-rena-effendi - (To research Rena and examine her photography)
http://photos.uk.msn.com/slideshow/photos/your-body-is-my-canvas/2xqugab4#10 – (To examine a photographer I found which I will mention on my learning log)

Observing; 1/100 seconds at f/7.1

Whilst on the balcony, I tried to capture the essence of the event, I was taking images of just the skaters, but then a father and child stood next to me and he propped her up to get a better view, I took a few photos of the skaters first, so to not arouse suspicion and then managed to get one of the little girl pointing and telling her father “look”, I focused on them for this image as I wanted them to be the main focus.

Round and around….; 1/50 seconds at f/11.0

Still on the balcony, I noticed these girls going round and holding on to each other and having a laugh together, it looked like fun, so I decided to capture that feeling with just the three girls; I focused on them and panned to get the shot.

Nearly!; 1/100 seconds at f/8.0

I went downstairs to get some close up shots, this girl was wobbling the whole time about to fall over, I just love the expression on her face of happy panic, that moment where you may or may not fall over.

Couples; 1/100 seconds at f/6.3

This was a sweet couple, they held hands the whole time and were always laughing and joking, I was lucky that the light came out for this one where she was smiling and the light was dappled, I decided to mainly concentrate on her as you could never really see the man’s face properly , due to his jacket.

Speeding; 1/5 seconds at f/22.0

Paul Floyd Blake inspired this image, I wanted to get a feel of speed in to this series of images, so I set a high aperture and slow shutter speed, then whilst taking multiple photographs I zoomed in and set the focus to the middle of the frame.

Professional; 1/100 seconds at f/7.1

This girl came on the ice in the third hour and had clearly been doing it for years, she had her own skates and helmet and whizzed around the rink with no trouble at all, I love the concentration in her face, she never changed or faltered in anyway, I had to pan quickly for this image as she was very fast.

 

Whoops!; 1/100 seconds at f/7.10

This girl kept falling over, but she gave it a really good try, I managed to catch her just at the right moment, when she was in the stance of, just fell forward but not wanting to go down all the way.

Family; 1/100 seconds at f/7.1

I just love the expression on their faces, you know he is telling the little girl something, possibly to look at her mother and with her hand slightly reaching towards his, needing the security, I think this makes for a lovely image.

Say cheese!; 1/100 seconds at f/8.0

I was surprised to see so many people being able to skate and take photos at the same time, (probably because I can not skate!) I took a lot of images like this but I think this is the best one, she is happy but forcing the smile to the maximum, I think this is a great image with the ‘penguin helper’ helping her along.

Blades; 1/100 seconds at f/9.0

I wanted to get that ‘moment’ that told the whole story and I think this is it, simple yet effective, I had do panning and take a lot of these images before I got the right one, I also wanted one that had different ice skates to the rest, so it would stand out more.

 

 

My tutor suggested that I include some contact sheets, now if I included all of the contact sheets on this assignment, it would be full of quite a lot a images that would not be up to par, so instead I have included the images that I liked but did not make the final cut.

 

I chose not to put these in as they lacked a certain something, however, I did want to include the backward panning image, but as I already had my zoom shot for the assignment, it was a choice between the two, I chose the other image as I felt it was stronger.