The brief
‘Fragments of a vessel which are to be glued together must match one another in the smallest details although they need not be like one another.’
(Walter Benjamin, [1936] 1999, p.79)
The Walter Benjamin quote above expresses the idea that a collection should reflect a single coherent idea, but you’ll also need technical rigour to match the photographs to each other ‘in the smallest details’. Start by choosing your focal length, aperture and viewpoint combination in advance.
Visually, similarities correspond so they’re easy to look at, but be careful of duplicates because repetition is boring. Differences are interesting because they contrast, but randomly changing your framing or allowing a confusion of detail into your backgrounds will distract from the viewing.
Brief
Create a series of between six and ten photographs on one of the following subjects:
- Things
- Views
- Heads
Vision:
After some thought, experimentation false starts and trials, I settled on collecting things, the thing being – lighthouses.
As well as a clear aesthetic value, for me lighthouses have a raw utility and in that a beauty which I hope to capture in this series. Every lighthouse is different, even within the locality of a few hours drive from Edinburgh there is a plethora of examples and I again hope to present something of the myriad styles and purposes within the series, accepting of course that I only scratch the surface of the possible. Theses two aspects I aim to present within the series I see as ‘the what‘ of the lighthouse, the thing.
There is more I hope to convey in the series however; lighthouses are also things which have a strong sense of place. They are constructed on the periphery of our landscapes, where the human world meets a wild place a fundamentally uncontrollable force that can only be worked with but never truly tamed, the sea. I hope in this series to also convey a sense of where in the world these structures are and what it feels like to be there. As with their design, no two places are the same and I hope to capture something of this aspect also, again accepting that i just scratch the surface of possibilities. These two aspects I aim to present within the series I see as ‘the where‘ of the lighthouse.
Finally I want to convey something of the overall impression each lighthouse left me with after the photoshoot. A single shot for each lighthouse which for me provides the strongest impression of the thing, the thing that makes it special. This aspect I see as ‘the vision‘ of the lighthouse, the thing.
Technical:
For this series I present 9 photographs of 3 lighthouses, for each a photo of the ‘where’, ‘what’ and ‘vision’ of the lighthouse.
I aimed for consistency in focal length for the ‘where’ and ‘what’ aspects of the series, in both cases opting for a wide angle. In the case of ‘where’ this was not always possible due to difficulties in achieving the correct distance given the terrain around. For ‘where’ a wide angle was preferred as this helps to bring the periphery of the land & sea scapes into the shot. For ‘what’ again a wide angle helps to emphasise the fundamental nature of the lighthouse, that of height ( although as will be seen from the series, this is not always the same )
For both ‘where’ and ‘what’ I used the same aperture for all shots F8 as this also helps to maintain a level of consistency over the series. Tripod was used where necessary.
However for ‘vision’ I allowed myself freedom to use any setting of my choosing in order to create the image I thought best expressed the ‘vision’. All shots were taken in aperture priority mode.
Further considerations:
I present the series as a set of 3 tryptichs each containing the ‘where’, ‘what’ & ‘vision’. With reference to Considering sequence I have mixed the three lighthouses across the 3 tryptichs in the series. This was done after personal critical review of my original series sequence which was; A tryptich for each lighthouse and in order of ‘where’, ‘what’ ‘vision’. I found that this order to be less interesting than the mix I present here.
The series:
( click on each for higher resolution view )
The individual photographs:
1.1 The lighthouse at Corsewall bay
ƒ/8.0 23.0 mm 1/60s ISO 320
1.2 The NorthQueensferry Lighthouse
ƒ/8.0 28.0 mm 1/40s ISO 200
1.3 A vision of the East Pier Lighthouse
ƒ/4.0 37.0 mm 1/800s ISO 200
2.1 The lighthouse at East Pier Newhaven
ƒ/8.0 60.0 mm 1/400s ISO 200
2.2 The Corsewall lighthouse
ƒ/8.0 28.0 mm 1/640s ISO 200
2.3 A vision of the North Queensferry lighthouse
ƒ/8.0 33.0 mm 1/30s ISO 200
3.1 The lighthouse at North Queesnferry
ƒ/9.0 28.0 mm 1/50s ISO 200
3.2 East Pier Lighthouse
ƒ/8.0 28.0 mm 1/400s ISO 200
3.3 A vision of Corsewall Lighthouse
ƒ/8.0 58.0 mm 1/100s ISO 200
Concerns and considerations:
The ‘where’ shots verge into the territory of views rather than things. I was aware of this whilst formulating the idea and during shooting, editing etc. However, as with many things, and in particular with lighthouses, where the thing is in the world is an important aspect of he thing itself. It was therefore important for me to include these shots.
Again with the ‘where’ shots effort was put into providing some consistency across the 3 photographs selected, in composition etc whilst at the same time ensuring that the lighthouse is always obviously the main element. This is under most pressure with the shot of the North Queensferry bay lighthouse. The Forth Rail bridge is essential to anding the sense of ‘where’ but it may also deflect the observers attention. For this reason I have placed this shot in the 3rd series so the observer has had a chance to settle on the theme and rythym of the series before being confronted by this more challenging shot.
Reflection:
There is definite scope to carry on this project both in terms of the myriad different lighthouses but also in aspects to investigate, such as; night time shots with the lighthouse in operation and shots from the sea. Both of these I considered for this assignment however, the aspects i chose ‘where’, ‘what’, ‘vision’ for me were the core aspects to present. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of all is weather conditions. Whilst this aspect does come through to some degree in the series a lot more can be done here if given the time for further work on this project.
DKL_OCA_ExpressingYourVision_LearningLog 
Derek, the one comment I would make is about the image 3.1. It seems very cluttered and the eye starts with the boat in the foreground (orange colour) then heads and follows the bridge. To me the lighthouse gets lost – is there another angle you could use which would still convey the same message? If you could exclude the boat, I think it would work better.
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Hi Dave thanks for feedback, much appreciated. That shot is a concern, i mention in the right up but refer only to the bridge rather than orange boat also. A different angle will be tough ( i tried a ton of them ) but i think i’ll head out at the weekend and try another few shots to see if there is a better way to show this. That said part of my thinking is to show the ‘where’ in a very real way, which for that lighthouse is in the middle of a jumble of stuff and dwarfed by one of the most iconic and beautiful bridges around. So by that reconning the shot i have is true.
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Hi Derek. I think your text describes well what you wanted to achieve and how you went about it. I have a couple of observations on your images. For me image 2.3 is one of the stronger images of the series but it’s very different from the other 8 images. I imagine it’s impossible to get internal shots of the others which is a real shame because I think that would have been an interesting way to develop the series. I think images 1.3 and 3.2 are very similar shots and wonder if you have another angle you can use for either shot? The images of the Corsewall lighthouse are great as are the East Pier shots. I know you wanted to keep the aperture around the f8.0 mark for consistency but wonder if the Queensferry lighthouse might be better shot with a narrower depth of field to throw the bridge out of focus in the background and give the lighthouse more emphasis? Cheers. John
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Thanks for feedback John. I particularly like the idea of chaging aperture for North Queensferry shot, to put the bridge a bit out of focus. I think i will give that a go at the weekend and see if i get better results. That is the shot I am most concerned about although part of my thinking is to show the ‘where’ in a very real way, which for that lighthouse is in the middle of a jumble of stuff and dwarfed by one of the most iconic and beautiful bridges around. So by that reconning the shot i have is true.
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