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The brief

 

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I will look again at :-

http://100photos.time.com/photos/henri-cartier-bresson-behind-gare-saint-lazare to meet the brief for this exercise.

Looking again at the photograph the area of the image I am continually drawn to is the space between the legs of the leaping man and his reflection ( or is it shadow ).

This area creates an almost perfect pentagon, broken only by the rails lying in the puddle. The rails break the pentagon at almost exactly the centre of the single vertical edge and almost horizontally. There is a very pleasing balance to this. Balance is the central theme of this image I feel and this pentagon is the centre of gravity for which this sense of balance permeates.

Balance is further enhanced by a line drawn following the railings which perfectly lies against the length of the main figure and their reflection.

The second most striking point about this image for me is energy and movement, for a still image there is a very strong sense of lateral movement. The energy is generated by the angle of the main subject in flight, the shape created between the legs and against the line of balance. The subject is running at pace rather than simply leaping over a puddle. All else appears still, static and fixed. There is for instance very little evidence of air movement as might be found by ripples in the puddle and I see evidence of mist or fog surrounding the buildings in the background again indicating a very still day. It may not be but the three formations through the fence in the background have a look of grave stones further emphasizing stillness and quiet, broken by the leaping man.

I notice a pleasing aesthetic produced by the random circular strips of metal just to the left of the leaping man again helps to complete and bring balance to the whole image.

To summarise; For me the most striking elements of this photograph are geometry, perfect balance and complex symmetry and juxtaposed explosive energy within a stillness. I could also sum this up by saying just about everytime I look at the shot I see something else of interest.

 

 

The brief

Select an image by any photographer of your choice and take a photograph in response
to it. You can respond in any way you like to the whole image or to just a part of it, but you
must make explicit in your notes what it is that you’re responding to. Is it a stylistic device
such as John Davies’ high viewpoint, or Chris Steele Perkins’ juxtapositions? Is it an idea,
such as the decisive moment? Is it an approach, such as intention – creating a fully authored
image rather than discovering the world through the viewfinder?
Add the original photograph together with your response to your learning log. Which of the
three types of information discussed by Barrett provides the context in this case? Take your
time over writing your response because you’ll submit the relevant part of your learning log
as part of Assignment Five.
A photograph inspired by another is called ‘homage’ (pronounced the French or English
way). This is not the same as Picasso’s famous statement that ‘good artists borrow, great
artists steal’; the point of the homage must be apparent within the photograph. It’s also not
the same as ‘appropriation’ which re-contextualises its subject to create something new,
often in an ironic or humorous way. Instead, the homage should share some deep empathy
or kinship with the original work. An example is Victor Burgin’s series The Office at Night
(1986), based on Edward Hopper’s famous painting of the same name:
‘The hackneyed idea of ‘influence’ is not at issue here. I am not
interested in the question of what one artist may or may not
have taken from another. I am referring to the universally familiar
phenomenon of looking at one image and having another image
spontaneously come to mind.’
http://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/separateness-things-victor-burgin
[accessed 25/01/18]
You may already have taken some homage photography where you’ve not tried to hide the
original inspiration but rather celebrated it. Refer back to your personal archive and add one
or two to your learning log together with a short caption to provide a context for the shot.

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I took inspiration from Doug Aitken and his series of photographs – New Opposition. An example of this work is shown here :-

In his series New Opposition, Doug Aitken explains that he was interested in fragmentation of an image, he wanted to form an image that was whole but also clearly constructed as fragments. In homage to this series I have adopted and concentrate on the ‘original context’ by creating my response using a very simalar construction technique and outcome. For my own purpose the concepts of fragmentation and whole were a perfect way to illustrate an idea I am currently interested in. Our perception of time can be thought of as a whole which we construct from fragments within past, present & future. These fragments we bring together to create our complete view of where we are, our place in time.  

One definition of time could be – that hard to understand concept that stops all the events of the universe all happening at once.

For my image here I have not taken any new shots, instead I have constructed a whole image made up of fragments from other photographs I have taken over the past couple of years. In that time I have been lucky enough to travel a fair amount and have pictures here from; Brooklyn skyline, Alaskan Glacier, Scottish Highlands & Stockholm archipelago. The image then is a representation my past as fragments all happening at once in a denial of time, so we see the whole.

4 images manipulated in photoshop to cerate a single image in homage to New Opposition

During part 3 of EYV I was inspired by the decisive moment, the following shot is in my view the best example I achieved in direct homage to the idea of decisive moment. At the time it was my clear intent to capture what i understand to the decisive moment.

‘Homage to the decisive moment’

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Bibliography

Bright, S., 2005. Art Photography Now. 1st ed. London: Thames and Hudson.

The brief

 

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A study in Pants.

Meet Houdini Pantaloony, our cat. In this series of 6 shots taken a varying distances, I look to review the shots in order to discover what I didn’t mean to do. What I did not intend whilst creating these photographs, the accidents.

My select shot is 5, this provides the best expression of the thing I didn’t mean but in review is most apparent. The gaze of the predator.

The most striking thing I note about these shots is that Pants is fully focussed and concentrated on something in all shots. In shot 5 Pants happens to be fully focussed on me rather than something else. She is a very affectionate cat, getting on a bit now well into old lady territory but in shot 5 where I am the subject of her attention I can see the gaze of the predator. It is mildly disturbing! Pants and her sister Smudge ( sadly no longer with us ) have had a full and very active life where they have been able to satisfy their fundamental nature at the top of their food chain. They have successfully hunted mice, birds and rabbits all their life, sometimes working as a tag team – fascinating to watch if you can live with the gore and the violence. Pants has slowed down a bit now so the ‘little presents’ are not delivered with the same regularity. Make no mistake though, she is a hunter. I think this comes across in all the shots and was not part of what I intended. When she looks straight at me in 5 I see the calculation of a superior intelligence with zero compassion (why would there be); size? too big to bring down + I get fed by this potential victim every day + I am not very hungry right now. A different calculation and I could become victim number 1045 very easily.

In the wider shots; 1, 2, & 3 the suggested focus of attention could be just out of frame, almost there to be known but not quite. This gives these shots a narrative feel to them which is not so apparent in the tighter shots; 4, 5 & 6 these are more a personal introduction to Pants and her character.

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1

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2

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3

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4

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5

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6

The brief

 

Google image search on ‘pear trees’

In the results of the search for Pear Trees, there are two clear styles of presentation;

1. Close up of fully ripe pears hanging on the trees, generally in full daylight providing a documentary style representation of ripe pears.
2. Landscape shot showing the full pear tree or trees, again typically in full daylight and generally in full blossom.

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As a new way to consider the idea of pear tree, I shot in low ambient light with artificial light from directly and a short distance in front.  The image is shot with open aperture to bring the central leaves and fruit into view and fade the rest of the tree into the background. The tree is neither in bloom nor the fruit ripe placing the leaves as the main attraction and subject. With the artificial light ( serendipitous raindrops ) on the leaves there is an ultra-real feel, colour and detail are very strong.

 

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Google search on ‘cherry trees’

In the results of the search for Cherry Trees, there are two clear styles of presentation;

1. Close up of fully ripe cherries hanging on the trees, generally in full daylight providing a documentary of the cherries.
2. Landscape shot showing the full cherry tree or trees, again typically in full daylight and generally in full blossom.

The google search for both pear and cherry tree provide almost exactly the same results in terms of style of representation.

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As a new way to consider the idea of cherry tree, again the shot is at night and this time with the light from below. Again the tree is neither in bloom nor the fruit ripe and so the leaves again take centre stage. In this case I think the ultra-real feel to the image is less so but replaced with a kind of other worldly look ( light from below is perhaps not so common )

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The Brief

Use a combination of quality, contrast, direction and colour to light an object in order to
reveal its form. For this exercise, we recommend that you choose a natural or organic object
such as an egg or stone rather than a man-made object. Man-made or cultural artefacts
can be fascinating to light but they’re already authored to some degree, which requires
interpretation by the photographer; this exercise is just about controlling the light to reveal
form.
You don’t need a studio light for this exercise; a desk lamp or even window light will be fine,
although a camera flash that you can use remotely is a useful tool. The only proviso is that
you can control the way the light falls on the subject.
Take some time to set up the shot. If you’re shooting an egg, you should think about
emptying it first so that it will stand up. This is really a topic for advanced students at Level
3 but you may get some help from Google. The background for your subject will be crucial.
For a smallish object, you can tape a large sheet of paper or card to the wall as an ‘infinity
curve’ which you can mask off from the main light source by pieces of card. You don’t need
to use a curve if you can manage the ‘horizon line’ effectively – the line where the surface
meets background. Taking a high viewpoint will make the surface the background, in which
case the surface you choose will be important to the shot.
Exposure times will be much longer than you’re used to (unless you’re using flash) and
metering and focusing will be challenging. The key to success is to keep it simple. The
important thing is to aim for four or five unique shots – either change the viewpoint, the
subject or the lighting for each shot.
Add the sequence to your learning log. Draw a simple lighting diagram for each of your
shots showing the position of the camera, the subject and the direction of the key light and
fill. Don’t labour the diagrams; quick sketches with notes will be just as useful as perfect
graphics.

The subject

Neither an egg nor a stone, I chose to photograph a pineapple. My aim being to have an organic object with a lot of inherent form and complexity which I hoped to bring out with various artificial light, direction, colour etc

The set up

Ambient light low, so at this time of year shots were taken between 10pm.. 11pm

The pineapple was placed within a light tent with either a white background sheet or black, to introduce change in contrast within the environment.

I used two light sources:-

1. Ring flash ( used in light mode ), sometimes attached to the camera, other times hand held at various angles to the subject.
   1. 1. No mask, producing a pure white light
      2. white mask, produces a cooler white light
2.  Spot light, placed at angles around the subject or again at times hand held to introduce height to the angle. Warm white light

Technical

I used tripod to ensure a constant composition and started by creating the composition aiming to set the subject in the centre of the image with some room to see any shadows which will be formed by the lights, using zoom to set the focal length for the composition.
With camera set in fully manual mode and room lights on I used the camera’s auto focus function to focus on the subject and once set moved to manual focus mode and left alone. This ensured I had good focus for all shots and did not need to use auto-focus in low light conditions ( the sony A7R2 is known to be quite poor in this respect )
Given i was using a tripod, slow shutter speed was not an issue and i could choose aperture, shutter speed and ISO freely for a good exposure.
I found that i did not need to change this once it was set as the artificial lights used provided a fairly constant level across all the shots.

f11, ISO 50, Focal length 36mm, SS 0.4s (typical)

White balance 5500 (typical)

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1: Masked Ring light, above slightly right.

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2: Spotlight, Left (in light tent).

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3: Masked Ring light, on camera.

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4: Unmasked Ring light, above subject.

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5: Spotlight, above slightly behind.

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6: Masked Ring light, above right.

Spotlight, above left.

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7: Unmasked Ring light, directly above.

Spotlight in front

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8: Spotlight, in front.

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9: Spotlight, left ( outside of light tent ).

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10: Unmasked Ring light, above slightly in front.

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11: Spotlight, above right.

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Conclusions

It can be seen across all images above the variety of detail available in the pineapple which is either enhanced and brought out by certain lights sources and at certain angles. For instance:-

In 11 with warm light from the spotlight the full orange colour across all of the segments in the pineapple become evident, in contrast to 1 with cooler light and white background there is far less orange colour from the pineapple.

The perceived size of the pineapple can be influenced by the light source, compare 8 and 9. 8 appears larger given all of the front of the pineapple is in full light, whereass with 9 the right hand side of the pineapple is in shadow.

Depth and clarity of detail between 5 and 7. In 5 with the light above but slightly behind the detail in the segments on the front of the pineapple are flat and lacking in depth or contrast and detail. With the addition of full light in front the full detail of the pineapple becomes clear.

Thoughts on morning/evening light and the ‘golden’ quality compared with mid day light which I think has more of a ‘white’ quality. What I mean by ‘white’ quality is that the light is more neutral and has does not have an alternating effect on the reflected colours. In this way ‘white’ light is more true light and so I understand the view of Eugene Atget and the photographs he took in his earlier work.

I suspect that the air itself is the root of the difference in quality of light between morning/evening and mid day, or rather the amount of air. Air is not a vacuum, it is actually full of stuff; water particles, dust etc. Therefore light is reflected, refracted and diffracted through all this ‘stuff’. This softens and diffuses light and more so for blue than red. Different colours of light have different wavelengths which refract and diffract differently and effects blue more than red during golden hour.

As much as soft and gold has an impact on the quality of light, so too does the increased shadow created by the lower angle of the sun. The following shots are all taken fairly early in the morning and show how shadow can have a profound impact on the look and feel of a photograph as well adding interest in some cases.

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I have found shooting in manual on this exercise that the exposure meter on the camera was not a great way to achieve a good exposure. An exposure which is true to the image as i see it at the time. Much more successful is to use the histogram and aim to have a balance of tones that matches the scene in question. This feels exactly how you should set your exposure, much more natural and intuitive than using the camera’s auto function to decide the correct exposure. One other indication that this is true is when loading the images above into lightroom for post processing. My normal workflow is to apply auto-tone to each image, i noticed that for the above images the auto-tone have very little effect. I infer from this that the images were very close to best case exposure and tone already. This may of course be more to do with the relatively low levels of dynamic range. I will keep an eye on this and see if using histogram in manual to set exposure tends to result in a more accurate and correct exposure more often. All of the images here are untouched by lightroom and shot in RAW.

Considering the ‘quality’ of light between the two images below. The first in direct sunlight, the second with cloud cover.

The most obvious thing I note is the absence of shadow in the cloud cover images.

The strength of direct sunlight can overwhelm the eye in what I think of as a kind of bleach effect, whereas with diffused light the image is far easier to understand. The subtle contrasts of the tree bark come through for instance, these are all but lost in the glare of direct sunlight.

With the shots below again considering direct sunlight in comparison with more diffused light under cloud cover, in this case there is a clear difference in vibrancy and depth of colour found in the sunlit picture over the cloud lit picture. In this case the brighter image is more positive and optimistic.

 

Technical point: In taking these shots I used the histogram to guide my exposure rather than the the camera indication of 0EV. I aimed to have a good balance across the histogram between Low, mid and High tones.