One - to - One with Ellen

I found my one - to - one with Ellen yesterday, was very helpful. We talked through my initial ideas and Ellen even gave me some new ones on how to approach the other areas of the brief.

She started off by noting down everything that appealed to me about Carol Sharpes work "Softness, Staged, Pastel, Shallow Depth of Field, Simple"  

Ellen then noted down the kind of lens I should be using to get the kind of effect I wanted: Prime Lens 1.4 

She suggested the idea of Cataloguing - Ideas of what flowers mean to certain people. 

Memories that relate the flowers to different Peoples lives. 

Photographers that Ellen suggested to me were

Laura Makabresku for her use of flowers in portraits 

and

Vivienne Mok for her soft imagery

We also looked at Anna Atkins as someone different to look at. she creates a completely different style of photography.

How I intend to approach the landscape brief

In all honesty, I’m not really sure how I am going to approach the landscape brief. I know I plan to link the 3 parts of the brief by using the same shallow depth of field and softness that I plan to use when photographing the other part of the brief.

In my still life images, I am going to photograph flowers and the memories that can sometimes surround them. So I will also try and incorporate them into the landscape portion of my brief as well as the portraits I create. I will try to create the softness intended by shooting through plastic as well as maybe using a prime lens. Another technique might be to smear Vaseline onto my lens whilst shooting, that way I can create the outcome I intend to achieve.

I think I am going to incorporate flowers in my landscapes by maybe photographing a bouquet laying on the ground in the foreground of the shot, having it as the focus with the background being out of focus, creating a question in the reader’s mind as to why the bouquet is there? How it got there? And who put it there? It will be obvious to some people that I, as the photographer may have put it there but also there is that air of doubt that maybe someone else did it.

Even though Carol Sharpe is a still life flower photographer, I want to use the same kind of techniques that she has used, because hers is a style that appeals to me more than other photographers, and I would like to do more research into finding some photographers that use the same kind of soft style in their landscapes to back up my own images and show the research I need to obtain the grade that I want, in order to succeed.

Lighting Workshop (03-10-16)

Our lighting workshop this week was all about blancing ambient light and flash using the ranger kits.
Each person in the groups had a role.

1. model
2. photographer
3. light meter reader
4. light operators 

My role within this was to operate the lights with another person.

To start off with we measured the ambient light, and set the camera up to match it.
we then set the lights up so it matched the ambient in a 1:1 ratio.

This didn't create a very natural look, which we were aiming for.
we experimented with different shutter speeds opening it up more and more. This just washed the images out, like so.

We then decided to change locations and model so that we could light from behind to create a kind of halo effect around the model and create a sense of a sunny day. Again we took an ambient reading, put the settings into the camera and then used fill lights to try and match up with the ambient in a 1:1 ratio. Here is the effect it had:

I think we managed to achive this quite well as the above photo, to me, looks like it was taken on a sunny, if cold day.

Guest Lecture- Ross Trevail (30-10-16)

• This was our first guest lecture of the year. Ross Trevail is a lecturer at our universtiy. He from the scottish highlands. 
• Trevail believes that all work is personal.
• His mum got him into photography
• Has a huge influence form films like "west side story" and "The Outsiders" 
• Graduated with a fisrt class honours in Fashion Photography. although he did struggle to find his feet in his first two years at university and was always told his work was quiet because he used a shallow depth of field. His third year was when things came together for him. This was when he produced a body of work titled "Lazarus" 
• He shot mainly mens where and this is what he became mostly known for and he was given male models to shoot. One piece of wisdom he did share with us, was that to shoot summer wear you  needed to do so in the middle of winter and to shoot winter wear you needed to shoot in the middle of summer.
• All of Trevails work was shot around the area he lived, and told us to be clever with our locations as he managed to use the same area for several different shoots.
• In 2010 he got his first ever cover shoot for a magazine called "the skinny" and became director of photography for "jocks and nerds" magazine
• Trevail then moved away from fasion photography and started looking more into "the scene" he felt connected to it because there was something about it that reminded him of his past. 
• Trevail got Paid commission to shoot men wearing jewlery which was then featured in the London gallery 
• After his London exhibit he went back to the scottish highlands to shoot a landscape body of work called " if your name is here we have your tartan" and shot mainly communal spaces. Photographing places he'd gone to fish, places that connected him to his childhood where he also shot around where he grew up. 

Thoughts on starting back at university 25-Sept-16

This year compared to last year I feel completely different. I remember feeling completely terrified and filled with anxiety over the fact I was starting somewhere new, where I didn't know anyone. I remember feeling completely out of my depth for the first few weeks.
I hadn't really made any new friends, I kept to myself, I just did what I had to while I was there and came home. I don't think living away from University, still at home, helped that because it meant I wasn't going out on student nights, clubbing and I wasn't building connections with other students, that the students that were going out were.
I soon enough, once things got into full swing, fell into a group of amazing people, I'm not sure how, but all the same they accepted me and I actually made friends with them! I felt like I belonged.

This year, I wasn't feeling the same anxieties. I came into second year knowing I had to get a lot of work done. I had to put in more effort if I was going to succeed and actually get into a position where I know at the end of the year I am in a good position going into third year. I know that is a while away from when I'm writing this but I know that in reality, it will be here in no time at all! I am half way through my University education and I am truly astounded at how quickly last year went. I wish I had kept  on top of my work last year and I guess thats my kind of "new years resolution" for this new year at university, to keep on top of my work and to use my time on the train to and from Norwich to get work done and work on my reflective journals otherwise I know I am going to get behind again and struggle to keep up with it.

The New Brief 27-Sept-16

Our new brief started yesterday (26-Sept-16) but we were briefed officially by James Cant today (27-09-16). 

I am feeling quite confident about this new brief compared to maybe last years briefs because of what they actually involve.

For this brief, we have to take 4 landscapes, 4 portraits and 4 still lifes as well as a moving image piece.

While I say I'm quite confident there are some criteria that I am worried about, such as, the Still life images. 

When it comes to still life I am a complete novice, I have no idea what I am supposed to do with it or how to photograph them. 

When we were doing still lifes in workshops last year I didn't connect with the work, it just wasn't something I was interested in. 

This yeah I'm going to try and connect with it, I will try doing some test shoots at home in a controlled environment and then go into the studio fully prepared with what I need to do and how I'm going to go about doing it.

The second thing I am not too comfortable with is the moving image piece we have to create. 

Moving image Isn't something I've had experience with. I did a media A-Level but that isn't really something that is involved unless moving image is the same as film... I think I need to do more research into this before I go any further on that one... 

Portraits and Landscapes are mediums I have worked in before and I am quite confident I can produce work to a high standard within these areas