lighting workshop (31-10-16)

In this workshop we were in the digital dark room editing together our video clips from the last lighting workshop. 

We were being taught how to use premier pro and the different editing techniques that were involved and that we could use. 

However, I did an ALevel in media, so I was being taught how to use equipment that i had already used 100x before... ok that maybe a bit of an exaggeration but still! 

This workshop did serve as a kind of refresher for me as there were some areas I wasnt taught. so in some ways it was useful but in other ways it wasnt at all. 

Nothing is ever a waste of time, it will always serve a purpose in some ways, its all about learning from that experience. 

moving image

Until recently I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do for the moving image piece. Even now I have an idea but I am not entirely sure how I am going to achieve it. The skills I can bring when it comes to moving image making as a photographer is my editing skills, because I have previous experience with editing videos with media A Level. Another skill I can bring to moving image making is my ability to use a camera, as I mentioned before when I was doing my A Level we had to use cameras to film pieces so we could edit them. I think this means I have an understanding of what works well together, the kind of shots that look affective and will edit together well.

However I agree with Sontag when she says

“Each still photograph is a privileged moment turned into a slim object that one can keep and look at again” [1]

because In my photographers mind-set I am driven to photograph more than film. I prefer to have the hard still copy of an image that is easily accessible to something I would have to find a computer to view.

I plan to approach the moving image work by having a completely blank background, having a vase of water with a single flower in the vase (this links to the rest of my work because of the use of flowers.) I then plan to film it from a fixed view point as the petals fall off the flower. I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to go about filming it at the moment, or what kind of sound I’m going to feature over the 30 second clip but I like how it will fit into my work and also work on its own, conceptually.

Another way I might approach the moving image task is by taking a series of stills and using them in such a way that it looks like a moving image piece rather than a series of still images like KW Purcell suggests of the work of other photographers

“Through their work, the questions of how stills interact with (or become) the moving image have given rise to creation of profound intelligence and beauty”[2]

Word count: 283

Bibliography:

[1] Sontag, S. (1973) On Photography. New York: Farrar Strauss and Giroux, P17

[2] Purcell, K.W. (2010) Adventures in mo.on pictures Eye Magazine Number 77 Accessed at hcp://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/ar"cle/kerry-william-purcell

Lighting workshop (24-10-16)

In todays Lighting workshop we were doing some moving image work.

We were useing the headler lights with the heavy moving image tripods and had to film some moving image shots without sound.

It took us a while to figure out the lighting and what we were going to film.

In the end we filmed each person, with the first person walking in sitting down. We then panned up, the next person sat down panned down and the back up and so on until we got back to the first person, she sat down and the cammera panned down and stayed there as she waled out.

guest lecture (21-10-16)

Holly Falconer

got her first job on diva and gay times magazine and then quit the magazine to start assisting. 

Falconer worked as a Sales assistant at night and assisted for free during the day

Started working for Buck magazine but that didn't last very long and moved on to assist properly.

Falconers main bit of advice was to make a few good contacts in the industry because you never know if it will pay off and to be nice to everyone. 

When she started she just wanted to take pictures about her life, and embraced exploring identity. 

Started Photographing:

• Protests
• Asexuality
• female drag queens

Started with an event called Neston Female day  set up by Neston Female society.

Photographed a protest by sisters uncut an anti domestic violence group. 

Falconer told us that personal projects can lead to commissions and also told us we don't have to assist but its better if we do. 

how i intend to approach the still life brief)

I have chosen to photograph flowers for the still life part of the brief, purely because I like them and I wanted to try shooting them in the studio, as still life isn’t something I necessarily enjoy doing, so I thought if I photograph something I like, it might make it a bit more enjoyable.

Wolfgang Tilman once said “I want a picture to look the way I see things” and I can relate to that within my own work. Because that is how I want to photograph not just the flowers but everything I take photographs of. Whilst photographing the flowers I want to try and keep it as natural as possible, with still using the controlled lighting the brief requires. However, with trying to keep it as natural as possible I am also going to decontextualize my flowers, having them on a softly lit white background.

I have chosen to shoot this way because of my artist research. Most of the photographers I have seen shoot on a white backdrop, that has been lit from underneath as well as around the flowers. Such photographers include Carole Sharpe and Irving Penn.

After this lecture I am also going to look at Nick Knight, Karl Blossfeldt and Richard Foster to further my research and back up the shoots I have done and I am planning to do in the future. Pablo Picasso once said “There is no abstract art, you must always start with something afterward you can remove all trace of reality” I guess this applies to anything within the art subject not just abstract art, because to make anything you have to start with something and mould it into what you want it to be. This is how I plan to approach the still life brief, much like in Pablo Picasso words I am going to start with something and then make it my own from that, in the hopes that I will make some pretty decent still life flower images along the way.

Word count: 336

Group Crit (13-10-16)

This was the first Group Crit of the year, and it was helpful to an extent but that was only from listening to other people that were doing similar projects to me. 

From listening to other peoples suggestions I was able to look at: 

Robert Mapplethorpe

Dutch Paintings- Seduced by art 

look at using shallow depth of fields. 

and to look at alluding to flowers in my landscapes rather than actually including them in my work.

Guest Lecture- 07/10/16)

Ross Trevail

Trevail is from the Scottish highlands and says that all work is personal -> as far as he is concerned.

Ross Trevail is a lecturer at NUA and says his mum got him into photography

He was widely influenced by "The Outsiders" and "West Side Story"

Trevail graduated with 1st class honours in Fashion Photography. Although he struggled to find his feet in the first two years of uni and then in his third year things came together for him. Trevail found he preferred working on location. Trevail was always told his work was quiet meaning he had a shallow depth of field.

A body of work he produced called "Lazarus" was his first work where he felt like everything was coming together.

Trevail shot mainly mens wear, and told us that if we wanted to shoot summer wear it had to be shot in the middle of winter, and vice versa for winter wear.

He started to shoot all of his work around the area he lived like his project "that was then this is now"

He told us to be smart with our locations very ofter you can use them over and over again without people realising they are the same locations.

Trevail then moved away from fashion and into "the scene"  as he felt this was a connection to something in his past.
He got paid commission to shoot men wearing jewellery which was shown in the london gallery

After his London gallery exhibit he did another exhibit called "Detonators

Trevail then went back to the Scottish Highlands to shoot Landscapes, Communal spaces, and places he had gone to fish. Mainly focussing on places that connected him to his childhood, Photographing where he grew up.

I like this lecture I found his work interesting and was keen to find out what he had to say. Its not the kind of work I would normally be interested in and look nor is it something that would link to my own work but It definitely was an interesting lecture.

How I intend to Approach the Portrait Brief

One of the main things I took from this lecture was that a portrait doesn’t necessarily need to conform to the conventional terms as long as I can justify why my image fits into the category. The term portrait means different things to different people, and no one can really find the words to describe it because it means many different things. On a video we watched people were asked what the term “portrait” means and one replied with “A portrait means different things to different people. It is normally thought to be a representation of a person”[1] The last part of that quote linked to another video we were shown called “The Lab: Decoy, a portrait session with a twist”.[2] There were six photographers all photographing the same man each person was told a different story about the man they were photographing. So in the end result, when all the images were put up and shown together, it looked like they had photographed 6 different people entirely.

In a way it is about how we (as photographers) perceive something and also how we want them to come across in our images that affects how everyone else sees the image.

Although none of the images from photographers that we were shown fit with the work I’m wanting to produce, I think it was helpful in teaching me that a portrait can be anything I want it to be.

I haven’t quite decided how I am going to position my models in my frame yet but the lecture was useful in giving me some ideas to go on. For example, having a central composition that also adheres to the rule of thirds, would be useful and effective within my images. Because I don’t want to include faces within my portraits I think this will work quite well.

Word count: 306

[1] What is a portrait? National Galleries Scotland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7exQDKFg0I

[2] The Lab: Decoy – A portrait session with a twist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-TyPfYMDK8