Approaches to Learning and developing a creative practice task 1 & 2

Task 1: Approaches to Learning and Developing a Creativity Practice

Within this brief I want to achieve images that I am proud of and can add to my portfolio of work, because it will help in future practice to show what I can do, in order to help me get work, I can achieve this by managing my time. Making lists of what I have to do, and set a time in the day each day to sit and do that work. This will help me keep on top of everything I have to do so I am not leaving my work to the last minute where it may be rushed and not be to my full potential. So I can not say it would be work I am proud of. I want to produce work that is creative and inspires other to try something different, to approach something in a different way than what they would normally do. I want to achieve this because, well isn’t it everyones dream to make a difference to at least one person? In some way or another? If my work inspires others to pick up a camera and start doing photography then that is making a difference. I don’t know how I would achieve this otherwise, other than to keep making work I am proud of and get it out there in some way so that someone can see it and be inspired by what I do.

I need to approach learning by being critical, creative and cooperative, to help others when they need help, to get involved with feedback in the group crits and manage my time so I don’t leave everything to the last minute and rush to get everything done, which is when mistakes are made.

Word count: 286

Task 2: Subject and Experimental Approaches

I have chosen to photograph a family to show how they interact with one another and to show the personality of each individual person, when doing this the five approaches I am going to look into are:

1)    Painting directly onto photographs  because I have always liked the idea of doing it but never had the right opportunity to try it and see how it works in my images.

2)    Overlaying tracing paper over the image to obscure parts of it because I want to obscure some of the images so the viewer is only focussed on one part to show personality this might be too distracting but I wont know until I try it.

3)    Burn into the photographs because this seems like an interesting technique to use and I just want to try it, I’m not sure whether it will be too sinister when it is done and not fit in with the rest of my work but like anything else you don’t know until you try it.

4)    Stain, smudge and erode photographs using water because I liked the affect it had when I was doing research. This might not work physically because it is hard to erode images with water in a short space of time, you have to leave them for extended periods of time to actually get any water damage to the pictures.

5)    Creating a composition which creates a narrative or story. I think this will be the easiest one to achieve out of the 5 approaches because really it is already what I am aiming for when I am out photographing this family. I am creating a narrative of who the family is within each picture.

To see examples of this work please see research in visual log book

Word count: 297

Creative Process Task

When given this first brief I thought to myself, what would best fit all the criteria while still being fun to make. My go to thought was then to look at flowers how they fit in to a still life, landscape and portrait and how I could also make a moving image that worked too. For this I looked at work by Carol Sharpe [1] I looked at Sharp because I liked her use of soft lighting which almost reflects the nature of the flower. Which in a sense is something I want to reflect within my images while still getting a sharp focused image and having that shallow depth of field. For the landscape images I tried to follow the work of Collier Schorr [2] because due to the time of year we are producing this work there was no way I could find flowers out in a natural landscape.  My next step was to tackle the portrait side of the brief. I struggled with this one because I couldn’t find any photographers that did exactly what I wanted to do. Only Pinterest pictures taken from here and there that other people had put together.

[1]                                                           [2]

I decided on using the visual approach of a shallow depth of field with soft lighting because from all the research in to different photographers I did, I felt like it looked the best visually and I felt it was the style that fit my personality and way of photographing more than any other way. I feel like I was quite successful in combining my visual approach with my subject because I managed to keep the shallow depth of field in each of my images while still creating a soft lighting. This approach didn’t work too well when it came to photographing my still life images in the studio. I found it very hard to control the lighting the way I wanted it to keep the light as “natural” and soft almost flat, as I wanted it to be. In hindsight I believe going into the studio to do this probably wasn’t the best idea and I should have got a ranger kit out, bounced the light of the ceiling and let it fall onto my subject that way.

Work count:375

Bibliography 

[1] http://www.professionalgardenphotographers.com/portfolios/carol-sharp

[2]https://www.pinterest.com/pin/561753753494521131/

Professional contexts

After much consideration and research, I have decided that my work wouldn’t fit into any of the sectors because personally I don’t want to go into any of the sectors mentioned in the lecture. This is because of how little each sector pays. I know there is never a lot of money starting off however if I go freelance I can set my own prices and make the kind of work I want to make along the way. Instead of making the work the each industry wants me to make also if I was to go freelance I would me happier and more appreciative of where I am and where I am going.

In the future I want to own my own studio taking pictures of families children and general portraits like Jessica Greenhalgh, Jessica is a freelance photographer working out of Devon and Cornwall. Taking photos on location as well as in her portable studio. In her studio she uses props like fairy wings baskets and moon shaped chair that inspires me to do a similar thing when it comes to my future business taking pictures of children.   

[1]

another freelance photographer that inspires me to follow this career is john Tull. Tull is a landscape photographer also based in devon and cornwall who sell his work through his website and at markets local to him.

[2]

although neither of the photographers I have mentioned are big in the industry I think the work I want to produce fits in this category because I am not in it to become “famous” I just want to be successful in what I do and what I produce and earn a little more than I would if I was in any of the sectors mentioned in the lecture.

Bibliography

[1] http://www.jessica-photography.co.uk/index.html

[2]  http://www.johntull-beachcrafts.co.uk/gallery.asp?galleryid=2

lighting workshop (14-11-16)

Todays workshop was all about learning how to use audio and moving image together. We were put into groups and then given a role within that group. Mine and Esme's role was Lighting and subject. now because esme didnt want to be on camera and somehow managed to avoid it all together this meant she volunteered me for it. The girl that was losing her voice, In pain from physiotherapy that morning and also has a hard time actually talking in front of people.

Thankfully it didnt last long once the cameras were set up, I was asked a few questions and then we swapped roles. I then went on to sound making sure it was at the right levels (between -6 and -12) i think i was terrible at the role because every time i got it right someone made a noise or the chair squeeked or someone talked louder. I wasnt taught how to use the equipment so i was going in blind through it all.

we then swapped so that I ended up on one of the cameras, and although I am not confident nor do I know how to use cannon cameras, It was the place I felt most comfortable being.  I needed a bit of help with how to use them but once someone showed me the basics, such as how to turn it off and get the live screen back on and how to record, I was ok.

I know we are supposed to push ourselves out of our comfort zone, but sometimes that zone is the best place to be.