Work record one

My shoot consisted of nature. This was the main aim for this shoot because nature is quite a interesting concept for photographers, as everything is very natural and can be easily photographed. I have done many shoots in the town park since that is conveniently where I live near, so I take as many opportunities to photograph there. I try to make each shoot different as it would get tedious when seeing the same images repeatedly, to make it different I go to different areas in the park that I haven't done a shoot in yet or I take photographs of things in a different way. In this shoot I photographed framing devices that were already there.

Contact sheets

Straight images

AO1:

The following images are just a few images that I have written about in depth. My exam topic is exploring framing devices and where they can be seen or created. I believe I have achieved the concept of this, when doing this topic I have concentrated more on the computer editing (even though I will be doing physical edits) because I enjoy the process of discovering what new things I can do to make my image better and if I go wrong I can just delete the previous tool/filter and then go from there. Physical edits however will show where my real creativity is because I will have to plan the ideas out fully first before continuing with the editing. I have been influenced by many photographers, the photographer I feel most of my work relates to in component two is Lee Friedlander, this is because I find myself really interested in his work. His work is quite unique because he commonly photographs views from his car window, he travelled around America and captured a photo everywhere he went. In a way I wanted to do something similar but on a smaller scale (I went to Brighton - comp.2 work record 6 and 7).



These two images were taken in the same time period, with this statue I wanted to frame the bench in the centre of it which I feel I have achieved. The second image was less zoomed in so you could see more of the landscape, however it is easily distracting as to what the main frame/focus is meant to be. So I retook the image and zoomed in more, the first image represents this change. The first image is more precise as too what I want it to show to the viewer, the camera focused on the image as a whole so everything in the image is seen clearly - this image was shot using ISO 240, F5.6, 1/350. This image was inspired by Rich McCor (Research log), his work inspired me to find and object/statue that I could use to frame something else. In his work he creates cut outs and holds them over a well known tourist attraction, so I did something similar to this but instead found a already man made statue which framed a bench. 

Rich McCor "Paperboyo" - Af Chapman Stockholm

The image to the right was one of the inspirations for my images, he has framed the boat using a bottle - which is a very traditional/common thing to do - as collectors like to decorate boats in bottles and leave them on show for others to see. So in Rich McCor's image he has bottled up this boat as people who own boats like everyone to see them since they want to show of how they spend their money.

John Swarkowski - Ladder

This image is interesting to me because I have framed a person as they walked past. To me the frame is very clear since I am the one that took it, however to others the frame might be a little difficult to spot due to the clutter of trees in view. So to edit this image I may crop it so there is less distraction or I may do something to my subject to make them stand out more. This image was shot using ISO 320, F3.5, 1/350. I could have zoomed in more but this was more of a decisive moment, I took the photo at the right time which makes this image even better. I did not shoot with a tripod because I didn't think about taking a tripod out with me while walking the dogs, however I should of because then some of my images would have turned out clearer. This was inspired by John Swarkowski, his photographs do not specifically do anything like this I was just inspired by his concept of using trees to frame. In this image "Ladder" the framing device is the trees shadow. 



This image was shot using ISO 480, F 5.6, 1/350. This was inspired by my image bank, in my image bank I included multiple images like this as I found it interesting. I used manual focus for this photo so I chose where to focus on, I used a shallow depth of field because this elongates the length of the bench from this perspective. The framing device here is the bench's arm rests and how one fits into the other due to it being further away, this is a perspective that not many people would see at first glance, you would have to look at it in more depth to then see this.

A02:

Example edit..

These three screenshots show how I have edited one of my images. This is just basic idea that I had. To create this I put two photos onto the same document, these were two similar photos except one was blurry and the other was in focus. I decided to do this because I wanted to make use out of a bad image that I had taken.
Next I made the bad image the appropriate size and made sure it matched up with the background so it looked blended. I then quick-selected the square of the bad photo and used the curves tool to make the brightness similar to the overall image. I used the hue/saturation tool to lower the saturation so it blended a bit more and then increased the brightness to +8.
When going through this editing process I was going to filter it in black and white but I did not go with this idea because then you could not see where I made any changes/ where I added the second picture. The framing device is the pathway towards the trees, the trees frame either side of the pathway where my subject is walking towards, I created a second frame by adding the other photo and editing it.
The image below is the final outcome of this photoshop process:


























Other editing ideas..

When editing you can plan what you aim to achieve but this can change during the process you may change that idea because the original plan didn't work or you found something better to do. One idea is merging two images together, this is something that Lee Friedlander does in some of his work, this is something that I have done before and I am capable of doing. For me this would have to include an inside and an outside, eg. I've done an edit of an inside of a bridge and what you can see through the window. Another edit idea is using the shapes tool to create my own frames, eg. Rankin, creates shapes to highlight specific areas that are the main attractions (component 2 research log). This allows me to be creative with the shapes and specify what areas I want the viewer to look at. When developing and editing my work, I know when I have messed up or used the wrong settings, the thing I need to work on is knowing then and there that I need to redo a picture - because once looking over the images on the computer I can see whats wrong with it but it's too late to act on it.

Edited images

AO3:

This shoot was successful because I managed to get a variety of different images. This shoot was done other two different events, because I wanted to get the most amount of images that I could. They were done in the span on two days, in these two days I walked around the park by myself so I could concentrate on the nature more (eg. trees, etc), the other day I was with my mum who took the dogs with her, on this day I used my mum as a subject and photographed her in one or two pictures - I then used the dogs as my subjects as well. I have perceived nature in a different way. I have captured the different aspects that there are and at different perspectives, all natural framing devices. My initial plan for the exam paper was too find any framing device that appealed to me, because if I found it appealing and interesting then maybe the viewer will be interested in what they see as well. I do not think I aimed for my initial ideas as I feel some of my images do not relate back to what I wrote or I have not achieved what I wrote. However, I still do think I have produced some excellent work as there are some photos that I have been really proud of and suprised at because I did not know I was capable of doing that.  If I were to do something like this again for framing devices, I would explore my abilities more. I would go more places to make my shoots more interesting and use different people to be my subjects, I would do this because I feel I am capable of achieving more. 
 

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