People & Place, Projects 1-5

Posted 24.3.11:  Completed assignment

Well, I'm more than pleased with myself as I managed to complete assignment 5 and posted it off to my tutor just before my family came to visit for Easter. It was a question of pushing myself hard to write up all about the character photos I had taken, assemble them into a coherent order, wrap up securely and post.

Initial feedback from Clive was very pleasing. His emailed said:

'I won't be writing the report till after Easter but I think it's a triumphant conclusion to the course. You've fulfilled your potential and produced the quality of work that you probably envisioned achieving when you signed up for P&P. Well done!'

Brilliant, now to get all five assignments organised for the May submission to Bucks Uni and the July assessment.

Posted 24.3.11:  Final list of characters

Here's a list of the people of Lyme that I have asked and the results:
1. Artist (completed)
2. Museum curator (completed)
3. Fossil hunter (completed)
4. Harbour master (completed)
5. Town Mayor (completed)
6. Photographer (completed)
7. Boots shop assistant (completed)
8. Local winemaker (completed)

-- ooOoo --

1. Student (abandoned)
2. Local town councillor (abandoned as unwell)
3. Name (?) Potter, Town Mill (abandoned)
4. Name (?) Best fish and chip shop owner (abandoned as never available in his shop)
5. Adrian Grey, stone balancer (abandoned as hasn't been seen on the beach yet this year)

A good day's work, I think. I have eight strong portraits and think my tutor will be pleased with them. Now just to write up about them and how I took the pictures and any processing I did using Photoshop.

 

Posted 22.3.11  :  Nearly Completed all the pictures

I've been working hard to get the photography done for this assignment. I've photographed the mayor putting on her official robes, the harbour master looking out of his window and John, a retired shepherd, in his shed drinking his home made wine.

Here's a couple of the shots of the mayor in her robes:

John, the winemaker, enjoying a tipple:

And the Harbour Master, surveying his domain:

Graeme is a bit small in this picture because the original was 21 inches wide. I used the panorma view to take three images and the camera then stitched it all together making each image a bit quirky which I really liked.

I have given up on several subjects as either I have been unable to contact them or, as in a small town like Lyme Regis with people wearing so many different hats, it's been too difficult to visualise them in one particular role. The other suggestions I have abandoned were the best fish and chip shop owner, Adrian Grey the beach stone balancer and the Potter at the Town Mill.

So far I have photographed - in no particular order - an artist, a photographer, a fossil collector, the mayor, the harbour master, a well-known shop assistant, the curator of the local museum, my dyslexic IT student and a local home made wine maker. Now comes the hard bit - writing up about all of them and, what is even harder, getting them to write a few words about themselves.

My timetable to complete this module is to get the photography done by the end of March, complete the write ups and support stuff and post it to my tutor by Easter (Good Friday is April 22nd) then send in the whole People & Place module for the window of May 15th - June 15th for the July assessment at Bucks University.

Wow, can it be done? Yes, it can, fingers crossed and a following wind!

 

Moving on

11.3.2011

Well, I've completed three more character photo shoots over the past week; the photographic historian John, Colin the fossil hunter and my IT student MIchael. I'd like to try for a few more pictures with Michael as he plays the drums, but it was very difficult to get the address of the garage where his drums are stored, so I gave up on it last week. Hope to get more info when I see him again next week. All my subjects couldn't be more helpful and posed as requested after they overcame their slight self-consciousness at being photographed.

John had his own studio with an attic room, not small and cramped as you might imagine an attic room, but a large, well lit room 3 floors up. He has the most amazing collection of everything to do with photographic history and over 300 cameras. Here's a couple of possible shots to include in my portfolio. The close up image, taken with a Nikon D700 and an 18mm fish eye lens turned out okay, but I don't think it will be the defining image of John.

Colin, the fossil hunter, is a well know character around Lyme and has such a collection of memorabelia from his seaching in and around Lyme that he has devoted a whole floor in his flat to store it all. His collection ranges from fossils (of course) through bullets, belt and shoe buckles, bullets, coins, maps, old books and whatever else you can think of. He knows precisely where everything is and can go straight to the cupboard/cabinet and find what he is looking for.  He was a great subject to photograph:

My IT student, Michael, is a 20-year old lad who tries very hard. He left school with no qualifications not helped by the fact that he is dyslexic, and wants desperately to get a permanent job. With no qualifications and being dyslexic as well the outcome is poor but he keeps trying. He spends his spare time in the local internet centre working on his literacy, numeracy and IT skills and I thought he deserved a mention here. His main interests are cars and music.

 

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

Valerie from Boots

Starting the morning

Took pictures of one of Lyme's real characters yesterday. Valerie, shop assistant in Boots the Chemist, couldn't have been more helpful and wanted to play act several scenarios for me. Valerie is well known in the town for her very helpful nature and how she takes the trouble to ask seaching questions when needing help when choosing products available to buy over the counter.

After creating havoc in the window by dislodging the poster in the main window, Valerie and Matt, the manager, had to organise it back into position before any customers came into the shop.

Is it straight?

Monday, 28 February 2011

Made a start with my subjects

1.3.2011

Well, I've made a start and got two sets of pictures under my belt; an artist friend - Moya, a friend who let me practice on her, 

At work in her studio

But I prefer this one of her full face. My tutor, CliveW, told me when I did the first assignment People Aware, that it was important to show people in their own environment as it gave you an impression of them and their lives. But I prefer this one of Moya,

And the curator of the local museum, Mary, came in early last Sunday so that I could take her picture.  Again, I like this one of her,

Giving me 'the look'

but, bearing in mind my tutor's comments from a previous assignment, will probably use this one in my final portfolio:

Two down, eight to go as I assume you aim for about 8 - 10 subjects and choose the best!

Sunday, 27 February 2011

Characters inLyme

Here's a list of the people of Lyme that I have decided to ask if they would allow me to photograph them in their natural environment:

1. Michaela Ellis, Town Mayor (F)
2. Moya Paul, Artist (completed)
3. Mary Godwin,Museum Curator (completed)
4. Valerie Handley, shop assistant (completed)
5. Grahame Forshaw, harbour master (started)
6. Name (?) Best fish and chip shop owner (M)
7. Colin Dawes, Fossil hunter (M)
8. Adrian Grey, Stone Balancer (M)
9. John Marriage, Photographer (M)
10. Name (?) Potter, Town Mill (M)
11. Barbara Austin, local town councillor (F)
12. Michael Wood, Student (started)

Good old iphone!

Where's the phone, better start ringing round?

 

 

 

 

Trawling for new ideas

8 Feb 2011

I was trawling through OCA student blogs this morning for inspiration and read a student's reading list which included photo mags. I've always liked looking through magazines for new ideas for pictures so followed the link to Photo Pro magazine. Whilst I can't afford to  take out subscriptions or buy the latest offerings, it's always interesting to look at what 'new' photographers are doing. It often seems that young photographers are out to shock and thrill so I was keen to see what Patrick Fraser, a 'new kid on the block' could offer. He's not so new as he a wide portfolio of images on his website. It was fascinating to see his different styles with different age groups and how he managed to extract the idiosyncrasies of individual personalities. As my next assignment (People & Place assignment 5, on assignment) will feature a variety of local characters in the town where I now live, I was very keen to see how he portrayed a wide age range of people showing their individual strengths.

Sunday, 6 February 2011

Fired with enthusiasm!

Having appealed for help with regard to a subject for assignment 5, emails have been flying thick and fast between my tutor and me as to how to proceed. CliveW seems to have the bit between his teeth as to subject when I commented on my preferred genre.  Next thing I know is that CliveW suggested I take portraits of local people in their own environments.  Then he developed it further, see below an extract from his last email:

"I think your project is going to be an excellent summation of the course for you and when I woke up this morning, thinking about it, I was reminded of a book a friend of mine did. In it he asked  the people to write their own manifestos and it occurred to me that you could ask your people to write something. Perhaps a paragraph about Lyme; how they came to be there or how they feel about living there.  I think that’s something you could expand into an interesting book project, a picture per page with a small block of subject authored text underneath."
 

Talk about firing me with enthusiasm, I can't wait to get started now and have already fired off 2 emails to 'friends' to get started.  I only hope I can live up to Clive's expectations!

Friday, 4 February 2011

Ideas for Assignment 5

I've been conducting an extensive email conversation ranging far and wide with my tutor, CliveW, about the difficulty of finding a suitable subject for assignment 5. This is where you have to choose your own topic within the confines of the whole people and place theme. Whilst you will have seen from my earlier posts, I thought it would give me extra points to change the location of 'place' in the eyes of my tutor, not so. CliveW suggests that I stay with what I know, ie, Lyme Regis. My only problem with this is that I and what seems like the whole world has photographed the town to death. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find new and original pictures. 

As part of one email I pointed out that my true love is portraiture, and how there is a dearth of opportunities, both formal and informal, in this whole area to continue this genre. I live in a very small cottage which we managed to squeeze into only by dint of shedding 40 years of accumlated detrius to local charity shops, eb** and the local tip. No room for a studio there. Not to be out done, and I admire CliveW for his wide-ranging  ideas, we have come up with the suggestion of photographing local people in their own environment. This means, of course, having the bottle to go up and ask if I can take pictures of those subjects that I feel are interesting enough to include in my portfolio.

Once I sat down to think through who I could approach, the ideas started flowing as there are a goodly number of characters in the town. I include the local harbour master, town mayoress (with or without her consort husband) who works in the local Boots part time, local fishermen, the museum curator, gig rowers, shop owners/assistants, local artists, the list is endless.  Now will come the problem of sorting through and finding the best. I'm quite excited now, better get on with it as the ideas have started flowing!

Saturday, 22 January 2011

Starting Assignment 5

Where do you start? What do you consider? I will have to check out the OCA forum for other photographers' blogs to see what subjects they have considered and give it some thought. I'll have to think hard as I really would like to get this module finished for the May assessment so I can't hang about.  CliveW, my tutor, is excellent at giving feedback quickly, sometimes too quickly, as I've only just 'put it to bed' my latest assignment and the report is back within a week to 10 days at the most, even when he tells me he is ultra busy.

Still, here I go!

Monday, 20 December 2010

Assignment 5 / Project 5 - People and Place, on Assignment

There are no previous exercises for this assignment, it's straight on to the assignment, which is a bit scary in itself.  There has always been some sort of lead up to help you decide where to aim.  This assignment is left to you to decide. WOW, what a responsibility.

--- oOo ---

 

Project 4, People interacting with space

Monday, 20 December 2010

Exercise 22 - Adjusting the balance between person and space

20 December 2010

In this exercise I have to vary the balance in any picture situation. I need to produce 2 images, using the same general viewpoint and composition varying the balance of attention between the person (or people) and the setting they are in. I have taken many views with people included and will search my archives to see what I can find.

These images show the same couple sitting on a groyne on Lyme Regis Town Beach. Both  taken from the same point but with no zoom and zoom extended.

First image

Image one is showing the couple sitting at a distance with a large area of beach and harbour surrounding them. They are lost in the picture but do add a focal point to the picture, not the first thing you notice but at least the eye has something to settle on as it travels round the picture. The people are on one of the 1/3rds but almost halfway down the image which is not the best position.

Second Image

The second image shows the couple in a much better position whereby they are on the cross between upright and horizontal thirds. The whole image is compacted with your eye going straight to the couple, a strong focal point.

The water forms a strong lead to the harbour in the middle distance and the sky has enough detail to have an interest. Plain grey skies have no real pulling power and the image usually ends up with a diffused muddy grey look.

 

Friday, 5 November 2010

Exercise 21 - Making figures anonymous

The purpose of this exercise is to discover ways of including a person or people in a photograph while deliberatly making them unrecognisable and, as a result, less prominent.

I took this picture recently when working on an earlier exercise and when I looked at it, thought that unless you knew the person, they remained perfectly anonymous in the shot as they were in silhouette. I think it works well and I was extremely lucky to have a friendly neighbourhood seagull flying by just as I took the shot.

It could be any person sitting there as he is in silhouette.

I know that I have used the image below in the previous exercise but there is nothing more guaranteed to make someone anonymous than to catch them moving in your picture. As I said before, I took several images of people in a small courtyard and combined them into one to show more movement that I had managed to achieve in each individual picture.
I like this, I deliberately chose people who were either caught in a blur or were colourful.

I'll continue with this exercise and see what else I can find as I think I can discover other ways of being anonymous.

Here's a panorama of my local church with 2 figures standing in the middle of the aisle. As they are such a small part of the whole, they are fairly inconspicuous to the viewer. The whole picture, when stitched together, was 24.5 inches by 3.6 inches which gives a very narrow view of the church inside. You would need a piece of specialist equipment such as a gigapan to get a much wider view.

Monday, 1 November 2010

Exercise 20 - Busy traffic

I had a problem with this exercise as I had just changed my camera from a Nikon D200 professional body to a Nikon D5000 consumer body and as such do not have the range of features with regard to speed and aperture that I had before. As it was I had to up the ISO from 100 to 800 to get any movement in the shots at all. When I tried to take some decent images on the seafront with the sun shining down on a small car park, there was almost complete burnout of the images.

In the end I took several pictures at our local Town Mill with the camera on a tripod. The shutter was as slow as I could get it with the smallest aperture (f22 at 1/8th second). I decided to import the main movements from each individual photo to one main image and combine.

Completed combined image

I had fun with this picture cutting, erasing and combining all the pictures. I thought that with the limitations of my equipment, I did quite a good job.

Tuesday, 19 October 2010

Exercise 19 - A single figure small

I was out looking for pictures around Lyme Regis to illustrate this exercise and, saw this backpack all alone on the shingle beach. I know it's not a figure but it looked good, and then along came a seagull and friend into the picture, even better.

 Sans seagull

With seagull

I think the seagull adds a balance and interest that the first picture was lacking. I always think that an object placed on the left hand side looks better as it allows the eye to move around the picture and the seagull draws it back round again. Sans seagull your eye would move on out of the picture and on to the next one. 

Single figure small
I took this picture of the fisherman further along the beach and liked the way his legs were almost a mirror image of the stand he was using to support his fishing rod. See what you think.

Additional images

You can see some of the pictures I took for this exercise online at the following address:

http://picasaweb.google.com/108069021696054915962/Ex19SmallInPicture?authkey=Gv1sRgCOHV7ZbL-8TAUw#

From Art of Photography - Natural Light assignment

I also remembered this picture that I took for the Art of Photography Natural Light assignment. This was at the college I taught IT at where there were long corridors with windows along one side. I think this picture is just right with the figure walking away along the side, not in the centre of the corridor. I tried several different placements for the figure facing and walking away and finally decided that where she was here was just right.

 

 

 

--- oOo ---

 

Project 3, Buildings and spaces

Saturday, 24 July 2010

Exercise 18 How space changes with light

In this exercise I am asked to study the effects of light on a particular building or place and note how it differs at different times of the day.

I decided to use the red telephone box that I had featured in the last two exercises as it was placed in a very unaccessible place and only really caught the sun in the morning. 

.

You can see quite a difference in the light as the sun moves across the sky.  First thing in the morning the box is well illuminated and it would be easy to read the instructions to use.  In the evening, when the sun is in the west, the box is in a dark corner and is very dark inside.

Friday, 16 July 2010

Exercise 16 Exploring function

I have considered a couple of places  to explore their function which is what this exercise is about.  I will consider the following:

1. Outdoor dining area of local cafe
2. Telephone box

Having made my short list, I need to consider what the function of each area is. The cafe/dining area is a small area which allows customers to enjoy their meals in a secluded area in the outside which is a walled garden designed to re-create a 17th century planting scheme. The cafe is set with a low running river on one side behind a stone wall and an enclosed mill wheel on the other which gives a constant sound of running, swishing water. This can be very soothing in the middle of a stressful day. The space works because it is set down from the main walkway so is secluded which allows the space to catch the sun in the middle of the day.

2. A telephone box, be it an old fashioned red box or an ultra modern plastic cube, allows the public to contact other people when they are away from their home phone.

Tuesday, 13 July 2010

Exercise 17: The user's point of view

1. Outdoor cafe area:

For this exercise choose two or three buildings or spaces designed for a particular activity that is undertaken from a specific, distinction position.  For each location, take one or more photographs that attempt to capture the user's point of view.
I'm using the space that I identified in the previous exercise, ie, an outdoor cafe but added an old farm truck instead of pursuing the telephone box theme.

Below I have added images taken in the cafe. I put my camera down on the table and on a lantern so it took ad hoc pictures of the people on the next tables.

The next pictures show how the space is used from a table top angle.

  
     


2.Red telephone box:

I thought I would carry on the theme of an old red telephone box, used in the previous exercise, as well. From the user's point of view these red boxes are easily recognised for what they do, ie, provide a telephone link when someone on the street requires to contact another person or organisation.  Today, I was very disappointed at the condition of these boxes. Whilst they did have working phones available, they were dirty and smelly and in the most inconvenient places. I must admit I have walked passed the three boxes I finally found in Lyme Regis as they were tucked away in the most unaccessible places.

Here the function of the telephone box is obvious,

you go into it to contact a person or organisation using the telephone!

3. Woodmead Halls, Lyme Regis:
Woodmead Halls in Lyme Regis was originally built as a secondary just after the end of World War One.  The secondary school, known as Lyme Grammar School, moved to another site in 1933.  These buildings were used until 1983 when after extensive fund raising by the local community, the money was available to update and rebuilding was completed.  The building consist of a large hall with stage, small hall,  two large dressing rooms, ladies and gents toilets including disabled and an extensive kitchen. Parking is also accessible around the building. As this exercise is titled 'User's point of view' I took the last picture from an angle whilst I was sitting in the audience of a local club.

Wednesday, 30 June 2010

Project 3: Buildings and Spaces

Just trying to get my head round the exercises in this new project. Thought I had a good understanding but looking at some other blogs need a rethink. I was thinking too complicated which I often find older people do, can't accept that something is that simple.

 

--- oOo ---

 

Project 2, People Unaware 

Exercise 14 - An organised event

5.5.10: This exercise needs advanced preparation so I need to find an organised event where there will be plenty of peole and I can go about photographing freely. We get several newspapers and free magazines and I have spotted an event called 'A bit of a do' in Litton Cheney which will take place on Sunday 9th May. It asks you to 'step back in time for a lazy fund raising afternoon with historic vehicles, car rides, stalls and the Rex Trevitt Big Band' which, I hope, will give me enough scope to cover this exercise and Exercise 13 - A Standard View.

10.5.10: There wasn't too much going on as it was so cold and windy. I don't think there was enough to cover this subject adequately, so I will look for a bigger event in the local press. 

13.6.10 : Finally got to a reasonable event - The 34th Annual Rally of the West Dorset VintageTractor Club Ltd. It was most impressive and I initially took over 150 pictures. Some were duplicates and others just too bad to show anyone. I have culled them down to approximately 45-50 and will publish the best in Picassa.  Here are just a few of what I consider the best.

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, 9 June 2010

Exercise 15 - Public space, public activity

This exercise asks you to take pictures in an organised space and lists a public beach as one area to consider. I have been taking pictures on Lyme beach since moving here last September and have found a selection to illustrate a variety of activities. These range from kite flying, digging, sun bathing, talking and the Brownies holding a meeting on a Saturday morning.

Picasa web address: 
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/108069021696054915962/Ex15aBeach#

 

 

 

Monday, 10 May 2010

Exercise 13 - A Standard View

5.5.10: This exercise asks me to use a standard focal length, ie, between 40-50 mm, and capture place and its relationship to people and use. Each image should be unique and self-contained and build up into telling a story.

10.5.10: Went to a fete yesterday entitled 'A Bit of a Do' at a small village called Litten Cheney where there was a forties theme. It was cold and windy but I managed to get some pictures using a focal length of 50mm.  It was extremely difficult, being used to a wide zoom lens, to limit myself to the 50mm.  I had forgotten that you had to move your body not twist the lens to get everything in to the picture.  Here are a few selected pictures. The rest on are my Picasa album.

Picasa3 online web address:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/108069021696054915962/Ex13StandardViewHolding

 

 

 Tuesday, 13 April 2010

Exercise 12 - Close and Involved

15.04.2010: This section is making me wonder what it really means. I will have to give it some thought as to how to accomplish this part of the module.
16.04.2010: Have discussed how awkard I feel when shooting pictures in a place where people are suspicious of your motives. I have a wide angled lens - 24-85mm f2.8 - which enables me to take some wide angle shots without them being panoramic. I went out yesterday afternoon with the Lyme U3A Photo Improvers Group to Charmouth and, rather than take landscapes which the rest of the group were concentrating on, I took pictures of them using the 24mm end of the lens on my Nikon D200.

22.04.2010: Had time to think about this part of exercise 11b) and saw how a short focal length could make things in the distance look very small, see image on the right here.  I was only standing a few feet away, but the 24mm focal length reduces the image.
Here's a few of the shots I took whilst the others were taking views of the cliffs along the coast at Charmouth.

Picasa3 web address:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/108069021696054915962/Ex12WideAngle?authkey=Gv1sRgCP_duOSrnca7UA

Exercise 11 - Telephoto

Lyme Regis, during Easter week, gave ample opportunity to complete Exercise 11.  The sun shone brilliantly and the sea was so calm it gave amazing reflections with the coastline towards West Bay and Portland suitably hazy.  There was so much going on on the beach and in the harbour that no one took any notice of people with cameras.  There were so many cameras in evidence that you had to be pretty clever to avoid them.

   There were plenty of situations that enabled me to stand back to take the wider view, then close in with my telephoto lens.  I always carry a small camera in my handbag (at the moment I use an Olympus mju 6010 Tough as it's waterproof and shockproof with a 3.6 times optical zoom) and this quite adequately fulfils my needs.  I really enjoyed this exercise and feel I covered it well, see examples below.

   There was a charity rowing boat, due to take part in an Atlantic crossing race, and from about 50 yards away I could get the whole boat into the shot using the standard lens. With the telephoto zoomed in, I could only achieve half the boat at a time.  Luckily some people stood beside it to give it a sense of scale.

Exercise 10 - Moment and Gesture

I agree that a few seconds apart can make or break a shot.  I went out along Marine Parade in Lyme during Easter weekend and took several before and after pictures.  The before shots were grab shots when I just wanted to record the action.  If there was time then I stood back and took another picture with more time to compose the image.

   There was one little girl in a bright red skirt running along the beach to a stone groyne.  My first image was of her running along.  I waited a couple of minutes and along came her father who lifted her up on to the wall and danced with her.  This gave me a much better shot that the first one.

   The two pictures outside the beach huts were with a standard lens and the telephone lens of my Olympus mju. The grab shot shows the couple sitting outside their hut reading in the sunshine, but a couple of minutes later they are hailed by people they know who are walking along the Cart Road. This makes a much more interesting shot as the seated couple are about to interact with the walking couple.

Picas3 web album:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/108069021696054915962/Ex10EasterWeekend#

Exercise 9 - A Comfortable Situation

I find working in the street quite imtimidating these days.  I have been taking random pictures for over 25 years and in this last decade the atmosphere has changed quite noticeably. 

   Nowadays people make distinct moves away from the camera, almost as if they are afraid to be caught on camera. With street scenes you need people to give a sense of scale and a focal point. Without anyone walking towards you (walking away is not the same) the eye has something to focus on and then it can travel round the picture.  Without that focal point your eye just wanders round and round, not sure what the main point of the image is.

   When I first went out with my camera, I found myself pretending to photograph a building/shop/view and then swung round to get the people I had spotted in the picture.  This can give rise to unfocussed subjects as you have to be fairly quick to get the subject in the picture before they turn away or realise you are using them in your shot.

   Very often too people will hang back when they see you taking a picture so that they are not in it.  Even if you wave them past, they will still avoid being a part of it.  I have used an example, see right, of people walking down Broad Street in Lyme where the couple divide to go round me, like the parting of the waters in the bible. 

   Eventually, if I continue long enough, I find I become more comfortable with the situation and can stand and shoot images of everything around me, not worrying about those people who don't want to be part of the pictures.

People & Place - Trying Something New

I haven't used blogging before even though I have completed TAOP and Project 1 of People and Place, but thought I would give it a go to see how it went.

Just started Project 2 called People Unaware and went up Broad Street, Lyme Regis, to see how I got on. People seem very reluctant to be 'in your photo' so it seems a case of focus elsewhere and then swing round to catch them. It's okay if their attention is elsewhere with active focussing but if you have to refocus then it can be difficult. Will post some pictures later.

 

 --- oOo ---

Project 1 

Saturday, 12 February 2011

Exercise 6 - The best of a sequence

I decided to use some of the pictures I had taken for Assignment 1 as I have been working through each portrait and these images also fit in here.  The pictures were taken in the living room of Lucy's parents' home.  The lighting was quite different for the pictures and needed to be adjusted through the Levels feature in Photoshop.

I spent some time talking to both subjects about things in general to get them to relax.  At the time I thought the sunburst mirror would be good to feature in the pictures but it just drew the eye.

Picture 1-good, balanced image, Picture 2-too dark, heads together, Picture 3-too twee, with mum looking at daughter

Picture 4-nice relaxed portrait, Picture 5-doesn't quite click, something about mother's gaze into distance, Picture 6-same as picture 5.

Again, not sure, jewellery too small to be seen, mother's gaze works better; Pictures 7 and 8 more relaxed and working together.

I tried a different situation with mirror in the hall. The colour of walls in the hall made such cold images, I also couldn't get far enough back to get a good shot, I was actually standing pressed against the hall coat stand as it was. Difficult to know where to focus - back of Lucy's head, mother's head, faces in the mirror?  On reflection the faces should be in sharp focus in the mirror, good image in Picture number 12 with both faces in sharp focus and looking round.

I tried to reintroduce the necklace but still didn't work.  Still couldn't get far enough back to get a good shot.

We had a good session trying to incorporate a family portrait but not suitable for final portrait as mother introduced another area which was not related to the theme of the whole series of pictures for assignment 1 - people aware.

it was a good exercise in portraiture and communicating with subjects to keep them interested and relaxed.

Friday, 11 February 2011

Exercise 5 - Eye contact and expression

These images were taken at my further education college in Guildford where I was taking pictures of students as they exited the refectory.  This student was known to me (as was the man in the background) and he acted up as I continued to press the shutter on his approach. We had good eye contact as he came nearer.

When I played the images back I was amused to see how the woman in the poster seemed to be looking over the student's shoulder. I cropped out the extraneous matter to focus on the student and the poster.

Exercise 4 - An active portrait

I have always been fascinated by people's hands and enjoy taking pictures of them whilst that person is working.  This fisherman was mending his nets as the fishing boat was unable to go out due to engine problems.

There are always nets drying over racks on The Cobb at Lyme but rarely do you see anyone repairing on them.  The first two images of the contact sheet above show 2 or 3 men working on them, Image 2 features one man with his shuttle mending a large hole in the net.
Images 3 and 4 show a closeup of his actions threading and knotting the line.

Mending the nets

Exercise 3 - Experimenting with light

I used my poor husband ,yet again,in various points around our main room using window light as a natural light source.

This picture on the left was with fill in flash

My final choice is this one below.  On reflection, I could have used a white reflector to bring more light onto the right hand side of the face/sweater.

The definition of the face has been held, but it would have been if the light had been too strong. There were no nets/voiles to diffuse the light if the sun had been shining strongly.

Exercise 2 Thinking about location

Exercise 1 - Portrait, scale and setting

I need to complete 4 scales of portrait in this session. Found this great model to use for this exercise:

1. Face cropped in close

Fartuun has such poise, especially as she is only 16. She has a serenity and responds to suggestions for poses with enthusiasm. I find this full face image is quite disconcerting in its impact.

2. Head and shoulders

Fartuun has such a lovely shaped neck and it comes out so well in pictures  This one with half a smile is really striking.

3. Torso, taking into account arms and hands

I like the way the model's hand and arm leads your eye round the image. The shape of her head, clearly shown by having her hair drawn back, encourages your eye to move on and around the image.  Overall, I like this image even though I was completely amazed when she untied her scarf and let her hair down (see next picture)

4. Full figure

Fartuun has an amazing figure which she enhances with her style of clothes.  Quite unknown to me when we started taking pictures, was her beautiful hair which I could see when she removed her headscarves. Wow!

Thursday, 10 February 2011

People & Place - Project 1 People Aware retrospective

Just picking up the work for project no 1 which I originally created with a paper workbook.