Final Major Project Update

It has been a few weeks since i've shot anything for my final major and i decided to go out tonight to somewhere new. Unfortunately even though the weather has been nice the past two weeks i just don't think it has been right as the sky has been clear of clouds until tonight.

I decided to go to Withernsea tonight as it was somewhere i haven't been before. I really struggled to shoot here as i've never felt a wind that was so bitterly cold. Another problem i had which i've never had before was that spray from the sea as covering my lens and filters in a weird coating that just didn't dry or wipe off easily.

Here are a couple of photos from the night that i am going to edit for a possible final shot. Here are some quick edits;

'Interpretation' Images

For this task we had to create 10 images based around 10 different words or phrases using our own interpretations.

The first image i have taken is for the phrase 'Dangerous Place'.

This is the image i decided to use as i think it suggests a dangerous place. I think the amount of graffiti and the boarded up window with metal over it suggests a dangerous place. This was taken down the side of the River Hull and is something that i has sparked an idea to possibly do a series of images from down the River Hull as there is a lot of decay and graffiti. 

The next phrase i have decided to do is 'Timeless Beauty'. Timeless Beauty is quite often associated with a glamorous women but i wanted to do something different. Again, i decided to use an image that i took down the River Hull.

This is a shot i took of the North Bridge Apartments down the River Hull which i decided to use for Timeless Beauty. The reason i think this fits into Timeless Beauty is that this building used to be a mill which was part of Hull's industrial past and have been converted into apartments in recent years. This is something that is happenings to mills across the country which shows that these buildings still contain beauty over many years. 

This is an image i took for the phrase 'Still Life'. I didn't want to take just a typical still life shot and when walking around the marina i saw this cafe that was totally quiet at dinner time. So i thought this had a still life feeling. 

This is the image i have used for a 'Shallow depth of field image of a boat'. I used an aperture of f/5.6 to blur the background enough so that you can still make out there is a boat in the background.

I used this image for 'things in a pile'. I had a walk around the industrial estate in Hull and there was piles of rubble and rubbish around but i liked this image the best as the lines and repetition look interesting.

 When i was walking through a multi storey i noticed this view of The Deep with the rush hour traffic backed up on the fly over that runs past it and i thought this summed up rush hour well with an interesting background and a view of The Deep that is rarely seen.

As i am becoming more and more interested in street photography and documentary photography i wanted to take a picture in this style and noticed this couple sat outside the train station watching the world go by. This image was taken for the word 'couple'.

I was struggling to get a photo for the phrase 'a red ball' so my aim was to walk around the marina and see if there was any red objects around there and luckily this canon stood out to me as the fake cannonball has been vandalised and spray painted red. 

 For this photo we had to take a image in the style of 'Slinkachu' and i wanted to do something that  could do in my garden. So as i have a small pond i thought about using some fisherman to create my image. 

This is the shot that i decided to use for 'Cat'. It's a simple shot but i like the way it shows the character of the cat as this was taken through a glass door, it shows that she is always wanting to be back inside. 

Typology Final

I have recently finished photographing several boat mooring bollards up and down the River Hull as part of a Typology project. I have managed to narrow these down to 9 final images to use which i thought looked the most interesting and different.

When looking at a lot of older Typology I noticed that a lot of it is in black and white due to the year it was taken. I decided to try mine in black and white and i think it makes it look like a traditional typology image and it shows the texture of the bollards well. Something i said when i first started this project was that i wanted to capture the colours and the textures which is one reason why i think this would work better in colour.





I have decided to do this project in colour as i think it definately shows the colours and the texture better than the black and white version. This are the final bollards I decided to include which were all shot on the River Hull. These images were then arranged in a grid and printed as a A2 image.

I also had a go at merging all the 9 images together to create a new image as this is something that is often done using these kinds of images.

I decided to then convert this to black and white as when the images were overlayed in Photoshop the colours became too vivid and looked fake. I am fairly pleased with this image but i haven't decided to do a print of this as i don't think it is good enough to be printed.

Hull Job Cut Protest

I found out that today there was going to be a protest in Hull city centre to do with the job cuts and strikes so i thought it'd be a perfect opportunity to develop my documentary photography. I really enjoyed it and there was such an atmosphere. Here is a couple of quick edits i've done from the protest.

'Specialist Studio Practise' - Final Images

For this assignment I decided to development on my previous fashion work as i received some very useful feedback from the last assignment. Here are the 6 final images i have chosen to use as finals.

Mappleton

Mappleton

I decided to take a trip to Mappleton as there was a shot that i had pictures in my mind from seeing other people's photos from here.

Unfortunately the shot i had pictured ended up being a lot harded to get than i thought it would be. The pictures of the rocks here don't really emphasise the size of them as they are huge when you see them in front of you. This made it very hard and dangerous to set up a tripod on them especially as they were very slippery.

This is one shot that i got from the shoot that i am very happy with.

Typology Photography

Typology Photography derives from the term, 'the study of types'. The term 'Typology' began in 1957 when Bernd and Hilla Becher gave the name to their style of photography. These two photographers often focused on industrial structures such as blast furnaces, water towers and coal mine heads.

Water Towers by Hilla Becher

When photographing their subjects they would make sure that each photograph was taken in the same way. This would include camera settings, lighting, time of day and positioning. One common characteristic that stood out in their work was that they would take the photographs on overcast days as this gave the subject a soft, diffused, even light with no strong shadows. The images were then commonly displayed in a grid as this made it easier to compare each photograph.

I have been given the task of creating my own Typology by studying a subject and photographing it in the same and consistant way. I will then be required to display them in a grid containing at least 9 photographs. As the rivers in Hull are a big part of the city's Maritime history which is something the city is famous for, i have decided to photograph Boat Mooring Bollards as they are a remaining part of the now redundant, Maritime history..

Boat Mooring Bollard by Me

This is an image i previously took around 3 years ago of a bollard down the River Hull in the Wincolmlee area of Hull. I think these will be an interesting subject as because the majority of these bollards are now unused they have been left to decay resulting in some interesting colours and textures.

Medium Format Test

As i am using medium format digital backs for my 'Specialist Studio' assignment i thought i better get back into using medium format and the digital backs before i go out on location with them. So i had a very short studio session today which unfortunately was only half an hour long, which meant i couldn't really shoot much but it was more about getting used to the digital backs again.

Here is a very quick shot that i got, unfortunately the focus is off a bit as the eyes are soft. Shot on a Mamiya RZ67 with a Phase One H20 Digital Back. Lit using one softbox from the front, directly above the camera. Also a bare reflector head from behind left for some rim light and another from behind right on less power for some rim light.

Final Major - Test 2

As the weather was quite nice this evening i decided to go for another shoot. Unfortunately it was quite unsuccessful again as there wasn't much movement in the water so it was giving quite boring photos. Here are two photos which i got from this evening that i'm fairly happy with.

Final Major - Test 1

For my Final Major project i have decided to do Seascapes as it's an area of photography i used to really enjoy a while back and haven't shot for a while, so i thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get back into it.

Last night i went out on my first test shoot to just get back into it, overall it was fairly unsuccessful as the light faded really really quickly so i only got a few shots.

This is the one shot i managed to get from the shoot that i am fairly happy with. This was a 30 second exposure at ISO100, f/16. A ND Grad was also used to darken the sky slightly.

Specialist Studio Locations

For my specialist studio i have decided to develop on the previous fashion work i did as i think i could definately improve it. Something i really wanted to improve on was the locations i use and after i had seen a couple of photographs that gave me inspiration, i wanted to shoot in a stately home.

This is an image from the Burton Agnes Hall website and after seeing this it really made me want to shoot here.
I emailed the Hall and unfortunately they can't allow me to shoot inside the Hall but i am able to shooting in the grounds if i want to. I also contacted Sledmere House which is near Driffield but they would charge me £300+ for half a days shoot. I am currently waiting for a response from Burton Constable Hall.