Solid – Liquid
This photo contains two contrasts in itself. The solid rock sits within the liquid sea. However, another contrast is that it shouldn’t be assumed that the rock is stronger because it’s solid. The rock will never consume the water but the water, over time, will consume the rock.
Assignment 1, P – Carried out 4/3/12.
I have looked back through the photographs I have taken so far to find the contrasting pairs needed for to complete this assignment. Surprisingly I found five pairs of contrasts and one that is a contrasting pair in itself which is the requirement.
On a previous photography course I was asked to find images with contrasting colours. It was easy to find instances of colour contrast as there is some form of colour in every image. The difficulty I found with the contrasting pairs for this assignment was making them relevant to each other. The following photographs are the contrasting pairs I selected from my portfolio.
Many – Few:
Many – Jelly Beans Few – Jelly Sweets
The jelly beans extend beyond the frame which suggests that there is more than what you can see. There are only three jelly sweets all clearly within the frame so compared to the jelly beans they are few.
Diagonal – Rounded:
Diagonal – Climbing Ladybird Rounded – Wall
The diagonal image gives a much different feel to the rounded. The Diagonal climb looks difficult but the rounded wall seems flowing and seamless.
Light – Dark:
Light – Orchid Dark – Orchid
Rather than the traditional photographic sense of light and dark I wanted to show those qualities in a subject. One orchid would lighten a mood and the other would appear quite dark and moody.
Curved – Straight
Curved – Posts Straight – Posts
The curve of the posts is quite subtle and in stark contrast is the cold straight Posts.
Large – Small
Large – Ironbridge Small – Ladybird
It’s difficult to show large and small unless you have something within the same frame to compare the size to. There are two white dots on top of the Ironbridge, they are people. So in comparison the bridge is Large. In contrast the Ladybird has fibres attached to its body which are so small it’s difficult to see with the human eye.
Black – Patterdale Terrier (Angel) White – Parson Russell Terrier (Morrissey)
This was the most obvious contrast for me as I chose them to be contrasting.
Still – Moving
Still – Sea Moving – Water Fountain
The sea appears to be still as there is nothing in the frame to suggest otherwise. Whereas the water fountain is creating droplets and ripples in the water indicating that it’s moving.
High – Low:
High Tide Low Tide
Both of these photos are of Tenby harbour taken at different time. The first photo shows the boats floating in high tide and the second photo shows the boats on the sea bed during low tide.
This gallery contains 21 photos.
I’ve been on a break far longer than initially intended. Since my lost blog I have been to Australia and moved house. Now it’s time to get back into studying even though I never stopped photographing. I’d like to share some … Continue reading
Exercise 11, P.47: carried out 26/02/12.
The aim of this exercise was to find 10 scenes suitable for a vertical (portrait) frame and then photograph the same scene with a horizontal (landscape) frame. Although the tendency would be to find vertical subjects I chose to visit a local National Trust Property called Benthal Hall and whatever I wanted to photograph I firstly used a vertical frame and then the same again with a horizontal frame.
Photo 1: The House
When composing the scene in the viewfinder I struggled to find a pleasing angle of view for the vertical frame as I wanted to include the house in its entirity. Because of this I had to stand quite a way back from the house to fit it within the vertical frame and the results show that. I placed the house in the upper part of the frame to show the long sweeping carpet of grass leading up to the house which tells you the house is set in extensive grounds.The horizontal frame compliments the shape and scale of the house and although contains less of a narrative, it’s the most natural fit.
Photo 2: The staircase
I think it’s obvious in the staircase photo that the vertical frame works well and elongates the knule post and steep stairs making for an elegant image. The horizontal frame cuts short the knule post and cuts out the second post too. The frame sits awkwardly and forced and makes my eyes bounce all over the photo looking for a focus point.
Photo 3: The hexagon
The hexagon tower sits well with both the vertical and horizontal frame. I like the simplistic nature of the vertical frame and narrative of its surroundings in the horizontal frame.
Photo 4: The crocus
I spotted a lonely crocus in the flower bed next to the house so lay down (on the gravel!) steadied the camera and as I was about to release the shutter a bee came along and settled on the flower. Great, I thought let’s get snapping quickly to capture the subject in both frame types. The bee was happy to pose and I got my photos and then I thought, aaaarrrrgghhhhh BEE!! Anyway, The vertical frame gives a nice close up of the bee sucking the nectar from the flower and I think it’s a good angle of view too. It was because of the viewfinders upright position and wanting a close up of the bee I had to sacrifice some of the flower. I think it was worth it. The horizontal frame shows the entire subject and some background foliage which is nice too but nothing special. Out of the two I would say the vertical frame is the better image.
Photo 5:
Everything within the vertical frame compliments it’s upright nature, the trees, the chimney the bay windows etc. The horizontal frame is still pleasing however it would have been better to have chimney stack within the frame but it would have compromised the composition. The vertical frame definitely works better for this image.
Photo 6: Shroom Hut
The shroom house fits snuggly within the vertical frame due to its shape. However, I like the horizontal frame as it gives an insight into the shroom huts setting which is equally as interesting.
Photo 7: Pond Girl
The girl in the pond sits better within the vertical frame because she looks quite lost in the horizontal frame.
Photo 8:
Again in this photo the snowdrops look a bit lost in the horizontal frame and therefore sit better within the vertical frame.
Photo 9:
In the horizontal frame the tree just looks like it accidentally got in the way and seems rather confused. The vertical frame much better represents what I could see as being a potential photo.
Photo 10:
I like both of these frames as they both show the walk along the road with the gate beyond the walkers. I don’t see how one frame is better than other. The vertical frame gives a sense of distance but it’s not relevant for this particular image.
So initially I said I was looking for subjects to photograph regardless of the frame but I now realise I was subconsciously looking for Vertical framed images. Most of the photos in this sequence were better suited to a vertical frame than a horizontal frame but the horizontally framed photos can still look good in most instances.
I have looked back at my portfolio and I seem to like to use a vertical frame as much as a horizontal frame but now I will be more conscious of which frame type is more appropriate to a scene and maybe try both for each photo.
Exercise 12, P.50: 24/02/12
Although the subject is cropping I will have to call upon some techniques already learnt in the course to carry out this exercise. When looking through my portfolio for suitable photos to crop, I realised that I naturally fill the frame with the intended scene prior to pressing the shutter. This is why it was difficult to find examples of scenes that could be cropped as they were few and far between. The three photos I have chosen show different scenes and different needs for cropping. I’ve had no choice but to use thumbnail sized images for this exercise as I wanted to put the images side by side.
Photo 1:
The photo on the left shows the original frame which includes one whole rose and rose bud with some background foliage. Although the rose is centrally placed there is dead space to the left and part of a rose to the top right which is quite distracting. My initial thought was to crop out everything other than the central rose and rose bud but having tried it didn’t seem quite right although it did fit in with the theory of the golden section. I decided on a much tighter crop to make a feature of the petals. All distracting and unwanted items in the frame have been cropped out resulting in a beautiful close up of a yellow rose.
Photo 2:
In the original first photo Jumping Jack seems lost amongst the background trees. I tried a crop of Jumping Jack himself but being suspended in mid-air the story was lost in cropping out everything else. The final more subtle crop shows just enough of the trampoline at the bottom of the frame for the viewer to know how the subject was caught in mid-air. As a substantial amount of the frame was cropped out Jumping Jack now stands out more. This photo also now leans itself towards the rule of thirds.
Photo 3:
This photo was taken during a girls holiday in Tenby and the subjects are my mother, my sister and my niece. I saw them sitting on the bench together and shouted Cookie (Our family name) so I wasn’t referring to any one of them but all of them looked over as I intended and I quickly got the shot. I love it because it shows three generations of girls in my family and as I caught them unawares they all had natural facial expressions. I know in their minds mom is saying ‘cheeky’, my sister Deborah is saying ‘WHAT!’ and my niece is giggling at my antics. Their faces emulate their personalities which I think makes this photo great. However, technically there are issues with the photograph as it was impromptu. The hands look awkward and mom overpowers the other two subjects. I cropped out most of the bodies and the left side of mom so as to equalise the proportion more and make mom less dominating in the frame. This left just the faces and enough background to know they were sitting watching the sea. I can’t decide if the bottom left green grass is slightly distracting or not. I tried cropping it out but too much of the story was lost and I decided to leave it in. Using the balance scales this photo is well balanced with one bigger subject on one half and two smaller subjects on the other side.
Exercise 10, P.43: 21/2/12
As this exercise is about finding the right place to position the horizon I took the opportunity to use the sea view and horizon in Tynemouth on a visit last week. I didn’t get a good day for ‘light’ and ordinarily wouldn’t showcase photographs taken on a dull grey day. So, just for the purpose of this exercise I’ll use the photos I took to demonstrate and discuss the horizon line and it’s position in the frame.
This sequence of photos will show the horizon positioned top to bottom:
1.
With the horizon placed so high the sea and sky seem less significant than the beach and land. The next photo is the horizon placed slightly lower:
2.
Photo 2 draws your eye to the beach first and then out to the sea.
3.
The position of the horizon in photo 3 makes more of a feature of the sky and cuts out some of the lower distractions from the previous two photos.
The last two photos are positioning the horizon low down in the frame:
4.
In photo 4 most of the beach is out of the frame and the sky is a more prominent feature. My eye is now drawn to the castle ruin on the cliff.
5.
With the horizon placed so low the only interesting feature I’m drawn to is the castle ruin.
In this sequence of frames my preference is leaning towards photo 2. For me the balance seems more pleasing to the eye and encompasses more interesting elements than the other photos. Coming in second is photo 3 where the horizon cuts through the centre of the photo. It may have been my favorite if the sky was more interesting with more vibrance and blue but as it is the sky is so grey it doesn’t have the strength to be the dominating feature.
I think the position of the horizon depends on the scene and angle of view but looking through previous photos with a horizon I tend to position it two-thirds up in the frame. Perhaps it’s the golden rule that makes it work or the rule of thirds? Perhaps this is my personal style which I’ve adopted as a natural rule without realising it! Either way it works for me.
Exercise 9 P.42: Carried out 9/2/12.
I’ve been looking back through my extensive portfolio of photographs to find examples of balance. Balance can be measured using weighing scales as an illustration above each photograph I chose. Starting with a simple example of balance within a frame my first choice is a portrait photo of my son and father:
As my son is standing forward from my father they appear to be similar sizes which makes the proportions equal on each half of the frame. When using the scales to balance the image its a simple case of an equal box on each side creating the balance.
The next five examples of balance within a frame range from obvious to more complex:
These photographs were carefully chosen to show an illustration of how dividing the subject equally gives balance within the frame. Naturally our eyes look for balance within a frame but it’s not a rule of thumb when choosing a scene. Some photographs won’t appear to be balanced and are still great images as in the example below:
In this photograph although the main subject is central the leaf it’s attached to fills the right of the frame with nothing to balance it out to the left of the frame.
In conclusion, where balance is visually pleasing equally no balance makes an interesting division of the frame.
Exercise 8, P.36: Carried out on 5/2/12
The snow starting falling last night as I left the in laws house in Gloucestershire. What would normally be a one and half hour journey turned into four hours and with three young, hungry, thirsty, tired and bored boys in the back was quite stressful. However, whilst stuck on the M54 waiting for a stretch of motorway to reopen in heavy snow fall all I could think about was the various photos I could have taken if I had my camera with me! There was a long section which stretched round a bend and a perfect line of bright red lights all in view would have made an excellent image. The snow falling from the sky, another great image. They weren’t to be though as I didn’t have my camera. It taught me a valuable lesson and that was, no matter where you’re going, take your best buddy with you! So I did. Today.
The snow was quite thick in the morning so we thought we would all go a walk around Ironbridge wrapped up warm and waterproof. As we were leaving I thought, CAMERA! So I popped it into the car. When driving through I thought what a great opportunity to carry out the next exercise for my AoP course.
The purpose of the exercise was to see how different viewpoints of the same subject changed its perspective. Either by using a wide-angle and telephoto lens or a zoom lens at its shortest and longest focal lengths. I opted for the later as it was a freezing and wet day and I didn’t want to risk damaging my equipment by changing lenses. When finding a subject I stood as far away as to fill the frame with a focal length of 300mm and took a photo. Then walking forward and getting close to the subject as to fill the frame with the same subject at a focal length of 28 mm. Here are the results:
This is the Zoomed Version:
This is the standing near version:
As you can see when comparing the two images the subject remains the same size but the background has a completely different perspective. The zoomed version reduces the background and the non zoomed version shows a much wider view.
Here are some alternative subjects but the effect remains the same:
In the zoomed version above the trees in the background appear big with less of them in the frame. In the version below (which was at a slightly different angle due to the ground not being level) there is an entire forest behind the statue.
Notice in the zoomed version above the railings appear big with less of them in the frame. In the version below the railing appear to be smaller with lots more of them in the frame.
This difference in perspective has made me think about what I would like to be included or excluded from the frame and using either distance or closeness to achieve this. For example, I prefer the non zoomed version of the sign as it includes a rather nice hotel in the background which has the name of the location. In contrast I prefer the zoomed version of the family portrait because the railing fill the background of the frame.
Exercise 7 P.35: Carried out 17/12/12
I’m going to look at different focal lengths by using a zoom lens to capture various angles of view. With my camera mounted on a tripod I started with the shortest focal length available on the lens at 28mm This is the first photo in the series showing a wide-angle view:
Like with any seascape there’s going to be sea but at this short focal length there is more of the shore in the frame which also includes a nearby building.
For the next shot I adjusted the lens to a longer focal length about 100mm:
At this focal length I also adjusted the composition to include land in the background and walkers in the foreground to make it more interesting. I used the same composition for the next three shots which were all at different focal lengths between 100 – 300mm:
At this angle of view all the other details are outside of the frame and with a fairly long focal length I can now see that the boat is being cleaned although I still can’t make out the name on the side.
This is the final photo and long focal length of 300mm available to me:
This is a very different angle of view to the first photo which was wide angled and encompassed various subjects but not so much detail. With this long focal length only the boat is in the frame but more fine detail is visible and I now know the boat’s name is Marlin.
Exercise 6 P.32: Carried out December 2011
In this exercise I produced approximately 20 photographs of an event in Ironbridge, Shropshire. Having read this exercise ahead I actually took the photos at the end of September 2011 in readiness for writing the blog. My brief was to capture the images I see that I think are worthy of a photograph and go through the sequence from the first shoot of the subject to the final satisfactory image.
This is the opening shot in the sequence. My intention was to start with a photo that would give an indication as to where the event took place. The sign gives directions to Coalbrookdale one way and The Iron Bridge the other and therefore suggesting the photo was taken between the two locations. Looking at the first photo I was happy it showed the signs as intended and also gave me the idea of photographing the crowds of people arriving and leaving the event. I wanted to document the way people were dressed, what dogs they were walking, what pushchairs they were pushing etc. The next two photos show the style of the moment with as many people as I could fit on the photograph in a landscape format. It was quite early in the event so not masses of people around. The other thought I had was how amazing it was to stand on the road and take photos. The event was to celebrate the Ironbridge Gorge Trusts 25th Anniversary and the first time the road had been closed in as many years. I thought a record of that fact was also a good thing to show:
I decided to take this third photograph as two police officers walked up the Wharfage to show the uniform of the time too.
As I approached the start of the event my attention was turned to a one man band who came out of nowhere. My first thought was get his photo quick:
I was so disappointed when reviewing the shot to find a passerby had walked into the scene. Everything else was perfect, the action of singing, playing guitar, stepping forward, looking at the camera. I tried again:
Better, no strays in the frame. The post is distracting but can be cropped out. Still a bit disappointed as the one man band was no longer looking at the camera. After review he was swamped by other snappers so I resided myself to the fact I had already got the best shot I could. I also thought I may see him again later. The post edited final photo is below:
So moving on further along the Wharfage my next object of interest came to my ears first then as the sound came into view I saw a four piece band of young men on a stage playing al fresco:
I felt there were too many distracting elements within the frame of this photo so I maneuvered to the centre of the stage and talked my way through to the front:
I had been using a wide-angle lens up to now so switched for a zoom lens as I felt there were still too many distractions within the frame although the composition was right. This was the final result:
I’m quite happy with this final image except for the guitar in the drummers head but I didn’t notice this until I uploaded the photos to my computer and saw a bigger view.
At the top of the Wharfage next to The Iron Bridge were some very tall police men watching the crowds for mischievous people. They suddenly came into view and my first photo of them was a quick reaction to what I was seeing:
Not ideal at all. They were in a rush to reprimand a family so I had to move back as far as I could and try to get a better shot:
To my surprise one of the tall policemen noticed I was taking a photo and was happy to pose for me. I used the opportunity to take as many as I could:
With the tall policeman on the move I felt sure I had at least one good photo. There were a lot of other people in the shot which in other circumstances would have been a problem but this was an event and unavoidable so I accepted that. I then turned my attention to getting a photo of the two tall policemen together which resulted in the following series:
The last photo is the sequence was the shot I wanted. It showed one of the tall policemen giving a young member of a family a ‘talking to’ and the other members looking on and laughing at her embarrassment. I thought it was the defining photo which epitomised the purpose of the event which was to bring families into Ironbridge to celebrate its being and have fun in the process.
Overall it was an enjoyable day and I even met the founder of the local camera club who I found out lives in the next little village to me and he knew my house well (It had a reputation for all night parties in the 70’s!).
Sam Bennett 