Final Images

These are my final images in response to this article. In the article it talks about prolonging human life and how that would cause overpopulation, and I wanted to represent that somehow. In the end I decided to represent it with shoes as that is what I had access to.

I think the pictures came out well as they're quite bright and colourful and I always want my photos to look like that, despite the fact it's representing a bad thing. 

I took lots of different shots of the same pile because I wanted different angles to it and to have the camera focus in different areas.

In this final photo I thought I'd line the shoes up to try something different. I wanted to show all the different coloured shoes which I think I've done well. I found it hard to get the angle right and I think there's a lot of blank space which I'm disappointed with, but with the overall photos I'm pleased.

Research

My article was on how scientists are trying to extend human's life expectancy, and the effects that would have on the world. The effect I was most interested in was overpopulation, as if everyone was to live to 200 then the world would be seriously overcrowded. 

I thought I could try and represent this by showing piles of things, the things representing people, my first thought was shoes as it's something I have access to. 

The piles of things is quite similar to the photos of the holocaust, as they stripped people of all their belongings and put them all together. I think the holocaust is a good example of humans beings self destructing and I think prolonging our lives to 200 years is another, but less extreme, example of that. 

I think these photos are really sad to look at because now we know what these people had to go through, and the photos I'll be taking don't have any history behind them, it's just a prediction of what the future could be like, whereas these photos are evidence of what has happened in the past.

Final Images

 These are my final images. I think this photo reflects what the brief asked for, as it's a moment in time which captures movement.

I think if the camera was more level with the ground it would be better because it would show the person in the air a bit more, but because of the shadow and where his legs are it still shows that.

I chose this as my final picture because I like how his arms are spread out, it's almost like he's about to fly. There's a lot of colour in this picture which I'm pleased with.

This was the long exposure image. I chose this as my final image because I really liked how the lights were reflected on the water. Plus as I was taking the picture a train went by a left a trail of light. 

Research

These are portraits by Steve McCurry. I really admire them because they're very sharp and you can see a lot of detail in the people's faces, particularly the first one. 

I love the colours of the first picture, the woman is wearing colourful clothes which I think really makes the picture. 





The second portrait he's done isn't as colourful, if anything it's actually quite dark. However I admire the simple background he's chosen, it has good texture to it. I also like the positioning of the woman, it's just her head and shoulders and I like that in a portrait because you can just focus of their face, and that's what I want to do with my portraits.

Portrait Final Images

These are my final images for the portrait project. The first 2 images are of people I don't know. I approached them on the university campus as I knew that they would be around my age so it would be easier to talk to them and explain what I was doing. I wanted the portraits to be quite simple. I think the background for the second portrait of the girl is nicer because there's a lot of greenery and different colours in that photo, whereas the first portrait is quite grey looking. However I think it's better framing in the first portrait because his head and shoulders are the main focus.








The second 2 portraits are of people I know, my housemates. Again I think the first one is better because of the background, there's more going on and it looks more interesting, whereas the second one is just a plain wall which I think is dull looking.

Portrait

These are some portraits I took for the "person I know". I tried to experiment with light in these photos because I wanted it to be completely black in the background but have their face lit up. However think it came out a bit too dark so I decided to not go with these images as my final picture. I still really like the photos though because I like how it's not immediately obvious it's a portrait.

Long Exposure

When hearing we had to take a long exposure photo the first idea I had was for it to be directly related to the freeze photo, so my idea was going to be a long exposure of someone on a swing. However as I couldn't find a swing I had to change my idea. The first picture I took was of some cars. I've done light painting before but I struggle to draw a good picture, so having cars to do it for you is a lot better. I don't think this is a bad picture but I wanted my photo to be unique and I know this idea has been done a lot.

It was a clear sky that night so another idea was to take a picture of the stars. This photo didn't work out so well as there was a lamppost in corner so the light from that seeped in, you can still see some stars though. I decided to not go with this picture as I just don't think there's a lot to it, it's not that interesting to look at particularly.

Finally I really liked how the colours of the lights reflected on the water so I decided to see what a long exposure of that would look like and this was the result. I tried to get the lights of the cars driving by but it didn't work so instead I waited for a train to go by and got the lights from that.

Movement - Fast

Another idea I had for the capturing a moment photo was to get someone running and to have them in focus but the background blurred. I've done this before with cars which worked out so I tried to do it with a person but I couldn't quite get their face in focus.

This is one I'd got of a man on a motorbike, I wanted the same effect for this project.

Another reason I abandoned this idea was that when someone is running they don't look very photogenic.

The location we were in was a good place as there was lots of trees and it was sunny that day, but because it was on a hill and the grass was wet it wasn't ideal for running.

This picture was probably the best one of the lot but the face wasn't as sharp as I would've liked it to be and therefore I didn't want to use it.

Movement - Fast

The brief said to capture a moment in time, or to "freeze" a moment. I really liked the idea of someone jumping off a swing because I think it captures a really good moment, it's the moment where you don't know if it's going to work out okay but at the same time you're still having a good time. Unfortunately I couldn't find a swing anywhere but I did find a park so I decided stick with the idea of being in mid air but just not from a swing.

I decided to take it in portrait mode so I could get the whole person in. It took a few shots because like in this photo their foot is still on the ground and I wanted them to be fully in the air. In the first picture (above) I wanted them to look a little more majestic so I took several photos until I got the result I wanted.

Research

I found some pictures by Andrew Whyte who does long exposure photography. 

This photo jumped out to me because it has Battersea Power Station in the background, which is a building I really admire as it has a lot of history and I love Victorian architecture. The lights are from trains which I think is quite simple to do but still has a really nice effect to it because it looks so unnatural. I think the whole photo has an urban feel to it and being from London it reminds me of home.

I really like the humour there is to this photo, it's called "how benches avoid being sat on" and I admire that because I think there's a preconception that photography is quite serious but this erases that. I like how he's used light painting to make an ordinary object more interesting.

Finally I picked out this photo because of the colours. I love the rainbow colours under the bridge because it looks like quite an old bridge but it's not just a big structure it also looks pretty. I also like the sky in this photo as you can see the stars and I think all together this photo seems like it should be from a cartoon and the fact it's real life makes it good.


This is a photo by glenncoco which captures a moment. It's at a really nice location which I think is easy to forget about when you're trying to take a picture of motion. It looks like the person on the left has used a power to push the other person away which I think is cool because I like photos that tell a story. The fact they're in silhouette makes it focus more on the movement of the photo which I think is a good way of doing it.

This photo is by Michael Shakes and it's capturing the movement of the cards. The man is more in focus than the cards so straightaway you're looking at his face which obviously isn't moving, but I think it's interesting that the cards aren't the main focus of the photo. It's a very simple idea which I admire and where the cards are placed is interesting because they only cover where the man is and not the background. 

Research

I looked at the work of William Neill as he's done many triptych photos.

What I particularly like about his work is how all 3 photos are of the same thing but they're not all the exact same photo.

This photo is very symmetrical which I think brings a lot to the photo as there's a lot of lines and spirals and the fact it's almost a mirror image both sides makes the photo seem simple yet complex. 

The triptych also has a good use of colours, they're very natural looking and almost look like an oil painting.

William Neill has done a lot of photos with nature but the colours are all quite bright which I think looks really good, and is something I want in my photos.

As we're putting our found objects in a studio environment I found this picture he'd done of the same rock but in different positions. I like the fact it's such a simple photo and yet looks very sleek and clean. The background is a plain black but the object is well lit which really brings it out, and is something I'd want to do with my photos, I want them to be simple looking.

Triyptych

 These were the "cheaper" items photographs. The Dr Pepper can particularly stood out to me because of it's bright red colour and the fact it's so shiny. I also really like the red of the ketchup sachet. There's also a toy that's broken just under the ketchup which I found interesting because I wasn't sure what the toy was originally, but it looked chewed up and I wanted there to be some blue in the picture. 

I wanted the horizontal line to be at a 180º angle because I think visually it looks better.  It was hard to decide where to have to focus so in these 3 images, despite all being very similar, the focus is in different places.

Final Image

This is my final image. I'm happy with the order it's in but I think it would've been better if the horizontal line in the background matched up. I also think the colours are different in each picture so it would look more unified if they looked the same. But I'm happy with how each photo turned out and I think they're interesting to look at.

Triptych

This was part of the "expensive" items category, as the receipt told me that someone had spent a lot of money and then there's the luxury items such as the tea and cigarette. 

I picked up the receipt because I find it interesting to see other people's spending habits, and I think it makes a good background for this photo. I found the tea bag label in a box filled with cigarette butts and therefore it stood out to me. 

When first taking the photo I felt there was too much background in the photo and I wanted the receipt to almost act like the background so I zoomed in, but this meant it cut off the cable tie. 

The pepsi bottle cap would also cool better if it was vertical, and the smaller objects should be more spread out from each other. 

Triptych

When photographing the natural objects it took me a while to position them all. I loved the colours of the leaves so I wanted them to be the main focus, and the duller colours of the stick and the rocks to be behind them.

When first taking the photos the background was slanted which I didn't want because I knew it was going to be part 1 of 3 and I'd rather they were all lined up the same. So I tilted my tripod so it was vertical.

These objects particularly stood out to me in different ways. The leaves are a really interesting colour and I wanted my photographs to have a range of colours. The stones have a nice texture to them, and I also really like the fact they're not just grey they still have mud of them, cos again I wanted a range of colours. And finally the sticks I picked just because I thought it would be useful to have to prop up other objects.

Now looking back at these photos I think the camera should've been lower so we can see the height of the leaves and sticks because I think it looks a little dull.

Triptych

When I organised the objects together I didn't really have a particular look I was going for, but I wanted the objects to be together rather than be seen as separate things.

I didn't know where to focus it at first so I experimented and focused it on different objects, here it's the ketchup.









In this photo, again, I didn't know where to focus it. So at first I did it at the beginning of the stick but I didn't like the fact it made the rest of the objects blurred, and I wanted it to be viewed as one object.

Triptych

For this project I explored the area around Toys R Us and Pizza Hut. I collected things that I'd see on the floor. In the end I found some cigarette butts, a can, a receipt, and some natural objects like leaves and rocks.

I then set up a studio like environment, by having a grey table and white wall background. I wanted it to look quite simple and not have any bold colours.

At first I wasn't sure how I could relate all the photos together, but then after grouping them together I found that I could separate them into categories that reflect the price of things. So all the natural objects went together because they're all free, then the cheaper items went together, and then the more expensive items went together.

When first taking photos I tried to get the right ISO so I took pictures of the can and changed the settings.