Assignment 3: Buildings in use

I have recently completed Assignment 3, which is titled  Buildings in use. I have chosen 5 buildings to photograph for this Assignment. I have found capturing each of the buildings to be quite challenging – finding both the 'right' angle and viewpoint and then good light is hard.

Building 1. RCH Bus Station, Herston

A bus station on the Northern Busway, Brisbane.

Photo 1. Overview of Station

Photo 2. Bus departing station

Photo 3. Passengers alighting onto bus

Photo 4. Stand behind yellow line, Platform 1

Building 2. Bridge, Airlink project, Herston

Part of Australias largest construction project, a bridge over the entrance to the Clem Jones tunnel.

Photo 5. Isolated bridge

Photo 6. Bridge amidst massive construction project

Photo 7. Light post and crane

Building 3. Spicers Hidden Vale Resort

Luxury resort west of Brisbane - such a treat to visit and photograph!

Photo 8. Red Angus Cottage

Photo 9. Loungeroom

Photo 10. Little luxuries

Photo 11. Bedroom

Building 4. Northey City Farm Office Building

The new, very environmentally friendly office building at our local city farm (located in floodplain which explains its height!).

Photo 12. Rain water tank

Photo 13. Stairs up to office

Photo 14. Office view

Photo 15. Highrise

Building 5. Powerhouse Art Centre

Large arts centre which was the Brisbane powerhouse in its former life.

Photo 16. Stairs to stage

Photo 17. World Press Photography Exhibition

Photo 18. Front of building

This assignment has been another big challenge for me. Choosing the buildings and then executing each photograph and trying to get a complete view of each building was not easy. I have learnt a lot during the course of this assignment, and feel like I have improved considerably in my photography of buildings and spaces. More practice required, as ever...

Exercise 15: Public space, public activity

This exercise is actually from chapter 2, however I only finished taking photos last weekend for it. I actually started it a year ago in Edinburgh with some photos take in the Princes St gardens one (rare) very sunny day, with everyone out sunbathing enjoying the warmth. Since moving to Brisbane where it is warm almost all year round, I have noticed a real difference in attitude - I have not once seen someone sunbathing on the lawn here, as opposed to Edinburgh where as soon as the sun is out and it's somewhat warm there are people lying on the lawn with bellies exposed. Quite a contrast. So I wanted to photograph a public area here in Brisbane, the local farmers market has an adjacent lawn patch with a few stalls around where people congregate on a Sunday morning after they have done their grocery shopping, sit back with a cup of chai and enjoy the atmosphere.

The first 8 photos show the way people are using the space in Princes St Gardens, Edinburgh.

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The second set of 8 show a variety of activity taking place at Northey St Farm on a sunny Sunday.

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I really like the contrast between these two sets of images. In each of them there are some solitary people enjoying time on their own, and also small groups of people chatting, interacting with children, eating and drinking or relaxing in their own way. Capturing different activities gives an overall picture of the area which can be more telling than a single photograph. The strong contrasting sunlight is present in both sets, despite them being taken on opposite sides of the world! I like the strong dark shade patches in some of the first set of photographs in particular.

Exercise 18: How space changes with light

The aim of this exercise was to understand better how important good light is to a successful photograph. I have seen this before during my TAOP studies, but this time the exercise is more directed towards _space_ and perhaps buildings to a lesser extent. I undertook this exercise while I was working on Assignment 3 Buildings in Use so there is some overlap between the two.

I have chosen two locations for this exercise, one is an overpass near my place of work.  I have photographed in full sunlight during the middle of the day where strong shadows are seen cutting across the overpass and captured a cyclist - he looks almost sandwiched between the roof and strongly patterned floor. All the lines converge and add to this image.

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I chose a different angle for the second photograph, choosing this because of the lovely sky behind. The very low angle of view and framing of the star-like structure in front of the cloud and directly over the cyclist works very effectively in this image. A little motion blur does not detract from the image. I underexposed by a full stop to keep the slightly dark feel of the photo in keeping with the time of day.

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For the second location I have used the bridge that I am including in Assignment 3, half built as part of Brisbane's Airlink project. The changes in light I saw at this location were very dramatic and reminiscent of the light in Scotland (though much warmer of course :). I was out taking photos making use of the slightly overcast day, and was not terribly happy with the results (see first image). Then suddenly the sun broke through the clouds and there was brilliant light on my subject and the contrast between it and the dark clouds and blue sky was so dramatic it was amazing. These two photos are taken in basically the same location but very strongly show the difference between average light and excellent light. Worth waiting for.

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OK so I continue to learn the value of good light whenever I am lucky enough to encounter it... Unfortunately I don't always have the time (... and patience) to wait for good light and need to just get the shots and go. Good to continue learning about the value of light, as we are all just painters of light...

Exercise 17: The Users Point of View

The aim of this exercise was to choose spaces designed for a particular activity that is taken from a specific distinctive position and to photograph from that point of view. I had a number of ideas for this exercise but it has been a while in the making and I'm not sure it's yet complete... It was slightly difficult to think of appropriate viewpoints that could be captured in public places without looking strange, though perhaps I should give up on that idea and just accept that I do stand out sometimes with the camera. I have used my point & shoot (Canon Powershot S95) for these examples as it is generally easier to carry around with me and use discreetly.

My first photo idea was to photograph not the car that I drive in (because I hardly ever do) but instead the bike that I ride to and from work. I chose a relatively attractive background and then framed the image to show my view of the handlebars and bike path beyond, just near the Roma St Parklands in Brisbane. As a photograph there are good diagonals in the photo and the lighting interesting.

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My second photo idea was to photograph the beauty salon that I go to, from the relaxation bed. The view is not particularly interesting and I'm not sure I have conveyed the users point of view particularly well in my photograph.

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Another idea that I had was to photograph my son on the see-saw. I am sitting on one end and him on the other, so it literally is a users point of view, but it doesn't really fit the brief as it's not a 'space' per se. Nonetheless it conveys something of a users point of view.

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The final idea was photographed in a cottage, with a view over a table with nice scenery beyond. I have had some challenges in executing the lighting for this image (I didn't have my flash with me so only had on-camera flash and this did not do a very good job of lighting the scene in the diminshing natural light).

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I feel like I have learnt a lot about _trying_ to see from the users point of view, but I'm yet to successfully capture this with my camera. It's a good lesson though, and now when I am out and about I'm looking for 'users point of view' examples and trying to capture them. I guess that's the whole point of doing these exercises!