Update & portrait photos

A quick update on my one portrait project and other stuff... it rapidly turned into one a week, and now it's one whenever I can manage! The last few months have been hectic, and the next few will continue to be so! We are moving back to Australia in a few days so have been preparing for that over the last few months. It's all systems go (apart from my photography!)

I've recently finished TAOP and sent it off for the next Assessment. I'm excited to hear the results in a few months. The journey has been fantastic for me and I feel I've risen to the challenge quite well. I'm also working on People & Places which I continue to feel more comfortable with.

Here are a few recent portraits that I've taken, expect a bit of a pause from the blogging, but the next photos will be from Adelaide and then Brisbane!

Jazz Festival, Edinburgh. I took my camera out during the Jazz festival free event in the Grassmarket. It was a lovely day with constantly changing light conditions. I took loads of photos (for the P&P course, though I have not posted them here on my blog yet). These were my favourite portraits on the day.

From Portrait_Project

From Portrait_Project

From Portrait_Project

From Portrait_Project

Princes St Gardens, Edinburgh. This was a sneaky shot, very voyeristic of me, but then she was lying there in the sun so I wasn't being that naughty! I like the composition of this photograph, and it works well with the strong high contrast sunlight. A rare hot sunny day in Edinburgh!

From Portrait_Project

Jupiter Artland, self-portrait. Not terribly inspired, but I liked the artwork and I never miss an opportunity to star in my photos!

From Portrait_Project

Rowena, an amazing yoga teacher who I've been very lucky to study with for the last 2 1/2 years (www.ro-yoga.com/). We had a short photo session in her yoga studio, which is a beautiful light place - perfect for practice and photography. I took some photos for the P&P course here which I will post in due course.

From Portrait_Project

From Portrait_Project

From Portrait_Project

A friend. Would be better without her sunglasses blocking her lovely eyes, but then there wouldn't be the cool reflection of me in the photo too :) She was a reluctant sitter so I didn't push it.

From Portrait_Project

more to come...

Book: 'Between the eyes', David Levi Strauss

The Rwanda projects of Alfredo Jaar, in David Levi Strauss, Between the eyes
This essay is a fascinating look at photographs taken by Jaar immediately after the Rwanda genocide on 1994. I found reading the essay disturbing, but the way Jaar presents his photographs afterwards was what I found really interesting. He has managed to reduce the immensity of the genocide (which according to Strauss, we the public watched glued to our screens and newspapers but didn't react), to single people and the impact on them. He did this initially not showing his photographs, of which he took about 3000 during his time in Rwanda, but by describing them, or just trying to bring Rwanda as a place into our mindset. Then later on he has used single photographs with descriptions (lots of use of words by the sound of things), to really bring home the personal impact of the civil war. From reading 'Between the eyes', I am beginning to learn more about the difficulty of reporting such massive events in a compassionate way that will make the public think. With the onset of 24hour news in our lives we are being dulled to these tragic events, because we see them (internet/tv/newspapers) constantly. This makes it harder for reporters/photographers to make us empathise with the individuals on the ground. I think that the approach that Jaar took with his Rwanda work has been very effective, and I found just reading about it to be incredibly moving. I found a couple of Strauss's quotes key, in relation to war/social documentary photography:
“One terrible truth about photographs is that they can only ever show us what happened, never what is happening or will happen. They are always about something that is gone, and so are in league with death.” this is “the futility of a gaze that arrives too late”.
Pp 103.


Can you hear me? In David Levi Strauss, Between the eyes
Interesting quote from article about modern life – connectivity and the place of art in the busy modern world.

'Artists cannot compete with the Pandaemonium on its own terms; they are outgunned and vastly undercapitalized. The only way to effectively subvert it is to change the rules of engagement, to engage the audience differently. The most basic questions about audience and communication have to be asked differently now than in the past, perhaps especially when it comes to images, but they still need to be asked. The question is no longer, Should there be a global mass-market consumer culture?, but Should there be anything else? With all of the hype about interconnectivity, are we really more connected than before? What is the nature of that connection? Is the Internet the first and only transparent medium, or does its form determine its content? Is art a subcategory of mass-market consumer culture or something different from it? What is the difference between commercial messages and art? Does motivation affect the message essentially? Can you hear me?'
pp164


The highest degree of illusion, in David Levi Strauss, Between the eyes
A discussion about the September 11 attacks – the most photographed event in history. Clearly planned and executed to maximise imaging – ie the delay between then two crashes seemed calculated to allow cameras to turn en mass towards the towers. An interesting observation... Some of the other trends Strauss observes are interesting too – regarding the treatment and reaction to images as opposed to reality. I'm not sure I agree with him totally about preferring images to reality, but certainly this idea in todays image saturated world is something to ponder upon.
pp182

This book is a fascinating if challenging (and sobering) read. I would recommended it to anyone interested in the use of images in a political environment.

Assignment 5: Applying the techniques of illustration and narrative

I have chosen to photograph the Island of Mull, which is off Scotland's West Coast. It has been our favourite place to visit over the last 3 years that we have lived in Scotland. As we are heading back to Australia at the end of August I thought it would be a challenge to try to capture something of the still beauty of Mull and what makes it such a special place.

I have storyboarded how I imagine these photos might go in a magazine.

Title Page

From Assignment_5_Mull

Page 1,2

From Assignment_5_Mull

Page 3,4

From Assignment_5_Mull

Page 5,6

From Assignment_5_Mull

And here are the individual photographs:


Photo 1. Title Page, Escher 3 worlds

From Assignment_5_Mull

24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 30D, f/11, 27mm, 1/350sec, ISO 200

Photo 2. Page 1, Top, Wild Waves

From Assignment_5_Mull

70-200mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 30D, f/11, 200mm, 1/750sec, ISO 200, -1/2EV

Photo 3. Page 1, Bottom, Still reflections

From Assignment_5_Mull

24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 30D, f/16, 30mm, 1/90sec, ISO 250, -1/2EV

Photo 4. Page 2, Left, Tobermory Harbour

From Assignment_5_Mull

24-70mm f/2.8 macro lens, Canon 30D, f/9.5, 57mm, 1/180sec, ISO 100

Photo 5. Page 2, Right, Keeping in touch

From Assignment_5_Mull

24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 30D, f/8, 24mm, 1/350sec, ISO 100, -1/2EV

Photo 6. Page 3, Travel by boat

From Assignment_5_Mull

24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 30D, f/5.6, 35mm, 1/350sec, ISO 200

Photo 7. Page 4, Top, Powerlines in the mist

From Assignment_5_Mull

24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 30D, f/6.7, 67mm, 1/180sec, ISO 400

Photo 8. Page 4, Bottom, Remote roads

From Assignment_5_Mull

24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 30D, f/6.7, 70mm, 1/750sec, ISO 200

Photo 9. Page 5, Saying goodbye

From Assignment_5_Mull

24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 30D, f/5.6, 40mm, 1/180sec, ISO 200

Photos 10. Page 6, Sunsets at Croggan

From Assignment_5_Mull

24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 30D, f/8, 24mm, 1/20sec, ISO 400, -1EV

Photo 11. Page 6, Sunsets at Croggan

From Assignment_5_Mull

70-200mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 30D, f/8, 120mm, 1/250sec, ISO 250

Photo 12. Page 6, Sunsets at Croggan

From Assignment_5_Mull

24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Canon 30D, f/8, 25mm, 1/10sec, ISO 250

I can hardly believe that I have come to the end of the course. It has been challenging, rewarding, difficult at times and kept me very busy! I've really enjoyed it and feel like my photography has improved quite a lot over the (almost) 2 years that I've taken. I plan on getting assessed and hope to do well but I'm not too bothered as I feel like I'm moving in the right direction of developing my photographic eye and skills along the way. The course has made obvious some of my technical shortcomings - mainly in artificial light use and also photoshop. I hope to keep working on these skills during the People & Places course that I started at the beginning of this year. I also feel like some of my 'natural' ability with framing a good photograph in the camera, and choosing unusual subjects/viewpoints has become more obvious with this course too. It's great fun!! :)

Project 26: Triangles

This project has been a real challenge. I have found the still life part of this project difficult as I'm just not used to thinking about setting up my photographs, it is something I do _so_ rarely. So it's been a long time in the making. The other real difficulty has been finding an inverted triangle by perspective. In the notes it says 'you may have to think about this one'. I've been thinking and thinking and still have got nowhere. So I'm going to post the rest of the project and just keep thinking in the hope that I find one. Perhaps my friendly blog readers can post a comment to help me out?

Triangles are more dynamic and have a sense of activity compared to rectangles & horizontal/vertical lines. It can be useful therefore to construct triangles in photos, or enhance those that are already present there. In this project there were some specific aims, one of which is still evading me.

Photo 1: Real Triangle in a photograph. This photo was taken in Waverley train station Edinburgh.

From Project_26

70mm, f/2.8, 1/125s, ISO200

Photo 2: Triangle by perspective, converging towards top of frame. This was the easy one, all buildings when photographed from below converge towards the top of the frame. This is taken in Marchmont Edinburgh.

From Project_26

24mm, f/5.6, 1/500s, ISO320

Photo 3: Triangle by perspective, converging towards bottom of frame. I'm still thinking about this one!

Photo 4: 3 people in a group. This photo of was taken on the Isle of Arran, with 3 friends looking out to sea for birds. A distant island is on the horizon.

From Project_26

70mm, f/6.7, 1/500s, ISO200

Photo 5: Still life, apex at top. This small setup is on our fridge, and is made up of shopping list, egg timer and magnets. It was fun to play with different compositions, and the simple triangular setup works well.

From Project_26

50mm, f/3.5, 1/60s, ISO400

Photo 6: Still life, apex at bottom. This is another kitchen setup, this time consisting of the ingredients for a pasta dish. I have arranged the ingredients on our stovetop which provides the plain black setting. The slightly asymmetrical loose triangular setup is more interesting than a random placement of objects.

From Project_26

40mm, f/2.8, 1/45s, ISO500

This project has been slow to finish, partly because of the difficulty of finding the perspective image, but also because I am a bit wary of still lifes! Triangles do make the composition more interesting and I have been using them in my photography since I started this project (October last year!)