Tracey Field

Wednesday 27 July 2011

Final Summary

This is the end of The Art of Photography, the first five assignments.
I have learnt so much and enjoyed all of the tasks set, some I have found harder than others, and still I forget to check my settings on the camera - although I think I have cracked that now !

I was quite nervous in the beginning as I have never done anything like this before and wasn't that comfortable with my camera even, and I did feel a bit silly 'at my age' dashing around with my camera, once my neighbour caught me taking a photo of an Oak leaf caught on the gate, I'm sure she thought I had lost my marbles. Another neighbour thought his wife was stalking him when he was snapped in a panning project, he must have a guilty conscience ...

But I have since noticed everybody is doing it, there are photographers everywhere. ... Doing this course has made me use my camera, which is what I really wanted to do, I always reverted to my compact camera before.

Actually using the camera is the only way to learn, and of course you learn by your mistakes. I have muddled through at times and often had to wait for Uni holidays so that my children can show me how to use the computer to do various things. But in the process have learnt numerous things that I would never have done otherwise.

My lighting assignment wasn't my best, I put this down to a very sad time we were going through, but I have since re read the lighting book and this time the information has stay firmly in my head. I need to retake a few of those shots before I put them forward for assessment. Which will be my next job.

So .... I'm really glad I started this process, and I think now I have finally relaxed, still loads to learn and practice will improve my pictures hopefully..

I have moved on to the 'People and Place' course, and I have a new blog for that, which can be seen here....

1st May 2012
I have started my third course Digital Photographic Practice .. which can be seen here....

Thursday 2 June 2011

Assignment 5 - Applying the techniques of illustration and narrative.

I have now finished my magazine front page and article for this assignment,
click here to view my pdf...

After reading my tutor report for this assignment 5, she pointed out my horizon wasn't level on the final page. As I was unable to return to Tenerife to retake the shot with a tripod as suggested, I have cheated and straightened it in iphoto, however this will look much better in the final printed magazine. I must be careful of my horizons in future... So, to view my corrected pdf please click here.

With my pending holiday, I decided for this exercise, to produce a magazine article for the hotel we were going to visit. I have thought about how it might be laid out and to the content it might have.

Hotel Recption or the entrance.
Rooms
general areas
Restaurants
Swimming pools
Sports
Beach
Health club
Garden areas

On Arriving I spent a few days looking around to select in my mind the shots I was going to take, then I selected the best ones from those. Hopefully selling the hotel and telling the story of what the Hotel has to offer. The photos are to follow, these are to be set out in brochure form, to enter for my assessment. Which I will do on 'pages'. I will probably condense the pictures, not using all of them, i'll have to see how it sets out.

Also, as it has been the Royal Wedding of Kate and William, I decided to have a look at the Royal Wedding Photographer, Hugo Burnand. I have also uploaded some photos by Alison Jackson which were in the Sunday Times, which were a very funny spoof of the Wedding.

I have added below two contrasting pictures taken from the newspaper, one showing a subject of little importance but is of good colour and composition. The other is a news article of rampaging elephants, the pictures are grainy and poor quality but show exactly what is happening and you can see the fear of the people trying to escape the elephants. No story is needed here, it is all told visually.

Also, this weekend I visited The Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London to see the Middlesex University Degree show. The main reason for this was a friend of ours was showing her photographic work, just completing her degree. I shall scan in her work and list under photographers. It was very interesting to see what other people had chosen for their topics - a really varied selection.

Here is my Brochure... ( I may not use all the images ).

ABAMA HOTEL TENERIFE

HOTEL

ENTRANCE

RECEPTION

WONDERFUL VIEWS

BEAUTIFUL GARDENS

EXCELLENT GOLF COURSE

THE BEACH

ADULT ONLY POOL

Correction

Exercise : Rain

Well we seem to be short of rain at the moment, and the rain we have had has come when I haven't been near my camera.

I have a few ideas..
Buttercup field - with the camera low catching the raindrops
The horses next door, with rain rolling off their coats
And our resident toad... if it rains when he's about.
Puddles / rain on cars...

So we will have to wait and see what the rain brings..... eventually.

So Rain at last, and here are a couple of shots..

Exercise : Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition involves placing two elements within a photo for the purpose of comparing & contrasting them. Elements can be compared by placing side by side, on top or below each other, or layering them in the foreground, background or midground.

This second picture was a snapshot of one I copied from Flickr.... I thought it was a fun idea so had to have a go ...

Exercise : Symbols

Here we didn't have to take photographs, just discuss the following symbols and ideas for photos.....

GROWTH
Building a wall.
Hobby collection, the collection growing as the years go on.
Vegetation. Farmers fields full of crops. Seedling growing towards the sun.
Child outgrowing his/her clothes.

EXCESS
Wastefulness.. and excess of food we can not eat.
Fat, overweight.
Plenty, too much of a good thing.

CRIME
Prison cell - Cell bars.
Committing an offense - something like parking on a yellow line.
Pollution
Damage.

SILENCE
Death
sleeping
Library
A scene where there are no people - a deserted landscape
The Silence of the Lambs film has a descriptive advertising poster with a moth/butterfly on the lips of a woman.

POVERTY
Bankruptcy
Famine
Hardship
Someone begging.

Exercise : Evidence of action

I started off here thinking of emptying of a bottle or a spillage of some sort. However, I went for the dripping shower head, I was hoping for larger drips but the shower cut off very quickly, I expect to save on wasted water. I liked the photo and it showed the shower had been in use - evidence of action.