Overall Project Evaluation

For this unit I chose to do the exam question 'Aspects of the Landscape'. I chose this question because I knew I wouldnt need to rely on models and I thought this was vital for my exam as I didnt have to worry of anyone letting me down However by doing this I found that I actually found this project quite boring as I missed using the studio and using peoples facial features to convey certain things. I felt within this project my best work was created when I was abroad in Tunisia, this is because it was very different to everyone elses work, plus the weather was on my side creating very bright beautiful images. Aside from this I also think my best work was my exam work as I feel I tried a lot harder when I was in my exam as it was a lot my pressurized because of the time limit and having to complete a certain amount of shoots, this benefited me as I work a lot better with pressure.

Some of my favorite work from this project:

If I had to do this project again I would really improve my time keeping, as it took me a long time to finish all my contextual, however this seems to have been a running theme within all of my projects. Also if I was to do this project again I would spend more time thinking about possible shoots and I would put a lot more effort into them, travelling to further places, like I did for my exam.

With this project I feel I didnt over edit images leaving elements of naturalness within them, I think this brought the aspect of naturalness to my project as a whole. This is something I liked as I really admired the running theme, I really wish I did my photographer research at the beginning as opposed to later on because once I had completed them I realised there was aspects within their work I wanted to use, or work I wanted to recreate as my own.

Part of me wishes I had went with the exam question of multiple imagery, I should have researched and thought about it more when creating my mindmap when I had chose it as a possible question because after seeing the work of people in my class who had chose that question, I could of done imagery grids, gifs, overlays, multiple exposures etc.

Overall I didnt really like this project as I found it boring and a bit same old same old. I wish I had chose a question which entitled me to use people and the studio, I think this would of been really helpful as I wouldnt have been halted in some of my work due to the weather, this also would have improved my timekeeping.

Natural #1 Work Diary

In this shoot i decided to go with the idea of full naturalness as opposed to natural with a side on manmade, it is the most obvious thing to do when shooting landscapes however I had not done it yet. This shoot was very relaxing as I simply walked around the forest near my house and took pictures, I was really lucky as it was a sunny day therefore I got some really nice pictures of the sun peaking through the trees. What I find amusing is I intended for this to be my first shoot in unit 4 however I found the burnt out car, I then returned to this many weeks later with better weather and made it my last shoot. With this shoot I didn't over edit the image, in fact all I really did was levels and curves on them apart from a couple because I wanted to keep the element of naturalness within the images. 

In this image I took a picture looking straight up as I was really intrigued by the way it seemed as if the branches was a hand reaching out for the leaves on the opposite tree. When doing this shoot I had a particular image of Fay Godwins in mind and when I saw this picture opportunity I was really happy as it seemed as if I was recreating her image however with my own spin on it and from my own angle. 

 In this image I had taken a picture of three different little individual parts of the forest, in each of the images I used depth of field to focus on each of them and to make the rest of what was going on behind the focussed thing irrelevant. I have made this multiple imagery piece into a trisect, something I have really enjoyed doing in this unit of my photography as I find it allows for a lot more focus and the image isn't too overloaded with 9 images which you would find on 3x3 grid. I kept the images in this tripect very natural and avoided changing the colour or making it black and white because I think it was edited enough with the grid by itself. 

If I was to continue…

If I was to continue with this unit and had to provide a next shoot I think I would like to go somewhere with a river or lake and perhaps experiment with reflections, making reflection the aspect of the shoot. I would like to do this because I have seen it in a few photographers portfolios which I have researched and I really like how serene it looks, however I would of had to have done this on a day where the was not even the slightest breeze in the continue. 

Final Pieces

Electronic Portfolio

Natural #1

Photographer #5

Tony Howell
I have chosen this photographer because I have picked him from my research log and the brief work I looked at I was really interested in. I am eager to look at more of his flower photography as he has done very original edits of the of natural things making them seem like things which really arent natural. I would like to see the different edits he has done within his work as I would like it to influence me to do a more advanced editorial within my work.

In this image Howell has took a picture of 4 bubbles all ranging in size, in this image size could be the aspect over it differentiates over the image. Colour could also be an aspect in this image, it goes blue and purple on the background however in the actual bubbles the colours form a spectrum. I love the harshness around the bubbles in this it really makes the stand out against the background, however this could be due to the blackness inside the bubble surrounding the spectrum. This image has clearly been edited but I think its really interesting and I love what Howell has done with this image.

This image has influenced me to consider editing with colours to form them into complete different colours, I don't feel like flowers would be good to edit like this as you can get every colour flower, I want whatever I change the colour of to be completely abstract, perhaps I could do this of leaves or maybe of trees.

In this image Howell has used the editing technique of blurring across this whole image, although I say this has been done as an editing technique however this could be a camera technique. Whatever one of these it is I love this image as the blurring makes it seem like a painting done by watercolours or oils. The colours in this image seem to be natural, however the use of the blurring have smudged them into each other to contort them into a cluster of colours. The curves may have been turned up on this picture because they are quite bright however I like to think this is natural.

This image has influenced me to consider blurring within an image so I can produce the aspect of colour as I like how they all mix together, if I was to do this I would do it with a picture with many different colours all close together, for example, flower petals all mixed together into one and then blurring the image, this would be a lot easier to do as a studio blur.

In this image Howell has again used blurring and i think it it is better than the last one and more of what I was influenced to do. In this image the shutter speed of the camera has been slowed down a lot and he has moved the camera whilst creating this. I think in this image he has probably zoomed in, or there is a lass mass of bluebells, this is because we solely see purple apart from the right hand corner. I love how this image has basically just turned into multiple lines of different colour purples, making the aspect colour, or perhaps blurring.

This image has influenced me to experiment with shutter speeds when taking pictures as I could still call the aspect natural, as technically I haven't actually edited the photo. By doing this I can show the aspect of colour, like in this image, or I could show the aspect of movement, suggesting people or things are moving a lot faster than they actually are.

In this picture Howell has taken a picture of person running at sunset, however this image is made interesting as the runner has been blurred, giving him a ghostly feel, to me this illustrates that perhaps he is running so fast that only his essence is left behind. I think the blur has worked really well in this image because where the ground is a solid colour and the sky is already a mixture of colours, the person running is the only thing that comes across as blurred, almost like a selective blur. I love the colour of the sky in this image, I personally think it is so natural that it is breathtaking.

This image has influenced me to find a way to do a picture that seems like it has selective blur, I wouldn't know how to do this on a camera without the right setting however I feel i could take a still image and perhaps look up a tutorial on how to do a select blur on youtube. I am also influenced to go out at certain times in the day to take pictures when the sun is this colour to produce the aspect of colour.

Overall I really like this photographer and his editing techniques for his images as they are quite original and abstract however I would prefer if he tried different editing techniques as the majority of his pictures are of blurring, although he does this brilliantly, I feel like if I was to really follow his work it would become a bit too repetitive and same old same old. I have definitely been influenced by his photography however only by his edited picture I think his natural pictures of landscapes are a bit boring an unoriginal.

Photographer #4

Fay Godwin
I have chosen this photographer because she was one enlisted in my exam paper when I chose the question of aspects of the landscape, therefore I would like to study Godwin further as I feel she is going to be a good landscape photographer whos aspects are portrayed in a brilliant manner, otherwise she wouldnt of been one of the few photographers to be of focus in the exam question. I have also chosen this photographer because the brief research which I conducted, the pictures I discovered were very beautiful and very simplistic, I really find natural images with no meaning but pure beauty very aesthetically pleasing.

In this image Godwin has used a wide angle lens to take a picture of the landscape of a country field. This image has been turned into black and white which enforces a simple feeling to this image which I really like. I like how the black and white shadows across this image and how some of the tones in certain parts have been altered, for example, the cloud.I love how the clouds in this image are quite dark it reminds me of a dreary day however the light of he sky suggests the hope for the sun to come, which further suggests perhaps the sight of a rainbow.

This image has influenced me to not just put black and white on an image and just for it to sit there, but to experiment with changing the different options on photoshop black and white layer, as this can create an appropriate outcome for the image, which could suggest something opposite to what there is without the black and white, for example, this really could be a sunny day however with black and white it doesn't overly seem like this.

In this image Godwin has again used black and white and this time I think she has used it in a brilliant context as it brings a depressing vibe to this image. I think this fits the image because of what is actually in the image. In this image a car is half submerged into what seems to be a lake, the car is wrecked and seems crashed which suggests there was a car that was in a crash and it has drowned in the lake, perhaps even killing passengers. This image creates a story that could let your imagination run wild, something I really like about this photo.

This image has influenced me to create a photo which poses a question to the audience and makes them think of multiple stories which could be conjured due to the image, for example, in this image I guessed that there has been a car crash however this could of simply been an abandoned car. I think this brings a bit of fun to art as you dont just look at it, it makes your imagination run wild.

In this image Godwin displays reflection however it is so perfect (slightly off in length), yet looks like repetition. The trees seem to be reflecting in a very still lake, I find it very beautiful. This image has been turned into black and white by Godwin, which seems to be a running theme within Godwins work. The sky is a grayish colour and the branches of the tree seem to look like a solid black which creates a sort of silhouette look.

This image has influenced me to consider what black and white can do to an image, the black and white in this image has created the look of a painting, I would really love to be able to create an image like this, however it takes the correct lighting and the correct setting to be able to form a picture like this which is simply a reflection however manages to look like a shadow, a silhouette and a painting all at once.

In this image Godwin has taken a picture of what looks like a tree growing attached to the ground, in this picture I think the imagery is absolutely breathtaking. I personally think that the way this tree looks makes it look as if it is a hand leading up from the wrist. The grooves on the tree make it look as if it is an old persons hand with wrinkles. To me this suggests that this is mother natures hand reaching out to nature. Godwin has put black and white on this image which drains all the colour which really draws the attention to the tree and makes it the focal point.

This image has influenced me to consider the angle of which I take pictures, as it can completely alter an image into something completely different. it has also influenced to take more pictures of trees however not in the conventional form, i am influenced to differentiate the angle and to perhaps experiment with close ups to focus on the patterns of the tree, perhaps this could be an aspect.

Overall I really like Fay Godwin as a photographer and I feel she brings a certain spin on landscape photography and contorts it into beautiful imagery that really does look like something completely different. I usually think the black and white theme can be quite tedious and too repetitive however I think with Godwin it makes her work original because of the way she uses it  creating a feeling and a narrative within her portfolios.