Final Thoughts.

The end of another course and i find myself asking the questions what have i learned and has it improved my work? What I've learned is a simple one, to begin with i learned that with landscape photograph alot of it comes down to patents and planning. Sometime shots don't work out how you planned they would and its a matter of sitting down and deciding how they could be improved either say by changing the perspective, try returning at a different time of day when the light will be different or even goes as far as to return at a completely different season until you get the shot you want. I think looking at someone like Fay Godwin and how she work help to instill these facts more then anything and i now can look at many scenes and think to myself that there a photo in their somewhere i just have to take the time to find it.
Something else I've found myself doing in this course which i maybe in the past haven't spent as much time studying is other photographers work. I now see how this can help you creatively as many people tend to use different methods (none of which are wrong) to get across their views concerning different issues and beliefs.
When i look back at some of my work from the beginning of this course and compare it to my photos from the end i feel there has been an improvement in some areas. I think I've improved my subject chooses and have sorted out the problems i had when creating depth in a scene which was one of my major concerns in the beginning. Also i now feel more confident to shot with camera settings that I'd never before gone near for example alot of the time I'd leave the camera set to alter and let the camera set the exposure and f-stops and so on but know I'll always have a go at producing my own settings first and then if i can't get it right fall back then on the auto settings.
I feel I've made some clear strides in this course and now plan to move on and takes these further in the next few courses so as to develop my own stile of work.

Project 42- Man Made Landscapes.

For the final project in this course you're asked to look at man made landscapes which is something up to this point i hadn't studied much before with my main interest resting in the natural world.

For the main part you're asked to include images that have little or no people present in them which clear can be a little difficult when looking at a urban environment but i saw this view while shopping near Christmas and just felt there was something about the solemn statue and the empty market place that made it a good subject plus shooting it in black and white adds to this moodiness.

The next two shots are pretty similar in that they focus on the rhythm and flow that you can find in an urban enviroment, be it the line of parked cars or the row of roof tops in a street both make good shots but i like the intimate feel of the roof top shot.

I could have come up with a better range of subjects for this project but time and weather conditions have played there part in hindering me. Personally i would have like to have capture a more industrial view within a urban landscape to show how it differs from the more rural view I'm more accustomed to shooting but this is something i think I'll defiantly come back to in the future because of the interesting contrasts between the urban and the rural view but I'd like to find out if there maybe is more similarities than you first think.

Project 41- Grain.

I know it seems that I've missed out a few projects here but it isn't the case because the projects that are missing are all based around using a film camera and way of developing the film. Unfortunately this isn't something that is available to me so i haven't even attempted these, i did consider trying to produce the effects using photo software but didn't feel that this would do the projects much Justice.

This project does fall into the group I've missed out but unlike the others it does offer you the chance to create the effect on a digital camera or using photo software. Basically what I'm looking at is how changing the sensitivity can increase the amount of grain that appears within the shot. Grain is a by product of increasing the sensitivity of the camera by altering the ISO, what it appears to do is add texture throughout the frame which can add something to your shots but a lot of the time can appear to make the shot appear very noise and rough.

Original.

Above is a landscape shot taken at a ISO setting of 400. To add grain to this I'm going to use Photoshop and slowly increase the intensity so you can see how it effect the image.

Intensity 20.

Intensity 40.

These first two shots don't actually look that bad and i actually quiet like the added texture produced with the intensity of 40.

Intensity 60.

Intensity 80.

Intensity 100.

As you can see as the intensity is increased above 40 the shot becomes worse and worse until the noise is so strong that it completely ruins the original picture and makes it seem very rough looking.

This is another useful addition to my knowledge and something different to add a little more character to my work that i could use, I understand that their are still a lot of photographers out there who stick to using film cameras but I've been a little disappointed that so much of this final section in this course has focused on this field as i almost feel that I've missed out on something that might have been beneficial by the fact i couldn't attempt some of these projects.

Project 37- Ways of Dramatising A Landscape.

My tutor has said to me more then once that a lot of my work appears to have very dramatic skies in them and whether i like this effect? To be truthful i do quiet like the feel that a dramatic sky gives a landscape but i do also understand what he's trying to say in that you don't always need this within a landscape, they don't have to be dramatic to be effective but there are other ways of creating this kind of landscape.

INHERENTLY SPECTACULAR SUBJECTS- These can be such things as cliffs, mountains,deserts,oceans,moorlands things that are so large they dominate the view. A heavy sea with a boat begin tossed about in it.

AN EXTREME FOCAL LENGTH- This could be either with a very wide angle lens or a telephoto lens. Taking in a view from on top of a mountain with the landscape spread out below you.

RICH COLOURS- This can be accomplished with a little bit of timing for example at sunrise or sunset when the cloud cover is just right because the light from the sun will reflect off them to produce a whole range of colours, or even in some countries in the autumn time the landscapes can become so full of different colours from reds to gold.

BACKLIGHTING- This can be used to create silhouettes within a landscape but again its down to timing and getting the right strength of light, for example a row of wind turbines on top of a hill as the light drops behind them.

UNUSUAL COMPOSITION- Where the composition of the subject is so abstract that its almost unrecognisable. For example crop or wall lines.

Project 36- Defining A Style.

For this project I'll be looking at the style of work produced by three photographers, Eliot Porter, John Szarkowski and Edward Weston.








ELIOT PORTER.


Eliot Porter was at the head of the revolution of Colour Photography in the late 1930's, while other photographs stayed faithful to black and white imagery he wanted to explore new ways of showing the natural world to the public. By mastering Dye Transfer Printing he was able to produce brilliant full colour prints in a darkroom, he would use this technique to produce better shots of birds then anyone else was capable of at the time and then move on to show landscapes all over the world in their full glory. His strong interests in science and the environment naturally lead to much of his work begin used to argue the case of nature conservation while also his work has been described as "bridging the gap between nature photography and fine art.







JOHN SZARKOWSKI.



Szarkowski's was a great documentary photographer who worked mainly in the medium of black and white focusing on the changing face of parts of America. His two best known books The Idea Of Louis Sullivan (where he looked at the people and changing landscape of Chicago and the American Midwest) and The Face of Minnesota (this time just focusing on the state and it's inhabitant's) show his skill best as capturing the mood and stile of the time. He also liked to capture the changing of the seasons within the landscape but most of all he liked to highlight the way that in America they were losing the traditional ways of farming and rural life.




EDWARD WESTON.

Regarded as one of the true masters of the 20th century Weston used large format cameras and only the available light to create images that can be best described as breath taking. What he liked to show was the forms and patterns that naturally accrued within a landscape be it in the clouds in the sky or in the rocks on the ground. One thing he has in common with Porter and Szarkowski is that they were all experts when it came to printing there work in the darkroom (a skill you could say we are slowly losing today)

Project 35- Using A Polarising Filter.

This project is pretty similar to the last but this time you're looking at how to use a Polarising Filter, this time i hadn't got alot of previous experience although i already owned one it wasn't something that i had ever had time to use and experiment with.

For the first set of photos you had to shot a seen at the lightest and darkest possible setting by rotating the filter. The first thing i noticed was that in the darkest setting you also increase the saturation of the colours producing very strong blues and greens. Another obvious factor was that like the Grad filter you can use it to sort out exposure issues that you can have with the sky, although you have to take into account how this will effect the colours in your shot.

Next you were asked to take a photo using your wide angle lens and to rotate your filter until you felt it was as dark as possible. What you notice here is how the darkening of the sky isn't even, where the light is at its strongest it remains pretty much white but the further away you move from this point the darker the sky becomes. Also by using this kind of filter i felt it also darken the shadows giving an added dimension to the shot.

The final part of this project was to show you how you can use the filter to make reflection strong or to pretty much remove them from images involving water. When turn to their lightest setting the reflections seem stronger while the alternative makes them seem less obvious. What i also discovered that i don't think it actually mentions in the course is that you can also use this kind of filter to remove glare coursed by the sunlight hitting a reflective surface such as water.

As this was a filter i hadn't used before i found this project again add knowledge and skills that can only add to what i already know, some of my photos aren't the best but they show you what the course is trying to teach you.

Project 34- Using A Graduated Filter.

In this project i was studying how a Graduated Filter can be used in different conditions and the effects that it can produce, previously I'd used a grad. filter in Assignment 3 so i was able to gain a longer exposure for my Waterfall shot so i had some experience already which i feel helps a little with this project.

UNFILTERED.

FILTERED

The first conditions i had to look at was a landscape with a overcast sky which appears featureless, now this is of course one of them grey days we sometimes get a lot of during this time of year. When i compare the two images i have to say i much prefer the unfiltered shot because in the filtered shot the sky feels very oppressive like it is baring down on you which in turn makes the whole shot feel much darker. In other circumstances this could be used to your advantage say like in my shots of Magpie Mine but in this example it just does nothing but darken the sky. Again i understand this can be a good thing because what you usually find shooting in these conditions is that the sky when exposed is just bright white because of the way the light is held in the clouds, this effect of course ruins perfectly good landscape shots but by adding the filter you can correctly expose the landscape while darkening the sky enough so that it doesn't spoil the shot.

UNFILTERED.

FILTERED.

The next set of shot that i was after was of a overcast sky with visible tonal differences, now the example I'm using doesn't maybe have the tonal range I'd have liked but you'll get the idea as i explain. In the unfiltered shot you have exposed for the foreground but by doing so you end up with the sky seeming a little bright and you've lost some of the different tones produced by the clouds, this is easily fixed by adding the grad. filter. In the second image with the filter added you see that the tonal differences are more clearer than before although because in this shot they weren't that great to begin with it doesn't standout as well. This would be more obvious in one of the skies you tend to get before or after a heavy storm in the summer months when you get the really good cloud formations that tend to range from very black though greys to white as the sun hits them. In this case the filtered shot is the one i most prefer because i like to make the skies feel a little more dramatic and by adding the filter you can achieve this.

UNFILTERED.

FILTERED.

The final set of images needed for this project was of a sunrise or sunset looking into the sun, in this instance the filter helps to pick out the different colours that are produced when the light effects off the clouds, while also if you can get the exposure right you can create a star effect of the sun when the filter is fitted. Again as before the better shot is with the filter because of the reasons I've already stated.

This project a found very informative because its show me there are more uses for a grad. filter than just to create movement within a shot which is all I've really used mine for before this point. Don't know whether its a good thing or not but I'm beginning to see that to create a good landscape shot it isn't as easy as just picking a scene and taking the shot you need to take your time and consider quiet a lot of options that are available to you that can vastly improve the overall results.

Project 33- Using A Tripod.

For this project i was looking at how using a Tripod can improve your landscape shots by providing a solid platform to shot from.

No Tripod.

Tripod.

No Tripod.

Tripod.

Tripod.

No Tripod.



From all these shots it clear that when using a Tripod you reduce the amount of blurring that occurs dew to the movement you would naturally produce when using the camera handheld from simple your own breathing or from say the weather conditions if its a windy day (although this can effect your shots even when using a tripod if it isn't a sturdy example.) By using a tripod you also open up some creative options that aren't available to you when shooting handheld. For example in my final pair of shots above when i try to shot handheld at a low exposure to capture the movement of the water its possible to do but the results aren't very good because i just don't have a stable enough platform to shot from. Introduce a tripod and this changes meaning you can gain the effect that i was looking to achieve.

Although this project doesn't introduce me to any new concepts it's still a useful project to illustrate the facts and to experiment with different settings on the camera so as to move away from just using the auto settings and to get more use to using the manual exposure settings.

Project 32- Telephoto Views- A Variety Of Images.

To begin with when i first looked at this project i thought it was very similar to Assignment 2 because you were being asked to study a small area once more but instead of moving around and studying the area you had to set yourself up in one position and then using your telephoto lens find as many different landscape shots as you could.

The first three images are pretty similar because on the one side of the hill I'd position myself on you had the village so naturally you're drawn to the way the house's sit in the landscape and how you can use them in some way. The black and white shot i particularly like because of the way the house are arranged in the foreground and then the countryside opens up beyond. The first shot i think has quiet a autumnal feel because of the variety of colours present in the trees.

Here i tried to use the hedges and trees to create a natural frame for the sheep in the field beyond but the only problem being the sheep didn't want to come any closer so as to be out in the open and to give me the effect i was looking for.

All in all i don't think this project has anywhere near my best work in it, i seem to have had a number of problems mainly that i just could find a position where i could produce enough shots of variety as the project asked for. I have tried to frame the views differently again as it asks but again they don't feel quiet right because I'm not happy with the content, definitely feel i should take another crack at this project in the future.

Project 31- Telephoto Views- Compressing Planes.

For this assignment i had to concentrate on producing landscape shots using a telephoto lens, taking particular notice of how they differ from a standard landscape shot taken say with a 50mm lens.


The first obvious point to me is the lack of depth that you can end up with for example above, i isolated this patch of woodland because of the way the colours of the trees drew my eye but because there is no point in the photo to give you and idea of perspective it seems very flat. On the upside though it focuses on the colours in the landscape and is still a pretty good shot although under different lighting conditions the idea of depth could have been created by the shadows cast by the trees.

The two shots above are very similar in the fact that you are looking for a small part of a distant landscape that you can focus on to make a good shot, this is maybe a little bit of a draw back because by focusing so much on a small part of the larger landscape you can miss things for example with the shot of the trees coming down to meet the water just out of shot on the right hand side was a boat with someone fishing out of it, this would have added to the shot but if I'd have included it it wouldn't really have been a telephoto landscape.

I did find this view where even though it taken with a zoom lens it has something that my other shots are slightly lacking DEPTH. This is created by the pools of water because of the way they are spread across the field in a similar fashion to the fence line in one of the shots in my 3rd assignment (diminishing perspective) so it is possible to get perspective in telephoto shots its just not as easy as with a normal landscape.

I think this kind of landscape shot does have its place which to me is when you want to really focus on a very small part of the overall scene because it allows you to get very close and intimate to the subject.

Looking at Stephen Shore, Martin Parr and John Davis's Work.

In my tutors notes regarding my work for assignment 3 he'd included some photographers that he thought i might find helpful to have a look at so here goes.


STEPHEN SHORE.

What i like about his work where he includes people within his landscapes is that they feel very unobtrusive for example in his photos called Runners and his People in the water- Yosemite Park although he is capturing a moment in time it doesn't feel staged it feels quiet natural which sometimes images including people somehow feel to me. I suppose my own shot of the couple lying by the river in assignment 3 is very similar and i can understand why my tutor thought I'd find his work appealing. Another thing i found different about his work was the way that while travelling in the 70's he like to photograph everything such as the furniture in his room or what he was having for breakfast along with the landscapes he was passing through, an interesting insight but I'm not sure i really understand what he's trying to get across with some shots.



MARTIN PARR.

I'm trying to find a copy of Bad Weather but up to yet haven't managed to but the few shots I've found online i do like, what appeals to me is his use of black and white photography to add to the moodiness of the already bleak landscapes. In particular i like the ones of the man in fog and the shot from the front cover of the people out in the rain. I don't find his work as good as others that I've looked at mainly because i think it feels a little depressing (although this could be the aim) and i don't like the way he does capture anybody face there always cover over or have there back to the camera, again this maybe the point to make you feel more detached because without a face the people are lacking an identity. (hope this makes sense)



JOHN DAVIS.

His work i found the most enjoyable to study for example i lied the Victoria Promenade and Trawsfynydd Power Station shots because of the contrasts hes showing with the first being between the old and the new with the church and Power station and in the second with the way he's used the light to highlight the station within the empty untouched landscape surrounding it. In a similar way i like how he's used the light to show the ruggedness of the landscape in his shot of the Great Gable, Cumbria. My tutor said to look at how he show the relationship between man and the landscape and i think this is best shown in his collection of work on the Durham Coalfield. He really captures how human activity has altered the landscape, showing what i would describes as beauty in disorder.

Project 30- Wide-Angle Views - Near and Far.

For this project the aim was to study wide-angled views and put into practice methods such as the use of a tripod near to the ground level and controlling the depth of field so that the whole image is sharp and in focus.

My first shot above i didn't need to use a tripod to get the depth of field right as the light was pretty good so that at even around f/22 with a grad. filter attached it was still possible to shot at speeds which were more suited for hand held photography. I felt that the cows gave a good point of interest in the foreground and because of the downward slope of the river valley beyond and the raised position of the animals it made a very natural looking shot in which although there isn't any pattern or shape to the way the cows are positioned it just seems right.

My next shot needed a little more effort as i had to take into account the movement of the crops and poppies even thought the breeze wasn't really that strong it was still creating enough movement that if i hadn't got my exposure settings just right the whole shot would have been spoiled. In processing this shot i tried cropping it in a few different way but though this work best because first the sky was quiet dull and featureless meaning as mention earlier in the course it was best to completely remove it which meant i ended up with a very square shot but what it does do is focus the attention on the poppies while still drawing the eye maybe not as well as it could through the rest of the frame.

This is my personal favorite in this project as i liked the way the rock almost mirrors the rolling form of the landscape its sitting in, again with this shot i had to use a tripod as the light was so poor meaning a longer shutter speed was needed.

I do feel quiet competent with the use of wide angled views as explained in this part of the course as its something that I've been using already in previous assignments and projects but i understand that its best to go over all these points to make sure we're aware of how and when its best to use them.

Project 29- Re-photographing A Well Known Image.

For this project the idea was to choose a relatively well known shot and then try to recreate it as closely as possible taking in to account the lens used, lighting conditions and even the weather if relevant.

The shot below is what i decided to copy in the end after some time looking for something that was accessible to me while being an area that i was going to find interesting to study and re shoot. The image below is of Magpie Mine in Derbyshire near to the small village of Sheldon just south of Bakewell, it maybe isn't a well known shot or even a particular overly well known location other than to local people and photographers but i found the image in a book called Village Walks in Derbyshire and instantly was fascinated by the place and wondered how it would have changed since the shot was taken as the book was published in 1997 and the picture could have been older than that as the quality isn't that great.

So you can guess my surprise to find that when you compare mine to the original not a lot has changed other than the object in the foreground appear to have completely collapsed. To begin with i did struggle to find the spot the original was taken from because i couldn't get as much of the chimney in the background behind the engine house into the frame, then i found any area of higher ground that became instantly obvious that this was where the photographer had stood. When working out the lens that they'd used I'd guessed that it was probably around a 50mm because although the mine was a little distance away it wasn't far enough that I'd need a telephoto lens (i did fit it just to check and found there was no way i could get everything within the frame). From the original it isn't plainly clear what the light was like so i took a guess it was probable a little over cast as there doesn't appear to be any strong shadows other than within the doorway of the engine house and the sky seems very over exposed meaning it could have been solid cloud cover which i haven't completely replicated but i chose a day with as close to the same conditions as possible as up around this area the weather tends to be a little unpredictable.

What i enjoyed about this project was the similarity to assignment 2 in that i could explore the surrounding area to see what the photographer of the original hadn't included and whether i could find some better views. The first above was just a little away from where the original was taken, what i tried to do was create a silhouette of the mine in the background and the building in the foreground but i didn't want to completely loss the detail and have just dark outlines as the structures wouldn't work in this kind of shot.

The above shot i like because of the contrast between the delicate flower and the mine buildings behind, i kept the buildings out of focus by using a small depth of field (about f/10) but not so small that the buildings are so out of focus that there completely unrecognisable and you would see the contrast or understand how surprising it is to find nature retaking the old lead mine.

This shot was taken from near to my original copy but what i wanted to add was more of the surrounding area and show more of the landscape around the mine so i chose a frame it in this way to get the most within the frame and use a 18-50mm lens to accomplish this. Later i cropped some of the sky out because i felt it was a little to dominant in the shot and spoiled it a bit.

I like the way the contrast between the two buildings with the one being very rounded and flat while the other is very angler and straight, also i like the way the two figures near the mine building gives it added scale giving you more idea of the size of the thing.

I'm not a hundred percent sure about this shot because although the footpath leads you up towards the mine on the hill it feels a little small within the frame and doesn't work as well as I'd have liked, don't get me wrong i still think it has a really foreboding presents with the very heavy sky and the mine in the distance adds to this i just wish all the elements were a little closer together.

This view i thought was quiet interesting because of the stack of old pipes which gave even more of a feeling of disuse with the falling down buildings in the background as well. I shot it in black and white because i thought it would create a far more eye catching shot with all the different tones in the stone work,pipes and even the grass and corrugated roof, the colour version just seemed a little dull dew to the way the light was.

This again i found a very enjoyable project if a little difficult to begin with to find a photo that i could copy. It gives you a different perspective on other peoples work because of the way I've had to take someone else picture and make decisions about when they'd taken it, from what position they'd stood,what lens they'd used. What I've found is that now with any shot of a location i have some familiarity with i start thinking about these things.

Planning Assignment 3: A Linking Theme.

Started looking at others work to come up with some idea of what direction i'd like to go in for this assignment. Choosing a theme pretty much means that i haven't got much restrain on what i can do for example i've seen someones work on flickr whos doing the same course as me and they've chose to look at rural road junctions ( suppose its what ever you're interseted in, me personally don't quiet see the draw of this). Other sources i've gone back to for insperation are the books i have listed on this page plus i brought a magazine i found called The Essential Guide To Landscape Photography produced by Digital SLK Photography, although it doesn't have anything new to tell me in it some of the photos are brilliant and have been a great help.

What I'm finding myself leaning towards is a study of Water, i haven't been able to find anyone particular photography who has mainly focused on this subject but I've found plenty of examples to help me within the work of the list of people I've got on my blog plus I've been looking at a couple of new people work by the names of Peter Watson and Joe Cornish. What i can see is that when working with water you have to be willing to experiment with shutter speeds and choose your lighting conditions very carefully as this can be a limiting factor. Alot of the shots I've seen appear to be shot very early at first light or just after dusk so that the different colours in the sky can be taken advantage of.


I'm looking forward to this now, i was a little apprehensive about how to approach this particular assignment when i had my original read through of the course material but know I've reached this point I've got some really good ideas lets just hope the weather plays along and gives me a helping hand.

Fay Godwin's Work.

On the advise of my tutor i had a look at Fay Godwin's work because he said that because of my interest in the British countryside her work would appeal to me. The first thing i noticed about her work is that she kept things very straight forward, by this i mean she didn't try to over complicate what she was shotting for example in Top Withens, Chad Valley, 1977 its just the grassland, tree and building but you get the idea of it being a desolate wind swept area just from these small features. I was surprised to find that in the majority of her work she didn't feel the need to include any people in the scene but yet still managed to make the world seem lived in by including the signs of human activity within the landscape such as the drainage ditches, the sole sign standing on its or even the industrial scene of Colne in Lancashire. Finally like all great photographers who chose to work in black and white she had great control over the contrast thought the scene meaning that she understood how and when to use the light to get the results she wanted and like I've said before about Ansel Adams you have to respect that because they didn't have digital cameras where they could see if they'd got the exposure wrong they just knew how to setup the camera right from year of experience of working in the outdoors. As ever my tutor wasn't wrong in thinking I'd find here work interesting plus it's given me some ideas for my next assignment.

Project 28- Intimate Landscape.

For this project you were asked to produce intimate landscapes, by this it means more the details within a landscape an not the full blown image from ground to horizon and the sky above.

For the first three shots above what i tried looking at are very small things that would appear that tiny within a more normally frame photo that you'd hardly notice or would be completely over looked. What i do find is that at this kind of scale is that colours become very important, by this i mean that you could end up with a large solid mass that wouldn't make that good a shot but by breaking it up with either contrasting or complementary colours as I've done above you find that its not as constraining as you may think.

With the two shots above I've tried using slow shutter speeds combined with flowing water to create quiet different effects but still work as a intimate shot.

With this project it helps you to focus more on the little details that sometimes you'll over look, what i found myself doing was studying an area instead of just looking at the obvious points of interest I'd go further by looking the scene from a different point of view. I say its been a different project but maybe I've found it not very interesting compared to others in this section, maybe I've just miss the point.