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.

Project 26- Shooting the Moon.

I was looking forward to this project for a while because its a subject I've never looked at that closely so didn't have any idea of what I'd be producing or how good the end results would turn out. The idea was to shot the moon within the landscape, sounds quiet easy first off but there are things that need to be considered before hand. First you need a telescopic lens because without one you're making life very difficult because unless you can catch the moon very near to the horizon you'd end up with this very light point (looking very small) in a huge black sky. For this project i used my 150-500mm lens that I'd normally use for wildlife but because of the size and weight the next problem to over come is supporting it enough so you get a good stable image, so a sturdy tripod is a must. Finally you have to be aware of the street/house lights around you if you're shooting in a built up area, I'd never realised how much light is sent into the sky until i tried this project its quiet amazing how much light pollution spoils the night sky.




The above shot i used a slightly longer exposure because i wanted to show the moon as a bright point illuminating the trees that it was moving across behind, by experiment i found that if i wanted to catch the details on the surface I'd need to use a much faster speed because what you don't realise to begin with is how bright the moon actually is.

1.

2.

3.

Over the course of time I've experiment with a few different way a shooting the moon but after doing some research online and in some astrophotography magazines i discovered a piece of software call Registax5. What you can do with this is take a number of shots of the moon in this instance and then stack them together to create a much sharper image because it helps to build up the surface detail.

Image 1 and 2 where just single shots that have be tweaked and sharpened using the software while 3 is five images stacked together to create a brilliant photo.

One thing i have noticed during this project is that although a full moon is good to shot you find that a moon with some shadow on the surface is a lot better because it picks out the details and the cont ores while the full moon seems very flat in contrast.

Above i gone a little further with the project by having my first attempt at shooting a long exposure (about 30mins) of the night sky. I seen this in lots of magazines before but have never thought of having a go myself, i love the trails the stars leave as they streak across the sky. I'd never thought about how much movement there is up there you just don't notice it, plus again as I've said earlier how much the lights from the streets and buildings around us hide much of the night sky. I'd love to go right off somewhere into the countryside away from any built up areas and try this again because i know the results would be spectacular.

This project has opened my eyes to a form of photography that I'd never really thought much about before and i shall defiantly continue to experiment with it in the future.

Project 24- Clouds and Sky.

The aim of this project was to produce images where the sky and clouds dominated the scene. I found this a useful section because I'd never really considered how the sky can effect the feel of the shot or that with the right sky/cloud conditions even the most uninteresting photo can suddenly make an impact. Soft light clouds as in the above photo give the scene a far lighter less oppressive feel as compared to some of the more stormer Sky's below.

This shot in particular you really feel the weight of the sky pressing down on the landscape, you just know its going to chuck it down any second.

With this shot above i wanted to try something a little different by seeing how gaining alot of high and getting level with the clouds effected the feel they have on the shot. There quiet heavy clouds similar to the second shot but by being nearly above them they don't feel as flat an they make an interesting comparison to the similar structure of the landscape below.

I know alot of my work above does quiet fit into the guide lines set out in the course which where that the horizon line should be near the bottom of the frame, but i feel that because alot of the cloud formations are either very large or seem extremely heavy they dominate the scene still as strongly while keeping the shot well balanced overall.