Wednesday 21 December 2011

Inspiration - Hands

Galway. 1996. Man at a racetrack.
(Magnum Photos)

USA. New York. Long Island.
A baby's first five minutes, 
Port Jefferson. 
Mother holds her child's hand. 1959.
(Magnum photos)

JAPAN. Tokyo. Shinjuku. 
JR station morning rush hour. 1996.
(Magnum photos)

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Saturday 3 December 2011

Life documentary

I've just watched a great documentary on iPlayer about the history of Life magazine. The documentary presented by Rankin covers the greats in photojournalism and uncovers the stories behind the iconic images of America that were published in Life throughout the 40s, 50s and 60s. If you have a spare hour you really should watch it, very inspirational, the link is below.

Watch: Life magazine documentary






Monday 28 November 2011

Hands

A shot I took of my boyfriend's hand in Copenhagen. This image started my thinking into taking shots of hands in every day positions (in Tom's case, drinking beer!). I will further explore this area for my assignment.

Friday 18 November 2011

Portraits - Anthony

I managed to get my good friend Anthony to stand still whilst I took a few photos of him this evening. Even though it was in dark and I have really bad lighting in my front room I decided against using a flash to get a more natural image.

All the photos below have had the levels slightly edited in photoshop, mainly saturation and contrast.

ISO 400 47mm f/8 1/25

ISO 800 21mm f/8 1/40


ISO 800 41mm f/8 1/40

ISO 400 55mm 0EV f/9 1/2

ISO 400 18mm f/9 1/2


Monday 14 November 2011

Research - Landscapes - Texture


The intention of my theme is to take photos that illustrate the texture of a scene. Whether this be leaves on the ground,  waves of a choppy sea, moss on stones  or a morning fog. I want to illustrate that detail is an important part of landscape photography. 

Below I have included a selection of photos that have caught my eye during whilst browsing the web. I love the variety of colour throughout the photos due to the time of day. This is something I need to consider when planning my shoots. A dawn shoot would require an early morning but could mean capturing amazing dew/fog to enhance a photo, as seen in James Corad's image below. Shooting at sunset would mean making the most of the last remaining sunlight of the day which could create interesting shadows and a warm image. 

I shall continue with exploring my theme further next week by discussing equipment. 



James Coard - Purple Dawn
View more of James' work 
Tim Parkin
www.timparkin.co.uk

Tim Parkin
www.timparkin.co.uk
Nigel Halliwell
www.nigelhalliwell.com

Nigel Halliwell
www.nigelhalliwell.com 




Where I call home

I didn't manage to take any photos for the theme this week so I had a look through my albums to see if any would fit in. I decided to post a few areas outside my house in Leeds and Manchester (ok I admit the bridge isn't outside my flat in Manchester, but it's only a 5 min walk away!)

Leeds

Note the parents making their modelling debut



Chorlton





Wednesday 9 November 2011

Light photography

During this week's lesson we were given the task to experiment with light painting photography. This is where scenes painted out in LED lights in the pitch black are captured through a long exposure. A few of us decided to completely block out all the light from the room we were in and get creative...I can't explain how addictive it is!

f.14 ISO 200 30secs

f.14 ISO 200 30 secs

f.14 ISO 200 30 secs

f.14 ISO 200 30secs
f.14 ISO 200 30 secs
f.14 ISO 200 BULB (60 secs)
We wanted to try something different with this image. We tried to outline a stance with a softer light than the direct beam of the LED lights we were using. I used the bulb setting to allow for a longer exposure of around 60 seconds. 

Monday 7 November 2011

Theme - Country Landscapes

Putting some thought into my theme, I've decided I want to focus on country landscapes. Even though I moved to Manchester five years ago from a small village outside Leeds, I've always been fascinated with the countryside. 

Over the weekend I bought a tripod as this is one of the key pieces of kit for landscape photography. This should help with long exposures and wide angle shots. Below are a few trial images with my new tripod (I was even adventurous and jumped into the stream to take a few snaps)





The image I have taken above is a prime example of an over exposed skyline. To help tackle this problem I'm going to experiment with filters over the coming weeks to see how different filters will effect certain shots, depending on lighting and composition. 

The last one is just for Dave...an Alpaca

 

Baby you're a firework

On Saturday night I made my way, along with 10,000 other people, to a firework display in Harrogate. As it was busy, muddy and cold I decided to embrace the natural camera shake that was bound to occur and take some long exposure shots.

ISO 400 18mm f/18 6.0sec
In the image above I decided to zoom in and out whilst the shutter was still open and taking in light. I really like speckles of light this has produced in the top half of the image.

ISO 400 30mm f/18 10.0sec

ISO 400 28mm f/16 2.5sec

Sunday 23 October 2011

Manchester Meander

I popped into town on Saturday and thought I'd take my camera with me as I am slowly learning that a large element of photography is about being in the right place at the right time.


ISO: 200 f/14 1/160

ISO 200 f/18 1/125

ISO 200 f/18 1/125

ISO 200 f/13 1/8

ISO 200 f/13 1/8
I experimented in using the same aperture, ISO and shutter speed settings in different light situations.

I used Silver Efex Pro to edit all the black and white images below, the programme allows you to see the variety in tone that you can achieve in black and white.