Change Of Unit 3 Topic

Due to simply not having the passion for low light landscape photography, I have decided to go in the direction of benches. I believe they are a very strong and important part of our surroundings as everybody uses benches in their everyday lives. And as you can see here, I was drawn to photographing benches on what were supposed to be low light landscape shoots.

I have chosen to explore the topic of memorial benches and by doing so I came across the works of Anthony Hopewell: Memento Mori.

This is a collection of photographs based on the topic of memorial benches. He focuses on the absence, memories and loss of loved ones and friends that are no longer with us.

"The bench’s location is often symbolically important, either to the deceased, or to their family or friends, but ultimately the location is dictated by permission from the local authority. This inevitably results in a variety of settings, some more appropriate than others."

His main focus was on the benches location which is something that I need to take into consideration if I were to make the focus of my coursework on memorial benches. This was also a landscape project as the view from the becnch was just as important as the bench itself. The location is supposed to portray an individual identity and history about the person that the bench is dedicated to.

His work really does seem as though it is focusing on phantoms and of the absence of people that once lived. This collection in a way does the same job as the benches themselves as it is displaying the memory of certain people.

Low Light: 2nd Shoot

For my second low light shoot, I was aiming to shoot in early evening light so it wasn't dark but so there were a lot of dark areas within the woods. However the shoot didn't go as well as I had planned due to my lack of interest within the topic and so I found myself taking photos of objects rather than landscape, the majority of them being of benches.

             

 -I immediately discarded images 893-913 due to the fact that they seemed very dull and empty, not in the sense of content but the feelings that they emit. Images 911-913 were more of a composition issue with me as i didn't like the way the bench was almost on a slant on the ground and so it became wonky within the frame.
-I chose to take 933 further and do some editing on it. To produce this image I had to lower the tripod as much as I could and lie on the ground in order to achieve this low angle shot. I created the strong sense of importance that I was aiming for as Low angle shots are generally used to portray power.
-Images 946-950 didn't turn out as well as I had expected and it was probably because it was difficult shooting them as I had to climb up a tree and try to steady my tripod on some branches in fairly strong winds.  
-I took a shine towards the Orchard sign because it is so unique in todays age to see something like that. 953 stood out the most to me as you have the brightness of the fields, trees and sky in the background and the subtle orange/red of the apple on the sign in the foreground.
-968 is one of my favourites because of the framing. I like how the picnic table is half hidden away behind the arch so it looks like quite a private and quiet area.

-I wanted to increase the warmth of the wooden bench so I heightened the colour temperature.
-To really make the bench stand out, I increased the shadows so the background was much darker.
-I felt that it still needed an extra bit of warmth so I gave it a 1960's effect which created a type of hazy, brown film of the top.





-To create this final image, I darkened the edges slightly and increased the saturation of the colours to intensify them slightly.
-I believe that by making the bench stand out more and with it being taken at a low angle, I have heightened the fact that it is of some form of importance.

                   

-Because the colouring of the wood for the apple had faded, I saturated it to make it more prominent as the carving of the apple is a key element in showing people what an orchard is. 
-By intensifying the blacks in the image, it has made the word 'ORCHARD' much clearer and easier to read.
-I am fairly happy with the composition, however I think that it would have worked better if the whole of the sign was in the frame with the orchard blurred in the background rather than a normal field.  

-For this image I wanted to bring out the colours in the red leaves and the moss that is growing up and around the arch of this tea room. First I increased the colour temperature so that the red leaves had more of a warm glow to them and darkened the shadows so it seems like the bench is even more hidden away.

-To achieve the final image, I upped the saturation of the colours in order to intensify the reds and greens more.
-I do like the end result but find that the area around the arch window could have used less colour saturation as it looks slightly too yellow.

Low Light: 1st Shoot

In this shoot I intended to capture the orange and reds of the sun setting over the woods of Shipley Park with the initial idea of them being fairly warm looking images.

-Having had done some research into different approaches to 'Low Light' photography, I did a shoot in Shipley Park using the setting sun as my low light source.
-I quite liked image 58 for the composition of the tree and the sun just behind it's trunk however, it wasn't striking enough for me and lacked the orange colours of a sunset.
-Images 62-64 stood out more than most of the other tree photos due to the bright, burnt orange light shining on the trunk of the tree in the foreground.
-Image 82 is the most effective in my opinion as you have the deep red plant growing up the building in the background and the orange/brown colour of the bench in the foreground. These two colours work really well together and could look even more effective if they were intensified.
                                                                     

-Because I wanted to bring out the colours in the bench and the plant growing up the building, I saturated them making them more vibrant. But with having increased the colour temperature, the colours would have been to bright so I toned down the saturation a little.




 -To produce the final image I darkened the edges of the photo to create more of a focus on the bench as I was aiming for it to seem fairly lonely and sad.

























-I intensified the orange sun light as that is what makes this image. By darkening the shadows it has allowed us to see the different shades of the bark on the tree in the foreground, giving it more depth and is more interesting to the eye.

Exploration In To Theme: Low Light

This Photo was taken at night by John Ryan, it is very much to my liking as it is in an ordinary setting that has been manipulated to seem quite cold and sinister. I like the composition of the bench as it is made to seem lonely with so much open space in front of it. Because it is a memorial bench, it has the feeling as though somebody is on the bench even though nobody is there and this to me creates a sense of curiosity about who it is dedicated to. 

 This is another striking photo, however I find this to be quite eerie especially as a bus like this is supposed to have lots of people on it and with it being empty, it seems creepy. I like the way the street lighting looks misty, that for me is what makes this photo interesting.

I find this photo by Martin Stranka to be very striking. Even though the main subject is very small, you are instantly drawn to it due to the harsh lighting that is in front which creates a bleak atmosphere. The dark, blank space around it again portrays a strong sense of loneliness which I find is quite chilling.

Brassai

-The Hungarian photographer, George Brassai, rose to fame during the 20th century in France. He made his stamp on the world of photography with his 1933 book, Paris de Nuit. He was very attracted to the contrast between the artificial lighting of the city and the areas of darkness where the light could not reach.
- He often used the natural effects of fog and rain to capture the thriving city of Paris at night, this later caught on with many other photographers and is seen in a lot of low light/night photography today. For example, The photo above by Martin Stranka.

- I find this particular photo from Brassai slightly amusing in a way as the sign on the lamp post is showing a footpath which leads in to the darkness. I love how the light surrounding the lamp post and the brightness of the wall behind it looks like it belongs in a safe place, whereas the white door between the bricks seems a little mysterious and dark which matches it's actual physicality.

I have decided to base my unit 3 on Low Light Landscape photography with using natural evening light.

Ideas Mindmap

After doing the mind map, I have decided to look into the area of 'Low Light' as I have never really explored this area before and I believe that it could be quite exciting and diverse.