16/02/12…

So today I was supposed to have lectures all day but they were cancelled because of new students applying for next year, one of which I knew! So instead of being in lesson, myself and a few friends decided to go into the studio and experiment with the different types of lighting. We did this because we wanted to gain a better understanding of what the lights did as well as put write this in our workbooks so show that we had experimented with different lighting before picking the lighting that we wanted for your studio test shoots.

This was the only thing that we really all day apart from workbook development which was just a continue of research and evaluating test shoots. All in all quite a boring day that didnt really intale much.

15/02/12…

Today was quite day in comparision to yesterday.. I had a lecture in the morning and that was it really. The lecture consisted of us being told about networking, whcih woud have been useful if I hadnt have already been told about it. I know that this important and I constantly try to network and make contacts that will further my career. Its just not very interesting being told about it. As well as this we undertook a questionaire to determine what type of personality we have and how it can effect us as we go about our career.

All of these things are really interesting and are very vaild when networking and furthering your career! This was my day. It was really quite. After the lecture I continued with development of my workbook. I decided to write about my test shoot from the previous day!

14/02/12…

Happy Valentines Day!! I dont know why I started with that, but hey!  Today was a very busy day! Extremly busy day! Today I undertook two locations shoot, in two completely different locations with the large format camera and a fair bit of lighting equipment. And to top of the day I developed my film! I do believe that every part of my body now aches and I am covered in bruises.

The test shoots started with us collecting our equipment from the equipment store and some how packing it onto the trolley. We thought that this woudl probably be a good idea and it turned out the be the best idea that we had had the entire day! For the first location shoot I was assisting my friend, as it was her photoshoot. We set up the lighting in a simple two point lighting set-up that evenly lite the model from both sides. Once that was done we went about the task of setting up the camera and actually syncing everything together. This took quite a while to so as well as we wanted to make sure that everything was right. Once this was done it was very simple after that. The images came out beautifully!

After this test shoot was done, we went to my location and did my test shoot. This was slightly easier than the first one I guess because we had already done one shoot and we figured everything out in that one. Overall, it went really well and ran very smoothly. This was because we were organised and knew what were doing. These images also came out much better that I thought the would. Once this was done we developed and dried the film.

13/02/12…

Today was a good day.. Such a good day. It started with a Black and White printing masterclass with John Blakemore. Who in my opinion is one of the greatest Black and White printers in the country and one of the nicest and friendliest guys you will ever meet. He began by talk to us about different contrast control that we have at out disposal and how they work. For example the multigrade filters and different dilutions of developer. We then discussed how and what to look for with our negatives before we choose whether we are going to print them. This was interesting as I had never really done this as in depth before. I have always looked at my negatives to see if there is any part of it that I will have problems with but never this in depth before.

Once this was done he showed us how to print the images properly, taking into consideration every part of the image and how it will look best after wards. He then showed us dodging anf buring. This is something that I have always been quite scared of as I had no real idea how to do it. I understood why it was important but I had never given it a go before. After watching him I now feel a little bit more confident in trying it and improving my images. Thoughout this masterclass Blakemore was showing us that contrast can create two very different images, even if they are pysically exactly the same. This was somewhat of a revelation for me as I hadnt really thought about it like that before. I mean that I knew that it was possible but had never really tried it on my own work.

Overall this masterclass has taught me an awful lot more that I originallt thought. If anything it has taught me that I can achieve so much more with my negatives that I originally thought. I can created very different atmospheres about my work if I just adjust the contrast. I now want to go into the darkroom and see what I can create. On top of this I actually managed to touch an original John Blakemore print!

Week 3 of Semester Two.

This week has been a very busy week. I have undertaken effectivly three photoshoots and and really got started on my workbooks. It has been quite ptoductive. Which is always a good thing! However I must admit that it did take quite awhile for me to get going. I seem to be really stuggling at the moment, with getting my work/life ratio right. I seem to be spending so much time doing nothing or rather I seem to be spending most of my time blogging. But hey its an important thing to do. It helps me get everything out of my head and somewhere else!

Anyways back to uni, it has been a long and hard week of non stop work really. The lectures where fun and interesting but I just want to get on with my project now. I find that working in a studio takes up so much of my time. Although its fun, boy, does it take forever! However this week has been tame compared to what is going on next week. Next week I have three/four photoshoots to either assist in or direct on which will be fun.. But the write up afterward wont be! Onward and Upwards!

Un Chien Andalou

Un Chien Andalou is a 1929 silent surrealist short film by director Luis Buñuel and surrealist artist Salvador Dalí.The film has no real plot to it in the conventional sense and the chronology order of the film is disjointed at best, it jumps from the initial “once upon a time” to “eight years later” with ease, without any consideration to the again of the characters. It uses what I guess you would call dream logic for its narrative. Dispite the wide variety of interpreations of the film since it was made, The director has mad eit clear thought his career that “Nothing in the film symbolises anything” and that the only rule for the writing of the script was that “no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted.”

Overall, I found the film to be terribly amusing. Whether it was meant to be I have no idea, but I like strange and abnormal things like this that arent meant to make any sense or be analysed till there is nothing left of it and it has no real meaning anymore. I guess what I find most appealing is the fact that it doesnt make sense. It simply is what it is. Sometimes in life I feel that things are to heavily analyised and I get bogged down by having to analyse everything for its meaning. It is just nice to enjoy something because you enjoy it, Not because it has a hidden meaning. Its also nice to know that it wasnt meant to have any hidden agenda or meaning.

Advanced Processes – Landscape, Test Shoot 2

Yesterday I went on my second test shoot for Advanced Processes. The purpose of this shoot was to experiment with both colour medium format and digital photography. My idea for this test shoot was to walk around my location, a task i really dont like doing, and finding and photographing the rubbish that is left behind by mankind. This is my way of creating landscape imaergy that isnt what most people would think of. I dont like landscape so this is my way of channeling my dislike for landscape into something remotlly creative and challenging peopls perception of landscape. Maybe make them think about the impact we have on the landscape surrounding us. Overall this test shoot went really well and I am very happy with what I think the images will turn out like. I worked really hard on making sure that the exposure and zone system things were right before I took a photograph. Hopefully I will be right!

Because I have used colour film this time, I have to wait to get it developed. So images form this shoot will be up some time next week! The digital will be online as soon as I can find my SDHC card adapter.

The Studio – Still Life Test Shoot 1 Images

Here are the images from my first test shoot for still life! Feel free to comment.

 

The Studio – Still Life Test Shoot 1

On friday I spent sometime in the studio. The purpose of this shoot was to produce some still life images using the large format camera and the studio lighting. Overall this shoot was a success and the images that I took came out really nicely, but it was very difficult getting there. I havent been in a studio for a while and I felt very veyr rusty going bakc in there. I think it showed. Anyways after spending quite a while setting up the back drop, the lights, the 5×4 camera and finally the still life objects. We were away. However we then realised that the connection between the the lighting and the camera doesnt always want to work. This became a pain when it fogged out film twice. However even with all these problem I still got some really nice images that have inspired me more.

My main inspiration for this shoot was traditional Memento Mori still life images. I thought that it would be really interesting to create images like this that explore the use of semiotics and hidden meaning. Overall, I am very happy with the images that were produced. They turned out much better than I thought they would. Images will follow!

The Studio – Still Life Props

So after thinking long and hard about whether I really did have the guts to effectively destory some really nice looking and very old book. I decided that yes. Yes I did have the guts. So I did. I sunk a book into a sink full of water over night.

 Unfortunatly it didnt really work. The book pages started to crumple up but didnt do it as much as I would have liked. Also the book fell apart. However I will continue to try. I think that if I leav the book to soak for longer and put it right next to the radiator then it will crumple the way that I want. I have the ability to try again so I am not too fussed at this stage if it doesnt work. However because this isnt ready for when I need it, I will have to photograph something else whilst Im in the studio. I think that I will go back to my original idea and photograph something that looks like more traditional still like paintings. I still really like this Idea and it may be the way that I develop this project. If this book soaking doesnt work the way that I want it too.