Objects

After taking some photographs at a petrol station as part of my systems and processes brief I have decided that for the commercial products section on the Objects brief to concentrate on Petrol. This is because of two reasons; one being I found some really interesting subject matter and secondly I didn't really want to do it in the studio.

Petrol is the commercial product that I will be focusing on but I will be keeping the subject matter much more open. My two main ideas are the station itself or the pumps.

I have chosen this as there is something quite political

about it. One day oil is going to run out and therefore petrol stations in their current form will be no more. Yes, there might be similar stations selling things like hydrogen but they may be much different than petrol stations as we know them. I would like to capture all different types of petrol station from big commercial ones to small family-run type station and old, derelict stations to highlight the issue of petrol and oil running out.

Originally I was inspired by an image by Alec Soth which you can find lower down the page as well as in this post. Its the typical American fuel stations that you find in many documentary photographers images that inspires me. They are a terrific subject and always seem to create atmospheric photos. I am going to try and re-create this look in some of my images but by using a more modern, European style petrol station. The lights at night will be very helpful but I aim to be a lot more broad about when I shoot them.

I love this image and it is definitely one I will look to when photographing at petrol stations. I love the atmosphere created by the lighting and background. The contrast between the very urban kind of foreground and the very rural, undisturbed background adds quality to this image. Negative space is used really well in this image.

As of the 7th December I have been to around 3 petrol stations so far. One for my Systems & Processes brief and the other two for the Objects brief. The first petrol station that I visited; for the systems & processes brief was my local Spar in Accrington. The second two were two abandoned petrol stations; one in Whalley and the other in a village near Longridge called Whitechapel.

I found the latter to produce the best of the images so far. To put it into words, it is an old derelict garage; one that would just service cars with two extremely old, American looking pumps. In the very rural location that it is in, it is a place that very much reminds me of a horror movie. Something like The Hills Have Eyes or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre etc. It was quite a creepy place that had not many people and was very spread out. This produced a certain atmosphere to my images and added a quality to my photographs. Below are a selection (2) of images that I have taken at Whitechapel Garage.

This to me reflects what I have set out to do quite well in that the meter looks very much like a clock. It represents that one day in time petrol will run out. This is also reflected in he closed sign next to the pump and how old the pump actually looks. I really like this image, I like the strong contrast and tones. This adds atmosphere to the image; It reflects exactly how creepy the place was and how I felt taking the image. There was a lot of noise and muttered chat going on from a farm behind the garage. This made a creepy atmosphere so to add a creepy look to this photograph was something I wanted to do. I am very pleased with this image overall.

With this image I decided to include the surrounding landscape to add a lonely feel to the 'dereliction'. This again creates a creepy atmosphere. I like the 'aged' look it has. I did this by using a lightroom preset and then desaturating it ever so slightly. I adjusted the highlights and tones to bring out some detail in the clouds. This made the image much stronger.

This image is very different really to the others. This is a newer petrol station but one that is still derelict. This to me still has a foreign sort of feel to it. Maybe more of a European feel. I like the editing to this. Originally I tried this image in black and white but this didn't really work due to the sky. I de-saturated it and upped the clarity; I feel this made the lighting look really nice. My only problem with this image is I have cropped it just a little bit too much. On the left side of the the frame the container that once contained gloves or wipes has a bit missing off slightly. This is one thing I will look to change.

Fortnightly Project: Treasure

'Valuable or precious possessions of any kind'

I wouldn't say I suffer from, but I have the most common neurological condition in the UK today; Epilepsy.

To put it simply Epilepsy is the 'proneness' to any form of seizure. These are very irregular and inconvenient, so much so that epilepsy is 'officially' classed as a disability. It can prevent you from going about day-to-day activities and requires permanent medication. Without this medication I wouldn't be able to lead such a normal life. That, therefore is why my medication is so valuable to me.

Its not until my seizures have got under control recently (fingers crossed) that I have fully appreciated exactly what these small items mean to me. Without them I would be fitting again on a regular basis; something which would make my life quite irregular.

I shot this on my DSLR and edited it later on using lightroom. The image is of the boxes, the strips, the pills and the bag which they are delivered in; the 'treasure chest' almost. I edited it to B&W to add atmosphere and added a vignette to 'draw' you into the image. The imperfectness of the work surface and the tiles reflects the imperfectness and 'irregularness' of the condition.

Its now been 8 months since my last seizure so its only 4 months until I can have my driving license back. Happy Days :-)

Shallow Depth Of Field

Coming from the National Diploma course I find the shallow depth of field effect quite an easy one to create. I have two possibilities for this response. One is an urban image ( which is posted in this blog) and another is an image I shot on a shoot for the Objects brief. That image is posted below on another blog.

This an image of a bollard. Although it is a simple image it utilizes the shallow depth of field effect well. I shot it from this angle due to the road in the background as this is basically what bollards are used for.

Shutter Speeds

For now I have decided to use a slow shutter speed in response to the brief. I plan to add to it with a fast shutter speed. The reason I have done a slow shutter speed is for the 'artistic' qualities. The blurs it creates create a really interesting and in my view a very pleasing on the eye effect. Below is my favorite image so far.I chose this image as for me it represents Accrington town centre. Although it comes under criticism many people still use it as a place to shop. It comes under criticism for precisely what's in this image, a pound shop. I like the symmetry created between the prominent gap in the paving and the line of people. I shot this image 'from the hip' as I believe when shooting in a busy place it creates a nice effect and it keeps you 'out of view'.

Halogen Lighting

Halogen Lighting is a form of powerful lighting used for many things. It can be used from things such as, car head lamps, to security lights and to floodlights. Below is a section taken from wikipedia's article, 'Halogen Lamp'.

A halogen lamp is an incandescent lamp in which a tungsten filament is sealed into a compact transparent envelope filled with an inert gas and a small amount of halogen such as iodine or bromine. The combination of the halogen gas and the tungsten filament produces a chemical reaction known as a halogen cycle (see below) that increases the lifetime of the bulb and prevents its darkening by redepositing tungsten from the inside of the bulb back onto the filament. The halogen lamp can operate its filament at a higher temperature than a standard gas filled lamp of similar power without loss of operating life. This gives it a higher effiacy (10-30 lm/W). It also gives light of a higher colour temperature compared to a non-halogen incandescent lamp. Alternatively, it may be designed to have perhaps twice the life with the same or slightly higher efficacy. Because of their smaller size, halogen lamps can advantageously be used with optical systems that are more efficient.

A halogen lamp in operation.

Below are a selection of images that I like that use halogen lighting.

This image was taken by Alec Soth in Fountain City, Wisconsin. I really like how he has used the dusk time of day and the lighting from the petrol station to draw your eyes yo the petrol station. I love the contrast between the seemingly unaltered background and the very modernized petrol station.

This is an image taken by Lise Sarfati. I love the lighting. Although the lighting is massive and harsh in this image it kind of has a subtle look to it. I really like how it catches the goal posts. It has a nice composition to it as well.


This image was taken by Paolo Pellegrin in Gaza. I love how he has captured such a hostile moment. I also really like the silhouettes created by the head lights on full beam. It adds atmosphere and tension to the image; which when photographing conflict is something that should be done in my view.

Below is the photograph I have taken. Overall I found halogen lighting quite and easy one to utilise. There will be more images to follow.

I shot this image at a petrol station near to where I live. I shot it using my DSLR camera. The original file was in colour but I like the tones the harsh light creates when turned to black and white. I also added a green filter for more contrast. Overall I like this image. I like the contrast and the composition.

Sodium Lighting

Sodium Lighting is basically the lighting used for street lamps. Below is a section from Wikipedia's article 'Sodium-vapor lamp'.

'A Sodium vapor lamp is a gas discharge lamp which uses sodium in an excited state to produce light. There are two varieties of such lamps: low pressure and high pressure. Because sodium vapor lamps cause less light pollution than mercury-vapor lamps, many cities that have large astronomical observatories employ them.'

From what I have read on sodium-vapor lamps they produce much less light pollution. This is the reason they are used. Up to now I have tried a shoot using sodium lighting and found it very hard to use due to it being dark when taking the image. Being dark it forces you to use high ISO settings; something which produces very noisy images.

I don't particularly like this.

Below are some examples of uses of sodium lighting that I

like. Again they are taken from the Magnum Photo's website.

This is an image by Alex Majoli. It is an image of a phone box in Liverpool. I like this for the reason I like the image of the phone box in the fluorescent lighting blog. I like the fact it is personal and in way invades the subjects personal space. I really like the use of negative space gained from the fact it is 'night-time'. It adds to the personal aspect.

This image was taken by Steve McCurry. It was taken in China Town in New York. I again like this image for how personal it is. This is something that; I feel, works really well with night time images. I like the mystery to it, we don't know exactly why the man is sat there. He could be homeless or he could just be getting some fresh air. We simply don't know.

This image was taken at San Stephano Beach, Alexandria, Egypt. It was taken by Harry Gruyaert. I have chosen to put this one on as it is different to the other images I have put on in that it doesn't really involve any people and that it is just objects like the brief says. Again there is an 'atmosphere' to it. It is surrounded in mystery as we don't really know what is going on in the image. It leaves the viewer thinking; this to me makes a successful image.

Below I have put my photographs that have used sodium-lighting as a light source. It is something I found very difficult to do due to the use of high ISO's and the noise this creates. The best I could do without consulting anyone about it as to up the contrast of the images. I found it to be relatively successful and made the pictures look better on the whole.

I'll start with the first image. Out of both of the images this is my favorite. It was taken in Accrington town centre on Peel Street. I like how the perspective leads your eye towards the building which is the focal point of the image and the 'object' I chose to photograph. I love how light from the street lamp forms a sort of vignette on the building. I also really like how the building looks. I like the texture and how it looks like a typical mid-20th century building.

The second image is of the pay toilet on Peel Street. I like how its almost 'crushed' into the frame. This daws your eye to it.

Fluorescent Lighting

'A fluorescent lamp or fluorescent tube is a gas-discahrge lamp that uses electricity to excite mercury vapor. The excited mercury atoms produce short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor to fluoresce, producing visible light. A fluorescent lamp converts electrical power into useful light more efficiently than an incandescent lamp. Lower energy cost typically offsets the higher initial cost of the lamp. The lamp is more costly because it requires a ballast to regulate the flow of current through the lamp.

While larger fluorescent lamps have been mostly used in commercial or institutional buildings, the compact fluorescent lamp is now being used as an energy-saving alternative to incandescent lamps in homes. Compared with incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps last longer, but are bulkier, more complex, contain trace amounts of mercury, and have poorer color rendition.'

Taken from wikipedia's article - 'fluorescent lamp'

Fluorescent Lighting tends to be used in public places and the work place etc. This is because they are cheaper to run than regular incadescent lights. It tends to produce a very harsh light causing there to be a very a fine line between getting good results with it and bad results.

I have been looking into photographs that have used fluorescent lighting to light them; here are some of my favorites..

These images were taken from the magnum photo's website.

The first image was taken by a Josef Koudelka in a Rome subway station. I like the use of fluorescent lighting in this image and I like the perspective. I would perhaps have used a higher contrast to make it more moody.

The second image is a railway station platform in Coney Island. I love the contrast to this image, it makes the use of fluorescent light really stand out.

The final image is my favorite. It has an atmosphere to it; it seems a very personal image. Like the photographer has entered the subjects personal space inside the cramped telephone box. It was taken by Richard Kalvar.

I found fluorescent lighting one of the easiest forms of light to photograph with; surprisingly. Since fluorescent lighting is used in various locations I decided to photograph using it in various locations so to get the best results. Below are my favorite photographs.

The first image was taken at my local Spar Petrol Station. Once I was given permission I utilized the lighting in the car wash and the perspective the tunnel like structure creates. The perspective is my favorite part of this image.

The second image was taken in a phone box close to where I live. The fact the phone takes up most of the frame echo's the cramped conditions that you get in phone boxes. I like the dark, sinister atmosphere to this image.

The final image was taken in my local shop. The shelf is typical of a small corner shop's shelf in the range of products all crammed into such a small photograph. I particularly like how the light is directional.

Fortnightly project - 03/11/2009-17/11/2009

For this weeks fortnightly project the theme was English Breakfast. I didn't want to do a directly obvious photograph for this image; I wanted to do something that people would have to think about. Because of this I decided to do a 'social documentary type shot' of my nanna. I did this as she always makes me a very typical, cooked Breakfast. Shes something that I associate with English Breakfast.

This is the final image that I came up with. I shot it digitally and then edited it in lightroom. I adjusted the colours and added a vignette. I think these suit the image very well. Overall I am pleased with the image except; as I look back on it now, I would probably make the breakfast a little more prominent.

Individiual Task - Digital Asset Management

Today we were set an individual task. We were told to go out and take an image of an object lit by either window, strobe or fluorescent lighting. We were told to set our camera's to manual exposure, manual focus, ISO 400 and RAW file format.

I didn't really know where to go at first but then decided that the train station might be interesting due to the fluorescent lighting in the su

bway. I was drawn to the signs for my choice of object as the lights ran above them and really 'caught' them quite well.

When we arrived back we imported them into lightroom and 'tested' our 'digital asset management skills'. We were then told using the develop module to add a lightroom preset and then export them. I used the High contrast B&W preset. It added a dark and moody feel to the image something which suits the image due to it being in a subway and being lit by the harsh lighting of the fluorescent light. Below is my final image.

Spring Wood

Here are a slection of the images I shot at Spring Wood yesterday.

John Sexton

Tomorrow I intend (weather permitting) to go to Spring Wood near Whalley. This is after I looked up a photographer, again, mentioned by John. His name is John Sexton and he is an american landscape photographer. He specializes in black and white photography and his work very much reminds me of the work of Ansel Adams. This is probably; as I have just discovered, that he worked for a Adams as Technical Photographic Assistant and a Technical Consultant. This was between 1979 and 1984.

Here are just 3 of his fantastic images. I live the contrast and detail in his images. His images have such and atmosphere to them.

Image source: http://www.dearnogallery.com/artist_detail.php?id=18

Joel Meyerowitz

After one of John's lectures I decided I would look up a photographer called Joel Meyerowitz. He showed us some of his images; which I liked, so I decided to look at more of his images.

Through wikipedia I found a link to a site containing his coverage of the aftermath of 9/11. I found the set of images itself very powerful.

http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/cp/olympus/feature/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003020408

That's the link, click the picture to view the slideshow.

Meyerowitz was one of the key photographers in the rise of colour photography as an art-form. He is a street photographer. Here are a few of his images that I really like.

'Fuertaventuran' Magic Hour

Over half term I went on holiday to Fuertaventura. Fuertventura is one of the Canary Islands; the Canary Islands are situated in the Atlantic Ocean just off the west coast of Africa. Fuertaventura is the second largest of the islands and is one of the nearest to Africa itself.

Due to its brilliant weather conditions all year round I decided that it would be the ideal place for a 'magic hour' shoot. I feel it was successful and feel as if some strong images have come out of it. Here are the images I have processed so far.

Images

This/these image(s) is of some sort of alley-way out of a bar in the built up area of Costa Caleta; the resort I was staying in. I've been looking to do some urban magic hour shots and did this one by accident really. Personally I think it works best in colour as the orange of the wall really draws you to that side of the image and makes your eyes follow the wall towards the shutters at the bottom of the image. This, to me, makes a good image when your eyes are bounced around the image. I really like the composition of this image too, I think its really well balanced.

These images are of the back of a small restaurant near to harbour. It's again an urban shot. The thing I like about this image is the 'little details'. I like how everything seems to be in groups. There's a group of gas bottles, the plastic crates are grouped, the small doors are grouped and the fence posts are almost grouped etc. I think it probably works a little better in colour. I like the tint of orange that the setting sun has cast onto the white building.

I took this image on the rocks at the beach. The black and white image is quite a good image I think but again like my other black and white images that show a lot sky there is not much detail in the sky. The sky looks very washed out and would look quite good and 'moody' if i could adjust this. I do however like the colour image, the orange glow on the rocks looks fantastic. It shows magic hour. I also like this image in general as it gives a little insight into life on the island. It reflects the populations laid back attitude in that there are sun-loungers and a group of people playing beach-volleyball. I later discovered the people were spanish and part of the islands population.

Magic Hour Examples

I've just been looking around the web for some examples of magic hour photography. I've picked out some pretty random images really but I'll categorize them into Urban and Rural since these are two areas I am keen to experiment in.

Urban

These are images are part of a set of images by Liang Yue. They were taken at dusk and even without sunshine in the images they work quite well.
These two images are by a photographer called Gregory Crewdson. These two look a lot more like magic hour photographs than the previous two. I like Crewdson's work because he makes even the most ugly looking scenes look 'beautiful'. The colours are the main reason these images appeal to me. I also like the fact they all have a story or narrative to them.

Rural
These are two images are by Robert Adams. They really capture the beauty of the sun setting in the magic hour. There is terric tonal range and detail; particularly in the first image.


Finally this is an image by Ansel Adams. Ansel Adams is somebody who I greatly admire. The work he produces is stunning. This is an image taken in the evening and is a perfect example of the kind tonal detail i'd like to achieve with my photographs for the magic hour should they be in black and white.