Seaside Landscapes Clacton; Shoot 1 Work Diary

Seaside Landscapes Clacton; Shoot 1 Work Diary

Shoot Ideas

My ideas for this shoot come from wanting to explore the British Culture and the typical views we would see from around the Britain. There are many different elements of the seaside that you can capture but the views that I would like to capture show the seaside in an admiring way. The weather may not always stay on my side but I want to capture the beautiful nature of the seaside and make it look inviting even if the weather is not as nice as I hope. I already have several different ideas for images, I intend to take pictures on the beach as well as the pier so we can see the difference in the activities in each area. This shoot will capture British Culture because it will show why British people love the beach as I want to capture the beauty of it. 

Research

The research I have carried out that has influenced my idea of capturing the seaside was mainly looking at other photographers images that link to this subject. I have been researching Martin Parr and his way of capturing the seaside. 

This image links to the way I want to capture the beach, it shows a girl walking along the beach in the background and in the foreground shows UK flags and a toy digger. This image shows to me that although there are toys this girl can be playing with because she is at the beach she is more focused on that rather than these toys. It portrays that the beach is a place where people sway away from their toys and electronic devises. The saturation within Martin Parr's work gives the images a positive outcome as it appears brighter and more aesthetically pleasing. This image mirrors the rule of thirds because it shows the foreground to have the digger and the flag, the middle ground has the girl walking and the background has the houses, sky etc. As well as documenting the love of the beach this also shows the scale of people that attend the beach because of all the people in the background. I think Parr purposely blurred the background out because it adds dominance to the foreground. 

I want to portray my images in a way that Martin Parr does but he was lucky enough to have good weather and photograph images in a way that makes the images look nice with blue skies and bright colours. By saturating my images it may make them like Martin Parr's but I could also manipulate them in different ways. 

Image Bank
The following images were carried out for my visual research, some of these images aren't part of the photos that link to my photographers but they link to the ideas that I want to spread.

These images I have chosen all express the types of images I want to take when progressing onto my first shoot. My main idea is to take images that have symbols of the place in them and symbols of the beach. I want to take images that are similar to all of these images because it will help me spread my ideas. 

AO1: You must ensure that several of the visual ideas/inspirations within the image bank are pursued. 
Contact Sheet

The images in my contact sheets that are selected red are the images that didn't turn out as well as I would've hoped. Some were slightly out of focus and some had no structure which made them irrelevant within my shoot. Next time I need to ensure that my images relate to my illustrated proposal and that they are in focus.

Best Images

Before beginning this shoot I have carried out various technique researches, one of the techniques I researched was creating a GIF. During the research I extremely enjoyed the creation process of a GIF, I chose to carry this research on into my shoot work. In my shoot I chose to photograph at Clacton Beach, this shoot links to what I want to portray because it documents life at the seaside. This GIF represents the beach/sea side well because we can see the sand and the sea. There is a great depth of field within this GIF because we can see the sea moving in the background. I chose to produce a GIF like this because it shows the element of fun that we associate with the beach. There were various ways I could documents my shoots and I chose to use one technique being a GIF because I enjoyed creating them. I don't think I will include this GIF in my final portfolio because it shows comedic value which could link to Martin Parr but the is not the atmosphere I am aiming for.

This is one of my best images because it represents the elements of the seaside and why we like to go there. Blue skies, sea and the rocks, these are the symbols within this image that represent the beach well. I chose to have the girl looking out onto the sea because it shows how mesmerised we are with the beach, people who don't  get to visit the beach often love looking at the views. This image represents the rule of thirds because there are three sections to the picture, the top section being the sky, the middle section being the sea and the bottom section being the rocks. I like this image a lot because it is aesthetically pleasing with the bright blue sky. Some of my images within this shoot seem as though they have been edited already but this is not the case, this image is purely taken off of the camera which shows that the camera settings I used worked effectively with the weather and surroundings.

We associate older people with the seaside in general because when they retire this is typically where they go to live. I chose to take an image of this two old people walking along the side of the beach because it represents love and relationship, it also represents the love and relationship these people have with the beach too. This photo almost doesn't look like it was taken in this country because of the exotic looking plants in the left of the image. I like this image too because it is also aesthetically pleasing because of the sky, having blue sky within the picture tends to make everything brighter and better. This image links to Parr's work because he documents people within the seaside landscape which is what I have done her, he also produces a comedic effect within his images of British peoples tan which I can emphasise in this image as these older people are extremely tanned showing how long they are out in the sun. 

There are various cuisines that we associate with the beach, doughnuts are associated with the beach and the pier. I chose to take an photo of these doughnuts because I wanted to link my shoot with Martin Parr, one of the images that he takes is of a typical sea side cuisine so I wanted to mirror one of his images with mine. When taking this image into photoshop I am going to test out different techniques to manipulate the image, on the lines of Martin Parr I want to experiment with saturating the picture. I can also  experiment with making the picture black and white and compare them both. This image can also link with Parr's work because he focuses on the cuisine at the beach which I have done here. 

I took this image on the pier at Clacton, I wanted to take images on the pier because this is another symbolic aspect that we associate with the seaside. This image doesn't express the bright blue skies as the other images do because of the change in weather however, I still think this relates to the idea I was going for. Although, the weather is not as nice as we would normally expect there are still people around progressing the idea of the love for the beach. The main aspect that stands out to me in this image is the red and white slide in the centre of the picture, I think this stands out because it is another symbol that we associate with the beach. To manipulate this image I can experiment with making it black and white and saturating it to link the image to the photographers I have researched. This image doesn't relate to documentary photography because it is of a landscape but I want to carry this idea on within my further shoots as it establishes British Culture well and I can create more photos in different locations that compare to this image.

Images That Require Improvement

The following images that I have selected from my shoot are images that I believe need improvement. 

The reason I think this image needs improvement because it has been taken without a tripod which is obvious as the image looks slightly slanted. Although there are various different symbols in this image, there isn't much focus on a specific image. It can be considered as a landscape image as it shows the sand and the sea line. There is a great depth of field in this image because we can slightly see the wind turbines in the background of the image. To improve this image I think I should get closer to the sea rather than having the unwanted space in the foreground of the image. 

The reason I think this image needs improvement because it has been taken with the flash on, although the photo looks very sharp and it stands out, the effect of the flash doesn't appeal to me. There is a great depth of field in this image which stands out because we can see far out to the end of the rocks. I think the layout of the image is significant I think it would look much better if there wasn't a flash. Taking the image again I would produce an image without a flash. 

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

My idea for recording these images in this specific way comes from my illustrated proposal where I stated that I would be documenting British Culture. By travelling to Clacton beach and taking these images it enabled me to be able to capture the different aspects of the seaside, we associate the beach with being beautiful which is the reason why we go there, I think that I have documented this idea well in my shoot. I was inspired by Martin Parr to photograph at the beach, his photographs showing stereotypical British people at the beach influenced me to produce this shoot. As well as looking at Martin Parr's images which is the main focus of my work I have also used landscape images within this shoot because it shows wide depth of field shots of the location. Landscape photography is something I would like to carry on because there are different views around Britain which can be compared and linked to British identity.

The images I have produced are what I expected, however, I need to pay attention to the settings of the camera, because of the weather change I had to play with the settings often as the lighting changed. 

With reference to my Best Images...

Comparing the image that I took on the pier of the red and white slide and the images I took at the beginning of the shoot e.g the GIF, the weather noticeably changed which became a problem with changing the camera settings. Some of the images I took look over exposed or even under exposed as I had to adapt the camera settings with the environment. This shoot has given me experience with weather changes so the next shoot that I take I will pay more attention to the camera settings. My best images all express the same atmosphere of having fun on the beach, the last image on the pier has a different atmosphere but it still expresses the same feeling of British identity.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

I used a Nikon D3300 to take these images. With regards to the camera settings I had to use a higher aperture when photographing the landscape images because within these images I wanted to capture a wide depth of field, a higher aperture such as f18 would give me this effect. The majority of my shots were taken with a shutter speed of 1/125 as this seemed like the best value to get the images that I wanted which was proved in my best images. I didn't use a tripod when taking these images which is evident in some of the images I have produced however, I think that the majority of my images have turned out well and I was able to capture good shots without a tripod. Next time I should consider using a tripod for some of the shots that I take.

Next I took some of my images into Photoshop and edited them, screenshots of the process are visible below. 

   

I linked the editing process of this image with Martin Parr, as we can see within his shoots he increases the saturation within his images. I used the camera raw filter in Photoshop to edit this image because it gives more visible settings and is easier to see the changes made. In the camera raw filter I increased the exposure, the vibrance and the saturation. Comparing the original image to the edited image we can see the difference between the colour of the doughnuts, by increasing the saturation it has brightened the image totally. 

  

When editing this image I used the camera raw filter setting to change the image to black and white. I changed various settings like the saturation, vibrance and the clarity to achieve the image in the screenshot image above. When I had achieved the black and white image I used the burn tool and made the clouds seem darker and more deeper. By using the burning tool it adds to the darkness of the image. I edited this image on the style of Lee Friedlander because he produces his images in black and white. Although I was trying to follow Martin Parr with this shoot I liked this image and wanted to progress it further. I want to document some of my images within the work diary in black and white but I don't think I will use this editing process for my final portfolio.

  

When editing this images I cropped the image first to eliminate the space around the people as they are the main focus. After cropping I toot he image into the camera raw filter and increased the saturation and the vibrance of this image, I decreased the black colours within the image making the image look brighter. Like the first image I have edited above this one is also similar to the Martin Parr images. By increasing the saturation in this image the tan on the people looks orange, this adds to the stereotype of British people who go on holiday to get a tan, so by editing this image it makes the denotations more obvious. 

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

The research I carried out on Martin Parr was helpful because it helped me establish an idea that I wanted to continue when photographing people at the beach. My photographs were taken on the basis of Martin Parr although some turned out different to how I expected them to. When looking through my images and seeing ones that didn't fit well with the idea that I was going for I then researched Lee Friedlander because I have seen his work before and my work was similar to his. Editing my images made them more relatable to the artists that I have researched because I edited them in the way that the other photographers have presented their work. Martin Parr's work gave me the idea to photograph at the beach and Friedlander's work gave me the idea to photograph the beach landscapes. 

 

These images do not appear similar but I have used the effects that Martin Parr has used. In photoshop I saturated the image to make it appear bright which we can see because of the bright blue sky and the depth of green shown in the bushes. I also have shown a similar comedic effect like Parr has in his photography, by increasing the saturation of the image the tan on the older people turns orange, this is similar to how Parr makes the tans look. The orange tans show us how obsessed British people are with tanning. I think I have used Martin Parr's work well within my shoot because I have used the techniques he did and I have documented the beach well. 

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.  

I chose these images as my final images because they all tell a story of the beach. The first image shows the walking along the beach front, the second image shows the type of food we eat at the beach, the third image shows the views on the actual beach and the last image shows all the people at the beach. I have chosen to edit these images in the style of Martin Parr because his work was what influenced me. These are the final images I have produced and I believe they are the best ones from my shoot as they represent British culture well. Although I have edited these on the same style as Martin Parr I don't think I will use this style of editing in my future work because it will not work well with the different locations I am planning on shooting in. The saturation of the images give the same effect that Martin Parr used, the comedic effect that British people only care about their tans and the food they are eating. My intentions on this shoot was to capture the main aspects of the beach which I have established here because I have shown the stereotypical activities that go on at the beach.