Small Town Aspects Waltham Abbey; Shoot 2 Work Diary

Small Town Aspects Waltham Abbey; Shoot 2 Work Diary

Shoot Ideas

My ideas for this shoot come from the want to explore British Culture, by already exploring the seaside landscapes I wanted to explore the small towns that are present throughout Britain. The aspects of the small towns that I want to capture is the types of sights you are likely to see in mainly every small town. I want to make these sights look as beautiful and inviting as the seaside shoot has because as British people we forget the beauties of the smaller towns. This shoot will link to my illustrated proposal because it will show the British Culture in the smaller places in Britain.

Research

The photographers I have been researching link to the images that I was preparing to take. The first photographer that I have researched is Paolo Pellegrin. 

Paolo Pellegrin is part of Magnum Photos similar to photographers that I have already researched, Martin Parr and Henri Cartier-Bresson. He is a photo-journalist and documents photography in a different way than the standard photographer, he likes unfinished photography. His photographs create a conversation and dialogue because of the way that they are taken.

One image of Pellegrin's that inspired me was this image. 

I think this image of a building is inspiring because it is photographed in an abstract way which when we quickly look at it a building is not what originally comes to mind. Linking to his unfinished photography, this image creates a conversation because we are likely to discuss what it is. The building is shaped like an arrow pointing up and it comes across as a 2D image because of the way that it is taken.

I can use Pellegrin's ideas within this shoot because I want to create images that cause conversation and dialogue like his do. Also, before my shoot I already knew of a building that I wanted to photograph so this researched helped work out how I would structure my image.

Another photographer that I researched was J.H.Lartigue. Lartigue's photography is related to happiness, he said that he has never taken an image that hasn't made him happy to do so. Unlike many other documentary photographers he documents happy images in black and white where as we would normally associate this with sadness. 

This research will influence the images that I will take.

Image Bank

These images that I have picked relate to my visual research, they are not images I have taken from photographers but they influence the way that I want to express my ideas through this shoot. 

Similar to the research I have carried out about photographers these images will help me with my shoot as they show the ideas that I want to express.

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

Contact Sheet

The images within the contact sheet that are highlighted in red are images that need improvement. These images  may have been out of focus or need to be taken with a tripod to improve them. Next time I will make sure that all the images turn out the way I want them to. 

Best Images

 

Firstly, I have experimented with different techniques to show my progression from these techniques. I have used a gif and a sequencing technique within my shoot because I enjoy creating these techniques. I want to use these different techniques within my forthcoming shoots but I want them to link to my illustrated proposal. These techniques do not entirely relate to my shoot but by practicing with these techniques in future shoots I will be able to produce these techniques with relation to my proposal. 

In this image we can see a church, I took this image from a low angle because it shows the church to have more importance as it towers over the camera. This image shows the importance of religion because the church is dominant in the picture. The lack of clouds in the sky gives the sky no depth which again makes the church stand out. There is no other element in the picture apart from the church which is what I wanted to achieve. Paolo Pellegrin took his images of buildings like this, he inspired me to take the image in this way. Also, this church is famous in Waltham Abbey so by photographing it in this way it shows the church to be of great importance. This image shows that although we do not appreciate the smaller towns within Britain they still have great importance within them. 

In this image we can see a person walking through the middle of bushes onto a field, I took this image in this way because I wanted to show the beauty of this place. The surroundings that she is in makes her seem small which can link to the fact that although this town is small it is still of great importance. This image has a great depth of field because we can see far out and all the trees in the background are in focus. Throughout this shoot we can see a lot of elements of nature which is the main aspect of this town as it is filled with nature and trees. We can see from this image that this is an old town because of the lack of a path and the eroding wall. Although this town is old I think I have displayed the beauty of it well.

In this image we can see a pathway enclosed by trees, this image looks peaceful and you can imagine there would be no sound when walking through this pathway. I think there is an element of this image that looks eerie and dark because of the trees, this pathway is through a graveyard which adds to the eeriness and darkness. There is great depth of field within this image because we can see the bright light at the end of the pathway. This image resembles death in a way because you walk through darkness which could relate to an illness but then there is a light at the end of the tunnel which could link to heaven. I feel that I have expressed great meaning through this image.

Images that require improvement

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

The reason I think this image needs improvement because it is not entirely in focus as it doesn't have a great depth of field that I wanted. If there was a subject in the image it would've been better but as there is not a main focus of this image it doesn't look pleasing. I was trying to capture the street but the camera settings didn't achieve the image that I wanted. To improve this image I would change the camera settings to make sure that the death of field was captured correctly. 

The reason I think this image needs improvement is because it isn't as close up as I would've liked it to be, the main focus of the image was supposed to be the girl on the bridge but because I didn't zoom in far enough the focus is lost. I think the background of the image is good but without being close up it doesn't serve as much importance as it could've. 

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

My main idea throughout my shoots links to my illustrated proposal where I stated that I wanted to document British Culture. This shoot was taken in the small town I live in, I think it links to British Culture because it shows the different places around Britain and shows the importance of the bigger places and the smaller place. By documenting a smaller town it shows the importance of it rather than it being seen with no importance which smaller towns normally do. I was inspired by Paolo Pellegrin to take abstract photos of the Waltham Abbey Church and I was inspired by J.H.Lartigue to document the happy parts of the town rather than the derelict/depressing parts. Both these photographers used black and white images so when I am editing my images I will experiment with black and white effects. 

I believe that I have documented Waltham Abbey well and I have produced all the images I expected to produce. However, in my upcoming shoots I feel I need to experiment with different photo structures, in the majority of my shoots I have put the main focus of my image in the centre, to experiment more I could place the main focus in different areas e.g. the left or right side. 

With reference to my best images...

The Church is very central in the image, I could've taken this differently for example from a different angle. Also, the girl walking between the trees is very central as well, if I had taken this from a different angle I could have achieved what was beyond the wall to make the image more intriguing. Also, the image with the trees over the pathway is also very central, I could've taken this from a different angle so that the graveyard by the side of the pathway is visible. This shoot has shown me that i need to experiment with placement within the images which I will do more of in my next shoot.

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 settings I used a high shutter speed at 1/4000, I f stop of 4.5 and ISO at 800. I need to focus more on my camera setting because ideally I do not want to use a high ISO because of the noise that could be created within the image. The f stop I used was accurate but when taking landscape images I need to adjust this setting and make it higher so a wide depth of field is created. I didn't use a tripod for my shoots because I wanted to carry the Cartier-Bresson handheld technique throughout my images however I understand that some of my images could've turned out better if I had used a tripod. 

Next I took some of my images and edited them in photoshop, screenshots of the editing process are below.

  

To begin with, I took the image into the camera raw filter and changed it to black and white, the screenshot of the settings can be seen above. After making it black and white I used the burn tool to create a shadow effect on the side of the building as you can see from the image above the right side of the image is darker. I also used the dodge tool to make the sky completely white. I made this image black and white as the colours were not bold and didn't make it stand out but black and white makes the Church seem bolder and more important.

 

Similar to the picture before I took this image into the camera raw filter and made the image black and white, the screenshot of these settings can be seen above. After making the image black and white I used the burn tool to make the trees darker, this gave it more of an eerie feeling as it is located next to grave yard which adds to the eeriness and darkness. Also, I used the burn tool to darken the outside areas of the trees because they were too bright compared to the tree area and it didn't look right. I think the edited image turned out well because it gives the image more depth of meaning as it appears darker and bolder.

 

Similar to both of the other images that I have taken this image into the camera raw filter too and made it black and white, screenshots of the settings are available above. After making the image black and white I used the burn tool to darken the bushes in the foreground and the bushes in the background to make them stand out more. I also took the burn tool and darkened the other parts of the image slightly but not as much as the bushes. I think this image looks better in black and white because it easily identifies the more important parts of the image. 

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 Paolo Pellegrin enabled me to understand the different ways I can photograph a building which becomes obvious in my shoot as I have photographed a building similar to the way he has. I would like to continue Pellegrin's work further in my forthcoming shoots because although I used his ideas in this shoot there wasn't many buildings in the location that I could experiment with. The research I carried out on J.H.Lartigue enabled me to capture the happiest elements of the town but still have them exist in black and white images. I chose to research two photographers that worked in black and white because I knew that I wanted to present these images in black and white. I have used elements of Lartigue in my work because my images show the happier aspects of the town. Both of these photographers are evident in my work more so Lartigue but I will carry Pellegrin into my future shoots. 

  

The image I took is similar to the image that Pellegrin took, although they are not exactly the same I believe that I have carried out this photographer well. The burning and dodging I used in my image gives the same outcome as Pellegrin's image as his building has a shadow present similar to my image. I haven't centred the building in my photo because I wanted to experiment with different placements within my work. I think my image gives the Church more importance as it takes up the majority of the space. Pellegrin's influence is evident in my work and I will progress further with this in more forthcoming shoots.

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

I have chosen these images as my final outcome because they all represent elements of Waltham Abbey, they show the importance of the town. The final pictures I have chosen take you on a journey through the town. We start at the main street famous in Waltham Abbey, this then follows onto a pathway surrounded by a graveyard, then we are met with the Church which is the main aspect of the Abbey, finally we are met with the nature elements of the town. These image symbolise what it is like to live in Waltham Abbey and the landscapes you are surrounded with. This shoot is not my best but I think I have produced some meaningful images within the shoot that I can establish further within my work. I have chosen to produce the images from this shoot in black and white which is very different to my last shoot where I used extremely saturated images to mirror Martin Parr's work. I may not produce a body of work in black and white but I have experimented with it here to see how it turns out, these images all work with black and white but I may not carry this editing process on.