Small Town Aspects Waltham Abbey; Shoot 4 Work Diary

Small Town Aspects Waltham Abbey; Shoot 4 Work Diary

Shoot Ideas
In a previous shoot I have already photographed in Waltham Abbey but after being given feedback from this shoot I decided to go out and shoot again. I still focused on British Culture in this area but I have explored it more. To improve from my last shoot I have focused more on the composition of the images as I have included more within the image rather than leaving important elements of the environment out. 

Research
As well as all the other photographers that I have researched within my research posts I have also researched into photographs of Waltham Abbey. By researching images of Waltham Abbey it has helped me work out which areas to photograph in and how to compose my images. 

In this image we can see the Church, the pond and the nature which combines all the things that the residents associate with Waltham Abbey. I like the composition of this image because it doesn't just focus on the Church but also focuses on what is around it. When taking photographs in Waltham Abbey I want to focus on the composition of my images and make sure the most important elements are composed within the photos.

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

Contact Sheet

There are the images that I have taken within this shoot, the images highlighted in red are images that I need to improve.

Best Images

I have positioned this image in this way because I wanted to use the Church in the background as a focus point but I also wanted to incorporate the old, decayed wall because it shows how ancient and old the town is. The only element of the image that I am disappointed in is the sky. Within this project I wanted to focus on the depth of the sky and the lack of clouds in this image makes that hard. However, I still believe that this image has turned out well. It displays the culture in the town Waltham Abbey as it shows the religious aspects and also shows the age of the town mirroring the types of people who may live in it.

I have composed this image similarly to the image I found when I was researching images in Waltham Abbey. I like the composition of this image because it shows all the important aspects of the area, the church, lake and the nature. The element of trees and nature within this image brightens the image slightly to make the image appear inviting. The town is shown to be old within the image because it of the old church within the image and the building in front of the image appears to be an old victorian building. When taking this image into photoshop I want to make the colours stand out even more by experimenting with the levels and curves settings. 

I chose to take a picture of this tree because it portrays the beauty of nature within the town. The composition of this image could be improved because the lack of foreground in the image and the lack of sky behind the trees so I could've opened the image up more and presented more information. However, this image represents the culture of the town as the trees show how the people within the town are surrounded by nature. The nature is an important within this town as the nature within this country is slowly being taken from us with new houses and work places being built.

I chose to take this image because similar to the image before it portrays the details of Waltham Abbey, the nature and the wild life. There is a duck central in the image which is seen to be floating in the direction of the light to show that it is swimming out of the darkness. I think this image has an element of framing around it because it has got the trees around the outside of the image and the lake in the centre of the image. When taking this image in Photoshop I want to make the image brighter so that more detail is revealed within the centre of the image as it is quite dark. 

Images That Require Improvement

This image that I have take requires some improvement because it isn't very straight and requires the use of a tripod which I am aiming to take out on my next shoot. It isn't necessarily a badly structured image because it requires all the elements of the town that I want to express e.g. the church, the nature and the old victorian looking buildings. Also, if I take this image I want to use different settings, maybe using the RAW setting to bring more detail into the clouds which I believe will increase the details within the image.

This image requires improvement, similar to the last image it should have been taken using a tripod to create a better view of the street. Also, I didn't use landscape photography settings on my camera to capture this image which is where I believe I may have been going wrong within my shoots, by using f22 I will be able to achieve a completely focused image unlike this one that I have produced. The background of the image isn't completely in focus resulting in an image without a deep depth of field. 

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

Within this shoot I wanted to experiment the British Culture in Waltham Abbey which I believe that I have achieved because I have showed the nature with the Abbey and the old style buildings that can be seen. By documenting the smaller towns within Britain it show the side of British Culture that not everyone sees. All the photographers that I have researched have influenced the images that I have taken because they all concentrate on either documenting culture or landscapes which I have expressed within this shoot. The feedback I have received on my first Waltham Abbey shoot has helped me when thinking of images to take again and how to improve them. Also, the Google image research that I carried out has aided me significantly because it showed me how to compose these certain images. 

I believe that I have achieved all the images that I was hoping for within this shoot as it has captured British Culture in Waltham Abbey. In my next shoots I am going to go back into Central London and improve on those images as they help with documenting the British Culture in these places. I am going to use a tripod in my next shoots because I have realised how it can help my shoots and composition.

With regards to my best images...

All these images that I have taken show the British Culture and the different scenes around Waltham Abbey. The only aspect of Waltham Abbey I need to document further is the main street that runs through Waltham Abbey, with a tripod I will be able to document this aspect well.

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

I used a Nikon D3300 when photographing these shots. When taking these images I used a low aperture at f/8, ISO 400 and shutter speed at 1/60s. Using a low aperture did work within this shoot but from the final images I have produced I need to begin shooting at a higher aperture to produce a landscape image with a wide depth of field. I still think I achieved some good images within this shoot because they express the ideas that I stated in my project proposal. 

Next I took these images into Photoshop to improve and edit them. 

 

When editing this photo in photoshop I used curves and levels to change the darkness and lightness of the image. Also I used the saturation setting to bring out the colours within the image such as the greens and yellows within the trees around the outside. I used the paintbrush tool in the mask of one of the layers to burn the outside of the image and make the middle of the image seem brighter and more inviting, by doing this it makes the image seem as if there is a tunnel. 

 

To edit this image I used the levels and curves to reduce and increase the darkness of the image. I also used the saturation filter to make the colours in the image stand out more, which is visible in the edited image because it shows the sky to become more blue and the trees more bolder. Also, I used the mask of one of the layers to burn the top area of the image to bring out the details of the sky and make it bolder.

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

The feedback I have received from the first shoot I completed in Waltham Abbey has influenced the images that I have taken within this shoot. Also, the research that I carried out within Google images has influenced the pictures I took within the shoot as it has helped me compose the images. The way I have edited the images may relate to Simon Roberts work as he doesn't use saturation like Martin Parr does within his image, the only difference between his work and mine is that his photographs contain people. I believe that this shoot has improved from the first Waltham Abbey shoot. The camera settings that I used were ISO at 400, f/8 and 1/60s. These settings helped me achieve these images because the sky was very dark so I had to use settings that would allow more light within the picture to brighten up the images. One difference I could've made to these settings is bringing the ISO down to 100 or 200 to ensure that no noise is presented within the image, although there is no noise within the images it still could've happened. 

 

The first image present is from my first shoot in Waltham Abbey and the second image is from this shoot, it is evident that I have improved my composition of the image as in the second image there is more of symbolism of the town whereas the first one just shows the church rather than other aspects of the town that symbolises the town. 

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

I have chosen these select four images to express an overall outcome for this shoot. The select images I have chosen express the old style of the town and expresses the nature and wildlife within the town. There are two pictures of the Church but from different angles, I chose to document the Church because it is the main icon of the town and shows that there is a religious element within the town. Also, I have documented the nature and wildlife in the town because it is a big part of the town and this is the central part of the town that attract the tourists. However, I need to express the shopping element of the town when I go back to shoot there again.