Interior Location Brief Evaluation

For this project I chose to photograph things in my home. Objects that I see everyday. These are the little quirks that I like about my home and give it character. Little things that I would probably remember about 'Mum and Dad's house' when I'm old and grey!

When I told people what I was planning on doing for this project, they thought it was a lazy choice but I found it quite difficult! My house is quite dark and cosy so it was a challenge to get the exposure I wanted. Also, I think that 'home' is a nice subject and you HAVE to photograph it at some point for memories!

I concentrated quite a lot on composition and the use of space to create a beautiful picture. Also, I considered depth of field quite a lot too. I de-saturated some of the images a swell because I thought it gave quite a peaceful and delicate feel rather than loud and lively as I feel my home is quite a peaceful place. I used a tripod for most of these images.

This is a little ledge at the top of a wall in my kitchen with some quite old fashioned kitchen items on it. I thought it would be interesting to photograph. I think the texture in the ceiling works well with what I was trying to achieve with the space.

In terms of composition in this image, I havn't quite stuck to the 'rule of thirds'. The objects on the shelf at the bottom take up a little bit less space than a third. I did this purposely as I think it makes the image a lot more interesting even though it is simplistic.

I tried to achieve a similar composition with this one to the one above. In my house we have lots of random objects and orniments dotted about. This is some artificial gold grapes on a gold plate (random), on a chest of drawers under our stair case. I am really happy with the way the wood has come out and the colours. I changed the white balance to cloudy as this adds warmth. 

This is a random candle holder on the floor. I didn't move anything or stage anything during this shoot. I just moved my position and angle to get the framing i wanted and to get the composition I wanted. The majority of this image is just space on the left hand side. If i'd have take the photo so that the object was in the middle, it would have been a lot less interesting and effective. 

These are on top of a wardrobe upstairs just below a velux. You can see the natural light from the window coming through. Again, i have framed it so that the object is to one side and the other side is space. 

Originally, i took this photo with the lights on in my porch and I was quite happy with it but when i turned the lights off, i noticed the shadows of the glass door on the walls because my dad was watching TV in the other room and the light from it was flickering through onto the walls. So i stayed there with my tripod, adjusted to a slow shutter speed and took the photo again. I thought this image with the shadows was a lot better. This one reminds me of a Jessica Backhaus photograph.

I couldn't not choose this one to be included in my final 10 images. This is just one of the typical characteristics of my house. My mum likes to put quirky little figures in random places. I selected a wide aperture for this image to get that shallow depth of field. I like that the focus is just on the little guy at the front and his smile.

 

Using a wide aperture again to get that shallow depth of field, focusing on the candle at the front and then gradually going out of focus towards the fire in the background. I like the warmth of this image however, if i was to do it again, i would have tried to get the logs at the side of the fire in the frame and maybe try to get it a little bit brighter.

A walking stick on the stair case. This was quite a dark area so I had to bump up the ISO to 1600. Because of this, I began to get a little bit of noise on the background so I tweeked the noise reduction in Adobe RAW a little bit.

 

A traditional doorbell. One of the things that adds to the character of my house. This one also needed noise reduction.

 

 

Jessica Backhaus also takes photographs around her house and others' houses and one of them is of a kitchen work top with jars etc. This is an image from my kitchen worktop. I just like the contrast of the red against the black and neutral tiles. I intended for this to be quite symmetrical and the rule of thirds comes into this image as well.

 

 

 

After completing my work and seeing everyone else's in the class, I wonder if maybe I could have chosen a more interesting subject matter. However, I found that it was quite a challenge to create a good image out of something quite mundane.   

 

 

 

Interior Brief - Photographers - Jessica Backhaus

 

 

Jessica Backhaus is a German photographer born in 1970. She studied visual communication and photography and worked as a picture editor.

 

I have chosen these images of hers for inspiration for my interior location brief. Backhaus focuses on easily missed details and quiet moments which is something I like to do myself as I mentioned in the 'Everyday' post. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think these images are very gentle and intimate. I love the delicate colours.

"Everyday" (interior brief)

Photographing the "everyday" is something I am really interested in and something I am thinking about looking at for the interior location brief. To photograph the "everyday" is to look at things in everyday life that people wouldn't usually tend to look at. Objects or scenes that are usually looked at as mundane or ordinary. Nothing is staged, but it is all about finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. I love this idea because you can really take something quite boring and look at it in a totally different way and then force the viewer to see it in this way too. I think one of the most important aspects is viewpoint and composition as these things can really change the way people see things.

 

 

William Eggleston is a good example....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

William Eggleston (born July 27, 1939), is an American photographer. He is widely known for the recognition of colour photography as a legitimate artistic medium to display in art galleries.

Evaluating Exterior Location Brief

 I have completed my 10 images for the exterior brief. My subject is water and reflections. You might notice that I have a mixture of black and white and colour images. I chose not to do them all in colour, simply because some worked better in black and white. I aimed for my images to provoke certain moods and the colours really help with this. Most of the images I intended to look quite abstract like some of the photographers work I have looked at. I am really interested in making photographs look painterly and distorted. Some of the images will be displayed upside down so that the reflections are the right way up. Throughout the series, i have concentrated on both cold and warm colours. I think they have a calming and serene feel to them. During this project, one of the photographers I was inspired by was Juma Puranen. I was really interested in his technique so I experimented with using transparent materials inbetween the camera and the subject. I only chose 2 images from doing this to use in my final 10 images. 

This is a rotated image of a reflection. I think its quite abstract. I like the green colours and the lines.

The colours and tones in this image remind me of Rinko Kawauchi's work. Also the shallow depth of field reminds me of her work. I decided to focus on the greeny yellow leaves in the foreground rather than the reflections in the water in the background. 

This is an image (above) inspired by Jorma Puranen as I mentioned earlier. I used a piece of glass (after spraying with water) infront of my lens. Puranen likes to prevent direct admiration of landscapes by putting something in between the viewer and the subject.  I chose black and white for this image because i thought it worked a lot better and gives it a sombre mood.

This is another image that I have decided to display upside down. I like the sun shining through the trees in the reflection and i like how there is a mixture of actual twigs and branches in the foreground and refections of them in the background.

Again, a rotated image so that the reflection of the tree is the right way up. This is how it would be displayed. 

This is another Jorma Puranen inspired image, using the wet glass infront of the lens. I kept this one in colour because the different tones on the leaves combined with the water on the glass gives a nice painterly effect.

This is the image that i should have printed off but ended up printing the wrong one which is a similar image. I got confused with the file numbers so in future, i will give the files different names! 

This is the one i printed. The reflections in this one aren't as clear and aren't as prominent as they are in the other image. 

Brief - Exterior Location - Shooting

 

I took another walk round a woody area that I know to take some snaps for my exterior location brief. Some of the images in this post are just images to show you where I was and the environment I was in (like above and below) and some are ones that I will consider printing for the final work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this one the leaves on the outside (mostly in focus) almost frame the blurred reflection in the background. I love the colours in this image. I think they work really well. I bumped the saturation up a little bit to bring them ou more.

 

 

 

I photographed this with the intention of making it look quite surreal and abstract. It is an image that i have rotated so that it is upside down. I think this is one of my faveourites but i couldn't decide if it works better in colour or black and white (below).

 

 

 

Here is a similar image to the one above but in black and white. I think this one if harder to figure out what is actually going on in the image which makes it more abstract I think.

 

I only like a small section of this image (the top left) because the leaves in that section look perfect. The shape of them and the shadows on them look lovely and they are floating ontop of the water where the tree that they have come from is reflected into it. The other leaves in other parts of the image just look blurred and over exposed. It's a shame really because I would have liked this one.

 

 

 

This is another rotated image. It reminds me of walking through the woods with the sun shining through the branches. Quite mellow and serene. Again, it is quite dream-like as it is actually a reflection so not quite a clear image but distorted and surreal.

 

I took this because I noticed the shadow of the tree on the floor and liked how it feel. Changing it to black and white gave it quite a haunting feel. This image really reminds me of one of Lee Friedlander's images of a road side and the lamp posts in the street and the shadows they cast on the road, but mine is a natural version! The compisition is similar and the shadows.

 

 

 

I like that the leaves frame the subject in this image.

 

 

 

 

I like this image of the contrasting colours of blue and yellow. Also i like how the leaves in the foreground are blurred.

Brief 1 - Photographers - Jorma Puranen

Jorma Puranen is a Finnish photographer. His most well known projects include 'Shadows, Reflections and All That Sort of Thing' and 'Icy Prospects'. I have had a look at images from both these projects and I am very much drawn to the latter.

His inspiration behind Icy Prospects came from reading histories of Polar expeditions and watching tourists in North Norway.

He said; 'For fifteen years I have been engaged in landscape projects in which I have prevented direct admiration of the landscape by putting something in between the viewer and the subject: transparent portraits, phrases in Latin, flags. They have served as obstacles of a kind, denying any admiration of Arctic landscapes as such. In Icy Prospects, the possibility of direct viewing is completely denied. What we see now is a mere reflection of the landscape/seascape'.

 To create the images for Icy Prospects, Puranen painted a wooden board with black, high-gloss acrylic and then took long exposures of the landscapes mirrored in its surface. The results are extremely painterly. I absolutely love them! I love how the brush strokes of the black paint and the reflections of the landscapes merge together creating a very painterly impression of nature.

I love these images of his below aswell.... I'm not sure what he has used but it looks like some sort of semi transparent material that the shadows of flowers and leaves have cast onto with the sunlight.






Looking at Puranen's work gives me so much inspiration. I really like how photographs of reflections can look like paintings and have that surreal, dream-like effect. I used to paint so can really appreciate these images. I find them so interesting. I think for my project, I will aim to create images that almost look like abstract paintings. I might experiment with using material between the camera and the subject to create these kind of effects. 

Brief 1 - Photographers - Rut Blees Luxemburg

Rut Blees Luxemburg is a German photographer who mainly explores urban landscapes and public spaces at night time. She uses long exposures which allows her to use the light from the street only; such as street lights and lights from office blocks for example. 

 

 

 I really love these images because she looks at things that a passer by would usually ignore, for example the relflections in puddles on the road or path. The green and yellow tones in her work really lend that urban, street kind of feel because they are all lit by the light provided by the street. I like that she shoots at night because it shows another side of the street that is quiet, peaceful and serene. I think you can really tell her work apart from others which is a hard thing to do in photography!  

 

Like Saul Leiter, this work is classed as location photography because it is a public environment with obviously no studio lighting or equipment.  

 

During my experimental shoot for this brief, i tried the idea of shooting the relfections in puddles. However, mine are different because I did it in daylight and in a rural environment.