Research - Manchester & Music

Today we walked around the Nothern Quarter in Manchester to photograph the links between Music and Manchester and how the are celebrated. We also visited an exhibition  of photos of Morrissey and The Smiths by Kevin Cummins at Manchester Photographic.

 

Manchester has been ranked as the second city of the UK, which has a lot to do with the influential culture scene. It is known for it's architecture, art, theatre, and music.

 

Manchester was home to some of the most influential and major bands in the industry's history and the people of the city are clearly proud of it! Bands like Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and The Charlatans were all formed in Manchester. 

 

 The "Madchester" music scene brought much media attention to the city from the late 1980s to the beginning of the 1990s. Also at this time, Manchester was home to what was labelled 'the most famous nightclub in the world', The Hacienda.

 

Walking through the Nothern Quarter today, I noticed that everywhere I looked, I saw some sort of reference to music and to these famous Manchester bands. Music posters outside bars and on walls, stickers, flyers, record shops and even song lyrics on the ground.

 

Here are some images I took today using my Canon EOS 500D with my 50mm and 18-55mm lenses....

 

(Some of the images have nothing to do with music but I've put them up anyway because they give the vibe of the place)

 

 

 

There were lots of Vinyl shops with old and new music.

 

 

 

There were band stickers on every lamp post I walked past! This one caught my eye because I saw this band at the Manchester Apollo last year and actually have this sticker myself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

More old and new records and record shops.

 

 

 

 

Ex Stone Roses frontman, Ian Brown. I saw his face a few times today!

 

 

 

 

Oasis, of course, a very successful Manchester band.

 

 

Morrissey, frontman of Manchester band The Smiths.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At first, I thought that these were song lyrics in the pavement but have since been told by my fellow student Andy, that they're actually parts of a poem called 'Flags' by Lemn Sissay.

 

Bars and small music venues.

 

Chase. A music shop selling different instruments.

 

 

The next few images are taken from in and around Afleck's palace which is an indoor market with lots of independent stalls and boutiques. During the 1990s 'Madchester Summer of Love' period – when local bands like The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets were at the height of their popularity, Affleck's Palace was a fashionable spot to get oversized flared jeans and tie dyed t-shirts. The store is still full of creative design, bright young things, vintage clothing, vinyl and LOTS of music posters.

 

 

 

This is the last of my images from the day, bringing me onto the exhibition we visited at the Manchester Photographic gallery. The exhibition featured photographs of Morrissey and The Smiths taken by photographer, Kevin Cummins.

 

Cummins is a British Photographer from Manchester, most known for his photography of rock bands and musicians. He has photographed legendary musicians such as Joy Division, Sex Pistols, U2, REM, Oasis, Foo Fighters and The Smiths.

Music Photography - Album cover

Today we were given the task to create an album cover. We could either re-create an existing one or just make up our own. I chose to make up my own.

 

I used Laurence as my 'artist' and one of John's guitars.

 

The 'band' is called 'Laurence and the Machine'...... get it??

 

Here are some of the shots...

 

 

 

I ended up with 2 album covers...

 

For this one I used a texture I took on my camera yesterday of some bark off a tree.

 

 

 

 

After this.... the class worked together and re-created a Jackon 5 album cover!

 

 



Textured Montage

Today I experimented with textured montages. I took some portraits and then went out took some pictures of various textures that I could find.

 

I took a portrait of K in the studio and then used photoshop to layer the textures onto the image, making sure all of the images that I was putting together were the same resolution.

I started with this image of K...

 

I started with this texture of some wood.

 

I dragged the texture onto the picture of K whilst holding the shift key so that it lined up the 2 images correctly. Then I put the blending opacity to about 55%. Then I created a layer mask and uncovered K's face of the texture, using and opacity of 100%.

 

Next, I used this texture of graffiti on a wall.

 

I did the same with this layer, making sure his face was clear of the texture. However, when going over his hat and coat, I used a lower opacity so that some of the texture was showing. I played around with the blending modes to see what looked best.

 

With this texture of a grid cover, I used the gradient tool so that it was only showing on one part of the image. I created a layer mask then clicked on the gradient tool and chose the black to white option. Then I dragged the cursor from one side of the image to the other which made the grid show on only one side. I set the opacity to about 50% again and then created another layer mask on this layer to uncover his face of the grid texture.

 

 

 

 

This is the end result. As you can see, I added another little image of K in the bottom corner.

I did the same again with an image of Besma and some different textures.

 

 

 

 

 Ii changed it all to black and white as I thought it looked better.

 

 

Music Photography - Song - Dig

I missed yesterday's session with Richard due to being poorly but I knew the plan was to do some music photography so I was quite gutted I couldn't go in as I LOVE music and obviously quite like photography too.....

 

After asking Andy what they got upto yesterday, I found out that the class were set the task to think of a favourite song and create an image or a set of images to interpret that song.

 

I thought I'd get on it straight away because I thought of an idea to be shot outside and the weather is lovely today so I thought I'd take advantage of the light. I also used my 5 in 1 reflector for extra light where I wanted it.

 

I chose a song by one of my favourite bands, Incubus. The song is called Dig. My take on this song is that it is about true friendship in a relationship and how people can help each other through the crap that can happen in life. There is someone special in your life whether it be a friend, partner or family member that can bring out the best in you.

 

I'm not usually a soppy person but this song really tugs on the old heart strings!!

 

 

I chose to photograph some roses. I had some old dead roses left over from Valentines day (wit wooo) and also some fresh roses that my Dad had recently bought for my Mum (awww).

 

I chose roses to symbolise the love aspect of the song. The dead roses represent how you're not always at your best and everyone has imperfections. The soil covering the dead roses represent that rubbish in life that we all go through from time to time, weighing us down. I chose 2 fresh roses to place on top of all this, to represent a partnership and to show that people can 'Dig' each other out of it all and bring out the best in each other. I finished by using a texture with the image and then put a lyric from the song over the top. This reads 'If I turn into another, dig me up from under what is covering the better part of me'.

 

 

 

This is the texture I used with the original image. Whilst I was outside, I was looking around my garden for a suitable texture. I took a few but this one suited the best. It is a close up of an outdoor chiminea we have. It worked well because it looks quite like dirt and soil when put together with my image. I created a layer mask and only revealed the texture around the fresh roses in the middle, leaving them clear.

 

 

 

Anyway, give the song a listen and the video a watch.......makes me want to cry abit!

 

Here's the link..  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMsZ6wkZWhA

 

 

p.s. Here is me with the lead singer of Incubus. Ahhhh!!! Best day ever!

 

 

 

 

Wide Angle

John set us the task go out and take some pictures using a wide angle lens from viewpoints that aren't eye level, in order to create a distorted image of the subject.

 

 

 

This one was taken very closely to the tree looking up the trunk. I used my 18-55mm kit lens at 18mm. As you can see, the tree appears distorted. The foreground looks a lot larger than the background. Using a wide angle, really exaggerates the depth and the height of the tree. This image would appear even more distorted if I was to use a 10mm lens for example.

This is an image of some fungus growing on a tree. Again I got very close and low to the ground. The fungus closest to the lens is exaggerated in size compared to the fungus a little bit further in the background.

 

 

Here are some images I have taken using an even wider angle lens. I used a 10-20mm sigma lens which gave more distortion and exaggeration of size.