Assignment 2: Planning and execution

Well, I have at last arrived at the point where all the exercises and projects which lead up to the assignment have been completed and its time to get going with the assignment.  I have been working up to this in the background and have set myself the task of completing this assignment within the grounds and in the barns, garden, grounds of Cressing Temple as well as some of the activities going on in there.  I feel that doing it this way and basing it around a pretty small area, will be quite challenging and will provide some photo-journalistic feel to the assignment.

Exercise: Rhythms and patterns

Following on from the preceding commentary, is an exercise where the brief asks for at least 2 photographs; to convey rhythm and to show pattern.  I have taken several photographs in my quest to demonstrate this and have chosen two of each as representative.

Rhythm

Barn wall:  ISO 200  105mm f14 1/125

 I have given this image a tight horizontal crop as I feel that this works well and accentuates the design so that the viewer's eye can move from point to point in a rythmical way.  To make this work, I have taken this at a slight angle and compressed the perspective using a telephoto lens setting.  By using f14 as the aperture, I provided sufficient sharpness across the image.  The eye movement is from black post to black post and some lingering with the brickwork framed by the posts.

Mongol bows:  ISO 400  84mm f4  1/60

A pretty "neutral" arrangement of the bows arranged in a tent at a medieval fair.  The angle / curvature of the bows is such that the eye is led across the frame from left to right.  I used the widest aperture available to me on that lens as I wanted to reduce and remove distractions from the background, however this was not entirely successful.  Again, I have used a tight crop to match the flow.

Patterns

Arrows:  ISO 200  65mm  f4  1/1000

 The photograph of the arrows standing vertically in a container has created a significant pattern.  I used a shallow deoth of field to try and add to the abstract quality of this pattern.  A tight crop gives the suggestion that there is more to this pattern than can be seen immediately.  This certainly works for me!

Leather bags:  ISO 200  35mm f5.6  1/125

 This time the pattern is made up of clearly visible and identifiable objects.  They are suspended on a grid and by cropping, the suggestion is that there are more bags to be seen and that the pattern extends beyond the present boundary which I have imposed.  In my view the pattern works with a limited number of objects and the viewer can try to organise them into shapes.

A bit of both?

Footpath:  ISO 200  24mm f16  1/80

Within the walled garden in Cressing Temple, the footpaths are made of this brick, herringbone design.  When I took this shot, the sky had clouded over, so I enhanced this slightly in Lightroom, giving an extra 1/2 stop exposure and moving the left hand side of the histogram until black clipping just occurs.  The effect has been to give greater clarity to the design.

The question is whether this shows rhythm or whether it is a pattern.  I shot this initialy with pattern in mind, however, looking at it on the screen there seems to be more than just a suggestion of flow across the frame, in both directions.  Therefore should this be classified as rhythm?

Exercise: Real and implied triangles

The brief is to produce two sets of triangular compositions, one using 'real' triangles, the other making 'implied' triangles.

Real

The triangles:  ISO 200  285mm f5.6 1/400

The above photograph is that of a detail from a medieval uniform as used by re-enactors.  It attracted me due to the triangle within triangle shape.  As this was a flat subject, I used fully open aperture to ensure I had a good shutter speed to ensure sharpness.

Cressing Barn:  ISO 200 16mm f16 1/30

A corner of one of the barns in Cressing Temple was used to illustrate the creation of a triangle through verticals converging towards the top of the frame.  I used an extreme wide angle to exagerate this perspective effect, ensuring that all parts of the photograph were sharp by using a small aperture around the "sweet spot" for the lens.

Cathedral walls:  ISO 100  28mm  f13  1/80

Here I used an inner corner of the cathedral to make an inverted triangle in the sky.  The walls of the building converging outwards enabling this effect to be captured.  In order to exagerate the effect, a wide angle lens was used and a medium aperture, here ensuring sharpness.

Implied



Weights 1:  ISO 400 58mm f6.3 1/40

A quick shot of the weights I use in weighing out ingredients for cooking, the heavieast weight defining the pinnacle of the triangle.


Weights 2:  ISO 400 105mm  f7.1  1/25

Here I have re-arranged the weights inverting the triangle giving the apex at the bottom of the frame.

Colchester Waits:  ISO 3200  35mm  f4.5   1/50

A "Shawm Band" which was performing at the Medieval fair in Cressing Temple agreed to pose for me to help me create triangles.  Here I wanted to create a double triangle, one, inverted, constructed with the faces of the performers and the second, using the face of the seated performer as the apex and then expanding outwards using the feet as the base.

It was quite dark inside the barn, so I used a high ISO and remained on auto colour balance, however I had to tweak it in Lightroom as it was still overly warm.

Exercise: Implied Lines

The brief required me to:

1. look at the two photographs, the bullfighting scene and Threshing Corn in Sicily, and find the implied lines, sketching them for the purpose of the learning log;
2. perform the same analysis on three of my own photographs; and
3. take two photographs where the following kinds of implied line lead the eye:

• an eye-line; and
• the extension of line or lines to a point.

1.  Text photographs

Bullfight

In the Bullfight scene above the implied lines converge into the centre of the photograph.  There are two lines directly associated with the bull's movement, the eye-line of the matador and the lines constructed through the "sticks" supporting the red "flag".  I have also made use of the curved line traced in the sand to extend into the "stick" held in the matador's left hand.  This adds strongly into the dynamics of the photograph, bringing the focus into the centre.



Gottard Schuh, Threshing Corn in Sicily

The implied lines in Schuh's photograph are primarily eye-lines.  I have constructed these on the photograph above.  The most dynamic of these are the ones from the two horses, which, combined with the angle of their bodies provide a strong perception of their movement in a curve.  This is added to by the feeling that the farm-worker  is at the pivot of this curved movement and this is addressed through his eye-lines leading to the horses' hooves.

The main eye-lines of the lead horse and the farm-worker create a triangle adding a further design element to the photograph, bringing order and structure.

2.  Analysis of own photographs




Wood carver:  ISO 3200 70mm f16 1/30

This photograph of a wood carver in Thailand is a straightforward image.  The eye-line clearly takes us tothe point of what he is doing - carving intricate patterns and sculptures in a block of wood.  The lines of his hands and the motion of his hammer provide further accent as shown by the arrows.  There is also a triangular structure created with the lines of his arm, torso and eye-line.

I was shooting indoors, so had a high ISO setting, but here I also wanted to show some movement if possible, so I used a fairly slow shutter speed.  The downside of this is that the f-stop is higher than I would have wanted, bringing a distracting background more into focus.




Group photo:  ISO 200 300mm f6.3 1/1000

This photo is all about eye-lines.  The girl at the front of the row had taken a group photo from that position.  With the exception of the lady on the right, all the eyelines lead to the camera providing , as well a small inverted triangle of two ladies and the man in the group.  This ensures that the point of interest through these implied lines is the camera.  All of this is further accentuated by the close grouping and the way the hands, arms and shoulders create further lines in the same direction.

The photograph was a candid "street" photo, so I took advantage of the structure as it happened - The aperture was one stop in from fully open - this also ensured I did not suffer from camera shake at this point. 



Black and Orange:  ISO 500  28mm  f3.5  1/60

Another straightforward image.  The Buddha's eyes leading to the orange flowers.  I liked the monochrome look here and kept my aperture wide open as I wanted the accent on the flowers, throwing the Buddha slightly out of focus.  The closeness of the wide-angle lens at this point further brought the flowers to the fore and pushed the Buddha into the background.  The main connection being established through the eye-line.

3.  Newly taken Photographs

Battle:  ISO 200 400mm f5.6  1/1600

 The photograph of the two lady re-enactors at a medieval fair at Castle Hedingham has the eye-lines leading to a point out of frame. This is also supported by their stance.

I was using the lens at its widest aperture as I was keen to throw the distracting background out of focus and also provide a fast shutter speed to freeze the action and, in this case, I also wanted to have no camera shake.

Walled garden:  ISO 200 24mm  f16  1/30

Taken at Cressing Temple, the lines initially established by the bench and the brick flower border on the right are continued into the distance to the tree growing above the wall.

The implied lines are accentuated by using the wide angle lens and, as I wanted to ensure sharpness throughout, I used f16 as my aperture, knowing that this would give me a good DOF.


Succesful preparation for Assignment 2

It seems as though I have jumped ahead of myself, but my trip to Cressing Temple proved very fruitful despite there being a very poorly attended antiques and collector's fair in progress.  I believe I have obtained a good set of images which fulfil the criteria for Assignment 2.  The most difficult one to find was an image which demostrated the relationship between two points.  I am not entirely happy with what I have so will revisit that.  Another image which is causing me trouble is that for rhythm.  I have an image, but did not consider my camera settings adequately, so the net result is an image where all of it is not in focus.  That will have to be re-done before submission.

I am planning to go there again next weekend to complete and correct the images.  I noted that there will be a Medieval Fair held there, so there may be good opportunities for some "Street Photography" as well.

I am also re-reading the relevant sections of "The Photographer's Eye" to ensure I have correctly understood the design concepts.

Next weekend is going to be really busy as I am now away from home for the rest of this week, so do not have much opportunity to progress things.

Preparing for Assignment 2

I have really got into this section and thoroughly enjoying it.  Looking ahead to Assignment 2 I am considering taking these in and around one Cressing Temple.  Cressing Temple are two barns and a walled Tudor garden. This is one of the most important sites containing traces of the Knights Templar and has a lot of interesting features which I am hoping to use for the assignment.  If nothing else, working in a small area will focus my mind on the task in hand.  I will shortly be visiting Cressing Temple to survey the site and maybe even make use of the fine weather and available time to compile the required set of photographs.