Hungry Creatives - InDaily : June 13th 2012, Page 1

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InDaily : June 13th 2012, Page 1

Hungry Creatives - a local project I have been helping to shoot, is on the InDaily online publication.

This project is designed to put people trying to break into the creative industry, as well as those already on on the same page and thus help blur the line.

It's going to be released formally on the 27th of June, where two videos will be uploaded each week.

Check it out: www.hungrycreatives.com

Cheers a bunch!

-Bay

Blacks, White and Everything Between + Aurelia Carbone

The developing process for the assessment pieces has really taught me about black, white and clear edges.  Before this topic I would not have paid much to any attention at all to these details, but now there's no going back!

Having a bunch of photos to decide from is hard because more often than not, I am not nailing all of these important aspects in just one photo they are spread across the bunch...

(Girl who missed the subway - NYC - William Darhy)

And if there is a perfect photo with lovely blacks, clear defined whites/light greys and well highlighted frame edges, there's probably going to be a chamois mark or piece of hair in the final print. 

Nevertheless I am on the road to lovely photos. 

Also in class the other week we had a guest Adelaide artist, Aurelia Carbone.  

She does a lot of Diorama work (which many people mistake for VFX imagery) as well as other related optical illusion photography as well.  

Some things I really enjoyed that she had to say was that she couldn't get passed a credit throughout her studies.  Something I sympathise with her.  She also duly notes that she likes to be very open about her work rather than secretive and self obsessed like a lot of other photographer/artists are or can be. 

She likes to call her characters in her dioramas puppets rather than dolls because puppets tell a story.  

Here is an example of her optical illusion work.  

Although I am not so much interested in her style of work, I found it a very valuable experience talking about her work and the direction she has traveled in her artistic journeys. 

I wish her the best of luck in the future as she definitely deserves it!

You go girl!

Chemigram - A What A What?

I thought chemicals are what you develop your photos in.  I was wrong..  Well I am right but the chemicals used in photographic development (I have learned) can be used for so much more!

It's called a Chemigram.  It's sort of like painting with chemicals.  Almost doesn't resemble photography at all.  However the lines can blurr.  

Here's one by New Zealand artist Polly Marriner.  Beautiful isn't it, looks almost like a landscape!

The lines can blur further as photography and chemography such as in this photo by Flickr user Ania Pajada:

It combines the use of different negative/positive images with different kinds of chemistry usage to form a beautiful image.  

Here's a version of mine:

In this photo, I ws printing it for my final assessment work but it didn't turn out the way I wanted to.  So I reacted it to some light outside the dark room and played around with getting it to respond out of order with the chemicals.

Not quite as good as the other ones I've mentioned but still pretty cool, I must admit!

Tricking the Light Meter

As many would know, film photography is so different to digital photography.  In some ways however it is similar as Adobe Photoshop is basically a dark room, though with film we cannot see or check the photos we are about to take.  

In this way you only know if it is a good or bad photograph once the film has been developed and then you can see how they turned out.  

On a few occasions I have been tricked by my light meter thinking that my photo was exposed correctly, but it simply was not the case.  The light meter inside the camera is designed for that purpose, to help you correctly expose your photo, right?

EHH - wrong.  But right...sort of, errr......

If one is not familiar with the way it works (such as myself) then things can go horribly wrong as soon as you start taking photos with several different light plains. 

For example if you are taking a photo of someone outside in the sun through the inside of a window, you light meter may give you incorrect readings.  If the bulk of the photo is on the inside of the room, the light meter will adjust accordingly and give you an incorrect exposure reading.  

Take for example this photo (enlarged from a scanned contact sheet, not an actual print):

(and this photo, girl falling asleep on bus)

In this case I wished to take a photo of a friend as she drove in her car.  A large portion of the photo was on the sky outside.  It was also a very bright day.  

When I activated the light meter to help me program appropriate camera settings, I followed its instructions without thinking.  

When I developed the film I was shocked to find that the photograph hadn't turned out quite how I planned it.  In this instance the light meter must have adjusted itself to compensate for the exposure outside of the car, making what was inside of the car way too under exposed.  This setting may have worked for a flat outside shot, but since there were two distinguishably different exposure settings, it did not. 

Unless this is the desired effect, I now understand better how to use my camera so that it doesn't fool me when I am trying to take photos like this. 

If I could re take this same photo, I would frame out the sunny sky (ie; point the camera at her chest/lap/face only) to trigger the camera's light meter into using the correct exposure settings for the inside (subject) before taking the photograph. When you have your correct frame, leave the settings as they approximately were.  You could experiment with changing settings slightly but without over compensating for where your camera wants you to go.  Now you should have a correctly exposed subject (and probably a way overexposed background).  But nevertheless at least now you can probably see your friend driving in her car. 

This my friends, is how you trick your light meter.  

Use at your own peril :)

Preparing For Portraiture + Self Reflection

In preparation for the photographing for my portraiture assignment, I have loaded into my camera Ilford HP5 Plus 400 speed film.  This is as I will be photographing in doors (inside buses) in possibly overcast, sun setting/night time conditions.  

I will shoot a roll of film with the aim to capture bus goers from behind and if possible with their reflection in the window - should they have a window seat.  With this idea I am wanting to explore what I can capture when public transport commuters have time to themselves. 

My series or portraits will hopefully convey an outsider sight into the world of another person - as I plan to capture them while they are unaware. 

I would also like to talk briefly about lighting and the advancements (or so I think) of my knowledge in this area.  The first is about key light and contrast.  

Here is  photo of my mum:

I really like the way the above photo has turned out.  The key light is coming from the left of frame (that left side is lit the best) and there are shadows on the right side of frame (her left side).  The light side is backed by a dark (wooden) background, while the shadowy side is backed by a bright light to contrast.  These slight contrasting details bring out the subject of the photo.  

NOTE: The scratches and irregularities are caused by the glass used to push down the negatives, not in the photo themselves - however it does give a nice effect.  

The picture below is also a nice use of contrast in black and white hues

The other thing I have realised is an important factor to photography is an eye light.  The picture below has a good use of an eye light which even though the picture is quite dark and not very well detailed brightness wise, it is still clear to what it is.  The eye light in her eyes also helps to bring some life to the subject and photo overall.  

Similar to this note is also this photo:

Use of shadow and contrast between surfaces of skin/wall worked out really nicely.  Though the subject doesn't have any kicker light, the back of his head is completely black, it still works really well as a photo especially because this is against white which helps bring it out more.  

I'll let you be the judge, but I have realised that light is probably the most important thing when composing shot.  Because without light - what's the use in having a subject?  Unless you are using longer shutter speeds.

See below for my contact sheet (Ilford HP5 Plus - 400 ISO Speed Film):

Your Environment - Brief Ideas

I pretty much know what I want to do with my portraiture brief.  I want to experiment with anonymously photographing people on buses.  I have been thinking about the 'Your Environment' part of the assignment.  

I feel very inspired by Duane Michals who we watched some work of in class.  I was particularly moved by his Things Are Queer series of photographs.  

I really love this set of photos as they really blow my mind in relation to time and space.  When looking from one photo to the next, not knowing what to expect, it really draws me in.  I also like it because each photograph is important and needed to help make sense of the next one. 

I would really like to possibly explore this theme in my own work of photographs for The Environment assignment.  

I am not sure as to what subject matter my photographs will contain, but I have come up with a brief sort of plan to start to work my ideas around.

It has kind of blown my mind getting my head around my own concept.  Apologies if you cannot understand and of my drawing/writing.  I scribbled it down really quickly on the bus.

My idea is basically about revealing people from behind other people.  It ends on a shot from over the shoulder of someone taking a picture of the four revealed people.  I could also if I wanted to put that in a frame hanging on someones wall of this final photograph just as an optional extra.  I however doubt that I will have the resources to do this even though it would be good and add a bit of Duane Michals style to my series. 

I will develop ideas further and report back on a further course of action later.

Ciao!

Sally Man

Today we were able to learn about photographer Sally Mann.  Currently 61 years old, she lives a fairly sheltered farm style life.  

She conceptualises, develops and beings to life many many different photography work. 

To note, her main passion is landscapes, but throughout her children's adolescence she took many photographs.  It was interesting to me the way she and her family described when she looked ready to take a photograph.  They said they always knew when she had seen a setting for a good shot, like a spark would go off in her eye.  Many of the photos she has taken in her photographic career have been the subject of much debate as they are deemed in some circles as bordering on pornographic. 

I however see great beauty in many of these photos.  Many of them are natural occurrences of life and the way we as humans grow into this world.  However today's social norms push us to sometimes view work such as this as wrong, but I believe it simply is not - we must look further. 

One of the other interesting photographic series' she has done is one concentrating on death.  Many find this such work to be too confronting or 'gross'.  She describes it as people do not want to be confronted with death so they tend to steer away from it which is likely the reasons her death show was cancelled last minute by the gallery that was putting it on.  One of the more interesting things I learned from Sally Mann's death series was her point about how when people/animals/pets have passed away they simply are not there anymore.  Their soul is not there and the entity is somewhere else.  The body or carcass if you will is what remains, remembrance of life but not the person or life itself. 

Even though Sally has (I believe) lived a fairly sheltered life - being able to go out and photograph as she will, not have to work etc - I think her work is absolutely amazing and definitely grabs me on a whole new level. 

I think her work has definitely pushed me to think on a whole new level about environment and settings as much as any other subject.  She definitely has a very good talent for not only shooting portraiture and people, but bringing her landscapes to life. 

One of the other things I will take away from Sally is her comment about her mistakes being her positives.  She says jokingly that she will stop making good work when she stops making mistakes, as when she makes little mistakes here or there and it slightly warps the photograph/end result in some way, it attributes to the final product and adds to it's beauty.  So I will definitely not be afraid in the future to do just that, make a few mistakes - and just see what I can come up with.  

There is much other work that could be spoken about in a  lot more depth, but this at the moment is a fairly good summary of the points that I have found valuable of her work.  

Definitely chuck her into Google if you want to see more!
Or her website: http://sallymann.com/

-Bayley