Barnardos Project

I have been asked by a couple of photographers who are also curators of a gallery, to help with a project for Barnardos based in Rochdale. It involves a group of youngsters with varying disabilities and the idea is to represent them in through photography using their own inspirations and ideas as a basis for the project. It is a long-term project but a great opportunity to be involved in something so positive. It is a collaboration between Elaine Gansler the Barnardos Team Leader and Julian Williams and Jackie Taylor, the curators of See Gallery in Rawtenstall. The support that Barnardos gives is vital in order for the children to develop. It is also a great social event for the group and way to explore a range of new and exciting experiences and opportunities.

I met up with them for the first time yesterday and encountered the most fantastic group of young kids. They were funny, eager and full of brilliant ideas for the project. It will be a privilege to work with such a creative team of young individuals. We are meeting up again on Saturday 27th November in order to get the kids to photograph each other and be photographed. The idea is to give them the experience of being both in front of and behind the camera and explore the possibilities in available to them through creativity.

http://www.barnardos.org.uk/rochdale.htmhttp://www.barnardos.org.uk/rochdale.htm

Case study

Met up with the subject of my case study today: Tim Bradley, deputy picture editor at MEN Media Group. I had previously spoken with a journalist, Steve Kingston and a photographer working for the MEN Media, Vince Cole. I had chosen Tim Bradley as unlike Vince, whose insight was invaluable incidentally, he had years of experience and had witnessed firsthand, the changes in photojournalism over the last 20 years or so. I was pleased that I had spoken to several people working in different areas of the media as it gave me different perspectives on the whole working practice of journalism and photojournalism so that when I did speak to Tim, I was far better informed.

The eerily quiet offices of the MEN hosted both journalists and several working in the picture editorial dept. The photographers no longer had a base, victims of the massive cuts in the media over the last few years. As Tim was responsible for controlling the photography in the sixteen local weeklies and the Manchester Evening News, he had a huge responsibility. His job was to ensure that the eleven photographers were allocated jobs in and around the city and that deadlines were being met. His phone was constantly ringing and I kept having to pause the tape recorder. I realised he was busy and was just appreciative of the time that he gave me to be honest. He was a really decent fella and very accommodating considering he was obviously under pressure. I learnt a lot from him and once I have transcribed the interview he has said he will answer any further questions either over the phone or via email. 

I am also supposed to be meeting up with Vince Cole, the photographer in a few weeks to follow him as he goes on various assignments around the city so the whole experience has been really interesting and very useful.

Scout Moor Quarry Project

I found this place whist driving past one day and decided to drive up the road to investigate. 
I didn’t actually know what was at the end of the road but guessed it was some kind of construction place. Once I got to the top, I realised it was a quarry and thought that if I could get permission, it would be a brilliant opportunity to document the work carried out there. 
I found the manager, explained what I wanted to do and was advised to email him with the details. I have done just that and await a response. 

Found these images on the web: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/973923

I love the work of Sebastian Salgado and his photographs of the gold mine in Serra Pelada, Brazil I would never be able to compete with those but will use them to inspire me. Here are some of his amazing photos. 

© Sebastian Salgado

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/S/salgado/salgado4.html

Studio work

I booked the studio for the weekend, partly to get experience and partly to take some photographs for the constructed image project, based on the film Rear Window. I used a model who had some experience in the field, but I felt was confident enough to understand what I wanted and I also knew her which helped with communication. She had a good variety of dresses and I wanted to use something from the 1950s or that general era, so it was great that we found quite a few from her collection. As I had already decided on the location of my shoot and realised that it would be difficult to take a location lighting kit there and a model, I decided to shoot both separately.

The first shoot involved just the one model and on the second day I brought in another model to add to the mix. As I knew both of them, it made the working relationship much easier as I hadn’t worked with many models before and wanted both them and myself, to feel comfortable and confident at the shoot. I brought another student with me on the first day as he was very confident in the studio and I wanted to work with someone who could advise me without taking over. There is no point in letting someone else do the work, as you won’t learn from that. I didn’t feel confident enough to be in the studio on my own but didn’t think that I needed a team of people either. Not that I wouldn’t use a team of people in the future if I had a big set to arrange. 

For the first set of shots I wanted to use the infinity curve and experiment with the white background setup that we had been shown in one of the workshops. I had taken quite extensive notes and also took photos with a small camera in the workshop so that I had a visual of the layout. The idea was to eliminate shadows and get a crisp outline of the subject. In the workshop we had to use the polystyrene boards (can’t remember their exact name) in order to eliminate spillage from the lights at the back, but once we had setup the lights against the background with the umbrellas attached and one in the foreground using a softbox on the subject, we found that we didn’t actually need to use the boards. 

The whole concept of the shoot was ‘voyeurism’, based on ideas from the film and the first shots involved using a series of mirrors. At first it was quite difficult to get the angles right as I wanted to see the profile of the model looking in the mirror and also see her reflection. I did manage to achieve the right angle and was happy with the shots. I knew I wanted to superimpose the image on a background so had to ensure that the image was easy enough to crop. 

In the next shoot I used a chair that I had brought from home and again using the theme of voyeurism, took the shots. It soon became apparent that these shots were not quite what I had intended. I think that it was more about the dress that the model was wearing and the ‘aura’ that this look created. It just didn’t feel right but I continued to take the shots and also took some ‘fun’ shots at the end, with the model posing or just doing whatever she felt comfortable doing. I didn’t want the shoot to be too intensive, I wanted it to be fun too. 
The next shoot was using a snoot instead of the beauty dish, as I wanted to create a more dramatic, atmospheric look. The background setting would be the interior of a derelict property and it is dark and gloomy inside so I wanted to replicate that atmosphere in the studio shots. A change of dress and from the first few shots I knew that this was exactly the kind of shot that I wanted. These were actually my favourite shots of the whole two-day shoot. I loved the atmosphere and the model’s facial expressions were perfect. I will definitely use this effect more often as I do prefer images that have a certain atmosphere anyway and I know that I will be able to call on the same model for future projects as we seem to work well together. 

I learned a lot from being in the studio and being able to bring my own ideas into the project. The input from the models was also important and they did bring a lot to the shoot. I think that is why I wanted to use someone I knew, as I did not want to work with models I was unfamiliar with as they might not be able to give as much to the shoot and until I am more confident to work alone in a studio and take more control, I would rather work with what I know.

The next day I brought in my second model and did one more shoot for the project and the rest of the photos were just straightforward modelling shots using both the infinity curve and the purple background. The coloured background was slightly more complicated and I ended up using three lights on it and still struggled with the shadows a little. I quite like shadows on some images however and I hadn’t really intended to eliminate them all when using a coloured background. My main objective in this case was to maintain the colour of the background. I achieved this by bringing the subject forward slightly and though some of the photos were slightly darker than the others, this was due to the constant changing of models and poses. I did a meter reading each time, but will obviously have to work on this for future projects. I did enjoy the studio work more than I thought I would to be honest. I was pleased with the results and will learn from the mistakes.

  

© Andrea Percival

 

Found photography

This mini project was based on the idea of found photography. I decided to place some objects that I had acquired over the years but could not remember from where, in various places out in the open. I attached to each object a red label with the approximate date that I had acquired the object and photographed them. I used a flash and tried to photograph the object from slightly 'off' angles. I didn’t get to take many photos but intend to photograph some more, weather permitting. I want to use the same weather conditions for continuity. Here are some of them that I did anyway, plus some general scenery photos taken on the same day. Not masterpieces I know, but at least the idea is there!

 

© Andrea Percival

Unusual photography

I was trawling the net for some inspiration for more unusual photography and came across these websites and photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gautamnaik/

This fella is on flickr and I liked his stuff.

http://thisisawesome.com/the-unusual-photography-of-franck-allais/

Here is the website of Franck Allais, a Frenchman. I wanted to look at some photos that would inspire and were as far from the ‘norm’ as I could get. 

http://smashinghub.com/30-funny-photos-taken-at-unusual-angle-pics.htm 

Here are some of the photos I came across on the above website.

 

http://ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com/2010/08/unusual-beautiful-photography-of-shoji.html

I also liked the photography of Shoji Uchida as shown below. 

Practice

I wanted to create some photos of food and my original intention was to photograph fresh produce against unhealthy, stodgy food. I placed some fresh fruit and vegetables on a black background, and photographed using natural light and a couple of lamps with daylight bulbs in them as I didn’t have access to a proper lighting kit. Here are a few of the shots I took. I think I need to get cooking and practice a little more, particularly with the lighting. My intention is to get a reasonable lighting kit so that I can do these kinds of projects more often. I was intending to get photograph some unhealthy food and compare the healthy with the unhealthy… unfortunately I ate it all… 

 

 

© Andrea Percival

London

I have definitely been drawn to black and white photography, a format I had not used since my C&G course some 8 years ago. As the course was an introduction to black and white photography, we focussed on the darkroom and I was actually quite surprised at how quickly I got back into it. The smell of chemicals was strangely familiar and the whole process was very satisfying. Maybe I need to get out more! Once I had achieved the final print and particularly when it was appreciated by fellow students and staff, I felt a rush of adrenaline race through me and quickly scanned the negatives for my next ‘masterpiece’. Ok, so slight exaggeration there, but I did find the darkroom experience most satisfying.

There was a gap of about 6 months when I was unable to use the darkroom as we were under pressure to get assignments in and all that malarkey. I recently took some films that I had taken when visiting London with my niece over the summer.

Having practiced Street Photography, I decided to use the opportunity to document the lives of the weird and wonderful people in and around Camden Market. This was my niece’s first experience of Camden, so I gave her my digital camera to use so she could follow suit and capture the sights and sounds of the bustling market stalls and shops.

The area is so vibrant and diverse that I wanted to try to capture that spirit. You can be who you want to be there and no one bats an eyelid. The nearest alternative we had in Manchester was around Afflecks Palace, a converted department store that housed a variety of stalls selling an eclectic mix of clothes, knick-knacks and paraphernalia.

The camera I used was a Pentax MZ-5N with a FA1:1.9 43mm fixed lens. The whole set up is not that big so I can surreptitiously snap away at the crowd whist impersonating a tourist. I have sussed out the best way to capture the more interesting subjects is to pretend to photograph something slightly to the side of them and wait for them to walk into the shot, or simply take the shot and run…

© Andrea Percival

 The one negative aspect of using films is the time factor even though in my opinion, I do prefer the end product to digital photos. I developed the films myself and used a negative scanner to produce the photographs. Again it was the time factor that led me to choose the scanner over the darkroom. I am intending to set up a studio near to my home and once this is completed, I will be able to use the darkroom more often.