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.

Studio lighting practice

Last week I worked in the studio as an assistant to Chris, a fellow student. He will be helping me with a studio-based project of mine in a few weeks so thought I would reciprocate the favour and get a bit of experience in at the same time. It is good to work as a team anyway as you can bounce ideas off each other as well as helping with the more practical things like meter reading and changing the lights.

He was photographing an agency model using different background settings and several costume changes. First we used the infinity curve as the background and lit this with a snoot. We also used a beauty dish on the model herself. Once Chris had photographed the model in a couple of different outfits using the infinity curve, he moved her to the other side and used the grey background.

It was definitely a useful exercise but I think I will learn more when I do my own setup. We were there purely as assistants and though it is useful when setting up the lights and getting a general gist of things, there is nothing like designing the setup yourself to help you understand how it works. I am sure that before long it will become second nature to me. 

Here are some of the photos that I took on the shoot plus a video.

When I do my shoot, I want to use the setup that we did in a previous workshop in order to eliminate shadows and achieve a nice crisp edge round the subject. I know that the difference has to be one and a half stops between subject and background in order to achieve this and I also documented the workshop using a small camera, rather than lots of notes, so I have a visual record of the setup. 

Location lighting practice

We used a plinth as the main focal point as there wasn’t really much of interest in the park that wasn’t boarded up.  Our ‘model’ had to climb on top of the plinth, which was a feat in itself. And we used the road and trees as a background as it was the least distracting.

We used both the lights, one with a beauty dish and umbrella to deflect the light, the other with a softbox. We took a series of shots at f5.6 @ 1/125, f16 @1/125 and f16 @1/15 to experiment with depth of field, but I think the one that worked best for me was the middle one, as by changing the shutter speed, we were able to make the background darker and the subject stand out more. It was a useful workshop and I am beginning to see the benefits of location lighting and the effect it has on your subject. Just need to experiment a bit more.

 

Inspiration

Found this website on innovative design ideas. It has a wide range of subjects and is quirky and fun. I liked the idea of a site where you can just choose a subject such as fashion, adventure and travel and flick through the pages to be inspired. Many different contributors of different levels of ability are featured and the subject areas are divided up into easy sections for you to pick and choose what you want to view. It is very visual website and not overly complicated which makes it more accessible. Check it out!

 

http://www.notcot.com/about/

Film and contemporary photography

The film inspired contemporary art project as mentioned in the previous blog has been preying on my mind. I particularly like the work of James Stewart and also Alfred Hitchcock, so my choice of film was a no brainer: Rear Window. I was even awake early this morning with all these ideas going through my head – I hate that at weekend!

I have already got a model booked for the studio and have an idea about the kind of set up I want in the photos. I have found an abandoned, grade listed building that is in the process of being done up. I have managed to contact the person who owns it and he has given me permission to photograph it. It was fire damaged, but the beauty of its skeletal remains are still apparent and I wanted to use this aspect in the photographs. The plan is to photograph the building separate to the model as, in its present state, it is a bit of a health hazard. I have taken some photos and once I have photographed the model, I will decide if this method is the best course of action.

I managed to get down there on Saturday afternoon. I waited until 3pm when the sun had settled down, it would have been a nightmare to try to photograph in strong sunlight (and it’s the end of October!) so I waited until it was a bit more muted. I photographed the exterior using HDR as I wanted to bring out the detail in the brickwork and highlight the elegance of the architecture. I was a little paranoid in case someone questioned what I was doing, even though I had permission. I was even more paranoid about the noises I kept hearing from within the ruined building, considering I was the only human there! I persevered however and ended up being there for around an hour or so. There aren’t many buildings of such stature that have not undergone extensive modernisation and that you can photograph without losing the integral part of its atmosphere. The windows and doorways were still evident and it was these parts of the building that I wanted to dominate the background of my intended photograph.

Even though the experience was somewhat nerve-wracking (spooky noises), I loved the structure of the building and it will definitely be part of this shoot, even if I have to re-shoot. I want to use the location before it is sold on and no longer fit for purpose.

© Andrea Percival