Narrative and Illustration

Putting the subject first.

I have often thought of my photography as having little in the way of direction. I mentioned this to my tutor with my introduction. His reply was that I like to take pictures of things that interest me. That of course is very true and is in itself a form of direction. I always strive to make the best image that I can of whatever it is I happen to be recording. Often I end up disappointed, other times pleasantly surprised. But what of the rare instances in which it isn't really feasible to make a technically faultless photograph when faced with a moment that may not come again?

Picture 1

Picture 1, the jelly babies is my own most perfect example of treatment over subject. I went to a great deal of trouble to find the correct surface on which to place the subject, then spent a long time pondering the lighting and composition, to say nothing of getting the colours right. The point of focus and depth of field complement each other perfectly. So it is a technically sound image, at least in my own eyes. But at the end of the day it's just jelly babies!

Picture 2

I went almost literally to the end of the world for Picture 2. This was a big deal for me, seeing a critically endangered Kiwi in the wild. It was night obviously but it was also raining, and quite windy too. With just torchlight illuminating the subject from a short distance I decided to try and capture the moment. Even at iso2000 and f1.4 I couldn't get a shutter speed to freeze the birds movement. Why won't these things stand still?  But of course I had to have an image of a most wonderful experience. For me this is a perfect example of subject outweighing the need to produce a graphically flawless image.


Exercise : A Narrative Picture Essay

For this exercise I selected a subject with which I am quite familiar, concert photography. I'm not too familiar with the band portrayed so I couldn't get any "behind the scenes" shots unfortunately. I did get myself into position before the performance started however and was able to obtain "before" and "after" shots of the stage props which give a good idea of how the evening proceeded.

The Dogbones bring dolls on stage with them.

Image 1

Image 2

Images 1 and 2 portray the dolls in positions before the show has started. The guitarists instrument is in place and one of the roadies is preparing the drum set.

The two drummers get proceedings under way. At this time they are the only people on stage.

Image 3

The other three members of the band now join in. Firstly, as depicted in image 4, the guitarist continues the intro. The bass player joins in and finally the vocalist swings into action (image 5).

Image 4

Image 5

With the guitarist and vocalist demanding centre stage (Images 6 and 7) the band grind through their set.

Image 6

Image 7

As the show progresses the band feeds off the atmosphere being created by an energetic audience. The dolls, initially considered to be nothing more than oddly decorative stage props now play their part in an increasingly vibrant spectacle. In image 8 the vocalist is seen performing a dance with one of them.

Image 8

You can now feel the raw energy being created by the band. The dolls, and the wig,  are tossed aside as the vocalist rips into the final song. She leaves the stage followed by the bass player. The guitarist is next having thrown his resonating instrument on to the drums, leaving the two drummers to play out the gig in a similar fashion to the opening, as seen in image 9.

Image 9

The final image focuses firmly on the aftermath. The mic, wig and dolls have been nonchalantly discarded by the side of the stage. I know they are inanimate objects but to me, the dolls appear exhausted!

Image 10

Exercise : Evidence of action

Trying to avoid the obvious accident aftermath type of shot I thought about the environment around me at the tail end of this year. I decided to head for Croydon, the most convenient main shopping centre and a town in turmoil from recent riots and the economic downturn. In 2012 Allders department store celebrated it's 150th year of trading in the town. Sadly it was also to be it's last. The store went into administration in June and finally closed it's doors on 22nd September. I would estimate around 70% of the contents of my home were purchased in that once proud store. The image I have selected for this exercise shows the "Notice of administration" which was posted in the windows of the store. In the background it has become clear that no buyer was found during the period of administration. The floor is empty, shutters are down and a lonely till point stands silent. Of course this is not a simple case of a single store closing down. All over the country, indeed most of the world, the current economic woes combined with the trend for shopping online are hitting the retail sector very hard. So this image shows evidence of an action that has occurred here at a local level, but which continues apparently unabated at a national and global level too.

Evidence of action

Exercise : Symbols

Being able to find symbols for a number of concepts was a little trickier than I imagined, particularly as I was trying to avoid tired cliches. This isn't always possible of course but there were a couple of ideas that sprung to mind.

GROWTH.

Outgrowing one's environment is an idea that occurred to me. In a very simple form I imagined a goldfish that had grown too big for it's bowl. I made a quick sketch.

Obviously this unfortunate fish has grown far too much for the bowl in which it lives and needs a larger one. 

As another example of growth I tried to imagine a large glass jar with a few coins in it. Now thinking forward for a period of time, picture the jar almost full of coins. Next to the jar now is a mail order catalogue, opened, and an item on the page has a circle pencilled around it. Someone has saved hard and is about to reap the benefit of the growth in their savings.


EXCESS.

Excess. It's just too much. I have a vision of a person slumped forward in their chair over a table, hand still grasping an empty glass despite the fact that they are probably unconscious. At the edge of the image is an empty liquor bottle on it's side.

Of course excess doesn't necessarily mean overindulging with food or drink. This image seen frequently on various blogs or humorous e-mails speaks for itself really.

To convey a similar message I need only take a photograph of my partners luggage immediately before a holiday!

CRIME

Gun crime in the UK is quite low compared to many other countries, particularly the USA.

This is a self portrait I conjured up. I used a 105mm Macro lens and set the aperture to f2.8 to achieve this very shallow depth of field. I held the gun very close to the lens and fired the shutter remotely. In no uncertain terms all the attention is focused very much on that gun barrel.














Cathal McNaughton took an unbelievably emotional image of a boy at his brothers funeral in Northern Ireland about ten years ago. The boy is in the foreground, crying with his head in his hand. In the backgrounds the pall bearers carry his brothers coffin. The young lad had been killed in a hit and run incident. The picture tells a tale of the number of real victims of the crime. One person was killed but many more have had their lives ruined. I don't know if I could have taken that picture. But it conveys a very powerful message.


SILENCE

There is a dark room, unlit save for a solitary candle burning on a small table in the middle of the otherwise unfurnished space. I shall frame the shot so that the candle is in the centre of the frame, occupying no more than five percent of it. I will underexpose by a stop and a half so that the only items visible will be the candle and a little of the table top.

I'm trying to avoid the obvious cliche of an attractive young lady holding a finger up to her pursed lips. I'm terrible at portraits anyway! On a very recent trip I took a boat ride along some canals in Central America. At one stage, with the engine shut off and the water as still as a millpond it was perfect. I could imagine an image of a local guy lying asleep on a narrow canoe, perfectly reflected along with the jungle around him, in the totally still water. It would make a perfect image of silence. As long as it didn't come with a soundtrack of course, due to the cacophony of sound emanating from the jungle!


POVERTY

Similar to my gun self portrait above, I could imagine a shot in which the weapon is replaced by an outstretched open hand, palm pointing upwards.

I would try a portrait, perhaps young siblings no older than six or seven, from a lowest caste family in India. I wouldn't ask for any false expressions or poses. Just a natural look to demonstrate that poverty often has a smile on it's face.


Exercise : Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition

The Great Escape

The book title I selected is a well known prisoner of war tale. I have re-interpreted the title for the purposes of this picture however. The eyes are drawn initially to the suitcase being packed, ready for a trip away. The passport and envelope of cash are testament to this. The view is then taken up towards the phone on the bed and from there it becomes apparent that there is a little more to be read in the scene with the discarded gun and balaclava on the table at the top of the frame. So it becomes clear that the great escape is much more than a holiday getaway.








Exercise : Rain

Rain

I took this picture through a window. It had obviously been raining but not enough to create trails of water along the glass. I got quite close and focused on the water droplets using maximum aperture. I framed using the red light in the distance as a central point of reference. I like that everything in the frame with the exception of the raindrops has been completely blurred giving the shot a very abstract look.

Assignment 4: Applying Lighting Techniques

Choosing a subject to photograph for this assignment wasn't as simple as I expected it to be. Given a choice of "anything you like" does tend to flummox me a little. In the end I chose something a little challenging. It isn't physically possible to walk around this subject in it's entirety but I knew most of the angles could be covered. The almost due east/west directions of the two facades made it possible to get decent early and late light, given decent weather. I wanted to collect all the shots with the Olympic Rings in situ, but given the times and weather encountered, to say nothing of the effect of tides made this impossible. However I'm quite pleased with the result and I'm hoping it does fit the brief.

Image 1 Sunrise / COLOUR

I wanted to capture the early morning light from the north direction. In Image 1 there is a good light on the front face of the towers but the northern sides are also well lit at this time of day. The shadows add some depth to the architecture. The overall warm glow of the early light is something I find very appealing.

Image 2 Early Morning / FORM

Taken from the same viewpoint as Image 1 but slightly later in the morning. In image 2 the shadows across the north facing walls have added a contrast to the nicely lit facades in the sun. The overall colour, whilst obviously the same in real life, appears much cooler as the sun climbs higher in the sky.

Image 3 Early Morning / TEXTURE

Image 3 has been taken from the opposite direction to Image 2 at a similar time of day. The light has yet to reach the south facing walls and I like the contrast between these and the eastern walls bathed in sunlight.

Image 4 Mid Morning / FORM

I pondered the inclusion of a high contrast black and white image, and have decided to include it. Image 4 isn't a greyscale conversion, I shot the original in mono. Shot a little later in the morning than image 2, I like the mix of shadows and light on the south facing walls.

Image 5 Late Afternoon / TEXTURE

Image 5 was taken late afternoon and is a close up to highlight the fine detail of the bridge towers. The low sun has given the image a warm feel and a nice even light, highlighting the texture and detail of the stonework.

Image 6 Sunset / SHAPE

The sunset Image 6 taken from the Northeast has produced a nice silhouette with sharp edges and a nice highlight on the edges of the rings. On this occasion it was actually TOO clear a day, a few clouds would have been nice.

Image 7 Sunset / COLOUR

Image 7 is the sunset image shot from the west. The bridge was very busy with traffic so I waited a short while until the road was in shadow. This image shows the colours of the rings to best effect.

Image 8 Dusk / COLOUR

Image 8 shows the bridge some time after the sun has set but before the onset of night. A long exposure has blurred the people in the foreground.

Image 9 Night / SHAPE

Image 9 taken at night. The light pollution gives an orange sky as opposed to the expected black. The floodlights are doing an excellent job of lighting the Olympic Rings.




















ASSIGNMENT FEEDBACK


 

Overall Comments

The choice of Tower Bridge as your subject has opened up interesting possibilities for a variety of lighting that changes throughout the day. Due to the scale of the structure, what it doesn’t allow you to do is to experiment with your own lighting ideas: Daylight conditions and the artificial lights that are already there have prescribed the light on the bridge.

The angle of the light (and of the subject) to the camera can be experimented with when using a smaller object. The environment (light, subject, backgrounds etc.) can be controlled, almost at will, allowing greater flexibility and creativity in what can be produced.

I can see the basics of each type of lighting technique in the assignment. For assessment the images should be labelled with the appropriate categories: Shape, Form, Texture and colour (usually two images for each category). In my feedback I’ll suggest which category/categories I think each image illustrates.

The structure chosen is an iconic one that is photographed endlessly by visitors. In this assignment you have gathered together similar images under a variety of lighting conditions. By showing these together, you have revealed the way that a subject can appear markedly different depending on the lighting. Further to this, you show how each type of lighting reveals different aspects of the structure.

There is an appreciation of lighting in this assignment that makes for spectacular rendering of the bridge. This appreciation of light is far better than in previous assignments.

In future, when you are considering taking a photograph, you may well remember this assignment and the effects of the lighting: Your camera position could be influenced by the angle of the light, its direction, its colour, the time of day, as well as by choosing which aspect of the subject is enhanced by the light.

Assessment potential

I understand your aim is to go for the Photography Degree and that you plan to submit your work for assessment at the end of this course. From the work you have shown in this assignment,providing you commit yourself to the course,I believe you have the potential to succeed at assessment. In order to meet all the assessment criteria, there are certain areas you will need to focus on, which I will outline in my feedback.

Feedback on assignment

Technically this is your best assignment so far. Even given the variety of lighting, your exposures are consistently well controlled throughout. Composition and framing will have been difficult as they’re largely determined by where you can gain access. However you have managed to produce carefully considered images that are largely well-balanced and free of clutter or distractions.

When photographing large buildings, they are easier to shoot from slightly further away, with a longer focal length than you have used in the first three images. In these images you are looking up, tilting the verticals, as well as struggling to get the top included. They give the impression of struggling to ‘get it all in’. The rest of the images appear more considered and showmore of the context around the bridge.

I particularly like the inclusion of the narrow-boat in the first image. It shows what the river was once famous for; access to London along the river and as a port connected to the sea. The semi-silhouette against multi-coloured reflections on the water is particularly effective. I suggest it would be worthwhile correcting the right-hand vertical so that it lines up with the frame edge (select all>transform> skew, then crop).

Despite working with a fixed object, there is still variety in your positioning and camera-to-subject distances. The inclusion of the Olympic rings in some images has set a definitive time-period and added to the interest of those images.

I think that the most successful images are the ones that are either the classic post-card shots (such as image 4) or those that include another subject or object, leading the eye into the frame, such as the first image.

What is immediately apparent, even from the first two images, is the difference that the light makes to the colour of the bridge. Image 2 is probably the most ‘accurate’ in showing colour balance, but image 1 shows how early or late sunlight can enhance the natural warmth of the stonework.

Both images also show the form really well: With direct light on two perpendicular sides, they appear clearly three-dimensional. Contrast this with image 3 that has light on only one visible side. Image 4 is again a good example of form. Image 5 has the light directly from behind which doesn’t show form or texture as well as if it had been shot earlier or later with the light coming more from one side.Image 6 is a strong silhouette with colour added by the setting sun. This shows the shape of the bridge’s upper structure.

Image 7 again shows the effect of the colour of low sunlight. It also shows the rings as having strong colours. The colours are enhanced by the direct light in image 8. This is complemented by the blue/magenta sky of dusk. I like this position as it shows the context of the busy embankment, but the wall in the foreground is a bit intrusive. A camera position to the right (placing the end of the wall in the corner of the frame) or to the left to exclude the wall might have been better.

Even though image 9 is at night, the floodlights do show the colours off well, particularly of the rings. Enough of the bridge is highlighted against the dark sky to show the bridge’s shape too.

Learning Logs or Blogs

Don't forget to update your log with any activities, plans and thoughts about your work. Add also your research an thoughts on other photographer's work that you've read about or seen online or in exhibitions. In particular, relate your reflection and developing thoughts about what you see to your own work.

In your blog I can see reflections on your own work: after shoots, after editing and after assignments. There are also some notes referring to images in books.For assessment, it would be good to show more evidence of viewing other photographers’ work; in books, online or at exhibitions.

Suggested reading/viewing

I recommend reading 'On Being a Photographer: a Practical Guide' by David Hurn and Bill Jay. Also, look online at the image sequences in classic photo-led magazines of the 1950s such as Picture Post. See the work of photographers who have produced extended photo essays, such as W. Eugene Smith.

Pointers for the next assignment

More variety of scale would have helped to vary the pace of the images in this assignment. You will need to bear this in mind in assignment 5; narrative and pace are two techniques that allow a sequence to flow, whilst retaining interest.

Assignment 5 will draw on the skills developed during all the previous assignments: Using light, composition, concepts and colour. It is a sequence of images that produce a narrative to tell a story in pictures. The captions provide further information and add to the development of the context. The style used for images and text is similar to what you might expect to find in a magazine.

The initial image should be simple and striking, grabbing attention, persuading the viewer to look further into the sequence; as you would expect in a magazine article. It is good to have some variety of light, perspectives, scale etc. to keep interest in the story. What you leave in the final edit is as important as what you cut out. A photographic ‘story’ is best told directly, through images that contribute to the telling of the story and/or add context to that story.

Tutor name:	Derek Trillo
Date	12 October 2012
Next assignment due	10 December 2012

Image 1 Sunrise / COLOUR

Only one minor adjustment to make for this assignment, apart from the titles. Derek suggested using the Transform>Skew procedure to straighten the verticals in this image. Amazingly that is the first time I have used this technique and I'm very pleased with the result.