Summer Project

I am beginning this blog as a way to submit my college work to avoid having to print out, and stick my work in to a sketchbook.

Starting the second year of my college course studying a BTEC LEVEL 3 Extended Diploma in Photography, I intend to publish my further work here to build a functioning blog of my photographic work and experiments.

I am starting with some work produced for a given task over the summer break as a pre-cursor to a brief in the second year - Experimental Photography. As I don't have any darkroom facilities available at home I could only experiment with what I had. Luckily I had a range of different cameras, lenses and flashes to use.  I used a variety of cameras - a Pentax Asahi 1000, Canon AE-1, Lubitel 166B and a Canon 600D (encompassing 35mm and medium format film, and digital capture); I used different lenses: 50mm, 135mm, 18-55mm and a 24-105mm; bought and used a circular polarizing filter for the first time;  used a range of different Photoshop techniques, and experimented with flash guns and remote flash triggers.

The task was to produce an image or series of images in response to a set of 16 words. You could be very literal with the words or take them as a staring point and go as far as you wanted. The words were:

Happy- Mystery - Fashion - Flamboyant - Advertisement - Passion - Laughing - Anxiety - Party - Content - Glass - Anonymous - Animation - Freedom - Time - Eye.

Below are a few of my favourite images from this task:

Content:

The contented cat dozes in the heat of the afternoon. Asahi Pentax 1000, 135mm lens

A few photos of cats were submitted by other students; however, there is a difference between my image and the rest in that mine is a much more considered photograph, not taken on a whim or in desperation of not having a suitable image; this is also not my pet, or anyones' that I know. See how the colours of the cat match its surroundings, this is where it lives, and is most comfortable.

Fashion and Advertising:

I was struggling with these two words and didn't really have any ideas that I felt were achievable. I went back through my work and remembered I had done some research on a fashion photographer named Guy Bourdin. Some of his best known photos were for an advertising campaign for shoes designed by Charles Jourdan. His images were controversial as they had what can be seen as negative connotations such as sex and death. I believe his aim was to suggest that by wearing the shoes you too could take part in exciting and dangerous activities. Many of his photos only included legs, and so I decided to use this technique in my image.

Canon 600D, Remote flash on tripod.

Laughing:

This image is intended with a tongue in cheek slant, it is designed to create surprise and provoke laughter. Although not the most original image, I feel mine is a pretty good example in comparison to many you will find on the internet.  Canon 600D, Polarizing filter

Passion:

The flower head has unending petals, extending beyond the boundaries of the frame it is unrestrained and beautiful.

Canon 600D

Flamboyant:

Given to ostentatious or audacious display.

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Audacious:

1.Fearlessly, often recklessly daring; bold.
2. Unrestrained by convention or propriety; insolent.

I had to rescue this image as I had set the wrong film speed on my camera, there is a colour version but I think that the attitude of the dog embodies the word without the need for colour.

Canon AE-1 50mm lens

Animation:

For this word I created a simple GIF. file that demonstrates how a manual aperture operates.
Canon 600D, tripod, polarizing filter.