Final Part 2

In today's lesson I finalised all my work, this included finishing my 3D art installation, printing out my pictures, mounting them on the installation and doing any final sketch book work. 
As this was a lot to do at the start  of the lesson I made it my priority to finish printing my pictures as I knew it would take me the longest. 
During the previous week I tried to develop my pictures I had taken over the weekend but when I brought it in to develop I found that the majority of them 
As I expected, printing pictures took a long time because I did many test strips and used trial and error on the light settings in order to get the perfect picture. 
i finally finished my crown of thorns by weaving in more nails and leaves to make it looks as realistic as possible

Overall, I think today went quite well because I did all that I had aimed to do. But if I were to do it again I would work faster.

Final Work Part 1

In today's lesson, I processed the film that I took over the weekend with the film camera.
After processing I attempted printing my contact print so that I could see what all the pictures I had taken would look like. I found the majority of my crucial pictures had come out blurry. I was puzzled at why this had happened because for all of them I had gotten a green light and adjusted the focus.  
I found it that it was because I shot my photos in the drama studio and the lighting there isn't very good, this forced me to use a slow shutter speed (less than 1/60 of a second). In result of using the slow shutter speed while holding the camera it allowed time to record the shaking of my hand leading in blurry pictures.
I decided to not re-take my final pictures in today's session because I didn't have my props and I would have to improvise which wouldn't have the same effect.
So for the rest of the lesson I took test shots as i they were my real pictures on a digital camera. And I signed out a camera to take for a couple of days and then return and process.
Below is the new and improved version of the sin greed:

Next week I hope to finish all work on the installation art and print my picture to mount on the 3d installation. 

Installation Art And Planning Final Work

In today's lesson, I began to make my piece of installation art in which I would later on mount my final photos on to.
I took a modern spin on the crown of thorns and made it out of chicken wire, nails, bolts, other random metal, plastic leaves and berries. I researched about the crown of thorns and found out that all the elements incorporated into it are symbolic of christianity. For example the red berries represent Jesus's blood.
Making the crown of thorns took quite a long time so I thought it would be a good idea not to take my final work yet (on film camera) and instead do it during the week.
I began to plan for my final work and this included taking test shots
Here is a test shot I took to help with my final work:

I took the photo to show the sin pride. I liked the fine art photgraphy approach of subtlty so I applied to my own. This represents pride in the way that it is vaguely symmterical symbolic of how we try to immitate others.

Next week I hope to mount and polish up my final work, this will include developing and print my photos.

Test Shots & Decisions

In today's lesson I found that I had a lot of work to do so I planned mentally what I realistically wished to achieve before break, lunch and the end of the day.
My main priority of the day was to finish taking test shots for each of my 3 ideas, to make it easier to make the decision of which one to choose for my final project.

I found it and still am finding it difficult to choose one of my 3 ideas to photgraphy because I like them all for different reasons.
Over the weekend, I wish to look over each of the sets of test shots I've taken and see which one is more of the standard of fine art photography and which one will make a good art installation.
I haven't yet thought about what I want to do for my art installation but i hope to think of some ideas before next week. I have been doing some picture research.

Below are some test shots I took for fear:

This is the orignial picture I took to embody fear, I photographed it to show the fear of dying.

I edited this photo slightly to make give it a bleaker colour emphasisng the deathly atmoshpere.

I experimented with Photoshop and overlapped two photos to show the fear of  dying (staring at the gravestone) and the fear of getting older (the dead leaves).

Test Shots & Experimenting

Today, I tried to photograph each of my 3 ideas using a digital camera.
Before hand I did some in depth picture research to gather inspiration on how my ideas have already been photographed. I strongly wanted to photograph my ideas in non-obvious ways, but instead ways which make people think and figure out how it represents control.

To add to the research for my idea of 'Child-hood Fears', I went around the class asking everyone what they feared when they were younger and how they overcame it. The obvious ones were the dark and monsters, but from this I retrieved that most people were scared of things they could see.
I took test shots of blurred objects and things which looked like other things, to represent the fear of the unknown.

I photographed a few of the 7 deadly sins for my 'Sin' idea, this included lust, wrath and sloth.
I found a picture of someone squeezing the grapes of wrath and I did my own version of this. I then experimented of photoshop by adjusting the opacity of overlapping the sins with each other. Some of them worked very well but some didn't.
Next week I wish to repeat these test shots and maybe shoot some onto film.

My 3 Ideas Are...

In today's lesson I chose my 3 ideas in which I planned to photograph as my final project on 'Control'. 
From the start I had considered choosing 'Religion' as my definite concept on control but as I had to brainstorm a variety of ideas I researched two others:

1. Conformity - I think that the way that we were when we were younger and the way that we change is relevant to control because we choose to be this way, following the latest trends, people and general society. Another interpretation of conformity may be 'strerotypes', in class i brainstormed ways of photographing stereotypes and I most liked the idea of happy families and placing the pictures inside a dolls house as the 3D installation art.

2. Sin - this idea is one of my favourites because there are so many different interpretations and debates happening in the world of how it is "correct" to live ones life. I chose to address one of the most controlled places of this topic and this was religion and more specific may be Christianity. An idea of photographing this may be to photograph each of the ten commandments in an artistic way or photographing each of the 7 deadly sins in the same way. Below is an example of how I may photograph 'lust' from one of the 7 deadly sins. I haven't yet considered how I will mount it up into a 3D art installation but for the ten commandments I could possible dangle each picture from "the crown of thorns", using pieces of string.

3.  Fear - the idea that we have concoured our child hood fears, taking control from such a young age interested me. I thought of starting off by doing individual research from people around me, asking them what their childhood fears were and how they concoured them. This will give me inspiration of how to photograph fear because at the moment not much has sprung to mind.

Next week, I intend to try practice photographing all of my three ideas. 

Getting Organised!

Today was dedicated to the organisation of our sketch books, which for me was highly needed.
I proof read my research report because although it seemed quite long, I found that it contained a lot of uneccesary information which wasn't really relevant to the project, so I too these parts out.
I then continued reading my research report while looking at the assessment criteria given to us earlier on in the unit. This was helpful because it told me what I had to include and also which band I was at, at the moment.

In the dark room, I printed from the negatives which we photographed last week. Last time I was in the dark room my contact prints didn't come out very well, so I used a different method of laying out the negative in the contact holder in the lighted classroom then after transferring them to the dark room. This was more efficient because it mean't that I could see what I was doing and it saved time.

Also, last time I printed, the majority of my pictures came out under exposed which mean't I had to add more light to the paper. I did this and also made it a habit to do test strips according to the contact print pictures that look the best.

Next week, I would like to research my chosen three final ideas for my project.

Sketching and The Fitzwillam!

At the beginning of the day were given a landscape picture of a sea, boat and trees to sketch. It was interesting to see what everyone drew first. 

We then analysed a variety of pictures, some had more to say about others but they all had particular rules of composition about them. 
I had a picture which was in black and white and it was set in the town centre of some sort with two people laying dead at the bottom of the picture, and underneath them were crater holes giving the impression they had fallen hard onto the ground. 
One thing I picked up first about the picture was that it really made you think why and what was happening. It also had a lot of contrast in textures which I thought was very powerful and may try to incorporate into my photography. 

We then went to the Fitzwilliam Museum and sketched paintings and sculptures which stood out to us and embodied control. 

I ended up finding many paintings and sculptures which went along with my concept of religion and rules, for example there was a painting of the crucifixion which stood out to me because of the spiky texture of the crown of thorns and the expressions from the people watching. 

Next week, I would like to finish my research report and annotate the sketches I drew today in neat and in detail.  

Practice Photography and More Research!

In today's lesson we continued with our research reports, researching around fine art photography and 3d art installations. This gave me a clearer visual of what I may do for my individual project; it also allowed me to add to my brainstorm.

I researched more about rules and restrictions and this lead me to religion, which is based around rules and following God. The ten commandements is their list of rules in which they choose to live their lives, so I thought it may be a good idea to research how people have photographed them. And this lead me to the 7 deadly sins.
These pictures of wrath grasped me the most:

They both represent the same word but are so different, the top one is quite literal yet still powerful because of the youthly people being so evil they have cracks in their skin. Like most fine art photography, these pictures are up for discussion and debate upon their inner meaning.
The bottom ones shows someone gripping the grapes of wrath. I don't think this picture would work in colour because the pictures purpose isn't for colour.

I considered symbols within christianity and the most obvious one was the cross, but I wanted to go deeper than than that, so I found a picture of the crucifixion and annotated it and I was drawn to the crown of thorns. Which I could make and hang the pictures from.

We then practiced taking pictures of 'control' using the black and white cameras and it gave me another chance to get use to the functions of the camera, for example changing the shutter speed in order to have a green light apear on the screen.

Next week, I would like to write out and research my rules and religion concept in detail.

Introduction to Artifact!

Today we started a brand new project called 'Artifact'.
I researched about fine art photography and 3D art installations for my research report which gave me inspiration and ideas for what I may base my project on.

I found fine art photography interesting because it has no limits or rules to follow except that it has to have meaning behind the photo.  I like this kind of photography because I can express my photograpic views in my own way without sticking to a particular convention.

While researching about 3D art installations, I came across many weird and wonderful creations which gave me inspiration for what I may do for my final project. 

The majority of the time, I thought the art installations that artists had created were very abstract and to the outsider it may seem as if it has nothing to do with what the artist had intended, but what got me engaged was that each sculpture I looked at had several different interpretations and I would like to incorporate this style into my later project.

3D Art installation by Heike Webber

 

Since I had already done enlarging and processing negatives I thought I would find it easier but it I still had difficulty with getting my picture to include the right amount of black and white. The majority of the time my pictures came out either light or dark and this is something I have to work on. Also, next week I should try to make it a habit to create contact and test strips.