Final Assignment 5

Abandoned

f/6.3 1/125 ISO 800 85mm

 Domineering

f/4.5 1/30 35mm

Freedom

f/5.6 1/160 18mm

 

Surrealism- Carving your future

Original Photos

Surrealism:

FINAL ASSIGNMENT 4

SURREALISM

FINAL ASSIGNMENT 3:

FOCAL LENGTH
PERSPECTIVE

 

f/16 1/20 ISO 400 17mm

 

Taken on: 16 November 2009
Taken from: Compassvale Crescent, LRT

 

CLOSE UP

 

f/5.6 1/30 300mm

Taken on: 17 November 2009
Taken from: Redhill/ JiaXiang’s house

 

ZOOM SHOT

f/18, 1, ISO 1600, 17mm

Taken on: 17 November 2009
Taken from: Home!

 

HIGH KEY

f/4.5 1/13 ISO 1600 33mm

Taken on: 16 November 2009
Taken from: Home

 

LOW KEY

f/5.6 1/5 ISO 100 85mm

Taken on:  1 November 2009
Taken from: Clementi

 

FINAL ASSIGMENT 2:

APERTURE
SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD (Focus on foreground):

f/5.6 1/13 ISO 1600 64mm

Taken on: 17 November 2009
Taken from: Home!

SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD (Focus on background):

f/5.6 1/13 ISO 1600 64mm

Taken on: 17 November 2009
Taken from: Home

DEEP DEPTH OF FIELD:

f/9 1/30 ISOn 200 17mm

Taken on: 18 November 2009
Taken from: NUS outside Central Library, Lover’s Park

SHUTTER SPEED:
MOTION BLUR

 

f/5 1/2 ISO 200 41mm

Taken on: 7 November 2009
Taken from: Outram MRT Station

 

 

 

f/7.1 1/1250 18mm

Taken on: 17 November 2009
Taken from: Near Redhill MRT Station

FINAL ASSIGNMENT 1:

SHAPES: Heart-to-heart

Taken on: 16 November 2009
Taken from: Seng Kang, Opposite Compasspoint

Orginal: f/16 ISO 400, 1/15, 85mm

 

Colour manipulation: f/16, 1/5, ISO 400, 5mm

LINES

Wrinkles: f/7.1, 1/50, ISO1600, 85mm

Taken on: 28 September 2009
Taken from: New Life Family Chiropractic, Parkway Parade

PATTERNS

Shabu Shabu: f/5.6 1/50 ISO 400 85mm

Taken on: 16 November 2o09
Taken from: Cold Storage, Seng Kang

FORM-Teaism

Chinese teapot: f/11, 0.6, ISO 400, 64mm

Taken on: 15 November 2009
Taken from: Home!

TEXTURE

Broccoli: f/5.6 1/8 ISO 400 85mm

Taken on: 16 November 2009
Taken from: Cold Storage, Seng Kang

Human: Nature

‘HUMAN: NATURE’ to address universal concerns faced by the world. The duality in the theme can be freely interpreted either as ‘Human Nature’ or ‘Human & Nature’. The ‘colon’ represents a relationship and a balanced ratio between Human and Nature. Thematically, it is an ambitious call for creative interpretation on HUMAN: NATURE.
Format Photo Essay: Create a series of 6‐10 photos
Final Submission: Report of developmental process

Theme

Human: Nature has many interpretations. It can be viewed as “human nature”, “human and nature” etc. The topic on the relationship between human and nature is pretty interesting and I plan to explore the different perspectives of the relationship and find something that may amuse the audience or provoke thinking.

Development Process

• Stages of idea development

Idea Generation

Besides exploring the relationship between nature and human, I came up with the natural process of human ageing cycle, ecological cycle etc. I narrowed down to 2 main ideas that I like and worked into more details.

Idea 1: The natural change in one’s mindset and objectives as he/she grows old

Elaboration: The photos come in two sets of 5 photos, where male and female each will have different things that they yearn for from young to old. But in the end, what they want will always be something irreversible.

Idea inspiration: I got the idea when I was on the train, observing several people. I saw how a grandmother is bringing her grandson, trying to make conversation with the grandson, but the child was only interested in his Play Station Portable (PSP). On another hand was an office lady putting on makeup and talking to her friend about the latest Gucci bag she saw in Orchard Ion. This gave me the idea of how man will always want something, different at different stages of life.

Idea 2: The natural ecological cycle of human and his/her waste.

Elaboration: This is a 3-tier relationship, making use of the natural state of matter- solid, liquid and gas. This series of photos are a reminder to human, what we get are not man-made and it expresses a hint of irony to the relationship between human and nature and also, the natural body functions of a human.

Idea inspiration: This idea was gotten from the daily happenings around me. With the pollution of the earth getting worse as days goes by, people often forget that the things we have, like air, water and food are given by nature and we usually take it for granted.

Consultation and Finalization of idea

After consultation with the tutor, the second idea was more interesting and has a hint of amusement in it. The first idea may have a common concept of carrying out the works, where photos are linked together.

Thus, settling on the second idea, I worked through to refine the idea and make it less “straight-in-the-face”

• Final work

The title of each series makes use of the provided theme Human: Nature and is intended to provoke one’s thoughts.

Fresh. Air?

Fresh Air: f/9 1/30 ISO 800 28mm

Fresh Air?: f/5.6 1/250 ISO 800 47mm

Fresh. Air?: f/5.6 1/10 SIO 100 85mm

 New. Water?

New Water: f/5 1/10 ISO 1600 41mm

Water?: f/5.6 1/13 ISO 1600 17mm

New. Water?: f/4 1/20 ISO 1600 17mm

 Organic. Food?

Organic Food: f/3.8 1/160 20mm

Organic Food.: f/5 1/160 52mm

Organic. Food?: f/4.5 1/25 ISO 1600 30mm

Reflection

There were many things that are not easy to execute as one thought it will be. Some things may be too obvious, some too crude, some may not express in the way you want it and some may not be fit in with the rest of the photos.

These were some of the difficulties that I’ve met and tried solving. Photoshop could have solved many of the technical difficulties or skill disability, and this is what most people do nowadays. It is not easy Not to use photoshop when trying to take the photos, but once I got used to the DSLR camera, it was in fact difficult to try to use photoshop as you will want to challenge yourself and attempt it without manipulation.

1. Retakes2

Retakes 2:

Lines: Forehead wrinkles of Dr Nicholas Laird. Not from aging... it's from ex-fats...

Class exercise C

Podcast review

Task: Write a short reflection on ‘brief history of photography (Part 2)’ after watching/listening to the podcast on:
Brief history survey (Part 2), by Jeff Curto –http://photohistory.jeffcurto.com/archives/281
Slides: http://www.cod.edu/photo/curto/1105/slides/Survey2/index.htm

===================================================
Side-thought: It wasn’t easy choosing a photographer out of so many photographers… So I decided to look through the slides and their works, narrowing down a few from the slides and in the end, I found a few works that impressed me.
- Alfred Stieglitz (The Iconoclast), Andre Kertesz, Henry Peach Robinson  and Joel Peter Witkin who is not on the list.

Credits to http://www.rleggat.com

Henry Peach Robinson’s work was the one that made me turn back and take a closer look at the picture. Robinson was well-known for his pioneering combination printing, which means joining multiple negatives to form a single image.

""Fading Away" Credits to: http://www.kiberpipa.org

I was surprised when I knew that his “Fading Away (1858)” was made up of 5 negatives. There were controversy, those who knew that it was created via combination printing found it dishonest as photgraphy was a medium whose chief virtue was its truthfulness. Some criticized him for the presumed indelicacy of having invaded the death chamber at the most private of moments.
However, I think that was precisely the reason why I like the picture-because it is a moment one can not bear to see. At the first glance, it is just a normal black and white photo showing 2 ladies attending to a young girl. I think it was the name of the photo that caught my attention. Fading Away. It sounds like some colours or dyes that is fading away slowly. But on a second look, it’s life. Life is fading away from the girl who is dying. To me, the sadness doesn’t come from the two ladies, it is the black back facing the window. He is emitting so much sadness, the feeling of not bearing to see the death claiming his family that makes the photo sad.

It is amazing for people in the past, without photoshop did it. One critic mentioned that Robinson has cashed the photo on “the most painful sentiments which it is the lot of human beings to experience.” But the picture captured the imagination of Prince Albert, who bought a copy and issued an order for every composite portrait Robinson produced subsequently.

"She Never Told Her Love" Credits: http://www.metmuseum.org

Consumed by the passion of unrequited love, a young woman lies suspended in the dark space of her unrealized dreams in Henry Peach Robinson’s illustration of the Shakespearean verse:
She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i’ the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek” (Twelfth Night II,iv,111–13).
This photo was displayed by Robinson as a discrete work, and I found the model resembling the ill girl in ”Fading Away” 1858.

I feel that Robinson’s title for his photos always seems to give his creations another layer of depth. The dark background seems to envelop the figure in palpable melancholia and one will start to wonder what did the lady not tell her Love. Was it her love for him? Was it her illness? Was it something she wish to apologise for? So many possiblilities…. So melancholy…

"When The Day's Work is Done" Credits: http://www.getty.edu

This photo seems to be a simple photo that can easily be staged. However, it was created with 6 different negatives, and what was so amazing was how the lighting and the shadows was achieved when the woman was of a different photo from the man. I love the meaning of the photo: When the Day’s Work is Done, giving a soft light to the old ‘couple’, how she is waiting patiently for her old man…

I found a long quote from http://www.photoquotes.com by Robinson, and found an uncanny resemblance of what I’ve been trying to say: 
A picture should draw you on to admire it, not show you everything at a glance. After a satisfactory general effect, beauty after beauty should unfold itself, and they should not all shout at once . . . This quality [mystery] has never been so much appreciated in photography as it deserved. The object seems to have been always to tell all you know.. This is a great mistake. Tell everything to your lawyer, your doctor, and your photographer (especially your defects when you have your portrait taken, that the sympathetic photographer may have a chance of dealing with them), but never to your critic. He much prefers to judge whether that is a boathouse in the shadow of the trees, or only a shepherd’s hut. We all like to have a bit left for our imagination to play with. Photography would have been settled a fine art long ago if we had not, in more ways than one, gone so much into detail. We have always been too proud of the detail of our work and the ordinary detail of our processes. – Henry Peach Robinson

5. Emotions Capture

Choose one non-human subject, and portray it in minimum 3 different emotional expressions.
- Peace, serene, calm, harmonious, tranquil
- Happy, cheerful, satisfied, delighted, joyful
- Progressive, active, advancing
- Lonely, abandoned, desolate, solitary
- Sad, gloomy, miserable, depress, solemn
- Chaos, disorder, turmoil, mess

Initial Idea Generation:
flowers: Sunflower (Cheerful)/ flower remains (Mess)/ flower against other flowers (Lonely)
Rings: Couple Ring (Joyful)/ Old ring against New Shiny Ring (Abandoned)/ Old ring (Depress)
Sea: Peace, Cheerful/ Turmoil

Solitary: f5.6, 1/60, ISO400, 85mm

Messy: f56, 1/60, ISO400, 85mm

Outstanding: f5.6, 1/20, ISO1600, 30mm

Perilous: f5.6, 1/25, ISO1500, 17mm

Comments: I got this idea when I enter the storeroom where my mum keep her sewing machines and saw these threads remains on the floor. I tried to make use of the thread to express more stuff, but due to some echnical difficulties, it didn’t turn out as well as I wanted it to. 
I had some trouble with this Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL perhaps because I wasn’t used to using it. The last image has a blue tint and was underexposed. Thua I desided to “burn’ using photoshop to give it the feeling of “Danger”