Thinking after shoot

I think i got some good ideas from this shoot of what i want to focus on however it might be hard to keep travelling back into Auckland so i am going to consider changing location to make it easier to complete more shoots, after my teacher feedback i will also do another brainstorm to help get a better focus on what my idea is. I think having an artist model will help guide my shoot more.

Best images

Examples of best images

Evaluation

What worked?

The look i was going for with the flowers in the ice worked out really well, i liked to shape the flower created within the ice. it made it interesting placing the light behind and underneath because the light traveled through nicely. Stacking them worked better than i thought, which created the same kind of style as mr artist model. I also thought comparing them to a flower that is alive made a sort of contrast between the two.

What didn't, how could this be improved?

I had to photograph relatively quickly, it was a hot day and the ice was melting really quickly. I might re-shoot the same idea later in the year so i can develop it further without being in a rush because it would be more planed out. The horizon line i had created curved up a bit because of the surface i was photographing on, next time i will make sure it's at the right angle

What are you going to do next time to extend your idea?

Next i'm going to create a larger composition with more real flowers and petals. I might dry some to have the contrast of living/death. I also could freeze smaller ice cubes and have single petals in them, i might have a better set up with lighting. I could play with dye sucking into the roses flower petals. Another idea wis to have a camera set up and position the blocks in a specific area, i will then photography throughout the day, the blocks slowly melting until it is just the damp flowers in a puddle of water leftover.

Shoot 3 8/04/2022 280 images

Ideas

To photograph in the style of Andre Kertesz, I will photograph the architecture around the school focusing on the shadows and different angles created. I will explore all areas of the school to help me get an idea of a specific area that i want to photograph in further shoots.

• Lighting

• Angles

• Black and White

• Location: School or Home

• Rule of Thirds

Artist model inspiration

Andre Kertesz's exploration of photography start in 1912, his first photographs were of gypsies and peasants in and around Budapest. His work has been shaped by surrealism and constructivism, with a blend of his own style of emotion and observation. He was regarded most highly for his use of the Leica handheld camera, often photographing with a telephoto lens from his apartment overlooking Washington Square. He plays with the concepts of abstraction and figuration. Most of his architecture and still life photos including very strong shadows and lines. From my artist model (Andre Kertesz) i will be using his idea of architecture in black and white, highlighting the shadows. Like the examples below, one is in the distance focusing on the lines and shadows in architecture and the other close up focusing to the blocks of light and dark.

Examples of best images

Evaluation

What worked?

Photographing around the school worked out better than i thought it would, many of the buildings shapes and staircases created strong shadows which worked well with my artist model. When photographing at different times, when the sun was in different positions it created more areas where i could photograph as different shadows were created from the angle the sun was facing. The areas i liked to most was the staircase by A block, directly opposite the dining room, the lines from the bars of the staircase created interesting shadows onto the brick wall, i will be using this area to photograph again later in the year. Another area was the entrance into A block, that photos i took there looked better being not black and white however the lighting was very nice coming through the clear covering and created lots of different angled lines. I think i chose the right artist model to use and captured parts of his style well in my photographs.

What didn't, how could this be improved?

It took me two days to do this shoot because the sun kept disappearing behind clouds on the first day so i wasn't able to take a sufficient amount of photos. This isn't something i can change but i can prepare better next time by choosing a day where there are little clouds and the sun is really bright. I also think i need to work on angling the camera right when photographing areas with lots of straight lines, some of my photos look wonky as the camera is not lined up correctly with what i am photography, to improve this i will need to take more time and focus on getting an angle that looks right. Because of the style of the artist model i changed my photos to black and white, one area i photographed looked better with the original colouring, i can improve this by leaving those images their normal colour.

What are you going to do next time to extend your idea?

To extend my idea, i am going to use another one of Andre Kertesz's photographs as inspiration where he has a mix of architecture and still life. I will use this technique by incorporating a still life set up within my photoshoot in the same areas i photographed in shoot 3. The still life will be a vase of flowers. I will photograph from a distance then get closer up to the vase of flowers and explore that more in depth.

My experimentation using this artist model

Shoot 4 5/05/2022 218 images

Ideas

I am going to be doing another shoot around the school using a different artist model, Lewis Baltz. I will be focusing on the different depths and texture on flat walls, trying to find colours that will stand out once turned black and white. Another good technique to focus on will be rule of thirds, i haven't been trying to use it in my past shoots so i will be trying to bring it into this one.

• Black and White

• Depth of field

• Texture

• Rule of thirds

• Location: School (maybe some outside)

Artist model inspiration

Lewis Baltz's style is a mix of minimalistic, detached and dispassionate. He doesn't use the traditional romanticism of landscape photography. His monochrome images of suburban development helped to change the style of american landscape photography in the early 1970's. In the two photos i chose as inspiration are black and white photos of 'flat' walls, from a front on angle. I will be using this style as inspiration by photographing flat walls around the school that have different textures and colours, including some with different dof.

Examples of best images

Evaluation

What worked?

I thought it would be hard to find flat walls around the school that had interesting details on it, but it actually worked really well, i was able to find a wide range of of textures and flat-ish walls so i was able to incorporate my artist model well. I think the use of my artist model was strong within most of my photographs. Turning the images to black and white definitely made them a lot stronger, i liked them a lot better and it enhanced a lot of the texture and darker spots in the images. I thought taking photos of flat walls would look quite plain and boring however some of the images are interesting with the different lines and shades of B and W.

What didn't, how could this be improved?

I need to make adjustments in lightroom to improve the black and white, it does look good however i think in some images it could use some adjusting. I focused a lot on the artist model that i didn't really incorporate the style i want on my board, which is showing the strong shadows and angles, this was in some photographs but that wasn't by me intending to do it. I think going offsite might give me a wider range of photographs to look at, i struggled a little bit to photograph a sufficient amount of photographs, however i did get a decent amount in the end.

What are you going to do next time to extend your idea?

Next time i want to try think of something else to add into the photographs to create more detail or something more interesting. I could add in some sort of still life set up or an object that travels within the photographs, like what i talked about in the previous shoots reflection, i will use the artist model Andre Kertesz again but with other photos as inspiration. Then i might do a mix of black and white and colours on individual photographs to play around with lightroom and photoshop a bit more.