University Assignment 01 & 02

This year, the topic we are focusing on is creative photography (hence all the weird photography below this for directed studies etc).  We were given two assignments, the first was to take a 'creative' self portrait of yourself that conveys something about you.

I already had a good idea of what I wanted to do for the self portrait as I accidentally came across this tunnel the other day when I got the wrong train to some dive in Birmingham.  I knew this would be a decent spot for the portrait I wanted to do so I went back there, set up the camera and flash on a stand and put on a timer.  It was very difficult to judge when it was going to go off (I don't have a remote for my camera) so I had to try and time my pop in time with the bleeping from the camera and get the timing right.  It was solid.  This was the best photograph I managed to get before my board snapped.

For the second aspect of this project, we were given a list of words and had to pick five of them and then portray those words through a photograph basically.  You could photograph anything as long as you could justify it, but the more 'creative', the better marks essentially.

 

Danger

Security

Power

Communication

Peace

These were the images that I managed to obtain from the photoshoot.  I feel that there were words that I wasn't as successful in being 'creative' as I could be (communication, danger and communication) but I tried to be more 'creative' with the composition when portraying these words.  The peace photograph is the one I am most happy with because of the variety in the colours and the composition.  I feel this is my best photograph as gravestones portray someone resting in peace and I thought this might come under the 'creative' category but that's for you to judge.

The 'power' photograph is probably the most creative photograph as it could symbolise what once drove the economy in Birmingham with the canal in the foreground and the old bricked chimney showing the old industries that use to bring money into Birmingham.  It's open for your interpretation though.

Hope you like them anyway, feel free to leave comments or feedback.  Thanks for looking!

Directed Study For University

For this directed study, we had to ask a housemate to put random items on a table and create creative photographs with whatever items were on the table.  It started off how it was supposed too I guess, and I managed to obtain these shots below.

After a while, I started finding it hard to make creative images with what was on the table and decided to turn what was on the table into, what we decided to call, "Wendy The Weight".  The weight is a bit more creative than the actual photography but this was worth putting up on the blog.  Enjoy!

 

Bristol Road Light Trails Experiment

As I have done a lot of night photography and feel it is one of my strengths, I thought I would experiment with some more night photography and light trails this weekend and see what I could capture.

I decided to try and photograph moving cars while moving the camera on the tripod along with the car as it went pass me on the road.  It was difficult to find the right exposure on my camera but ended up mainly shooting these images on an ISO 100 with around 2 seconds exposure.  I then started moving the camera on the tripod in along with cars and ended up with images like the ones below.

Towards the end of the shoot, a group of smack heads approached me asking me what I was doing so I kind of explained to them, not that they really cared like.  The girl insisted I got a photo of her so I said alright, but didn't expect her to lift her top up for the camera so fortunately this wasn't in focus.. although if it was, it would have been one hell of an ugly shot!  She was a mess.
 

Swansea University Work Experience 04

I also photographed the 'Centre For Sustainable Aquaculture' in Swansea University, where many species of sea life are studied, both animals and plants.  Below are the images that I took in this section of the 'College Of Science'.

Swansea University Work Experience 03

On day three of the work experience, I went on a field trip with the 'Biosciences Department' to Oxwich to look for otter remains.  They were looking for there poo to establish what they were eating to survive in the Gower area as a part of a study.  Although we didn't see any otters, poo was found and they were able collect the poo for further study back at the lab (as pictured below).

They asked me to come along with them and photograph the day, their findings and some wildlife for the ' Biosciences Department'.

This is picking out the particles of food from the poo to establish what the otters are eating.

 Above are the images of the group that went on the field trip down Oxwich.

These are the images I managed to capture of the wildlife that was about down Oxwich; above are pictures of water snails, tadpoles and two different breeds of moths.

Swansea University Work Experience 02

These are some of the images that I took from my second day on work experience in Swansea University.  I was asked to go around the 'College Of Science' department and photograph the facilities, experiments, apparatus and students using the various facilities for their website page.  Here are some of the shots that I took on this day of work experience.

This is an experiment about how quickly things decay in different liquids and solids, or if they do decay at all. 

The way snakes should be, dead!

These are pictures of post graduate students working on their experiments in the laboratories and equipment provided.

London South Bank Fashion Clothing Shoot

Last Friday, I went to London to do a photoshoot for 'Henrietta Park' around the South Bank in London.  Ellie (model below) and I were told to go and find areas around London that would work for showcasing the clothing that she makes so we had to locate spots that would be ideal for this kind of photography.  

As this was a kind of photography I had not really done before, it was something new to me but overall I was happy with the outcomes of my first attempt at a fashion clothing photography shoot.  Below are some of the finished shots that I have done for Henrietta Park.

Any comments or feedback appreciated.