In the light of my Tutor's comments I have revised my self appraisal for this assignment and include it below. My only concern is that I have now exceeded to recommended length:
I live in a small suburb
of Grimsby/Cleethorpes which sits on the Humber Estuary. As I spend a lot
of my time at Cleethorpes and on the beaches and salt marshes that border the
resort with both my landscape and wildlife photography I have decided to base
this assignment on this location as it is my 'local patch'. I also used
Cleethorpes as a subject for the very similar assignment in Photography 1:
People and Place. Having decided to use the Cleethorpes area again, I
began by looking through my work for P&P and was rather pleased to feel
that my work has definitely improved. I
think that the technical quality of my photographs is significantly better in
post processing and also composition and I think that I have developed a better
'eye' when looking for subjects to photograph. I then put those images to
one side and went out to take some fresh ones especially for this assignment.
As well as conveying a strong sense of place, I also wanted to display a
range of styles of photography in order to show both my tutor and, eventually,
the assessment team that have have a knowledge and command of a range of genres
and techniques..
Cleethorpes is small seaside resort adjoining the port of Grimsby. I wanted to show some evidence of its use as a resort, as this is perhaps how the majority of people from away view the town, but to me Cleethorpes and its environs mean wide and expansive beaches, salt marshes and huge skies. The estuary is of international importance for wildlife, and hundreds of thousands of waders, geese and waterfowl migrate to spend the winter here. I feel that it is important that my photographs also illustrate this aspect of the area. The beach at the southern end of the resort is a well known and popular location for kite surfing and I wanted to make it the subject of some of my photographs. It would also give me the opportunity to include some action shots. The kite surfing takes place within sight of the Bull and Haille sand forts, part of the first world war coastal defences. Another aspect of Cleethorpes that I wanted to photograph was the town at night looking from the beach towards the prom. The aim of shooting from this location was to capture a reflection of the lights in either the water or wet sand. One small claim to fame for Cleethorpes is that it is on the Greenwich Meridian and the town makes quite a feature of this, one example being the meridian itself as a strip of metal with a notice board and signpost indicating both the north and south poles and their distances as well as such destinations as London, New York and Tokyo. Although a flat estuarine part of the coast, the area does have its wrecks which are revealed at the lowest tides and I wanted to include these.
Cleethorpes is small seaside resort adjoining the port of Grimsby. I wanted to show some evidence of its use as a resort, as this is perhaps how the majority of people from away view the town, but to me Cleethorpes and its environs mean wide and expansive beaches, salt marshes and huge skies. The estuary is of international importance for wildlife, and hundreds of thousands of waders, geese and waterfowl migrate to spend the winter here. I feel that it is important that my photographs also illustrate this aspect of the area. The beach at the southern end of the resort is a well known and popular location for kite surfing and I wanted to make it the subject of some of my photographs. It would also give me the opportunity to include some action shots. The kite surfing takes place within sight of the Bull and Haille sand forts, part of the first world war coastal defences. Another aspect of Cleethorpes that I wanted to photograph was the town at night looking from the beach towards the prom. The aim of shooting from this location was to capture a reflection of the lights in either the water or wet sand. One small claim to fame for Cleethorpes is that it is on the Greenwich Meridian and the town makes quite a feature of this, one example being the meridian itself as a strip of metal with a notice board and signpost indicating both the north and south poles and their distances as well as such destinations as London, New York and Tokyo. Although a flat estuarine part of the coast, the area does have its wrecks which are revealed at the lowest tides and I wanted to include these.
I made several
photographic visits to my location during the late summer and autumn in order
to cover the various subjects and optimum times. For the night shots I needed the lights to be
on, which I discovered only happens at weekends; the tide also needed to be
right. For my wader images I needed high
tide to bring the birds within camera range.
I chose a high tide which coincided with sunrise and used only a medium
telephoto as the aim was to include the
flock rather than portraits of individual birds. For my 'tourist' pictures I opted for a sunny
late summer weekend when there would be a good chance of plenty of visitors
being present. For some of the landscape
shots it was necessary to keep an eye on weather forecasts and visit at sunrise
and sunset. Many times the hoped for explosion
of colour at this time of day just didn't happen. In discussion with my tutor, he suggested
that "If we try to make work to a preconceived idea, we may miss something
new, something unexpected. He referred
me to an interview of Tod Papgeorge by Alec Sloth from July 2007 where
Papageorge comments:
My argument against the set-up picture is that it leaves the
matter of content
to the IMAGINATION of the photographer, a faculty that, in my
experience,
is generally deficient compared to the mad swirling
possibilities that our
dear
common world kicks up at us on a regular basis.
http://alecsothblog.wordpress.com/category/papageorge/
It was also suggested I look at a
conversation between Quentin Bajac and Philip Gefter where Bajac refers to a
discussion with Paul Graham where Graham states:
This is what photography is about. It is about having an idea
at first and
accepting that you’re going to be seduced, in the etymological
sense of the
word, by the world you’re encountering. Some photographers
remain really
stiff and rigid. They have the idea. They just want to
illustrate the idea. And,
then you have the opposite: photographers who go out to shoot
without any
preconceived idea and then, afterwards, try to put all the
pieces of the puzzle
together and construct something from their images, which is
what has
happened
in photography since the beginning.
http://www.aperture.org/blog/view-judgment-seat-quentin-bajacconversation-
philip-gefter/
To an extent, I agree with this but at the same time I do
try to 'previsualise' images in the way that Ansel Adams and Edward Weston did. I usually go out with some idea of what I
hope to capture, be it landscape, wildlife or any other genre, but, at the same
time, I keep my eye open for any opportunities that present themselves
otherwise many pictures would be lost.
The image below is an example:
In an interview for
Outdoor Photgraphy magazine (issue 175), when asked the question about his new
book 'Vision' " In the Vision you emphasise the imortance of preparation,
but are there benefits to shooting spontaneously?", he answers:
Absolutely.
Some of my best photographs were taken in spontaneous moments, and The
Vision is littered with them - including the cover image. Opportunities for spontaneous creativity are
more likely if we are out there in photographically promising situations in the
first placed. The final picture is often
a radical departure from the original idea, due to nature delivering the
unexpected - but I always need the starting point: an idea and a plan.
I feel that this is the
approach I take myself.
I have chosen to present
the assignment as a set of digital images on a DVD along with my self-appraisal as a word document. In this way it could later be easily
presented for final assessment. All
parts of this assignment are also on my learning blog. I have presented the
images in an order to represent one typical day from sunrise to after dark. Although the brief doesn't as for a
chronology, I am used to using my images to tell a story. I use my wildlife, landscape and travel photographs
as a basis for illustrated talks to a wide variety of groups and here the story
format is important. I envisaged that if
the photographs were hung or used in a slide show format it would be better for
them to be seen on a 'chronological' order to tell the story of a typical day
in Cleethorpes. The image files are JPEGS at 1284 pixels longest side and 72
dpi to be suitable for viewing on screen.
When I print images I print straight from Lightroom at 300dpi using the
appropriate ICC profile for the paper I use.
I have used Adobe RGB colour space as there is a wider range in the
colour palette at this setting and therefore more vibrant colours. I usually also have my camera set to Adobe
RGB.
I do the minimum of post
processing and like Ansel, Adams and Edward Weston, I try to' previsualise' an
image and capture that image in camera. My workflow and post processing is
similar for all of my photographs after capture:
·
import into
Lightroom 5;
·
crop if
needed;
·
adjust
exposure/levels;
·
if necessary adjust
the white balance/colour temperature;
·
if necessary
employ the ND grad feature in Lightroom after using the highlight slider;
·
increase
clarity and vibrance slightly and, depending if I have increased the colour
temperature, slightly increase the saturation.
I tend not to use ND grads
in the field as my cokin ones can give a magenta colour cast. I use the ND grad facility in Lightroom 5 as
I know that it is neutral. By and large,
although I will often bracket exposures ready for HDR, I do not make use of the
technique preferring the effect of using one image and ND grad filters. Having said that the monochrome shot of the
wreck with Grimsby dock tower in the background is an HDR shot.
My final selection of
images was made on the basis of technical quality, although to some extent this
is personal and subjective; another person may well have chosen a totally
different set from my shortlist. I also
selected images that helped to tell 'my story' of Cleethorpes and its varied
aspects and represented a range of styles.
I feel that my portfolio
matches my original aims: show a variety of genres and styles and the varied
aspects of the town. However, I feel
that editing down to only 15 images perhaps didn't give enough scope to show
everything I wanted. In retrospect I may
have been better sticking to one genre, in which case I would have opted for
landscape. I have included the genres of landscape, wildlife, street
photography, action and sports photography and night photography. The majority, perhaps, fall into the
landscape and street photography categories and, possibly, it would have been
better to have gone for a more even spread.
I do feel that I have given a good picture of the resort and shown its
varied aspects. When thinking about and
researching for this assignment, I gained inspiration from the work of Joel
Meyerowitz in his book 'Cape Light'. The
first of my images of a Cleethorpes Sunrise reminds me of several from Cape
Light such as Plate 24 Bay/Sky, Dusk, Provincetown and Plate 21 Bay/Sky,
Provincetown. My long exposure Pan image
of the beach dunes and sky also reminds me of some of his more abstract work. My street/social documentary shots remind me
of some of the ones in Cape Light such as Plate 12 Ballston Beach, Truro and
also Plate 8 with the same title.
http://mikespwdplearninglog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Reading%20and%20Research%2006
I have already mentioned the link to John Hinde's work at The Photographer's Gallery in my blog from my picture of the fairground ride.
http://mikespwdplearninglog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Reading%20and%20Research%2006
I have already mentioned the link to John Hinde's work at The Photographer's Gallery in my blog from my picture of the fairground ride.
I have long been a fan of
the work of Galen Rowell and often use his work as inspiration. In his book, Mountain Light, he mentions that
he rated his Kodachrome 64 film at 80
and Kodachrome II (ASA 25) at 32 in order to achieve the rich saturated effect
in his images that he preferred. I too
like to see well saturated rich images, but nowadays we have the benefit of
being able to tweak this in post processing to achieve the same result. Nevertheless, although I take not of the histogram
when I am making exposures my default mode is to set my exposure compensation
to - 1/3 or - 2/3 in the same way that Rowell uprated his Kodachrome film
stock.
