Bibliography

Geoff Dyer, 2007. The Ongoing Moment. New Ed Edition. Abacus.

Bryan Peterson, 2004. Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition). Revised Edition. Amphoto Books.

Neil van Niekerk, 2009. On-Camera Flash Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography. Edition. Amherst Media, Inc.

Michael Freeman, 2007. The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos. Edition. Ilex.

Michael Freeman

Perfect Exposure. Edition.

George Hughes, 1988. David Bailey Masterclass : A Guide to Creative Photography. Edition. Hamlyn.

Bambi Cantrell, 2000. The Art of Wedding Photography: Professional Techniques with Style. Edition. Amphoto Books

Damien Lovegrove, 2007. The Complete Guide to Professional Wedding Photography: Creating a more profitable and fulfilling business. Edition. Focal Press

Final revisions to Assignment 5

This is my revision of assignment 5

Another decision when reviewing photos for the final assignment

Trying to decide if I really need to put in a photo of the church, it does not have much space around it and I struggled to get a nice photo of it so I used a fish eye lens for this shot turned the picture black and white and then put a texture on to it to try and give an arty feel to the photo, I have adjusted the brightness in the photo making the texture less dominant so that it fits in better with the rest of the set and am now trying to decide if it is right to keep this photo in with the final selection

decision 1 when reviewing photos for the final assignment

I found wedding photography to be very fast paced, as you have to work quickly to get the shot as it does not come again, I wanted to capture natural emotion without too posed a look. I am worried about the shots to use in revising my assignment, as I was not allowed to take any photos during the ceremony. I really needed to include a photo of the bride and her father going into the church, the feedback criticised the original photo that I used for having a blown out background although I had seen other photographer using this effect and I preferred it to the otherwise busy background. in hindsight if I had of used a wider aperture then I would have put the background out of focus more but this comes with experience in fast moving situations

Here is the original picture that I used terri had started to get really nervous and her dad looked at her with a really proud look.

This is the other photo that I took just before when they were standing with the vicar preparing to go in, I don't like how cluttered the background is and if I had a chance to retake the photo I would use a wider aperture to blur the background

I feel that I really need to add one of these as the bride and her father walking into the church is an important part of my story. but unsure about the new picture as it as a far to cluttered background.

Assignment 5 Evaluation

I was disappointed with my feedback for assignment 5 as where I had tried to add creativity to some of the photos they were seen as poorly taken shots, not working out as well as I had hoped. The feedback was helpful and made the point that I should have been more careful to have taken the bride and father arriving in the car shot from the brides side as this was on the road and the bride had to climb over to the curb side. I was distracted by this but could have planned this better and asked Terri to sit on the other side when she got into the car

The Methodist church where the wedding took place was situated on a small corner with hardly any grounds and was not very pleasing to the eye, as the church did not make a very pleasing photo I took the picture of it with a fish eye lens and added a texture to try and create a more interesting and fairytale wedding picture.

The main door to the church was boarded up inside so the bride and groom now have to use a side entrance. (Although I arranged with one of the church wardens who kindly opened the original door for a quick photo after the wedding), when the bride and her father entered the church rather than the distracting background I tried to show a more creative shot by blowing the background out, I had seen a similar photo to this in Damien Lovegrove's book Profesional Wedding Photograph which was one of the books that i based my research on. In one of the shots the tutor thought I could have directed the father better but I thought this was a real tender moment between the bride and her father as they where just about to walk down the isle and I wanted to take the shot in a more storybook style.

Quoted from Lovegrove's book "Storybook wedding photography is where record photography goes one stage further. All the detail and moments of the day are captured, telling the story of the day often through 'rose tinted glasses' even the brides shoes get there own shot! This is still essentially record photography, but usually the 'people pictures' take on a less formal style with only a few of the people showing eye contact with the camera."

I took lots of photos of the wedding starting at the brides house with her getting ready, and then meeting up with the groom and taking preparation shots with him before proceeding to the church.
I only selected a few photos for my assignment as the brief said to include 6 to 12 image and I also thought that these would clearly tell the story of the event without showing the whole day which I think would go on too long however I must have misjudged this and did not show enough of the day according to feedback, so I have revised this and added more photos though I was not allowed to take any photos during the service.

I found expressing myself in the learning log quite difficult but when discussing this with another photographer they suggested including evaluations. And I found this a more structured way of getting my thoughts across, something I had not thought of doing before.

Assignment 4 Evaluation

I find lighting to be a bit overwhelming and try to stay in my comfort zone as I am afraid of making mistakes with it. For the research stage of this assignment I used a book On-Camera Flash by Neil van Niekerk but found some of the technical aspects of the lighting quite difficult to get my head around as I am more of a hands on learner and nothing seemed to work by reading this book.

I then started to look into DVDs and viewed some of David Hobby's Strobist videos, as well as Zack Arias One Light videos. I found that viewing these made it easier for me to understand but had to watch them a couple of times till anything really sank in. I had a couple of friends that were pregnant and wanted some practice taking maternity shots so thought that lighting the baby bump would be the perfect subject to base this assignment on.

I found the feedback very helpful in making me rethink how I could improve my work. I had tried a different style of presentation, with 2 images on a page with text on the images. My tutor suggested that this was not the best way to present them and to avoid text on the images, so in my revision to the assignment I have altered these. Another of the photos had light on the models head and bump creating two points of interest, when my tutor pointed this out I realised that this took the emphasis away from the bump. The feedback also made me realise that where I had tried to achieve something different by including hands, detracted from the bump and what I was trying to initially achieve.

By using a macro lens I could have achieved a better result with the textured and coloured photos, but I think now that my lighting the bump idea was not ideal for this assignment as my model was quite anxious about her skin tone and wary of my taking close up shots. I have made revisions to this assignment but if I had used a movable object I would have been able to be more experimental without the worry of my models needs.

This assignment made me realise the importance of light and my need to explore this further, so I have since attended a lighting course at the Blackthorn School of Photography where I looked at direction of light and studio lighting set ups, this has made me more experimental where before I always used to play it safe with flat lighting. I have now brought a flash and am experimenting with different lighting effects.

Assignment 3 Evaluation

After working in black and white for assignment 2, I loved assignment 3 (Blog Reference - 17th July 2012) because I focused on colour photography and was really pleased with the feedback received.

I included some landscapes where I had been practising my skills using a tripod with a shutter release cable and a wide angle lens / use of a macro lens in the photo of the orchid. I based my research in this assignment on Ernest Haas (Blog Reference - 11th July 2012), who used richly saturated colours. I really liked his deliberately out of focus and blurred effects on some of his work. William Eggleston (Blog Reference - July 2012) was the other photographer that I researched. From a personal point it was not a style of photography that I enjoyed but put my favourite pictures of his work onto my blog.

I am looking forward to assignment 4 with the use of lighting techniques as this is something that I have not looked into.

Assignment 2 Evaluation

I have found Assignment 2 (Blog Reference - May 12) really interesting and eye opening, it has helped me learn to be more perceptive to my surrounding and all the angles, lines, shapes and curves that are around me - finding the right spot to take the photo, which can add so much more to the shot.

I chose street photography to base this assignment on and particularly enjoyed walking around looking for ideas of shapes to photograph, I wanted to practice my skills at using a 50mm lens on this assignment which made me thing more as you have to move your position more than just zooming in. I looked at the work of Andre Kertesz (Blog Reference - 23/04/12), he is famous for his unorthodox camera angles and haunting compostitions. At first I was not sure if i would like his style but soon became fascinated by his use of odd shapes and unusual angles.

Within my tutors feedback I was really pleased that my tutor noticed an improvement with my learning log as I had tried to set it out better.

Assignment 1 Evaluation

When I started this course and assignment one I found it very different from anything I had done before which took me a lot of time to adapt to. Looking back on it I think i was defiantly over eager to get out and take photos without the proper planning and research the assignment needed.

The feedback from my tutor suggested some photographers for me to research, which I found to be really helpful. I looked at the work of Alexander Rodchenco (Blog Reference - April 12), I love his abstract photography and his use of liner curves and angles. The other photographer suggested to me by my tutor was Laszlo Moholy-nagy (Blog Reference - April 12), I found his photos to be so modern and minimalist for its time, he uses curves and light to great effect. Unfortunately I had not heard of the 2 photographers suggested by my tutor before and looking into a little bit of art history has opened my eyes to some great photographers and ideas.

My tutor also suggested changing the style of my learning log giving me a couple of examples to view for ideas, this was useful as I had not done a log before and was struggling as how best to go about setting it out. I also find it hard to express myself within the log so will be doing by best to improve on this within future assignments.