Makara For Photography

Makara really lends itself to landscape photogrpahy. Especially during the golden hour.

The above image just fits my current interests perfectly, the two themes I want to focus on is the use of television and the use of discarded/forgotten objects. 

Unfortunate how TV's are becoming more and more redundant as technology advances more and more quickly.

8AM in the morning looking up the Valley of South Makara Rd. The fog hasn't yet lifted and the man made structures of windmills and transformers rise from the green trees and mist.

The sun brings warmth and light. The neighbours horse is silhouetted against a backdrop of morning sky and sunlight. Of central importance is the sun, followed by the horse, followed by the spacious sky.

Contact Sheet

Below is the contact sheet for my first shoot which I did on the 22 July 2013 at approximately 5.00 PM.

I found this location whilst driving from Lower Hutt towards Wellington. I pulled into Belmont Domain near the river and climbed through some trees and over a large pile of tree scraps.
I approached the place with a little bit of caution, remembering being told not to die whilst trying to take photos, with a bit of caution I continued.

Just looking around was incredible, I could see the old shack which I used as my starting place. I saw the tractor which was the only useful looking thing there. I saw the orange Ute which stole most of my attention, it looked awesome.

I love the images of the Ute. I love how naked the vehicle appears.
9 Profiles the truck, emphasizing a lack of doors and pickup tray.
10 Is looking through the Ute, emphasizing the lack of glass in the window, the sight of the steering wheel almost gives life to the vehicle, but the forgotten location ahead reminds us of its uselessness.
11 Shows the empty space in the front where there were no seats no carpet, a puddle of water, and no signs of human life.
12 Shows off the empty front of the vehicle, no motor, nothing to give the vehicle life.
13 Shows the lifeless machine against a backdrop of the motorway where other vehicles are being driven by people, helping them throughout their everyday lives. This shows off how disposable this pile of metal is.

I chose to title them with numbers as it shows the order I would like people to think I shot the images in.

Introduction

The first week back studying has been and gone and at the time I didn't think I accomplished much, but I think I must have been listening.

I am a student in my second year of study, continuing design in culture and context. In the past year and a half I have been the person in the group who has always thought of really crazy even slightly silly ideas and thought them plausible, not that that is a bad thing, it just means it takes longer to create some decent work.

So my first idea was television. Is it relevant? I don't know. Last year as a part of my DSDN101 stop motion project, I took a computer out into a forest and set it up to work using lots of extension cords, it worked really well. (I also have this idea that smashing a working television with a baseball bat would look awesome but maybe that's besides the point at the moment). Setting up televisions in a forest and photographing them is cool but what does it mean?

I expanded on the idea. I have noticed with my niece and nephew and other young children too that technology is become more and more a part of everyday routine. I wanted to use the television as a metaphor for this, completely removing the children from typical child environments and replacing them with the television. For example, a television in a baby cot, a television on a swing, a slide, in a sandpit, in a car seat, etc...

In reality this was harder than I expected, televisions are REALLY BIG. I am currently thinking of something else I could do, however, on my way back home from my Television attempt I saw a place that just looked really interesting and just went exploring with my camera. Here is where listening becomes important, I remember hearing the words "You will never get better at taking photos unless you take photos". This was a place that looked interesting to photograph so I went for it. I also remembered something along the lines of "Don't Die!" and this stayed in my head as I was unsure if I should have been there.

I shot some cool pictures. I will get these up in a contact sheet soon.