Nighttime photography

 Night time panoramas brought some interesting results. Particularly with light and black space.

Here I stood at the Karori Tunnel. I was bombarded with light and the colour yellow, it was an interesting location as a three way intersection. I could neglect the presence of a sky as the surounding hills created a black space that the image would fade into.

 

The street lines distorted and overall it was a hard image to work with digitally.

Karori Tunnel

This is my favourite mini-planet from Karori Tunnel the tallest poles and road markings are on the left and right of the image which gives the image some symetry making it easier to comprehend.

The next set I took at my home in Makara. the only light source comes from the immediate surrounding buildings as there are no immediate neighbours or street lights.

The first  image produced here has a lot of black space and seems to squash the buildings.

I tried to invert the image but as most settings the ground doesn't look good stretched.

 

Next I edited out the warping of the inverted image and merged the two images as I'd seen eimilar technique used in other mini-worlds. The effect usually works to coverup any central imperfections, here it helps to occuypy the space.

 

 

I do quite like the 1st and last images, I could definitely push these at a later date. In particularly the first image, I could try to eliminate some of the black space in the image whilst it is still in a panorama stage, hopefully this will stretch the buildings across the space more evenly.

 

Panorama Shoots

Over the last two weeks I have done a vast exploration of Wellington and beyond. I have explored the heights of Karori's Wrights Hill, I have ventured to the back of the airport whilst planes drop over my head, I have battled the varied weather of sun, rain and wind in the Hutt Valley and all throughout I have carried my camera and tripod, with whom I have become very familiar.

Here are contact sheets of some of these shoots.

 

Mini Worlds - Day/Night

Here are a couple of mini-planet images that I am pleased with

The first image, Day, is taken under a bridge, this results in the bridge bleeding into the foreverness of the sky; this is something we were advised against, however I quite like the aesthetic it brings to the image, it frames the image in a way that the sky alone cannot.

Day

My second image, Night, is a very busy image. Taken at the three way intersection on the Karori side of the Karori tunnel this image leads itself to some strange distortion.
I think in these images we are lead to believe that an even number of points of perspective is best; it is something that our miond processes easily. Here I play with that. This leads to a strange distortion of this mini-world in a way that interests me.


Night



Within this project I have explored a new technique that photography allows. There is more of an exploration of this that I can do. There are definitely still places that I would like to turn into mini worlds.

Under the bridge

I worked on a lot of different images, I considered submitting an image from under the bridge as a part of my final presentation but thought against it as I wanted to tell a  story of which it didn't build upon.

I was advised against having things other than sky at the top of my mini-planet images but I dared to try it and I think the effect is pretty sweet.

 

I played around with inverting images, but the majority of the time the stretching of the ground into the edges of the page resulted in strange distorted images. 

I also tried editing the top of the bridge out of the image and it appears empty, which could be another aesthetic altogether. It looks as if the production of the bridge just never happened and we live in a dystopic world where infrastructure is neglected but the church still proclaims "God Cares".

City vs Rural - Haiku

I want to make a statement about the differences between City life and Rural living.

Here is my Haiku.



On top of the hill
One side's cash and culture
The other serene

I was told in class that people like the alliteration.

I want to discuss the relations between the city and rural areas. What happens on either side of the hill?

As in my haiku the hill is a physical and metaphorical divider of two very different cultural environments.

On one side we have a place where money is made and spent, where people dress up, where lots of people reside, it is a place of people, yet also a place of loneliness.


The City

On one hand I want to say that the city is a disgusting metropolis of sin. On the other hand I feel I belong there. It is a place where everything is easily accessible.

Negative light

If you have ever walked through the city early in the morning and seen the remnants of the night before, before it has been cleaned or polished and swept away under the carpet, then you will know that it is lonely and filthy. As day breaks and the night time party is over there are people left to drag their intoxicated, exhausted bodies away through the filth of the streets.

Positive Light

The city is a luxurious place of convenience where anything that you can desire is within arm’s reach. The human ability to make things, especially buildings has created a place where all of your needs can be satisfied.

RuralI am yet unsure about how I want to frame the rural environment. I know that rural environments are an escape from the busyness of the city and there is a lack of outlets for money spending.

HDR

HDR is something I hadn't heard of before, but had seen. I know the effect that it produces but didn't know how it was achieved. I had a go today by seting up my camera on a tripod in an interesting place with multiple depths. I then took 5 pictures all with different exposures.
With the 5 photos I took to photoshop and automated an HDR image which I could then adjust to my liking.

I don't think I will be attempting to create HDR images maually, the idea behind it s simple enough, mask off the areas that are exposed incorrectly leaving a correctly exposed whole image. After this is achieved other effects can be used to touch up the image.

Glover Park Sculpture

The above image achieves an almost cartoon sethetic, there is depth in the clouds, the sculpture and the buildings and lampposts. I think it achieves artificial hyper realistic detail as I desired.

I will experiment with other HDR images and see if I can create other effects. I would like to do work like this with people, instructing them to be very still while I work.

To be continued...

Restricted Area

Throughout the taking of photos for this project I have explored different spaces in new ways. On one occasion I wanted to explore the area at the end of the runway of Wellington airport. I wasn't in the way of any planes or in any danger but there was still a  sign telling me not to be there.

I acknowledged it and ignored it. The feeling of rebellion was growing inside me.

I managed to get some fantastic shots that I could turn into panoramas and mini-planets but my best shot was of a plane coming in to land.

The colour tone of the images was superb, it was a fantastic sunny day, yet the wind that blew was a bitterly cold southerly that I bore the brunt of where I was.

Again I tried to merge two images of the same panorama into one mini world, this helped to cover up my errors and give the image another dimension.

RAP Week Two - The Flaneur

The flaneur was what we spoke of during the lecture. The image conjured up in my head of the flaneur was one which I saw in a film just last week. Vic Uni's film society screened the film "L'Écume des jours" or "Mood Indigo" In which the main character Colin is described as having wealth to survive him his life without the need for work, he is a fantastic person with flambouyant ideas for inventions who has time to fall in love and enjoy food; the camera work of the film was visually spectacular , encouraging the audience's eye to see and observe, much the way the flaneur is described to view the city.

We discussed Drift, as in drifting through the city, without a destination in mind, just going where you feel you should. This is something I feel I would be good at when I have the time.

If drifting is something the flaneur does I feel like I am not too distant from the flaneur, I may not have the money that the flaneur has, and I try not to live off of born privelige, but I do feel that when I have the time I can happily observe the world, especially the everyday happenings of others; both a part of and seperate from the rest.

Mash-up

I have had some ideas that in regards to project one that will bring together design, film, and falls. I have thought of using photography to illustrate falls and the immediate state of being after a fall, including pain, embarassment, the inability to move, shock, etc. However, I don't feel this would be an appropriate or considerate way to approach the subject. More-so I feel that shock images like this wouldn't work to encourage people to be wary of falls; fear might only produce the want for people to bury their thoughts of falls and ignore the potential dangers of the future.

A stronger idea that I discussed with the class was the creation of a mash-up video of falls throughout popular cinematic history. This idea was met with some criticism as all people could imagine was a comic video of people falling over similar to what is seen on television shows such as America's Funniest Videos Or a Benny Hill chase sequence. I had a completely different idea to this. starting with the original slapstick comics of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton falling down I would progress through a short history of falls in film, focussing on films that people will recognize. As the mash-up film progresses the film snippets will become more and more recent, they will also span a variety of ages, including children, teenagers, and eventually elderly people. I also want to intersperse the film with footage of a man jumping and falling from a building.

Charlie Chaplin Falls Over

The mash-up film will start off with themes of humor but towards the end of the film it will be clear that the mash-up is of a serious nature.

The footage of a the man jumping and falling from a building will hint at the theme of suicide, however the point of impact will not be portrayed. They video will cut to several elderly people falling over in different film snippets.

The overall idea is that if you are not active throughout your life and you have a terrible fall it is the equivalent to harming yourself in a suicidal nature.

Falling from a building.







Images are from:

http://comedyforanimators.com/2013/04/16/roberto-begnini%E2%80%99s-observation-of-chaplin%E2%80%99s-ass/

http://www.fotonewzealand.co.nz/2009/05/empire-state-building/photo-gta4-screenshot-fall-from-empire-state-building/

Flaneur take 1

The teachings of the lecture advised us to equip ourselves with a camera and roam the city, heading in whichever direction tickles our fancy. Below is my first attempt. Some of the images ar just things that I found interesting, e.g. dark posters, street art, natures presence in the city, CD's, cars, dodgy dealings with shady characters.

 

In some of the images I was just experimenting with the different camera functions, aperture, focus, shutter speed, ISO. Allowing different exposures, different light levels, and some blurred images.

 

Hopefully some of these images will influence my direction.

Falling

For the first project for design plus I have chosen to connect design and film in relation to the subject of falls; falling down; falling over. This project is especially concerned with the elderly who have the highest rate of falls in the country and how this affects healthcare in terms of more work and more money spent on treating falls,

I am a big believer in the idea that prevention is better than cure, in this sitation it is particularly true, as after a fall injury a person is a direct cost to the government through health care, and as they recover they are not productive and therefore a liability to the government.
On a more personal level fall injuries result in people being injured and in pain, they can leave people with less mobility than they previously had, and in severe cases can result in death.

My project will focus on using film in a way that can convey the message that mobility throughout ones life is the best way to prevent fall injuries as one ages.

Where this will take me and what my final output will be I am yet to discover.

UNTAMED

Steve Bloom is a wildlife photographer who has produced fantastic images. Often this involves exploring the remotest parts of the world and waiting for the amazing things that he captures to happen.

As a reader of his work there is a definite taking for granted that we experience by seeing this things just by turning the page, we havn't pain stakingly waited in awkward positions waiting for that perfect shot like he has.

There is an element to all photography that is the decisive moment, Bloom portrays this consistanly in his phtographic collections that span the globe over long periods of time.

 

 

If there is nothing of significane in a photograph then why would you bother taking it in the first place?

RAP Week One - My Pledge.

Today was my first lecture of the second trimester and my first lecture as a note taker for the class, something I have been meaning to do since I started at University but never had the confidence to stick my hand up to do. After morning classes it was good to sit down and write and lose myself in my own notes a little bit. I like to get creative with colour, shape and font when making notes. 

The course has been constructed so that by the end of it we have written our own design manifesto. A lot of the lecture was about what a designer is and why people design. 

We talked a lot about what kind of designer each of us will be. Currently I’m not entirely sure what form my manifesto will take but I do know that using natural and local resources will likely be a part of it.

We were asked to visit http://www.goodfuckingdesignadvice.com/ (which the uni has blocked, defining it as adult content) and take a pledge, mine is below.

I, Jayden Hamilton, hereby swear to abandon all fear; to question everything; to trust in myself; to honor those before me as I excel, and to support those who follow as they ascend. I swear that I will never accept another’s standard for success, as I set mine one measure higher. When I am finished, no one will ever fucking look at their environmental resources the same way again.

Lastly, we were told that the tutors and lecturer care a lot, so... 

BURG

Wolfgang Tillmans is a master at taking snapshots of seemingly normal realities but he brings them to life in creative ways. A lot of Tillmans images capture the happenings of one person's everyday rituals, to other people this can be extraordinarily different. Tillmans implies life in lifeless objects whether it be a piece of fruit or a pair of jeans. One of my favourite images is titled 'Grey jeans over stairpost, 1991'.

 

This image is striking in the way there is a lack of human presence but you can imagine the human presence that led to the composition of such an image. I can see in it the frnatic scrambling out of the jeans and other clothing items and the stumble up the stairs to a room less public, for private happenings. I think the abundance of light places the time of the photograph at the morning afterwards, which further implies lack of care for the state of the house, more important things were on these peoples minds, at least util the next morning.

 

All of this from a pair of jeans.

Grey jeans over stairpost, 1991

 

 

moonrise, Puerto Rico, 1995

Another image from BURG that I found breathtakihng is 'moonrise, Puerto Rico, 1995'. Firstly, in the book the image is a different colour to the one below. The globe in the sky is more of a yellow than an orange and the white t-shirt on the left is more green.

 

The image tells us that at least two people are experienceing this fantastic sight, appreciating the wonders of the earth; we are left to imagine the relationship of these two people. Which could be anything from best friends, to lovers, to a spontaneous pairing, they may have just met whilst searching out this marvel and from it may come a fantastic friendship.

 

Again, an image that is just a snapshot, a single frame in the life of someone, we are left to make up the rest of the story.

 

 

Images from: 

 

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artwork/9642

 

http://arttattler.com/archivetillmans.html 



Expanded Photographics

It is the start of a new term/trimester of study and the second year photographics paper is one of the courses I've been looking forward to the most. Unfortunately I have discovered that I have to leave lectures half way through to attend a lecture for another course with a time clash.

I should manage, I have friends who are also taking the photographics course so I shouldn't fall behind too much.

I have briefly looked through the course outline for the course and realized that the project briefs are more to do with information gathering than the first year photographics course; this is something that I find interesting and challenging, it is a useful skill to use photography as a means of data, and it is a skill that will be useful throughout my studies and career. It nicely complements my interest in documentary film. 

Yesterday I went to the library and took out two photography books. One is titled BURG by Wolfgang Tillmans; the cover is of an animal poking its head out of a paper bag, very playful. The other book is titled UNTAMED by Steve Bloom. Bloom is a nature photographer, particularly of animals, the cover is of a bear, large and terrifying running through water towards the camera. I want to be amazed and intrigued by these two books. I want to see what each photographer has chosen to capture and  what they are trying to communicate. 

I'm ready to get back into some focused photography. And so I am looking forward to Friday's (half)lecture and tutorial.