The parent category for coursework.
Let’s start by getting something out in the open up front: I don’t like flash. I know it is useful in all sorts of situations, it’s an essential tool of studio and wedding photographers. Used properly and creatively it can transform muddy and mundane to glorious. Maybe it is my lack of learning practice that makes me shy away from using flash, but I genuinely … Continue reading 2.8 Fill Flash
A short time after completing the exercises on ‘Searching’ and ‘Series’, I found myself on Crosby Beach near Liverpool and the site of Anthony Gormley’s ‘Another Place’. Now I’ve always been fascinated by what washes up on beaches, so once I’d felt I’d done as much as I could with Mr Gormley’s figures I turned my camera down and brought back around 50 photographs of … Continue reading 3.2 Series – A Revisit
This exercise encourages us to just take a wander and photograph freely, then review and consider what caught our eye. This particular wander is through the French port city of La Rochelle, on a particularly hot and sunny day, though the town to a bay on the other side and back again. Below are 3 contact sheets showing the 40-odd photographs that caught my eye … Continue reading 3.1 Searching
In this exercise we are asked to produce a series of photographs focused on a specific subject. My chosen subject for this is based on two related on-going projects: plants that are growing on man-made structures and man-made structures and other artifacts being overwhelmed by nature. It’s also a test of something I constantly repeat to myself: Enjoy making the photographs you like and have … Continue reading 3.2 Series
In this exercise we are asked to photograph subjects against a plain, white background to remove the sense of place. Not being in the habit of shooting portraits of either people or flowers I found this to be a bit of a challenge – not in terms of the set up and technicalities of obtaining the images, but in creating something that might have some … Continue reading 2.1 Subject vs Background
I have to admit that I have had more fun that I’d anticipated with this exercise, and in the process learned quite a lot more about layers, custom brushes and actions. I’ve created many images, some good, some less so, some little more than doodles. One thing I’ve enjoyed since the days I used slide film is creating double exposures, so that is where I … Continue reading 2.12 Pixel Painting
During my recent week of working in Geneva I was able to indulge my newly discovered passion for street photography, and in doing so got a shot I felt I could use for this split contrast exercise. One evening sat on a bench at the Promenade Du Lac, a stereotypical example of a Genevois private banker came striding by (I don’t really know he’s a … Continue reading 2.11 Split Contrast – Geneva Man
I have found 2.10 to be a really useful learning exercise. In the past I have tended to use it infrequently, and then primarily to correct exposure rather than as a creative process. The original image I used was taken on one of our recent hot, sunny Spring days near the London Eye. It was grabbed in passing, so there was no time for any … Continue reading 2.10 Dodging & Burning – the Hardcore Superstars
In this exercise we are asked to consider Michael Bühler-Rose’s “The Conversation”. At first sight my reaction is that this is not a photograph I have any great liking for, but I cannot pin down why that might be and if there’s anything this course has taught me it’s to think as much about why I don’t like something as why I do. So here … Continue reading Picture Analysis – The Conversation
For this exercise I have chose a photograph from a trip in the Summer to visit friends in La Rochelle. It is one of a number of shots I got of the Cafe Parisien, some were better composed but this one has the most interesting characters staged in the most interesting manner. The original image is top, and a crop below. I’ve cropped in such … Continue reading 2.4 The Two Dimensional Plane
