Guildford Photosoc - Digital competition No 4

I entered two photographs for the final competition for digital images this year and both photographs obtained favorable scores.

High Polish

Nikon 18-200mm at 22mm: Iso 400 f8 for 1/60th seconds

This car was parked outside our hotel in Milan in May 2010. The morning light was bright on the building opposite producing this bright reflection. I chose this of several other photos that I took becuase more of the car was visible. Some of the others were rather too abstract. The judge considered whether the road surface in the background and side of the neighbouring car detracted from the picture, but ultimately awarded this photograph 10/10.

Mist on the canal

Nikon 18-200mm at 30mm: Iso 200 f5 for 1/5000 second

Taken against the sunlight, the exposure was difficult, so I bracketed several photos. I chose this one as I thought the misty surface of the canal was complimented by the dark trees on either side. I also liked the small patch of water at the bottom of the lock gates in the foreground. The judge awarded this photograph 9.5 out of ten. Interestingly, this was the photograph that most people I spoke to mentioned afterwards, rather than High Polish. I feel that this picture has a greater emotional pull than the reflection of a building.

Dmitri Kasterine and Mary McCartney - on display at National Portrait Gallery

There were displays of work by these two photographers, maybe 20 photographs each. As you would expect at NPG, these were all portrait photographs. It was interesting to study the contrasting styles of these photographers.

Dmitri Kasterine

Kasterine was active as a photographer in UK and USA for magazines, and is known for a close association with Stanley Kubrick. The portraits in NPG were mainly of famous cultural figures, painters, writers, actors. The portraits were black and white, they seem to have been taken in nature light with a plain wall or dark plants as background. The figures are sitting or standing still with quite solemn expressions looking directly at the camera. The sitters hands seemed to be particularly prominent (even where the hands are not visible e.g. Martin and Kingsley Amis are both standing with their hands in their pockets). The hands are clasped, or the arms folded, resting on the knees. His portrait of Samuel Beckett epitomises these characteristics.

Mary McCartney

The NPG collection of her photographs are mainly famous figures from the world of dance, fashion and other celebrities. The portraits are in colour, and there is a mix of interior and exterior scenes. The backgrounds of some are quite busy with bookshelves, office furniture etc. The characteristic that I particularly noted with her pictures is that the figures are almost all active. She seems to follow the style of Henri Cartier-Bresson of trying to take a photograph of the person at an expressive moment in a conversation. This style can be seen in her portrait of Billie Jean King.

Photographic portrait prize - exhibition at National Portrait Gallery

On the same day, I visited the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition. I had seen the exhibition for an earlier year before I started TAOP but was disappointed with the photographs at that time. In this years exhibition, I found quite a few of the photographs interesting. I am not sure whether the quality of the photographs was better this time, or whether my taste has matured?

The NPG website only shows a handful of the prizewinning photos. It therefore takes some time to track down copies on the web of photographs that interested me.

Lara by Vivi Ableson

I thought that this photograph was quite effective as the teenage girl is facing the camera, with the backs of two much bigger men on either side. The girl is looking straight at the camera in a very natural way, and is showing some interest in her surroundings, whereas the two mens posture implies that they have been sitting for ages and are totally bored. I quite liked the other photographs in the same sequence "Infantes".

Charlie Watts by Michael Donald

The lighting interested me in this photograph. The figure has a "painterly" impact against the dark background. I felt that the artist must have used photographic lighting to achieve this effect, even though the viewer has the impression that the light is coming from a window on the left. The level of illumination on the shaded side of the face, and the darkness of the background do not quite seem natural.

Not even magic could stop the genocide by David Graham

In this photograph, I liked the blue-green colour and graduated lighting of the background which complements the red-brown jacket of the subject. I feel that this background strongly enlivens the visual qualities of the photograph.

Golfing sisters by Anita Corbin

This photograph seemed to capture the style and character of these two striking ladies beautifully, in an unusual composition.

General points I noted from the exhibition was that almost all the photographs were colour, but often muted colours and pastels. I also noted that there were a significant number of portaits of two people together, such as Lena and Katya by Michal Chelbin (maybe undermining the principle that odd numbers are more photogenic.)

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010

In January, I spent a day in London visiting various photography exhibitions. This was the second year that I have been to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. I found some very impressive photographs last year and I was not disappointed in the photos in this year's exhibition. The photographs that I particularly liked this year were the following.

Dawn Call by Pierre Verney

A stag stands bellowing in silhouette quite small in the frame against a blue-grey background. There is however a beam of yellow sunshine shining diagonally across the frame so that the stag is standing close to the apex of the angle where the sunlight reaches the earth. The "framing" of the stag is further enhanced by a line of yellow coloured plants in the foreground.

Rock Art by Verena Popp-Hackner

This is a colourful abstract with strong diagonals. Ridges of rocks on a beach are viewed at an angle and the shapes and colours zig-zag from top right down to bottom left. The colours look real and unreal at the same time.

The Big Four by Tony Wu

A photograph of a group of four sperm whales, two facing towards the lens and two sideways on. It seems that they gather together near Dominica to socialize and play. I particularly liked the way the muted sunlight revealed the form of the rather attenuated shapes of their bodies. (I had just finished the "lighting" section of the course).

Back in, front out by Era Malkonen

A delightful photograph of penguins, five with their backs to the lens, and behind them, ten or more facing the lens. Against the white background, the one facing the lens are only visible by their black caps, black eyes and beaks, and a thin outline of black around the shoulders and wings.

A marvel of ants by Bence Mate

The overall winner of the competition, the subject, composition, lighting of this photograph are outstanding. I stood in front of this picture for at least 15 minutes marveling at the shapes and sizes of the ants, the extraordinary length of their legs, the huge pieces of leaf they are carrying and so on. Visually, the mix of silhouettes and back lit and figures around the hole in the leaf is a beautiful touch.

Assignment 5 - Applying the techniques of illustration 2

It has taken me several days to decide which photos to use and how best to display them. For each subject I wanted one or two visually gripping photographs which together with a few smaller photographs would illustrate the message. I wanted a variety of subjects (people, places, objects) and in addition a mixture of photographic compositions (telephoto, wide angle, pattern, shapes etc.). I also wanted to use contrasting colours to enliven the visual display. I will set out my comments on this process page by page.

The structure of the narrative is largely the same as I planned, with two exceptions:-

• I found that I needed an introduction section, which, with photographs, increased the article by 2 pages.
• I decided to make the "Life on board" section 2 pages instead of a single page. I thought itwas better to have a double page spread for each of the topic areas.

As a result, the final draft article has 12 pages.

Page 1 Cover "Beyond Tanimbar"

Observations

I have used a vertical format as the majority of magazines are like this. The cover photograph is a landscape: the boat on which we were travelling highlighted against the dark backdrop of a mountainous island. I used a long focal length (equivalent to 200mm) in this photograph which results in some foreshortening so that the mountains seem closer and more impressive.

The layout style I have used is to inset a short title/description of each picture in black or white in one of the corners.

Pages 2 and 3 "Forgotten islands..."

Observations

I initally attempted to prepare the layouts one A4 page at a time. The layout appearance however was much less pleasing than the National Geographic style that I was imitating, where the larger photographs are spread over two pages. I therefore decided to prepare double page layouts using A3 size pages. To ensure that photographs sit appropriately across the central fold, I have inserted a faint vertical line where the fold would be.

In this introductory page, I have included text to set the scene by explaining where the photographs were taken, how I was traveling, and why the the islands are interesting.

I chose two contrasting photographs to illustrate this page:-

• A full page photograph of the prow of one of the stone boats which are famous cultural icons of the Tanimbar islands. I took this photograph at wide angle from ground level to emphasize the sweeping curve of stones (and to minimize surrounding buildings and people).
• A photograph showing a crowd of villagers and visitors walking and singing together. This illustrates the warm welcomes we received throughout our trip. Visually, the red colours of some of the clothes draw the eye, even though this picture is much smaller. I also liked the contrast of subjects by showing a photograph of people alongside the picture of stonework.

I also included a small scale map of Indonesia (imitating National Geographic style) as many viewers will not be familiar with this part of the world. "Forgotten Islands" is also a reference to the principal book about these islands "Forgotten Islands of Indonesia - The Art and Culture of the Southeast Moluccas" by Nico de Jonge & Toos van Dijk published by Periplus Editions in 1995.

Pages 4 and 5 "Mountains and beaches ......"

Observations

Some islands in this area are volcanic whereas others are limestone with caves and gorges. After some deliberation, I decided to illustrate this dichotomy. I discarded prior ideas of contrasting photographs of coastal towns with villages or contrasting low lying islands with more mountainous islands.

I chose five photographs for this section:-

• I chose to make the photograph of the volcanic island the largest on these pages as I considered that this was the most interesting visually of the island photographs. This is a wide angle photo taken from the stern of the boat so that the boat and other people are major elements in the picture. I like the feeling of depth that this gives, even though the volcano itself is reduced in significance in the frame. I chose a viewpoint so that the island was framed between the deck and the deckhouse roof. In the layout, I placed the photograph so that central fold passes just to the side of the person standing in the left foreground so that he is on the left hand page. I like the way that his camera and the heads of the other people draw the viewers attention to the volcano.
• The second largest photograph placed at the bottom of page 4 is the second most important, as this illustrates the terrain of one of the limestone islands. The rocky limestone terraces on the left of the frame are brightly lit by the morning sun, making them the point of attention. The composition has several similarities with the largest picture as there is a figure standing in the left foreground, and I have again used the boat's structure to frame the island giving some sense of depth to the picture. I feel that this repetition of composition adds to the visual quality of the layout.
• The third landscape is a wide angle photograph of a beach in the midday sun, with a boat and palm leaf in the foreground. I thought that it was important to include a photograph of a beach as this would be many peoples' expectation of tropical islands. I chose this photograph as the scene was perfectly still, and the dark boat and shadows provided visual contrast. There are only a few visual elements in this picture and hence,I felt the viewer would understand scene even at a small size.
• The two other photographs show interesting details of the geology of these islands. One is the entrance to a cave (with a small figure to give a sense of scale) and the other a close up of an eruption of the volcano, showing the greyness of the dust and clouds which are not apparent in the main picture.

Pages 6 and 7 "Daily life..."

Observations

I had collected a range of photographs of daily activities in the small towns and villages that we visited. I decided to concentrate on rural lifestyles as these were more distinctive than urban activities.

I chose one large and six smaller photographs to illustrate this section:-

• I particularly wanted to include the photo of the bamboo water collection pipes as this was, in my view, highly ingenious and unusual. This photograph needed to be large for the visual effect of the multiplicity of pipes to impress the viewer. I used the lens at approximately a standard focal length from the side of the slope to give a normal perspective of the water collection area. I inset a telephoto picture of a woman pouring water from a collecting can,as the collection vessels are not readily visible in the main picture. I placed a white border around the inset to make this more distinct.
• I chose the five other photographs to illustrate people working in agriculture, fishing, cooking and washing. The photographs of the woman pounding corn with a stone, and the bowl of cashew fruit are simple "portraits" that attract the eye. I placed these two together on either side of the fold as the similar colours seemed to go together. At the bottom of the right hand page, the silhouette of the man going fishing stands out strongly against the surface of the sea in the background. I deliberately left the wide band of sea and the far horizon in the frame to emphasize the small size of the man and his boat compared to the open sea. The other two pictures contain more detailed scenes which allow the eye to linger and explore a little longer. The patches of blue and greens seem to harmonize reasonably well with the predominant green in the main picture.

Pages 8 and 9 "Cultural traditions....."

Observations

Having used a photograph of one of the boat monuments in the introduction, I was left with two striking photographs: the portrait of a village chief and the photo of a group of boys performing a warrior ceremony. I wanted to chose one of these to be the main photograph:

• I decided that the portrait of the village chief should be the main photograph, and placed this as a full page photograph on the right hand page. I took the opportunity to take this half body photograph with the lens at 80mm (equivalent to 120mm for a full frame camera) whilst we were standing in the shade of a large tree.
• I was happy to make the photograph of the boys smaller because the bright colours of their costumes strongly attracts attention. I was using a longer focal length of 135 mm(equivalent to 200mm for a full frame camera) to pick out one individual dancer in a group of about 20.
• I also wanted to include one of my photographs relating to the hand weaving of textiles. I chose a photograph of a woman preparing a spindle of cotton, as the vertical frame and dark tones matched the photograph of the ivory tusks. Also the blue colour of her blouse contrasts with the reds, oranges and yellows of the other pictures in this section. The depth of field with the focal length of 80mm (equivalent to 120mm full frame) and f5.6 was not enough to strongly blur the background, but she was fortunately in a lighter spot with a darker background.
• The photograph of the interior of the ancestor house containing ivory tusks is visually less striking than the other photographs on this page. I have included this photograph as I think that it compliments the other photographs in terms of subject, tone and shape.

Pages 10 and 11 "Life on board ......."

Observations

This was my fourth voyage on this boat, but this was the first trip where I actively looked for photographs of the life of the crew. They were relatively few in number and so it was not difficult to make their acquaintance and to take photographs of some of them.

I selected four photographs to present the crew's activities and one view of the sun deck to symbolize the time and space for relaxation.

I decided not to have one main photograph for this section, partly to be different to the other sections:-

• On the right hand page, I placed two contrasting photographs intended to be equal in prominence. The upper one is a scene of a quiet conversation of two men in silhouette with a progression of misty headlands in the background. The composition places the two figures quite symmetrically, but the vertical pole on the right hand side combined with the standing and seated postures of the two figures provides reasonable visual interest.
• The lower one shows five members of the crew hauling on the ropes. In this case, the main visual elements are less conventional. As I see it, the two figures hauling on ropes in the left foreground and centre are the main points of initial visual interest. They are pulling in opposite directions one to the left and the other to the right. In addition, one is pulling up whereas the other is pulling down. There is accordingly a sense of balance between the two figures in tension. The edges of the sail and the ropes seem to point the viewers eye towards the figures. The dark blue of the sail and its shadow also seem to draw attention to the two figures by acting as a partial frame within the frame.
• The three photographs on the left hand page are more straightforward in terms of composition. One photograph is a head and shoulders portrait of the helmsman viewed in profile with the afternoon sun lighting up his face. The second is a view of the cooks working in the galley. The lighting of this photo was particularly tricky as the kitchen was quite dark, but in every direction there was an external window with bright daylight. It took me several attempts to achieve a reasonable balance but I still need to make software adjustments to produce a reasonably result. The third photograph is intended to symbolize rest and relaxation, in the form of deck chairs on the boat and a tree-lined sandy beach in the background. The absence of people in this photograph distinguishes it from the other photographs in this section.

Page 12 Final page

This was my most successful photograph of the sun setting on this trip, after each evening watching the sun go down, camera in hand. At first glance, I think it is the curvaceous shapes of the sails and negative spaces between the sails which attract the eye. These shapes then draw the eye to the lower left of the frame where some people are standing with the sun setting on the horizon behind them. There are then some interesting details in the reflections of light on the rails and the deckhouse windows. Strangely, the ladder-like shrouds that stretch diagonally from bottom left to top right of the frame seem to have relatively little visual effect, despite being a significant visual element in the picture.

Conclusions

Whilst this assignment can be viewed as an exercise in applying the lessons learnt throughout this course, I found that I came across several new things in preparing this photographic essay, in particular:-

• Deciding what factors to consider in order to produce a stimulating magazine-style display for an unknown reader/viewer. There have been a couple of occasions in the past few years where I have prepared a panel of three or six photographs for display. My objective for such situations was mainly to achieve coherence between the group of pictures. I have also made a number of photobooks of holidays for our own enjoyment and for these, the identity of the people and places has been been the most important consideration. The considerations for this assignment have been quite different.
• Studying a number of National Geographic magazines to identify the layout styles they use to produce effective photographic essays.
• Examining and selecting photographs taking account of such a variety of considerations.
• The use of size and prominence to create an interesting yet balanced presentation.
• Learning how to use the Photoshop Elements software to prepare page layouts.

Assignment 5 - Applying the techniques of illustration

The objective of this assignment is to illustrate a story of ones choice for a magazine cover and picture essay of 6 - 12 pages.

I have chosen to illustrate the story of a two week trip on a traditional wooden schooner around some of least visited islands of Indonesia in November 2010. This was our third voyage with the same group of friends and trip organizer. Knowledge of these previous holidays helped considerably with planning the assignment, even though I had never visited this particular area of islands before.

Before we left UK, I read through the course notes for this section of the course and prepared an outline plan as follows:-

Page 1: Cover

Pages 2-3: Landscapes (islands, volcanos, seascapes)

Pages 4-5: Daily life (street scenes, markets, street sellers, school children etc.)

Pages 6-7: Cultural life (dancing, weaving, religion)

Page 8: Life on board (activities of crew and passengers)

Page 9: Farewell (sunset, port departure?)

I noted "Wildlife" as an option for inclusion. Our groups main interest in going to these islands was to see the various cultures of the inhabitants, past and present. We were not planning to visit places to see bird or animal life. On previous holidays I only obtained a handful of nature photographs.

With this list of topics in my mind, I was looking for suitable subjects on each day of our trip. I have now sorted out the better photographs, and need to decide on the selection and layout of the each section of the picture essay.

I think that I will again imitate the layout style and text from a photo essay in National Geographic magazine "Malaysia's Secret Realm" by photographer Mattias Klum (NGS August 1997). I first used this page style for the Narrative Picture Essay exercise. This layout has a white background, which I think suits the bright tropical light. I also liked the treatment of text, short and to the point. I also quite liked the idea of insetting small photographs on top of a larger pictures that I saw in National Geographic article "Testing the Waters of Rongelap" by Bill Curtsinger and Emory Kristof (NGS April 1998).

Illustration - Rain

I took the photographs for this exercise when we were in Indonesia in November. There were several tropical showers in the first week when we were staying in a small hotel on the island of Bali. This gave me the opportunity to take some photos in the gardens and to redo some of these once I had looked through the first batch on a larger screen.

My initial ideas for potential subjects were: -

- Rain drops dripping from leaves catching the light against a darkish background

- Rain creating rings in the surface of the swimming pool lit at night by underwater and surface lights.

Dripping leaves

I found a couple of places where I could photograph leaves in the rain from a reasonably dry position. I took a number of photographs varying the exposure times and Iso settings. Exposure time was important as this affected the appearance of the rain. The rain appeared as long streaks with a longer exposure time. However, the wind and rain was moving the leaves, so the exposure time needed to be fast enough to freeze most of this movement.

The two photographs I selected were:-

Dripping leaves 1

Nikon 18-200mm at 80mm: Iso 125 f5.6 for 1/60th second

Dripping leaves 2

Nikon 18-200mm at 150mm: Iso 1600 f5.6 for 1/250th

Observations

Dripping leaves 1 is predominantly dark green in tone, as both the pointed leaves of the tropical shrubs and the background are similar colours. The shadows and highlights of the foreground leaves are, however, sufficient to make them stand out against the blurred background. The rain is heavy enough to be visible as streaks in the air, and as drops and wet surfaces on the leaves.

The composition of the two plants is however lacking a distinct point of visual interest. The viewers eye wanders around the frame examining the detail, but there is no natural resting place. The content of the photograph is too diffuse around the frame and it does not appear as a coherent shape.

I took another photograph of just the leaves on the upper right hand side. This is visually stronger, possibly because these leaves are more consistent in shape and they create a lopsided triangle in the composition. Unfortunately, the horizontal format of this photograph makes it unsuitable as a magazine cover.

Dripping leaves 2 is more colourful. It is brighter in tone and the brown central leaf and yellowish lower leaf contrast with the various greens. The foreground leaves are backlit so that the texture and structure of the leaves are the principal visible interest. The composition is in the form of an inverted triangle, with the three leaves of different sizes forming a diagonal from top left to the apex near the bottom of the frame. The twigs across the top and down the right hand side provide the other sides of the triangle. Whilst the lower two leaves are quite central, the position of the largest leaf off centre, close to the intersection of the rule of thirds balances the composition. The upper section of the background is lighter than the leaves in the main composition. However, this does not, I feel, distract from the visual interest of the three leaves. Indeed, the gradation of the background from dark at the bottom to lighter at the top adds to the composition.

The rain drops in this photograph have become white streaks which are not quite so interesting visually as the longer streaks and splashes in Dripping leaves 1.

Rings in the surface of the swimming pool

I was less fortunate with the night-time photo of the swimming pool, as the timing of our activities and the weather meant that the right situation did not recur during our short stay.

I did try a variety of daytime photos, and this is the most succesful.

Swimming pool in rain

Nikon 18-200mm at 200mm: Iso 400 f8 for 1/125th second

Observations

I needed some fallen leaves and/or flower heads to provide a point of focus, but it was relatively difficult to get a viewpoint with these in suitable positions whilst staying reasonably dry! I selected this photograph with the single leaf as I liked the graduated background colour. The photograph however lacks sufficient impact, I needed to be closer to the water, and I needed more depth of field.

Other rain photographs

I was looking for other potential photographs suitable for this exercise and two arose which I had not anticipated beforehand.

Orange umbrella

Nikon 18-200mm at 48mm: Iso 800 f7.1 for 1/25th second

Observations

The orange umbrella is clearly the focal point for this photo. The dark areas around the edges of the frame acts rather like a vignette to draw the eye into the picture. The reasonably intense orange of the umbrella contrasts strongly with the green background. The foreground is the lightest area, as the sky is reflected in the tiles. This is not so strong that it distracts the viewer. The eye ultimately notices the garden behind the umbrella with the heavy rain and shiny wet leaves.

Skylight

Nikon 18-200mm at 55mm: Iso 400 f5.6 for 1/20th second

Observations

There was a horizontal glass skylight in the cottage on which leaves and flowers had fallen. It was rather like seeing a puddle from underneath. I chose this viewpoint because there was tree above the skylight that gave a relatively dark background. The colours of the leaves and flowers show up with better contrast against this colour than against the white sky.

It would be difficult for a viewer to make out what I have taken a picture of. The photograph therefore has an abstract quality. The thick glass has a slightly opaque texture and blur which adds a slight painterly quality to the leaf and flower shapes. A drawback for this particular exercise is that the rain falling onto the skylight is not readily visible.

Conclusions

A photograph for the cover of a magazine has to catch the eye, but the reader is relatively unlikely to study the picture closely for any length of time.

Bearing this in mind, I think only two of these photographs would be suitable: Dripping leaves 2 or Orange umbrella. Of these, I would choose the Orange umbrella as the colours are much more striking than Dripping leaves 2 which has a more harmonious colour palette.

Illustration - Juxtaposition

My first experiment for this exercise was to photograph a person in a context illustrating their world.

Memories of the Mansion House

Nikon 18-200mm at 29mm: Iso 200 f5 for 1/4 second

This lady, now retired, worked for a number of years as housekeeper at the Mansion House in the City of London. The Lord Mayors of the City of London live at the Mansion House with their family for their year in office. Whilst working there, she collected considerable knowledge on the formal and personal life of the individuals who were Lord Mayors. She now has a collection of prints and books on the history of the City of London and its Lord Mayors. I have been helping her by putting together a series of photographs to accompany her presentation on Lord Mayors of Yesteryear.

In the entrance hall to her house, she has a collection of historic prints of the City of London. I took some photographs of her in front of these.

Observations

I decided that I had to convert this photograph to monochrome because of the mixed lighting in the scene. The foreground, including her face and the wall that she is standing by, is lit by tungsten or an energy saving lamp. The background area (wall and picture frames) is lit by daylight coming through the glass paneled front door. The background had a distinct blue colour cast relative to the foreground. Furthermore, the background was rather too bright.

I used PS Elements to convert to black and white, and as a starting point I tried the various preset options. I found that this was an effective way of reviewing a range of contrasting results,when we did the black and white conversion exercise earlier in this course. In this case, the"infra-red" setting was best: the red wall and her red jacket darkened so that her face, her light hair and the framed pictures on the wall stood out. Also the blue tinged wall in the background darkened noticeably so that the eye was not drawn to that area of the image more than necessary.

Book cover

I also gave some thought to using juxtaposition as an illustration for a book cover, as I felt that I had not used much creativity in the first photograph above. At first, I looked through our bookshelves for some potential titles. I chose a book that I read recently called "Heresy". The story was set in Elizabethan times, where an Italian ex monk gets involved in a series of murders linked with a secret group of catholics in Oxford. At the back of my mind, I had a recollection of a photograph that I took a couple of years ago in a church where the stems of the candles appeared red.

Shrine with candles

My thought was to use some of the visual elements from this scene, for example, a candle or candles against a dark background to represent religion, but to show a trail of red wax trailing down from the candle to look like blood dripping. I thought that this would make the link to the violent events in the story. However, I did not have the props readily to hand to create this photograph.

I ended up therefore seeing what props I had available to me around the house and then looked for a book title that I could illustrate with these. It struck me that my shaving brush might create an interesting juxtaposition with my wife's brush for applying make-up. On our bookshelf there was a book called "Yesterday morning" and I thought that shaving and putting on make-up are things that most people would associate with the early morning.

Cover idea for "Yesterday Morning"

Nikon 18-200mm at 70mm: Iso 200 f7.1 for 1/60th (with SB600 flash set on tripod)

Observations

Our bathroom has no natural light so I thought I would try using a flash that I was given recently to provide the lighting. I wanted the light to reveal the shapes and textures of these items. Linking the flash to the camera, I set the flash on a tripod to the right hand side of the frame, with the flash head angled upwards. (I tried various flash positions, but this was the one I preferred). I used the small diffuser on the flash head which reduced the intensity of the shadows on the wall, which otherwise were rather too strong. The walls of the bathroom reflected light back onto the items so that the photograph is quite high key, but the main colours are neutrals. There are quite a number of shiny objects or metallic pieces, as well as some small black and dark items. The contrasts are therefore quite strong.

These domestic items imply various ideas about the subject of the book:

- it is probably about ordinary lives or may start off that way;

- it suggests that the story is about a couple (male and female)

Strangely, with this picture of items from peoples daily routine, the title seems to gain a slightly uneasy feeling as if it is a thriller or possibly a tragic love story.

Looking inside the cover, however, the book is in fact the story of a young girl growing up in the early part of the 20th century, so my cover idea would be very misleading. The cover on the actual paperback edition is a girl on a swing viewed from below against a blue sky with white clouds. This nicely conveys a feeling of a child's carefree life when small.

Conclusions

I spent rather more time on this exercise than maybe envisaged by the course notes, but I thought it was worthwhile to attempt both types of subject. It was surprisingly difficult to devise photographs to illustrate book titles, in particular because of the practical constraints of finding the right props and a location.

Illustration - Symbols

The objective of this exercise is to devise some photographic symbols for five concepts: growth, excess, crime, silence and poverty.

Growth

A concept such as "growth" can be viewed as having a number of facets:

• Growth in the sense of enlargement of size: A photograph of the trunk of a large tree side by side with some young saplings. Ideally, the trunk would be broad and gnarled whereas the sapling would have bright young green leaves.
• Growth tied to a sense of aging: an old man holding a small baby posed so that there is eye contact between the two.
• Growth in the sense of multiplication: an array of photographs of brightly illuminated bacteria in a petri dish, one with just a few individuals, with subsequent dishes showing progressively more bacterial growth.
• Growth in the sense of overdevelopment: A cityscape of an Asian city such as Shanghai or Hong Kong with a foreground of slum houses, rubbish dump or similar.

Excess

In this case, the excess can relate to people or to things:

• Over-indulgence: a telephoto tightly cropped of, say, the waistband of someone overweight showing the stretched fabric and flesh escaping.
• Over population: Photograph of the interior of a bus or train in a city squeezed full with commuters (a photograph of a train in a poor country where surplus passengers are travelling on the roof would be a possible alternative)
• Superfluity: a container of some sort overflowing with a liquid, produce or the like.

Crime

The image which came to my mind in relation to this concept was a photograph of the body of an alleged drug dealer by Guillermo Arias that I saw at the World Press Photo 10 exhibition in Edinburgh last summer. I noted in my blog on 12 September 2010 the following comments about this photograph:-

I think that this photograph attracted my attention from a distance because of the chiaroscuro lighting. Looking more closely, it gradually becomes clear that the white sheet over the central chair is covering a body. More grimly, there is a splatter of blood on the wall behind.

Many of the press photographs of violent events in the exhibition grabbed attention because of the shock of seeing such explicit scenes, more than their visual qualities. This, on the contrary, is one where the visual qualities of the photograph lead the viewer to look more closely and subsequently grasp the nature of the violent event being portrayed.

As a symbol, I feel that this photograph portrays the hopelessness and contradictory feelings associated with crime. One senses the loss that a man has been killed, but at the same time wonder whether as a drug dealer and gang member he might have deserved this fate. Is society as a whole maybe better off because there is one drug dealer less or is society to blame for creating an environment where young men end up as drug dealers? He is both victim and perpetrator.

Other aspects of crime could form a basis for photographs :-

• The aftermath of a crime: photograph of a broken window in a jewelers, a room in disorder, a safe with the floor strewn with papers and muddy footprints.
• The fear of crime: A man's face in a balaclava against a dark background.

Silence

My first thoughts were about situations where silence reigns. One could be a view of space or the moon. A more familiar one would be a landscape at twilight with the sky reflected in a calm pool.

My second idea was the fearful aspect of silence. For some people (many Indonesians for example) a state of quiet and solitude is quite frightening. The photograph that to me exemplifies this is by Indonesian photographer Rio Helmi. Ironically, this is a photograph he took in a London underground station. One can see an empty platform with just a pair of legs jutting out onto the platform. In the background is the dark empty rail tunnel and some people leaving down an exit tunnel. Whilst this may appear to be innocuous for someone familiar with the London underground, I imagine that many Indonesians would feel a pang of fear from the emptiness, the fear of the unknown dark tunnel, and being left alone with a stranger whose face is invisible.

A third idea was a photograph of the clean up operation after a pop music festival or soccer match. The noise and vibrancy of the event would be indicated by the rubbish and turmoil in the field or arena, but the emptiness (except for clean up crew) would convey a feeling of peace and quiet. A wide angle lens would add to the feeling of solitude of the event location after everyone has gone home.

Poverty

Having lived in country with a significant level of poverty (Indonesia) various scenes come to my mind as potential photographs: a lady in a market sitting on the ground with just a few ragged vegetables spread out on a piece of sacking, a woman begging with a baby in her arms at a street corner, an empty school room with a simple cement floor, wooden walls, open windows and a few pieces of paper scattered around .

On the other hand, I can see pictures of people living in difficult conditions who are happy and proud. Images come to mind of children dressed in bright school uniforms emerging from ramshackle wooden shacks along the banks of filthy streams, or a family of eight framed in the doorway of a tiny wooden hut in a remote village really enjoying having their photograph taken.

Conclusions

I appreciate that many of these ideas are pictures of situations where the concept exists e.g. poverty or crime, instead of something merely symbolic. The reason that I consider the items listed as valid for this exercise is that a photographic image often needs clues for the viewer to understand the point of the photograph. A photograph of a people in a market, even in a third world country, will not necessarily convey the impoverished existence of the local people. The photographer needs to find the person in the market whose livelihood depends on just the sale of a few small vegetables, so that the viewer can appreciate the terribly harsh existence of the local population.

I was interested to read Jose Navarro's recent OCA Blog "Photo Manipulations", which I think is touches on a similar point. He contrasts two pictures he took of the Western Isles of Scotland, one for promoting tourism, which shows a deserted beach on a sunny day, and another which was for a project on the hardships of crofting, which shows a croft in the distance under a stormy looking sky, with a tufts of rough grasses in the foreground. He questions whether this is photo manipulation?

I do not think it should be considered manipulation. In a scene before the photographer, there are a multitude of facets that portray different and even contradictory perceptions of a scene. Almost all situations in the real world have both positive and negative aspects. As in the first assignment of TAOP, a characteristic of a good photographs is to portray contrasts: large against small, high against low etc. This is the essence of the photographer conveying what he or she has seen and appreciated in a situation. The photographer should not merely be a CCTV camera recording the changes in a passing scene.

To my mind, the term manipulation should be retained for situations where something that was not present in the scene is added artificially, or something that was present in the scene has been removed artificially. I believe that some photography experts take the view that a photographic image should be judged purely on the visual qualities, without regard to the reality or not of the subject. I disagree with this view. Whilst this may be valid for abstracts for example, the realism of the subject is quite crucial to portraits and most other types of photography.

Illustration - Evidence of action

I have been slightly puzzled by this exercise. The suggestion is to produce evidence of action with a photograph of something that has fallen or broken. My thoughts have wandered over various potential subjects:-

- letting my bicycle fall over (gently) and taking its picture: I rejected this idea as I felt that current overcast conditions would result in a drab photograph.

- tipping foodstuff such as seeds or sauce on a surface or breaking an egg: rejected as I could not visualize the composition or colour contrast to create some visual interest.

I glanced through The Photographers Eye (Michael Freeman) in particular the chapter on "Moment". In this he discusses applying Henri Cartier-Bressons concept of a "decisive moment", as well a the patience sometimes needed, in other situations, to obtain the desired composition.

By "evidence of action", I understand that in this exercise the photographer should convey pictorially to the viewer that some activity is taking place or has taken place. Cartier-Bresson's photograph of a man about to step into a puddle would be a prime example. Michael Freeman's photograph of a small child thrown high in the air is also a potential model.

Reviewing my own recent photographs, one of the situations akin to Michael Freeman's example was some photographs that I took a some boys playing football on an Indonesian beach in the late afternoon. In order to clearly show the moving figures, I placed myself on the shore side so that the players were in silhouette against a softly lit sea and sky. The challenge was to obtain photographs where the ball was clearly visible and the posture of the figures conveyed a feeling of movement. Naturally, these photos lack the emotional impact of a small child beingthrown high in the air.

Soccer on the beach 1

Nikon 18-200mm at 95mm: Iso 200 f7.1 for 1/200th second

Soccer on the beach 2

Nikon 18-200mm at 95mm: Iso 200 f7.1 for 1/250th second

Another situation where "action" was clearly in evidence was in taking photographs of the fireworks in Edinburgh. This was a situation where patience and luck played a significant role, as the fireworks were only set off in two short bursts over the course of the evening. I waited quite a considerable time for the unpredictable moment.

Looking for potential subjects over the past weeks, many fallen or broken subjects do not have a strong element evidencing action. For example, a fallen tree or branch in a woodland scene after a windy night conveys a placid feeling rather than a feeling of action. Maybe if I had found a tree that had fallen over in the road, this would have had a sense of immediacy that I was looking for.

I did not come across a scene where there was a sense of action typical of photo-journalism. I have taken a photograph of something broken, but the situation has relatively little drama.

Frost damage

Nikon 18-200mm at 50mm: Iso 320 f8 for 1/15th second

Observations

The surface of this plant pot had broken away overnight after the recent frosts. I felt that there was some visual interest in the jagged shapes of the fallen pieces as well as the texture of the pot which is catching the light.

I chose to photograph the pot as I found it, without rearrangement. I tried various viewpoints to show the damage. Higher viewpoints showed the jagged shapes of the fallen pieces more fully, but the sides of the pot were less prominent. This low viewpoint shows the sides of the pot best. I also like the way the fallen pieces can be seen piled up one on another at this low angle.

The pattern on the blue china pot is quite strong visually, but on the other hand the colour and pattern provide background contrast for the right hand side of the pot. I think that the pot provides a better background than the bricks.

I cropped the right hand edge of the original frame a little as I wanted the area of blue pattern to be no more than necessary. I did not crop the top of the frame as the presence of the few green bits of grass are important in showing that this is a plant pot. The photograph becomes quite abstract if the top of the pot is left out of the frame.

Conclusion

Travel photography has been one of my main photographic interests. One of the similarities with photojournalism is the need to capture events happening in the surroundings. Anticipation and timing of reaction are vital skills.

Based on our recent trip to Indonesia, I feel that I am more focussed in such situations, and my photographs are improving as a result. Naturally, however, there is still that feeling of regret about the rather larger number of good shots that I missed getting.