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.