I thought I had a good idea behind my images. By taking something big, and using a small version, but photographing them as if they were big, makes for an interesting image, and makes the audience look twice.

I am very happy with the images I produced, and I think they work well with my desired idea. The first set were pretty much what I wanted, as I have done similar stuff to this before, so the first batch of images were perfect. This is why I have kept with them and not revisited this task.

BIG Project

I struggled a little more for ideas on this project. I didn’t want to fall into the trap of shooting the obvious, like tall building and the Cathedral, so I tried to think of something different. Eventually, I decided to use a similar theme to my macro images. After all, a body of work should relate somehow. As the macro images were designed to play with perceptions, my big images could do the same.

I took an object we see as big, a house, and made it small. I built my own house out of Lego, and set about photographing it. For the first few images in the set, I tried to hide how big the house actually was, so there was no way of telling that it was actually quite small. I then pulled back for some wider shots for the last few images, but shot these from a low angle. This gives the impression that the building is still quite big, even though it isn’t. I’m very happy with the way these images have turned out, and I’m very happy with the post production techniques.

At the time I had been reading about Lomography for a couple of months, and decided to have a go. Using Photoshop to adjust the curves in the red channel, and adding some noise to complete the effect. I think it works quite well with these images, as it adds to the vivid colours that Lego produces.

Sound Project

It took me a while to come up with an image I could use to put sound with. After trawling through my entire catalogue of work I eventually found one that would be suitable. Taken from a short sequence of images called ‘Home Alone‘ (nothing to do the film) my image shows the kitchen sink, and the items yet to be washed up. I recorded sounds from my kitchen, though they were at some extent disguised as they didn’t relate to items in the image directly.

Final Piece

For my final piece I wanted to create a stop motion animation, from the first person. I didn’t want it to be ‘perfect’, but more rough and ‘edgy’.  There’s a word a never though I’d use. I kept the images to monochrome because it is when someone has just woken up, so colours, sights and sounds will not be ‘all there’, which is replicated in the film.

Sounds were recorded with a Marantz, and then layered together using GarageBand. I think the sounds I recorded were good, though I think they could be better, especially if they ran throughout the film. I’d also try and use a more consistent fps rate, especially during the coffee making process, because at times it jumps around a bit to much.

Post production was a breeze. I took the images in black and white and I was happy with the majority of them. After I uploaded them to iPhoto and then iMovie, it was just a case of getting them to time, and adding titles. Post production of sounds was slightly trickier, as getting  them to match up was tedious. I had to time the length of my film when a sound effect happened, and roughly matched that time in GarageBand. The result is quite rough, but I think quite good.

The good thing was that because my idea was relatively simple, it took about 6 hours in total to make. It was a nice process, and one I’d like to tryout again, and hopefully learn from this one and try some new techniques.

Development

I’ve always been pretty handy with a camera, and a few years experience have helped me along they way. I chose this module because I thought it would suit me, and help me to progress in my chosen direction. The stills projects weren’t to challenging, except for the creation of concepts. I very rarely work to briefs, and prefer to just do my own thing. I’m very happy to go for a walk with a camera, and if I find something that interests me, I’ll photograph it. If not, it’s a bit of exercise.

This however, is rarely how things are done in the real world. So this module has got me thinking to more defined parameters than “I think I’ll take some landscapes”. I work better under pressure, so the short still image projects suited me well, and got me working in a new way.

Using stills in a film is also something I’ve never really done before. Sure I’ve done some basic stop motion stuff a couple of years back, and I’ve done some short sequences, but I’ve never thought to bring the two together. It’s a process I’ve found very enjoyable, and something I want to re-visit again in the (near) future.

To make my film I went about the routine whilst taking photos. This gives an interesting point of view shot, so the audience feel like they are performing these actions. This also gave me the desired effect I wanted.

Rather than go for a polished stop motion, I wanted mine to have more of a rough feel. By taking photos whilst I was walking through the story gave me this rough feel.

The rough feel to the images is matched by the imperfections in sound. Sounds do not always line up perfectly, and this is the effect I wanted to achieve. This rough feel reflects and compliments the mood of the film.

By having it set when our character has just woken up, he is not totally aware of what is happening. This is why the camera sometimes becomes jumpy, and sounds do not always match up to the image.

I think the recorded sounds work very well with my chosen soundtrack, and these combined works well to add to the effect of waking up.

The quality of the images is good, and I am happy with the ones I have produced. They are clear in what is happening, and technically they fulfil their need.

Overall I am happy with the film, and I think it is an interesting way of showing a normal routine that people do every day. I’ve had feedback from several who enjoyed it, and others said it gave them a bit of a headache. I can sympathise with the latter, as I did get one myself during editing. If I were to do another stop motion film like this, I would try to use a more consistent fps rate so that images flow more smoothly. I think the sounds work very well to add to the waking up effect, and that the soundtrack used doesn’t overpower the sounds I recoreded, but fits with them very well. I am very happy with the images themselves, and I think there is a good variety.

This left me with the second option; making a stop motion film as normal. I have had some experience of using stop motion, see the videos below, and these films were fairly successful.

These were filmed a few years ago, and were my first practice in stop motion.

I wanted my film to be very simple, and follow a simple narrative that everyone could follow. I had used the routine of making a cup of coffee for my test piece, and people thought it was a good idea. The problem with the test piece was that it was too short, so I decided to add me waking up at the beginning. This combined with the coffee making gives a sense of morning.

The next thing to think about is a suitable soundtrack to go under the sounds. Obviously it would have to be in keeping with the mood of the film, so rock or dance music would be unsuitable. After a quick search on iTunes I found an ambient track by Mike Oldfield called ‘Part Two: Ambient Guitars’. This track was a perfect match to the style and mood of my film idea.

As I had the soundtrack sorted, I had to record my sounds and take my photos.

Our final piece has to have a narrative structure, so I decided to quickly shoot me making a cup of coffee. There is no sound with this yet, as it was just a test to see how it would look, and to work out the fps rate i would need.

I’m pretty happy with how this quick tester came out. I did run into a couple of problems.

• As I shoot in RAW to give me more creative control in editing, I filled my 8GB memory card pretty quickly. There was room for 254 images, which I filled in about 3 minutes. So I either shoot monochrome JPEGs (ewww) or get a bigger memory card.
• I have decided to wipe my memory card out completely, so I can utilise the full capacity. However, if this is still not enough, I will have to give in and part with cash. This might not be a bad deal, as I need a new card(s) for New York anyway.

To make this test piece I handheld the camera with my right hand, and shot single frames as I went along. By shooting with single frames as opposed to continuos shooting gave me a more consistent write speed. My camera claims to have a 3.5 fps rate, but I have never achieved this with my current card. Then again, shooting with the bigger RAW file doesn’t help either.

I chose to shoot it this way to give a realistic point of view sequence, and by shooting with single frames the composition changes slightly from shot to shot. This rough shift in view point adds to the effect and works with the style. Below is the edited test piece. Each frame lasts for 0.2s, which equates to 5fps. This works quite well, and is most likely the rate I will use. It is made up of 254 stills, and lasts for 51 seconds. Based on these numbers, I will need around 500 images to make the 2minutes.

Two videos that use the stop motion technique are ‘The Human Train‘ and ‘The PEN Story‘.

‘The Human Train’

The PEN Story

These two videos use stop motion very well. ‘The PEN Story‘ is perhaps better technically, and uses more ambitious techniques, such as including a story of photos within the photos. With the time left, number of shots and expense that this sort of video has, I don’t think that trying this would be realistic.

For my final piece I will try a different type of technique. I wanted my video to be a point of view story, so what the audience sees through the frame is as close as possible to what I see. To make this technique work, I will need to consider my fps rate, and take photos according to that. I plan to take photos as I go along, so that the movement of the camera will be as true as possible.

Sound is my major concern. Most videos use a soundtrack under the images, but this is not allowed. What I might do is mix some ambient recorded noises with an ambient soundtrack, and mis them on GarageBand. By using music software I can control the volume and track length of each individual recording.

‘From the image you have selected, reconstruct it but with sound only.

You should record and recreate the photograph as a Soundscape.

Sounds can be layered, found, recorded, edited and treated in software but the final piece must be presented as a WAV or MP3 on a CD.

Length should be 1-3 minutes and suitable for looping.’

To create a Soundscape for an image there are some things we have to think about. The theme is one of them. If the image is quite low key and highly contrasted, an upbeat sound track wont match the image. Objects within the frame is also key. If you have a photo of space, a tractor noise will not be appropriate.

Another thing to think about is how many different sounds occur at the same time, for just on event. If you take an example of a car crash, there are lots of different sounds happening at once. There is of course the sound of the initial impact, but what else happens? Tyres screech ,glass breaks, tyres explode, seat belts lock, people make noises, the engine might catch fire. Will there be eyewitnesses phoning 999? Will emergency services’ sirens be heard far away? These are all things that could happen, and must be fulfilled to make the soundscape realistic.

For my Soundscape I wanted to use one of my own images. This is mainly because the image will be personal to me, so I know what I was thinking, feeling and hearing at the time. It also means a can revisit the location and take ambient noises from the actual place.

The image I chose was the image below, and below that is the sound I put with it.

My Chosen Image

This image is one of a sequence of four, which can be seen here, entitled ‘Home Alone’. The purpose of these images was to show isolation and lonely, despite being in your home. To achieve this, the photos are either black and white, or fairly desaturated. The sound needed to match this.

To make the sound match the mood of the image, I first started recording the clock ticking, and the hum of the fridge. By hearing these throughout, you get a sense that no one else is around making other noises.

A common thing done in our kitchen is coffee making, so I decided to replicate these actions and record the noises. The sounds are quite echoey, again giving the feel of a large, empty space. I am fairly happy with the recording, as I think it matches the mood of the image. If I were to do this again, I would try and record more sounds, such as footsteps, and maybe a quiet radio.

“Produce a further series of photographs that is your own interpretation of the term ‘Epic, Vastness or Hugeness or just plain Big’.

Consider all the styles and approaches we looked at and discussed in the lecture. There are of course those occasions when the camera lies, what we are seeing is not what we think it is and where your creative talents can be applied.

You should present no less than six mages printed to a minimum of A4. However, you may take images and wish to present them in a way you feel best presents you work so consider alternative ways of presenting your work.”

After thinking about big things, and how big can be portrayed, I had a few ideas. The first was to go back to how a started with photography and take some photos of landscapes. I had two locations in mind that I used before. Sadly, weather was a factor, and being winter it was pretty awful. This meant I had to huddle up indoors, thinking about what I could have been doing.

My next idea was to look at tilt and shift photographs. This is a technique that distorts the focus, and makes actual landscapes look like model villages. Again, due to the weather I couldn’t go out and take some images for this purpose, so I looked back over my work and found the three following images.

These images came out quite well, especially the one of Pool Meadow. However I don’t think that the convey a meaning of big. My third idea was the idea I chose for this brief. This was to create something that we think of as big, but actually make it small. In essence, it is the opposite to last week’s project where I made the small look big.

In the end I settled on building a Lego house. These are the six images I will use.

As you can probably tell, some work has been done on these images in post production. I have been interested in, and looking at, lomography for the past few months now, and I wanted to give it a go. I think it suits thee images quite well, as the red and green of the lomographic style reflect the bright, vivid colours of Lego.  Overall I am pretty happy with the outcome of these images, but I am still unsure as to whether they fit the brief. I am hoping to go back to my first idea, and take some landscapes before the deadline.

Sound

I chose this image from this set because I think it captures the feeling and emotion of the guitarist. Its not technically perfect, but the small depth of field isolates the guitar and the guitarists fingers from the rest of the image.

Fig. 1

years ago. His talent for capturing natural (and man made) textures and shapes can be argued to be unique even to this day.

Fig. 2

We were also shown photos of nuclear blasts. These images were obviously taken from a long range, but the size of the blast is still evident. Some of them could almost be considered beautiful (see Fig. 3).

Fig. 3

Another photographer we were shown was Andreas Gursky. I was first introduced to his work over the summer whilst reading Charlotte Cotton’s book ‘The Photograph As Contemporary Art’. The image in the book was of a busy stock exchange (see Fig. 4). I thought that this overhead shot communicated how busy, and big, stock exchanges were. It was not until the lecture that I was told that his images were constructed, that this place does not exist (this takes us back to the debate mentioned last week of ‘Is Photography Real?’). To me, this makes the image even bigger, as it is constructed by lots of smaller images. It isn’t just big; it’s epic.

Fig. 4

“Produce a series of photographs that is your own interpretation of the term ‘Macro Photography’ consider all the styles and approaches we looked at and discussed in the lecture.

You should present no less than six images to a minimum of A4. However, you may take images and wish to present them in a way you feel best presents you work so consider alternative ways of presenting your work.”

After looking at and thinking about ways that macro can exist (see previous post) I decided to follow Slinkachu’s attitude by making small things appear big. I had done a shoot similar to my idea, well exactly the same, but I wanted to experiment more so I took a new set of pictures.

The idea was to take photos of model cars in a way that made them look real. This would mean using a mid range aperture to have mot of the car in focus but a blurred background (I found f/10 – f/14 the best) to make it look more realistic.

The set that I took before the brief can be viewed here.

The entire macro set for this brief can be viewed here.

These are the six images I will present: