ASSIGNMENT 3: BUILDINGS IN USE

The main brief of this assignment is to research and shoot five or six buildings and produce images to show effectively and attractively the way these spaces are used.

Ideas and Planning:
In preparation for this assignment I thought about the different buildings with specific purpose and how they are used for that purpose. My initial thoughts were:

• Cinema
• Church
• Shops
• Music Venues

Next, I thought about the availability of the buildings, are there some in my locality and am I able to openly photograph in and around them? Obviously certain buildings will have policies (cinemas) regarding photographic equipment and photographing openly and effectively. I would need to feel comfortable using the space I photographed to be able to photograph them well. And this got me thinking about the buildings I wanted to shoot for this assignment. I would photograph buildings that I use. This would make the assignment personal and give the viewers an insight into me as well as the spaces that I am photographing. So with this in mind I made a list of places that I visit frequently.

• Home
• Garden Buildings
• Restaurants
• Shops
• Tattoo Studio
• Music Venues

I attempted to set up dates for my tattoo studio and the music venue in the run up to this assignment. My tattooist took a rain check on the day of the appointment which caused an issue with timing. I was unable to take my DSLR to the latest gig I attended, despite exploring every avenue to get it in there so I had to settle with my Nikon compact instead. But on viewing the photos I took at the gig, they were not acceptable enough to be able to make the final cut for this assignment. 

The Final Selection:

Home  

 What is a home? Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (2012) defines a home as:

" A home is a place of residence or refuge. When it refers to a building, it is usually a place in which an individual or a family can live and store personal property. It is generally a place to provide safety and is used as a center from which people or animals base their daily activities. Most modern- day households contain sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food."

This is a basic oversight of what the building version of home is. Somewhere to bathe and cleanse, to cook and eat and to sleep within your own personal space. I know that this could be said for any building with these facilities, hotels for example, but the difference is your home is 'your' space.

Home is where your toothbrush lies...

Home comforts...

These are two spaces that show 'home' in the purpose for which it was built. As in the description above, a home is a place to store your personal belongings and a base to perform your daily activities. These two images show two daily activities that people perform at their own homes. Toothbrushes indicate the start of the day in my house and I thought this a good starting point for the assignment images as well as a good subject for a purpose for a home. My idea here was to photograph strong subjects within the home to give the impression of the home being lived in, without the need to include people in the images. A bed indicates the end of the day and another purpose of a home in general, to sleep. I chose to photograph both spaces during the time of day they are used to emphasize the use of the space within the building. I feel these images effectively show how a home succeeds in being used for the function it is built.

Children's Playhouse

This is a basic space with a basic definition of it's purpose. A house or small space for children to play in. Simple. I have included this space in this assignment as our playhouse is a main part of my childrens day during the warmer months as we spend a lot of time in the garden. 

A house fit for kids...

Houseboat?...

To photograph the purpose of a childrens playhouse I had to ensure that the main focus of the images were about the 'play' aspect of that title. The first image shows the playhouse as it is, a wooden structure small enough for children and not really big enough to squeeze a grown adult in. With the inclusion of the bike underneath , it really scales the size of the structure and the character stickers on the front just bring home that the building is for and used by children. The second image shows the inside of the space, a toy kitchen with bright vivid colours and a table to play 'house' with. I wanted to make a feature of the ships wheel as we added this this year to make it male and female friendly. As you can see from these images, the children make good use of this and we add new aspects to keep it entertaining for them. I believe this space works really well for its purpose. 

The Duke Of Wellington Restaurant, Cowbridge.

I enjoy going out for meals with my family and it is something we do often. This is a quote from The Duke of Wellington website (2009-2010)

" The Duke of Wellington is a great quality traditional pub, but with a few modern touches, stylish furniture and open fireplaces.

The pub has a daily changing menu which mixes contemporary style and classic pub cuisine. They source quality British ingredients of the finest quality from producers they can trust.

The Duke of Wellington is the perfect setting to stop in and enjoy a pint, have a snack and a drink in the bar or celebrate with family and friends."

As a restaurant, it's main purpose is as an establishment to serve food to customers. And this is the main focus of my images. As the Duke of Wellington states on it's website, it is a place to have a snack or a drink in stylish surroundings. 

Stylish Dining...

Take a seat...

Enjoy your meal...

As stated, this restaurant is very stylish and the outdoor seating area on a summers day could rival the Mediterranean. I used the area as an overview to emphasize the 'stylish' aspect and kept in the table being used, again to show its useage without the inclusion of people in the shot. It also shows that the area has plenty of seating which is using the space for what it was designed for. The cutlery is also an extension of the purpose of the restaurant,  to enjoy a meal and also symbolism in the sense that we use the restaurant to eat ans we use cutlery to eat. As an outdoor seating area , this space makes full use of that definition. It also successful in meeting the expectation we would expect from their website. 

St Davids Shopping Centre, Cardiff

As it's title suggests, St Davids is a shopping centre in the centre of Cardiff. I expect shopping centres to be a facility were I can visit many shops of a wide variety and possibly enjoy refreshments all under one roof. St Davids Website gives a good indication of what to expect from the centre in respect of shopping and dining and the facilities it has to offer. 

Shopping haven...

Christmas Shopping...

Need to rest...

Gateway to next level...

St Davids proves to be a beautiful space and immediately shows it's fantastic and stylish use of its space. There are numerous shops over two levels in places, covering a lot of ground space. The building itself is very well lit through a mixture of natural light through huge skylights and also plenty of artificial lights. You can see from image 1 that the second level of shops is neatly tucked above the ground level with plenty of escalators and lift facilities to ferry shoppers between levels without unnecessarily losing space. As you can see, the ground level is also used to capacity, with seating areas and stalls placed in the middle sections to offer maximum function to the building. The building itself is kept modern and stylish to be attractive to visitors and make it a pleasant shopping experience, with high ceilings, great lighting and modern seating areas. St Davids also includes a wonderful glass walkway from one part of the building to the next through the upper shopping levels, to save its customers braving the outside, which needs to be done at ground level. This building meets its function perfectly. Its designed to offer visitors an attractive and comfortable space to enjoy a day out shopping and it doesn't disappoint, which will keep visitors returning.

Bridgend Registry Office.

This title sounds pretty boring and obviously not a place I like to frequent. But I have included these images as this is the place I photographed a friends wedding for the first time. And I mean this as a first time being able to actually photograph within the ceremony itself. This building is relatively new and built purely for the purpose of marriage ceremonies. So by this account I would expect a space big enough for the wedding party and guests suitable for the actual wedding ceremony.

Would the guests please be seated...

Do you take...

These images show the space beautifully. The first gives an overview of the room and that space itself. Light and simplistically elegant, with an aisle made out of the positioning of the chairs. There is adequate seating for wedding guests without overcrowding and ample space at the front for the ceremony and the register signing all in one area. The two images are in contrast with one another, one highlighting the way the space is used and the other emphasizing the function the building is designed for. This building has been designed specifically for marriage ceremonies and meets its function very successfully.

Closing Review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment and feel that not only were the buildings and spaces I chose to work with a good choice but the images produced showed each building being used exactly for its purpose very well. I think that each image are still kept within my own personal photographing style and yet the choice of subjects also give a hint of my personal taste and activity. It was enjoyable to delve into the actual function of the buildings instead of just seeing the 'flat' image of the building itself and I think that expanding your viewpoint to discover the purpose behind the spaces you are photographing, and effectively altering your perspective of that building because of that, can only create much more depth and make for a more interesting image. This assignment has made me more aware of how to photograph a space and how to effectively and attractively photograph the purpose and function behind the space being used.

Exercise: How space change with light.

Outline: See how photographing a space in different lighting conditions suggests different viewpoints and compositions.

I attempted this exercise a few times but didn't quite get the dramatic difference I was expecting while taking random shots at home. While out and about christmas shopping, I managed to capture the result and difference I was wanting. I was capturing images for assignment 5 with my trusty little compact camera and was trying to discreetly take a number of shots to capture the use of the shopping centre.

St Davids Shopping centre with mostly artificial lighting

This is an average shot of the upper layer of the shopping centre. Its lit mainly with artificial lights hanging either side of the hall and storefront lighting with added light from a glass skylight.

St Davids centre with low natural lighting

Seconds later, I was able to capture this shot of exactly the same space but in a portrait shot. Here, the artificial lighting seems irrelevant as a low autumn sun shines through the glass skylight, plunging the shopping centre into a dark dramatic shadow and creating a much flatter image.

Conclusion: The artificial lighting in the first image is significant to the space. It gives shoppers ample lighting to see the space and services on offer, as well as window shop and see the window items clearly. The inclusion of the low sun through the glass creates a mass of shadow and in an enclosed space, creates darkness. This makes the shoppers unable to move about and see clearly with the dark and the bright sun light above eye level.

Exercise: The user's viewpoint.

Outline: To photograph space from the users point of view.

At the risk of being completely unoriginal, I have used spaces around the house that are designed for a specific activity, to photograph.

Firstly, I chose the bathroom. The main purpose of this room is to 'bathe' in so I have taken the photograph at the viewpoint of having a bath.

Bathroom from the users view

I wanted to show the space of the bathroom in the image as well to give more depth to the space 'the user' is in. Plus it makes for a better image as a full view forwards would show a wall to the left of the bath which would not make for a very interesting picture. This view shows the room space from the users point of view as well as an overview of the room in general.

Secondly, I have photographed the staircase. The main purpose of this space is to walk up/down to the next level of the building.

Staircase from the users view

I have taken this image with the viewpoint to walk down the stairs. I have kept to a standard focal length to keep the viewpoint as seen and also tilted the camera angle down the stairs, exactly as you would look at the stairs while walking down. The image gives a good view of the space within the purpose it is intended for.

As a wildcard entry, I remembered a photo I took a while back of a hotel corridor that I thought would make for a good image.

Hotel corridor from a users view

The staircase image above reminded me of this image. The perspective and diagonals in this image are great and this is exactly how the user would see this image, so the space has photographed really well.

Conclusion:
This has been a great exercise on how to photograph a space within the purpose for which it was intended. It has made me think about how I photograph a space in general and if there is a specific viewpoint to be considered to best make use of the way the buildings or spaces are seen by the viewer.

Exercise: Exploring Function.

Outline: To photograph a space while exploring it's purpose.

I recently took my family to visit the Museum of Welsh Life in Cardiff, otherwise known as St Fagans.

"St Fagans is one of Europe's leading open-air museums and Wales's most popular heritage attraction. It stands in the grounds of the magnificent St Fagans Castle, a late 16th-century manor house donated to the people of Wales by the Earl of Plymouth." - St Fagans: National History Museum website. 

St Fagans Museum of Welsh Life

This image shows the entrance to the museum. With the actual 'museum' consisting of buildings in an open air setting, this is actually the 'entrance hall' to be exact. As this is the main focus of the museum, one would expect a number of factors to be evident in this section:

• Welcome visitors
• Provide information about the museum itself
• Provide space for shelter from the elements with the visitors being outside for the duration of the attraction
• Provide a place for refreshments

On entering the building itself, I am impressed by how they use the space available and immediately I can see that my initial pointers above are addressed. I was greeted by two ladies who handed me an information leaflet all about the museum, with a little bit of history and a map. The space was light and airy with the welcome 'console' in the middle immediately as you walk in. I asked if I was able to take photos in this area and was granted permission. I originally took the shot as though you were walking through the front door but with the console being where it was, it didn't show much of the actual space as a whole, and made the image look a little flat, so i decided to stand off to the right corner and then take the shot.

First image not showing space well

Capturing the space of the entrance.

Conclusion: The image shows that there is plenty of space here. There is an information point for enquiries and to generally welcome visitors. There is information on the walls and also stands with leaflets promoting other attractions in the local vicinity. It is also sheltered from the elements and consists of a cafe and a gift shop. I think as a welcome area for the museum, this meets its function very well.