ASSIGNMENT 4: A SENSE OF PLACE

Brief: 

To compose a collection of 12 images for an in depth travel publication with 6 good, publishable images as the final selection.


Research Ideas:

My first thoughts when considering this assignment was to research the type of style a travel publication would have in regards to its images and content. After using Google to have a look at some online travel publications, I came across a website called Budget Travel. I spent a good while perusing the articles and came across some that I would set as a base for the type of images that I would need to achieve for this assignment. This article gave me an insight into some more suburban-esque type shots if I was to go for a town or city overview.

I really liked the layout of the shots on this article on Arizona.

These images seemed like more of travel publication adverts on a place but still I'm assuming the same image overview of the places would apply.

Budget travel.com website screen shot

I found this feature all about Treasured Islands and really liked the layout and types of images that this feature has produced. My content would not nearly be as exotic and interesting as this type of article, however the sense and atmosphere of the place is to be captured at my location, the same as it has been here.

I looked at another website, CNTraveler.com, just as a bit more research and to compare the above images with a different publication. Traveler website's feature on Corsica is another in-depth feature capturing the essence of a place through interesting images, regardless of rural or urban setting.

Planning:

My first instinct when reading this assignment was to do it at my hometown, Bridgend. It was a place I know extremely well, having lived here all my life, with convenient access to be able to shoot as and when needed. I searched Bridgend on google to see an outsiders view on how the town is perceived. Typical stuff really, full of the towns history, achievements and notable people who have hailed from here (Wikipedia/Bridgend), it would be a worthy subject for such an assignment. But as a local, Bridgend isn't as great as it is cracked up to be. The history of the town and the area is probably the most interesting part of the story and even though this could make an interesting 'travel feature' on this area, it's not one that I think I could do justice.
Bridgend is now unfortunate to walk around in my personal experience. The centre is full of pound, phone and kebab shops and a homely town centre could not be further away. Whereas I know I could use this as a feature in itself also, the brief is to create a collection suitable for a travel publication and judging by what I have seen in the research above, this is not the kind of feature that a travel publication would want.

I changed my outlook and decided, as I am only a ten minute drive to the coast, I would use the little seaside town of Porthcawl for my shots.

"Porthcawl is a holiday resort in South Wales and is home to a large static caravan park known as Trecco Bay. It has an extensive promenade and several beaches..." - Wikipedia/Porthcawl.

This quote is Porthcawl to a tee. Whether you are a visitor or a local, Porthcawl is seen as this same, somewhat tourist tacky, seaside town.

"Whether you prefer the thrills of the funfair, a quiet walk along the promenade or a lazy day sunning yourself on one of our fine beaches, Porthcawl can provide for all of your requirements" - welcometoporthcawl.co.uk/

A different site, yet a similar quote. The promenade and beaches are a huge factor and some of the main features of Porthcawl. These are things that I have to capture to get a sense of place here. The overall ambiance of Porthcawl is exactly what it says above. Even as a local, it is seen as a relaxing seaside town, popular with anyone who just wants to have a relaxing day out at the beach. On a sunny bank holiday you will see flocks of people trying to get into Porthcawl, with queues of traffic filing into the town to enjoy a day on one of the beaches, going wild at the funfair or enjoying a walk and an ice cream on the promenade. And Porthcawl caters for everyone  for these purposes. Even in the winter and colder months, if the sun is out, Porthcawl is still buzzing with locals enjoying the town to make the most of the weather.
I will admit, Porthcawl itself holds that 'tacky' sense that most seaside resorts have. Dated decor with bargain stalls and shops, selling buckets and spades and sticks of rock but I think this just adds to overall essence of the town.

I have given myself some good examples of the sense of place and I now have to see if I can capture them to images.

Publishable Images:

I have split my images into 6 pairs, so to choose one from each pair as the final shot.

 These two images are both showing landmarks of Porthcawl, as I thought this a good place to start. The Lighthouse and the Grand Pavilion are both individual to Porthcawl and I liked both these shots for different reasons.
The Lighthouse shot not only shows off the lighthouse and the fishermen that you can normally see fishing here on a nice day, but also shows the extensive yet beautiful coastline in the distance.
The Grand Pavilion is another landmark and is still used for many pantos and shows as well as for private events. I really liked this image showing not only the pavilion but also the signpost also showing other attractions that Porthcawl has to offer. In addition, I like how the chipped and faded paint, on both the signpost and the Pavilion, shows that Porthcawl is a bit dated and could use a bit of an overhaul to bring it up to date and seem a bit more classy instead of tacky. But in spite of all of these factors, I feel this image is too busy and more a tourism shot that a travel feature image.

These two images are too similar to use both in the feature but pretty much show the same activity. The promenade is another big draw for Porthcawl, with tourists and locals alike flocking to stroll the length of the town and take in the beautiful scenery. This image (left) shows more that it is a promenade with the beach to the other side of the railings and the people using the promenade.

 This image (right) focuses more on the activity and the sense of the place by the people that are using it and what they are using it for. I like that this image brings together a few aspects. It shows an elderly couple taking a stroll as well as people enjoying a cuppa, even though they are all wrapped up cos it's so cold. It even shows the little seafront coffee 'shop', there specifically to provide for people enjoying the promenade. I much prefer to include the image of the activity instead of just focusing on the place itself.

 Again, two very similar images highlighting the pass times that people carry out here and incorporating the beaches into the feature as well. You will mostly find locals carrying out these activities along the beach but not exclusively. I like this image of the surfers. Coney Beach is notorious for surfers, as is Rest Bay further down the coast and it's good to include images that show Porthcawl is popular as a holiday resort but also as a local scene too.

I like the dog walking image as well though. Dogs are not allowed on the beach in the summer months so in the winter months, people make the most of allowing their dogs on the beaches, kind of like a holiday for the dogs. I like how the sun is behind the people in this image too, to emphasize them being anonymous. However, I prefer the surfers image because surfers use the beach throughout the year and it is an activity which requires the beach.

I wanted to include a few more images of the people who use Porthcawl. The image on the left is more of a contrast shot, showing that Porthcawl does have a high street and is used by locals going about their every day business as well as people enjoying the beaches and seafront. I liked that this image shows the shops within a pedestrianized street and also how busy it actually is, without actually seeing any of the beach and seafront, as though disconnecting from them.

This is a more relaxed shot, again emphasizing that people visit the beach just to enjoy the views and quality time together. Most of the benches along the seafront will be filled with such a variety of people and I thought this image focused on this. I like that this image portrays Porthcawl as a bit of a getaway where this couple could just come to be alone, and the composition is great for making it seem that they are the only people there. It sets a slightly different ambiance.

As stated in the quotes above, Porthcawl is known for its seafront and that it is home to a large caravan park. I felt that I needed to address these factors and tried to 'show them off' if you like.
This image is purely to show the caravans of the holiday park lining the beach.

This image has been left as more of a wider angle image to try to show a good portion of the promenade and the beach immediately in front.
As these images are both general overviews of the town, I felt these should both be included in the final selection as opposed to choosing one or the other.

These two images are more 'touristy', to confirm

that Porthcawl is in fact a proper seaside resort, complete with funfair and souvenir shops. These again highlight the 'tacky' side of the town but proves that Porthcawl does embrace this factor. I couldn't decide if these images were necessary in the final selection, purely as they are more 'touristy' so I decided to leave them both out.




Disgarded Images:

These two images also made the final cut of my initial selection but I decided to leave them both out of the final 12 images. The image to the left shows the museum entrance and contrasts the 'tacky' side of Porthcawl that I have highlighted. This proves that Porthcawl does have a historical factor that I haven't shown but in regards to the assignment, it's not a very interesting photograph to a viewer. But it could be used depending on the nature of the overall article.
The image on the right would be perfect for any type of publication as it shows the beauty of the towns beaches but I didn't feel it needed in the final 12 images of this assignment.



Final Selection:

Closing Review:

I wasn't quite sure how the images would turn out when I first started to undertake this assignment but looking back at the images now, I think any viewer would get a good sense of the atmosphere of Porthcawl as well as admire it's beauty. Personally, I think I have succeeded well in capturing the sense of place by visual images of the town itself and the people who use it and what they use it for. I am happy that all my shots are exterior and questioned whether I should've included some indoor shots too, like the interior of the Pavilion, or inside the entertainment complex in the caravan park but I decided against it in the end, mostly due to time constraints and availability. Had I not had a final result in mind, I definitely would've taken a much larger selection of photos and maybe explored more of a tourist approach. I also would've contained my selection to just beach photos as well I think. But I can see how this course is having a positive effect on my photography as there was a time that I would've been very uncomfortable shooting so openly and including the general public but now I am able to do that with a lot more ease. Am I happy with my final 12 images? Yes. Am I happy with the final selection of 6 images? I think so. Not in the sense that I am not confident of the images themselves but more to do with whether I have chosen the best six of the twelve. I will let you be the judge.

Exercise: Selective processing and prominence.

Outline: Select an image that you have previously taken which the main issue is the visual prominence of a figure in a setting. Use digital processing methods to make two new versions of your image;

• make the figure less prominent
• and make the figure more prominent

I selected this autumn image for this exercise as it's already rather difficult to see the figure among the surroundings. I was interested to see what I could do with it to make the figure more prominent and also to see if it was possible to make it any less noticeable.

original

To attempt to make the figure more or less prominent, I played about on photoshop elements 9 with the different features and found the best outcome was using a selection of features.

making the figure more prominent

To achieve the above result, I have increased the brightness, lowered the contrast and increased the saturation. This has brightened the entire image, making the sky area overexposed but shows the figure nice and bright among the surroundings.

make figure less prominent?

To attempt to make the figure less prominent, I increased both the brightness and the contrast to make the background lighter but to also make the shadows darker and therefore submerge the figure more into shadow. 

Conclusion: This was a very interesting exercise to undertake. It's good to work out how to make the figures more or less noticeable within and image just by adjusting the image as a whole, without selecting just the figure and adjusting the small section. I am happy with the first image but as the figure didn't really stand out in the original, I'm not sure the second image had made the figure any less noticeable than it already was, but it has improved the overall image with the figure pretty much the same. 

Exercise: Balancing figure and space.

Outline: Produce two images, using the same general viewpoint and composition, varying the balance of attention between the person and the setting they are in.

For this exercise I had a good look through my photo library and found I had a lot of images to choose from.

equal balance of person and space

another equal balance example

The two images above are good examples of a pretty much equal balance between the person and the surroundings they are in. we can also adjust the balance of the space by altering focal length.

The two images above show the difference to the image when the balance is varied. The first image shows the person with a small look at their surroundings but by using a longer focal length and a slight adjustment to the positioning of the person, we still get the focus to the person but we also get a much larger and more detailed view of the space they are in.

Conclusion: Sometimes the aim of the image is to show a subject engaging with their surroundings so this exercise is important to show exactly how this can be achieved by adjusting the balance.

Isaac Ferry.

Following on from the previous post regarding Bryan Ferry's facebook post photos, I thought I would have a look at the work of Isaac Ferry anyway. I found his website, http://isaacferry.com, and am glad I took the time to have a look at his work. Isaac is the 26 year old son of Bryan Ferry.

I opened a webpage alive with colourful images and interesting compositions. There is a good mix of styles, colour, black and white, portraits and landscapes. Ferry has a good use of lighting in hisimages, creating a good array of shots with dramatic shadows.

He also uses the shadows to produce a number of silhouette shots, which is actually great ti see at this point in the course referring to the section on making figures anonymous. 

He has some great gig shots too. I like his usage of the stage lighting to create such abstract images. He tends to take a lot of shots of the full stage, taking the images at a longer focal length  with a wider angle as opposed to blocking out the audience and focussing on the performers.This is a great idea, making the shots more about the overall show. 

Ferry has some great shots on his website and it's good to see a new perspective on photographing music events. I wouldn't normally think to take effective shots from the back of the room as I tend to focus more on the artists, however this is something I would like to attempt in the future.

Exercise - Making figures anonymous

Outline: Make between two and four photographs, using different techniques, to show people in places but making them unrecogniseable.

Warped Tour 2012

For my first image, I have chosen an image taken at Alexandra Palace for the Vans Warped Tour 2012. We get a good sense of scale with the building and the stage but the mixture of techniques in this one picture, including motion blur, small and many and facing away, the figures are all anonymous and unrecognisable.

Cardiff Devils Ice Hockey 2012

This second image taken during an ice hockey game again incorporates more than one technique. It shows facing away and also small and many to make the figures in the stands give life to the place but without stealing focus.

Sandy Beach, Porthcawl 2013

I'm not sure that this image works as well as the previous images. The beach is meant to be the main focus but although the figures are unrecogniseable, they are the main focus of the image so it does not seem that the beach is the priority.

Her Dark Embrace, Birmingham 2012

Just to add a gig photo into the mix, this is another example of making a figure anonymous but also highlights the difficulty of photographing drummers! Not so much an example about the place itself here but we get the jist of the 'gig' enviroment. The kit is the main 'place' so to speak however, it's drummer is anonymous as the kits obscures almost all of his body and a good portion of his face.

Conclusion: I wanted to include music based photos in this section purely as it's a good indication of this type of photography. There are always lots of people who are small in contrast to the buildings/stage/etc, and usually obscured by other people or motion blur, especially when it comes to the artists. So I'm glad I could get some of these shots in to show this. Also, it seems common on occasion to have at least one or more of these techniques in the image without paying too much attention to doing it on purpose.

Ricky Adam.

Adam is another photographer recommended by my tutor and once again, my tutor has not disappointed. Ricky Adam is a photographer from Northern Ireland. Through his website, http://www.rickyadamphoto.com, I see a big BMX and musical influence in his work. With my love of gig photography, I can see why my tutor felt I should take a look at his work.

Adam has a great mix of street photography with portraiture through this, covering a wide view of everyday culture and of all walks of life. His portraiture is very 'punk' themed and I really like the double shots addition, incorporating a second image of the subject whether it be a different angle, pose or just to highlight a personal feature. This is very effective and something I would definitely like to try myself in the future. You can almost see the rebellion in his work as well which is a good link to the punk theme. One of my favourite images is this image. So simple and yet so remarkable all at once. It is great to see that not all portraits have to be set up with perfect lighting and a perfect subject. Adam demonstrates that the importance of a natural portrait is to capture the character and essence of the person being photographed.

His BMX photography is also very effective. I have personally tried to photograph skateboarders at a music event recently and found it near impossible so it's obviously a specific talent that he is very creative with.

My attempt to photograph skateboarders! - Vans Warped Tour, London Nov 2012

 In relation to where we are in the course at the moments, Adam is very good at making people invisible in some of these BMX shots. The scenes appear vast and on a large scale and then you notice a small BMX rider performing a trick somewhere and that is very clever indeed. This image is a fabulous example.

He also had some great shots of derelict buildings, another area of photography I am enjoying looking at at the moment. But more about that in another post.

Adam's gig photography is inspiring and looking at his shots of various punk gigs, I can immediately feel the atmosphere of the event through his work. I love the  Refused 1998 Ireland shot and this is a gig view I would love to be able to achieve myself one day. This would require a specific stage set up though, with the stage at floor level and myself directly above, otherwise the shot would be in effective. As a similar scenario at a gig in Cardiff a few years ago, the band were at floor level but being off to the side and trying to capture it doesn't give the same effect.

My image from a ground level stage - The Defiled, Cardiff Dec 2011

I am linked back to my previous post of Freidmann with Adam's Fugazzi Ireland 1999 shot. Although I am less fond of the contrast to Friedmann/Chalmers shots. They tend to have something whether it be the artist or the crowd in the shot as well as the instrument and Adam had an empty space. Maybe it's taken as a contrast to the punk theme with it reflecting quiet and calm instead of mayhem and madness.

I can honestly say I am very interested in Adam's photography and he is definitely a photographer that can inspire my future work.

Brian Ferry Images - unknown photographer.

My mum is a big Bryan Ferry fan. I was quite uninterested when she said that she had something to show me that he had posted on Facebook. However, I was soon a lot more intrigued. She showed me a collection of photos called 'The Jazz Age', added by Bryan Ferry but, unfortunately, there is no link to who the photographer is! Although my mum has a suspicion that it is Bryan's son, Isaac Ferry but we have no confirmation at all.
The collection itself I think is fantastic and is a similar theme to a collection of images that I took for my final assignment for 'Digital Photographic Practice 1'.

From the overall look of the collection, we can see immediately that it is focussed around a musical theme and on closer inspection of each individual shot, we can get a sense of Jazz music through the inclusion of a lot of instruments relating to jazz music. I can assume from these images, the collection is to coincide with the recording and release of Bryans Ferry's latest album entitled 'The Jazz Age'.

The image focus on the recording of the album, including candid shots of the instruments used as well as instruments being played and vocals being sung. I love how the photographer has captured candid shots of the actual recording process as well as shots of the instruments not in use as a contrast.

Drum shot from Bryan Ferry Facebook

In comparison, I had the same vision of the outcome of the shots with while producing my own collection.

Image from my DPP1 final assignment

The full set of my final images can be seen here.

My outlook was to purely to focus on items or instruments that make or play music. I focussed on taking photographs to emphasize the instrument itself and this is similar to what this photographer has done, although I like that the photographer here had gone a step further on some shots and and using the frame to photograph just a small section of the instrument to the point of having to really think what the instrument actually is, like this one.

Another shot taken by this photographer that compares to my own collection is this image of a sheet of music. Mine focusses more on the lyrics on the sheet as opposed to the sheet itself but I think the similarity is still there.

Image from my DDP1 final assignment

This collection is a real eye opener to me and interesting to see how the photographer has not only focussed on the documenting of the process but has also managed to keep each shot inclusive somehow of the theme of the album title.

Exercise - Busy traffic.

Outline: Produce an image which aims to show the 'busyness' of the place.


I decided to take these images in a supermarket as that is somewhere that I go often that is always busy! So off I went to do my shopping in the morning and much to my horror....

not exactly busy...

I got to the top floor of the shop and it was empty! This wouldn't do. As you can see, it's not exactly highlighting bustling shoppers here. So I went to a second supermarket and had a little more luck;

Shopping day...

Conclusion: The second image fulfills the exercise brief much better than the first, but I thought to include them both as a comparison. I kept the focal length pretty standard for these images and kept the 'aisle' of the store in perspective so that we could make use of the shoppers in the distance as well as the people in the for front of the image.

Exercise: A small single figure.

Outline: Take a photograph where a small figure is not the main focus but not completely overlooked. 

The notes are right on this one, this is not an easy exercise to undertake and I have failed any attempts that I have tried.

My best attempt was the following image, take while undertaking shots for assignment 4;

Single figures on Porthcawl Pier - 2012

The pier is obviously the main focus of this image and the eyes drift to the striking view in the background as well. These factors give the viewer enough opportunity to stop and examine the image and then spot the couple sat on the pier.

Conclusion: I really like this shot so I'm glad that I got to use it, even though it wasn't taken intentionally for this exercise. It's good to see how an image needs to sometimes be explored before you can really appreciate the beauty of it.

Black and White photography.

Some of my favourite photography is in black and white. I like creating my own black and white images. But why?? I tried to think why I like it so much and I couldn't put my finger on exactly why I choose to create black and white images or why I like black and white photography at all. The more I thought, the less I could come up with an answer. So I thought why do we use black and white photography at all?

I've always thought that producing images in black and white is appealing on a number of factors. I tend to use black and white images in sequence photography or when covering an event as I feel it adds to the theme of the collection to create more of a narrative. I have said before, black and white is common for being 'simpler'. People often use the term in 'black and white' to simplify something but this completely contrasts the idea of black and white photography. 

One of the main factors of creating mono images is tones. As stated above, people use the term to say that something is either black or white. But in reality there are so many different tones of black and of white that   join the two colours together in the middle. Black and white photography highlights this point exactly. So many different shades and tones are created from different colours, shadows and textures that it makes the image a lot more interesting to look at. Once the distraction of 'colour' has been removed from an image, we can suddenly get a bigger sense of detailing. 

I found a lovely website, a blog type site by a man named Pete Williams called 'PhotographyMad'. The opening sub-title of a post caught my eye:

"Black and White Photography offers a unique perspective on many subjects. Removing colour brings out the hidden details, texures and shapes." - Pete Williams, PhotographyMad.com

The article was entitled '5 Tips for Black and White photography' and explained all about how black and white photography emphasizes the shape, form and texture of the subject.

I also read a post on a website which gave the same comments as the site above. The post was by Darren Rowse and can be found here. It shows the opinion of others on the beauty of black and white photography. And I agree with all of them.

The factor that I completely overlooked was the versatility of black and white images, as stated in the first point on that article. The fact that you can use it for every scene and type of photography as well as in all lighting conditions. This is where I can relate most as when photographing gigs, the lighting can be horrific. And while competing as well with high ISO useage, black and white photography can be a god send. I also find it works really well because coloured lighting can be a pain to work with too and i find that the red lights are the worst. In colour, the images can be flat as the 'red' takes over the image but removing this can create a better overall shot.

So ow I'm a clearer on why we use black and white photography and why I like using it and looking at it so much. Its great to get other peoples opinions on the useage of black and white photography too and I can take this research on board when deciding whether to use black and white photography in the future.