Christopher Mann Still image portfolioNovember 2011

This Photograph responds to the first breif I was set. I was assigned the task to create a self portrait (1)

(1)

This Image demonstrates use of the self timer. This image also aims to capture the poor nights sleep gained in student halls of residence. (2) The following 9 images are created by using only the settings within the camera.

(2)

(3)

This photograph responds to the task of creating a low light street image. I achieved this by using a long shutter speed of ten seconds and a small aperture setting of f36. (3)

This photograph demonstrates use of shallow depth of field. The foreground being the main focus while the background is blurred. (4)

(4)

Light. (6)

(6)

This Image displays fast shutter speed. The photo was taken at 1/1000 of a second. (5)

(5)

(7)Colour.. (7)

(8)

Texture. (8)

Line. (9)

Balance. (10)

(9)

(10)

Movement. (11)

(11)

This Image shows Martin Parr’s work on ‘Great British Food’. I singled out this photo and aimed to recreate it in as much detail as possible (12)

(12)

This Image shows my own interpretation of Martin Parr’s photograph of the man and the donut. (13)

(13)

This image displays martin parrs original (as shown above) I have changed the meaning by swapping the donut with a disc. (14)

(14)

This image aims to portray the theme of digital culture and identity. (15)

(15)

Contextual statementI spent weeks taking several photographs, manipulating images and re shooting scenarios until I was satisfied with my work. Although satisfied to some point, I shall discuss the strengths and weaknesses of my portfolio work. Firstly, I am generally pleased with my photos and believe thye all have some form of strength. I also believe some are less effective than others. The long exposure shot for example, I was pleased with, I am happy with the colours and framing. On the flip side, the fast shutter speed has strength in the way it is framed, the colour however could be much lighter and the darkness of the image makes it harder to view and could potentially produce loss of interest. Moreover, the image responding to the word ‘Balance’ I believe to be the stongest image I produced in my final portfolio. The subject of the man on a bicycle gives the picture more character. I intended to shoot the photo of only the contrasting lights, but got lucky with a subject at the time of my shoot. More weaknesses of my final work include the framing, The more I look and analyze my own work, the more I find problems with the allignment and framing of my images as a whole. I re shot these weaker photos in some situations, for example the original image responding to colour was framed completely differently to the one used in my final por-folio, despite being shot at the same location. As my knowledge of the camera grows, I will be identify more weaknesses. However with the time given for this task I believe my final portfolio contains many strengths among weaknesses.

Secondly, in relation to the process of producing my images, I received the breifs individually for different images. I would look thoroughly through the breif several times, until I gained a picture of how my response would look. I spent a lot of personal time travelling around the city of london looking for locations which related to the image I had in my head. The images relating to colour,balance and movement had all been vi-sualised in my head before shooting. For the other photos I would spontaniously find a location that I believe fitted the breif. I planned my time for some photos as well as the location, for example I wanted to portray movement through an image at waterloo train station. Being the busiest station in the country I wanted to capture it at its busiest time and headed around 5pm when people would be leaving work. As mentioned ear-lier, I ended up re shooting several images which cost a lot of time. In some cases, (for example the image on digital culture and social identity) I began and prepared an image for over an hour, only to find that when I shot the photo, it didn’t look how I wanted it. I had to start the process over again until I was eventually satisfied. If I was to be given the breif again, I would have gone about the process differently and drawn on paper, several scenarios to choose from, as appose to jumping straight to the first idea, only to find out that it couldn’t work as effectivly as others. In the future I shall allow myself more time to reflect and build upon work. Furthermore, I researched the works of several photographers to influence my work. Martin Parr is a recog-nised english photographer who I researched and eventually re created one of his images. The reason I found myself more comfortable researching martin parr is because I could relate to his work. I originate form a small, rural british town full of similar subjects to the ones martin parr portrays. I can relate to the unfit, middle aged, sunburned men sitting on a deck chair on the beach, and maybe the relation I build with his images had an effect on why I chose to re produce one of his shots. Another photographer I researched was Bill Brandt. I would have liked to re create one of his images and they where intersting to observe. How-ever the standard of composition within his images was far out of my reach at that moment in time with the equipment provided. Although not situated on the list of famous photographers, I have been researching and paying close concentration on the work of british photographer Sam Ashley. I am a fan of his work and re-ally appreciate the images he produces. Ashley specifies in shooting high shutter stills of skateboarding. His work did have some effect on my own. For example the high shutter still I shot of the skateboarder. Throughout the course of creating the Images for my final portfolio, I reffered to blackboard to re read the briefs and use links and resources. I would use the link providing everybody else in the classes work on tum-blr. If I didn’t understand what the brief was asking me to produce, I would look at the other students work before hassling a tutor. In addition, Throughout the module we would be shown other photographers work, we would be shown camera techniques, photoshop techniques, all of these aspects played a massive roll in my final portfolio. We where introduced to certain rules of photography, for example the rule of thirds. I also applied my own knowledge to some of my images by giving subjects space to move into for example the fast shutter speed image. I would aim to place my subject on one side of the frame, giving them the middle and other side to moe into. I was shown images by different artists which made me more open minded, realising that you could take your imagination really far. This inspired me to go out and be adventurous, as appose to taking two steps out of my door and taking the a photo of the first thing in sight. In conclusion, I believe my work submitted refelcts my efforts throughout the module. I aimed to shoot across different with their own uniqueness, such as colourfull, busy, quiet, dark to make my images more enjoyable to view as well as showing how I can use the camera in a range of different scenarios.