Shooting

Going into the street photographing with the 4X5 was easier said than done. I thought because I have shot with this camera before and I was happy with my photos that I was going to have no problems with it. I was wrong.

When I shot landscapes with this camera, I had all the time in the world to check everything was ready to just take a picture. But when I started taking pictures of people I found that I didn't want to waste any of there time and was rushing every time I took a picture. This resulted in me fogging the film, over exposing it and sometimes not even putting the slides in the back of the camera. I think after wasting 4 bits of film it was finally a wake up call that I needed to slow down and take my time making sure that everything was closed and ready to take a picture.

Depth of field

By doing this exercise of changing the depth of field and measuring it, I learnt that the further away the subject is, the longer the depth of field becomes. And when the subject is closer there's a smaller area in focus. Also by measuring and doing it in this way, it has finally sunk into my mind and I feel more confident it about it.

Evaluation

When hearing that the theme for the editorial project was ‘extraordinary’ it was hard not to be completely stumped, as it was such a wide key whole. Having the thought extraordinary in your mind makes you think you need to present an extraordinarily good bit of work. So instead of over thinking the theme I started to look at simple things like everyday objects that have been changed to look pretty unique, such as bananas being carved into portraits of people. I thought I would have ago at one of these carvings and I whilst doing so I had a bit of an epiphany. I thought I could photograph everyday people but try and do replica images of them as well know public figures.

I started looking at what people I could use and who I could photograph them as. But I soon found out that the main thing was getting a similar lighting setup to the ones that I was going to be looking at. The first time I tried this was I bit of a disaster, as I didn’t focuses much on what the lighting was doing in the image and I was focusing more on what the model looked like. The second time round I made sure that the lighting was right first, and I ended up saving more time.  This time was a success and I was much happier with the outcome. When taking the photos to the first critique I didn’t get much feedback, as there isn’t much you can say about a photo of a photo. So I started to panic and wonder what I should do and then the word ‘extraordinary’ started ringing in my mind.

As I was walking home one day I saw a man in the town centre of Hartlepool making bubbles, my instinct was to shoot home to get my camera hoping he would still be there when I got back. To my relief he was, I asked if he was okay with photographing him and his bubbles and he was more then happy. When I looked at the photos after I had noticed that by just going out and taking photos of something that had caught my eye ended up being more extraordinary than taking a photos of people as celebrities. This inspired me to photograph other real life things happening that catch my eye on a daily basis. This lead me to talking photos of some exotic ring necked parakeet in the local park, as they looked rather out of place in Hartlepool. Then finally I had the opportunity to go and photograph a camel race.

After shooting the camel race I new that these were the photos that I wanted to use as my final piece, like the parakeet they looked a bit out of place being on a racetrack in Yorkshire rather than in a dusty desert in the Middle East. I was happy with how they turned out because of the colours, they were really bright and the total opposite to what might be expected from a camel race. For example the bright green grass rather than sand dunes. When trying to pick a collection to put forward it was hard to narrow it down, I was told to try and pick the ones that showed the ambience of the races. I ended up picking a few that where not look the most structured of photographs but the camels were really clumsy to watch and with the odd cropping and framing I think it adds to the clumsy motions of the camels. 

When getting them printed I thought of getting them done at A1 to emphasise on the side of the camels, but with having them that size I was afraid it might not do the quality of them any good, as some parts of the images have unwanted movement in them. So I played it safe and got them done at A3.                

Editing The Final Selection

Today we presented out final prints to be narrowed down by an editor. He went through and picked either one or two prints from each collection and put them all in an order to how they will get printed in the magazine. It was really beneficial to see what pictures he chose and why he put them in the order that he did.  

Final Prints

I narrowed it down to eight photos and these are my final prints to hand in. They came back from DS colour labs with a white strip on one side of them all so all I need to do is to cut it off then put them into there archival sleeves.

Final images

Narrowing It Down

To have a better idea of which photos to put forward for the editorial project I got a bunch of different people to pick five that they liked and the ones most picked I will go and get printed.  

History of Camel Racing

I wanted to know a little bit more about camel racing, so I decided to have a quick look online and rummaged through a few websites until I came across Emirates Natural History Group and there was quite a lot of information on the matter so I have just picked a phew paragraphs from the website that touch upon most points.    

Races, which were performed on festive social occasions and celebrated by the local community, included religious feasts, celebrating rainfall, weddings, circumcision, and perhaps the occasional visit of a prominent tribal shaikh. During such festive occasions people displayed their colourful rugs and cloths on tent ropes. These races were basically an ardha, a show, which ran across 300-500 m. One or two men sang loud heroic war songs, and riders exhibited their riding skills while brandishing their swords or old rifles, or stood holding hands while two or three camels ran parallel to each other. When tribesmen visited the villages or camps of their kinsmen during religious Eids, feasts, they usually performed a shortardha race on their mounts before coming in the tent to greet the people and share coffee and dates with them. In the races of festive celebrations there were occasional individual competitions for sport, but the winners received no prizes. Sometimes, however, in wedding celebrations the first, or occasionally the first three winning camels got prizes from the family of the groom. Prizes in those days were small symbolic statements, basically shara (sign) or namous (recognition), represented materially in a dagger, head cloth, or other items of clothing.

In competition races riders were usually arranged for the race a day ahead of time, and the evening before the race they agreed on the starting point. A shara (prize) was usually declared ahead of time. Such competitions were usually arranged as a resu1t of a challenge (wahna) among camel owners, or it could have been triggered by a visit of a leading shaikh who put forward a prize for the race. Sometimes competing riders went and spent the night at the starting point. Each would guard his mount carefully throughout the night to prevent foul play from other competitors. The race usually started early in the morning. Racing distances were relatively short, extending between 3 to 4 km. Unlike today, camels sat down at the starting line, and upon hearing a short cry, they rose up and ran. The owner of a particularly fast camel was usually asked not to participate. Instead he was given a sadda (compensation) in order to give a reasonable chance to other competing camels and to make the race more unpredictable and exciting. Rules governing age categories of competing camels and the ages and weights of riders were almost nonexistent. As recently as the early 1970s, race camels were ridden by their owners, usually the nimble youngsters in the family.

http://www.enhg.org/Home/Resources/UnitedArabEmirates/CamelRacing.aspx

Parakeet of Hartlepool

I know I already have a clear idea of where I am going with my project but I couldn't help mentioning these guys. They are ring necked Parakeet living in the Ward Jackson park of Hartlepool, I thought it was a pretty extraordinary thing to see in Hartlepool as they look like they should be seen in the amazon rainforest or something. 

Second group critique

 For the second group critique I took in pictures of the bubble man and camel racing, both what I would call extraordinary but real events that can't be staged. The feedback that I got was helpful and I now have a clear vision of what I'm doing next.

The feedback that I got was that I should stick to one event and show a selection of images covering it at different angles. From the majority of the class the camel racing photos where mostly talked about so I am going to focus on going thought them images and hopefully picking five or more that can be used for my final ones.    

Camels

As part of my project I have decide to photograph real life situations and with the tittle being extraordinary what fits the brief better than a camel race. 

I had so much fun being part of this charity event and getting the chance to be under the barriers on the racetrack getting the shots that I needed of this unique event.   

Looking for inspiration

I was having some second thoughts on my project as my last group critique was said that the image I displayed of my look a like Marilyn Manson was not intelligent to read as it was just a picture of a picture and there wasn't much I thought I could do about this as that's what my project was going to be about, recreating other photos. So I decided whilst it's only the second week into the assignment I will drop the idea and look for inspiration for something else to photograph. 

This is where I went for a nosey into the church gallery in Hartlepool, and had a look at all the projects on display. All the work was very real so I thought I will go out and photograph extraordinary real life everyday things.   

Lecture in Newcastle

Our visit to Newcastle to hear a guest lecture speaking was really beneficial, The amount of research that went into his work was really impressive. His research clearly showed how each bit of the project linked into his next bit of work. Not to mention that the lengths that he went to, to get the right information to back it all up with. I thought it was really interesting/ overwhelming about all the information about the rear earth materials that are in out everyday technology. I can't quit remember how the space photos came into it but I thought it was pretty smart that he could have a program on Google to take pictures of space to use them in his work as his own. 

The main that that I am going to take away from this visit is that I know realise how much depth is needed into researching a project to have a fuller understanding of the concept that is being portrayed in a selection of final images.

These are just a few quick snaps from the amazing building that the lecture was held in. The pictures are from in the library where it had an amazing archive of really old pictures of developments in the Northeast.            

Richard, The Bubble Man Of Hartlepool

Another small video of a lovely gentleman called Richard. He is from Pennsylvania and has lived in the UK for 4 years now. He is positioned near the memorial statute in Hartlepool town centre, he doesn't get paid or ask for money he just simply loves making bubbles to cheer people up on there way home from work or school. 

      

Marilyn Manson/ Michael Thompson

I am was just experimenting with a bit of video to show how my small shoot was done. This shoot involved a pull down white screen, a lamp, a mobile phone light and a shit load of white face-paint.    

I think I have managed to create a studio look with the two lights that I had so I was pleased with that, but I wasn't happy with the beard on my model so we had to stop shooting and get rid of it then started again.

This time around was much better even though the beard was gone and it was a closer likeness this break gave me chance to go through the photos I had already taken and compare them to the image that I was recreating it from. From this I would see what minor things I needed to improve on.  

I left a bit of space with the framing when I was shooting so when it came to choosing the photo I knew I would be able to crop it with a closer likeness to the original photograph. There was one thing I couldn't get rid of and that was the rembrent lighting with the triangle from his nose shadowing onto his face. To get rid of this I would have needed another light or brought the main light round to the front a bit.  

Lana Del Ray/ Holly Williams

This is the photo that I was trying to recreate, Lana Del Ray with a rose. 

I think that this one what the one I liked most I know there isn't much of a difference between them all, but for some reason this is the one. 

Noticing little things like the colour of the eyes, rose and hair that needed tweaking but in the end I kept them how they were.