Evaluation

When getting the Landscape photography brief I was really exited and was rearing to go and take bright colourful landscapes of the Yorkshire dales. It wasn’t till I actually red the assignment that I noticed that we were going to be taking photos of Hartlepool in black and white. It hadn’t accrued to me that landscapes were anything other than bright cynic views. So when we walked around Hartlepool looking for a spot to photograph I started looking at everything a little different. I started to notice lines and what were in the foreground rather than seeing a flat picture.

For my destination in Hartlepool I choose to base it around my student house. This way I could keep a documented record of my first digs on Grange Road. The 4 by 5 film camera was exiting to use but it was clumsy and heavy to carry around so by teaming up with someone else, it made it easier to get around. There was always a shortage of slides as well so it seemed to take twice as long to be able to do anything. So I went around with my digital camera first to see what I liked the look of first so I would have an understating of what I would want to shoot when I got some slides. 

When I got hold of a couple of slides I started by taking photos of main street at I had been looking at some old photos and thought it would be a good idea if I could try and take the exact same photo and look at the comparison from then and now. The only problem was that where the photo had been taken there had been traffic lights put up more or less right in the spot needed to take the photo. I also found that with the excitement of using such a big camera I would always forget to focuses the first image, witch became rather annoying but it did make me double check everything for the rest of the day shooting.

Once I had got enough developed negatives that I was happy with I went out one last time to push some 400-iso film at 800 just to see how it would go. I really liked the outcome and was exited to have a go at printing it.  Another equipment problem was that there were only 4 enlargers so when you got a go one you had to make it count. With never printing as large as 12-16 it was exiting so to prevent wasting paper I would do loads of test strips to make sure I more or less got the print right first time. I found that the film that had been pushed needed tremendous amount of time under the light rather that the film that had not. I was looking at about 2 minutes for the pushed film and no more than 5 seconds for the other.

By doing this project it has made me aware that landscapes can be almost anything and by me pigeon howling it in a certain way has opened my eyes and made me look at built up urban areas a little different. 

Final Prints

Paul Graham

I was looking for urban photographers and Paul Grahams work court my eye for some reason. I think it was because these images look like really common scenes from everyday life and until you saw them as a photography you wouldn't think twice about them but as a photograph it does something that comes across as beautiful.

Scratched Negs

I came across this picture of clouds in a Paul Graham book. It made me think of how much they can change a picture and how I wanted to go out on a cloudy day and do some shooting.

I was stood on my street for about 15 minutes just waiting for the clouds to move into the middle of my photo. when I developed it I was really happy with the composition and that I had waited.      

You can't tell that much on these photos but while I was printing I was really happy with this print because of the dramatic clouds but then I noticed quite a few scratches on the negative at the top as well as fingerprints so I decided to make this print a wright off.

Pushing Film

When shooting the film I had a go at pushing it by taking light readings for 800 iso instead of 400 iso this meant I was underexposing the film. When it came to developing it I had to over develop it to bring out the highlights. But when printing I found that it needed much more light that some of the other negatives as much as 2 minutes sometimes, whilst the ones exposed at 400 iso needed just less than 5 seconds.    

The negative on the left is the one that has been pushed at 800 iso. You can see in the negative and the contact sheet how the highlights and shadows have been affected and how they have become much more contrasted.      

Negatives

The Road

As I had been looking at some of Joe Cornish's work I thought I would take some images of the cynic views of the North Yorkshire dales. It wasn't the nicest of days so I couldn't get the rich, over indulgent colours that might be displayed in Cornish's work. I did do I little tweaking on photoshop with the levels and saturation to make up for the lack of colour due to the grey sky.   

The Reservoir

I wanted to take some landscapes other than of Hartlepool in black in white. So in the easter holidays I went out with my camera on an evening to get some nice sun sets and when I got to the reservoir there was an orange sky, it looked quite good so I started to take some photos but within seconds it turned pink and soon after it was back to a grey sky. It made me realise that you have to be quick and no leave out any opportunities because it could all change in seconds.  

Digital camera

Before going out with the 4 by 5 film camera I thought I would go around where I was going to taking photos with my DSLR first to see what I would look best before waisting film. These are just a few images of the backstreet behind my student house.

Landscape Image That Means Something

When we got the email to bring in a landscape image that might have some meaning to us I was stood in a coffee shop at the time, next to a card rack. I saw this image of Pen Hill and automatically pick it up and bought it. 

I choose this image of Pen hill because every year when I was younger all the children in my village growing up were made to walk up Pen hill by our parents, carrying a had painted hard boiled egg each. When we got to the top, we would all sit down and eat our easter eggs.

Then came the part we had all been waiting for. All the children would line up at the top of the hill and suddenly out of know where, it would turn into a sea of adrenaline filled children hurling hard boiled eggs down a hill, it became a the mad competitive rush to the bottom. It would never be a clean race either, you would always get the kid who would pick up your egg and toss it in the opposite direction, this would become devastating and you would find yourself focused on chasing after there egg instead of going to pick up your own. This would end up in in seek of revenge, all you could concentrate on was obliterating there egg.

 

At the end of the day a hand full of heartbroken kids would get back into the car they came in with one feeling victorious with his or hers win of the year.    

Joe Cornish

When I think of Landscapes I think of artists like Joe Cornish, with images of beautiful cynic views of the countryside, indulgent with colour. So when we got given the brief and it said landscapes of Hartlepool using a 4 by 5 film camera in black and white I was totally out of my comfort zone.         

All of the above images are from the Joe Cornish website and google images 

http://www.joecornishgallery.co.uk/

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=landscape+photographers+joe+cornish&es_sm=91&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=KV9eU5HMJKWo0AWLjIGQCg&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1016&bih=514#q=north+yorkshire+landscape+joe+cornish&spell=1&tbm=isch&facrc=_&imgdii=hdRwtYXqnAbtjM%3A%3B_UqocvUw3dt80M%3BhdRwtYXqnAbtjM%3A&imgrc=hdRwtYXqnAbtjM%253A%3BV4oYOfm54GVXbM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fcache4.asset-cache.net%252Fgc%252FBA0068-001-england-north-yorkshire-moors-danby-dale-gettyimages.jpg%253Fv%253D1%2526c%253DIWSAsset%2526k%253D2%2526d%253DjuLjmMOA5LH42uyHnBp1sJD1Emqjz2eRRuhziwNnqaY%25253D%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.gettyimages.com%252Fdetail%252Fphoto%252Fengland-north-yorkshire-moors-danby-dale-high-res-stock-photography%252FBA0068-001%3B467%3B367

History Of Hartlepool

The following images are from the 1950s to the 1980s West of Hartlepool and the town center. The image below on the left is of Grange Road. This is where I am shooting my film, so for one of my shots I think I will do something similar by taking the image from the top of the street looking down on the row of victorian houses.  

I think it will be interesting to see what my finished prints will look like in comparison to these old images of Hartlepool. 

6 Grange Road

I decided to get into touch with my landlord and ask if he new anything about the history of my student house as I was thinking of basing the project in and around the house. That way I can make the images personal and not just have random places in Hartlepool.