Center Parcs - Nature Photography

Another area I experimented with as part of my experiment project was nature photography. I had been looking at nature as a possible theme for my final major project so I decided to experiment with it a bit more to enhance my skills and knowledge of how to capture the perfect nature photograph. I went away to Center Parcs, Longleat Forest in Wiltshire for the weekend and took my Nikon DSLR and a 50mm macro lens to capture anything natural I could find. I am very happy with my results as they were what I had in mind when I set off with my camera. Experimenting with this helped me greatly because I now know that I would like to use this style of photography in my final major project and I think it'll fit well with the use of liquid emulsion.

Portraiture

As part of my experiment project I wanted to try out Portraiture as I had previously missed out on the opportunity to use the studio beforehand. I felt that it helped widen my knowledge of different photographic techniques and also ways I can edit a photograph to enhance it. I was happy with the results I achieved however if I were to do it again I would play around with the lighting a bit more to see what other effects I could create.

Final Major Project Preparation

Recently I've started thinking about what I would like to do for my final major project, after experimenting with liquid emulsion I feel that it is something I could see myself doing when I start creating my final piece. I really liked the process of making the prints on different materials and finding out whether the outcomes were successful or not. Obviously I won't be creating this final piece for quite a while but that means I still have some time to really think about what I'd like to achieve.

I have to write a proposal for the final major project just to explain what my basic idea is and to say how I will try to develop it and what I intend to do to achieve my goal. Before I write the actual proposal I have written a short draft just outlining what i think I'll say and how I'll explain my idea so when I come to writing the actual one, I will be clear and explanatory.

Christmas Project

Over the christmas break I was set a project where I had to upload a wintery photograph and a view from my window to two different websites. I really like my wintery photograph because of the way it shows the English countryside in the way it's usually stereotyped during Winter. I also like my small clip of a view from my window because I felt it worked well with the other uploads on the Guardian website, I found it fun to create because of the way I had to balance my camera on top of a pile of boxes and books to try and steady it and I felt that the view of the house covered in fairy lights made it even more effective.

My Trip to Rome

In October I went to Rome and took hundreds of photographs of everything I saw as I walked around to really get a sense of place. I wanted to present these photographs because I felt that they were my strongest ones and they each work together to give you a feel for what it was like there. At the time I was working n a project where I was given a random word which I had to represent as a series of photographs, I was given the word Conjunction so I decided t interpret it as photographs linking together. I think this is why I had such a successful result because I'd managed to link the photographs together in two different ways.

Fashion and Textiles

 When I chose fashion for my second option I created this interesting piece. It is a light shade made up from squares of acetate in different shapes and sizes. I then slotted the acetate into small pockets of fabric and sewed them up. I decided to sew it round in a spiral as I felt it would make the piece more interesting.

Digital Life Drawings

I wanted to show these digital life drawings I have done as they have helped towards the development of my Photoshop skills, when I was using the different tools and techniques they made me realise how easy Photoshop can actually be. I really like these drawings because of the way i have attempted to use different shades of black to add definition and tone to the drawings.

Digital Polaroids

Previous to me rediscovering my old Polaroid camera, I experimented with making digital polaroids on Photoshop. We were given 12 different words which we had to present as small polaroid styled photographs. I enjoyed creating them as I really like the vintage effect of polaroids so I felt that they were quite effective. I think this experimentation also helped me discover new techniques and processes I can use on Photoshop which will be useful to future projects.

Polaroids

I've had a polaroid camera for years but I have rarely used it until recently. I found a pack of Impossible polaroid film online which had 8 shots in it so I could use the camera again. This is the first picture I took with it and I really like the way it came out because of the vintage effect it has where the picture hasn't developed properly. I will continue to experiment with the camera to see if I can get a wider variety of results to work with.

Marking Super 8 Film

As a part of my experiment project I used super 8 film to create a short film in a group. Once we'd finished and developed the film we took them to The Cube cinema in Bristol to see how they came out. We used a special projector to view our films and analyse the quality of what we had filmed. A way to make super 8 films more interesting is to mark small patterns onto the frames of the film, this creates an interesting effect when projecting it as it looks almost like an animation running over the original footage. We used small tools to scratch a variety of different patterns and designs onto the film to create a similar effect, when we projected the film we were pleased with the way it looked because it made the super 8 film even more interesting than just looking at the original footage. I decided to photograph the results of our markings because I wanted to show just how well the film came out, the pictures are poor quality but you can still see what we achieved.