Project Three: Light, Final Images

Shoot 3

After the last shoot I thought I'd try using different coloured lights to show the difference in photos in the series and to also make it more interesting. I tested to see what would work better: white light with some colour, white light and the same amount of coloured light, or just coloured light. I settled on an even amount and used different colours for each object. I was happy with this shoot and think that I will be able to make a final series from it.

Shoot 2

Initially I was happy with this shoot and thought that i would have been able to choose my final images from it. But when I looked over it again i found that the images were, good, but repetitive. I think that i achieved the look i was after in this shoot but now i just need to make photos that will work in a series rather than just on their own.

Reasearch: Mondrian

I am using Piet Mondrian as inspiration for my project and in particular this series of tree paintings. They show his progression into abstraction but also how he still manages to show the subjects form.

Research: Gestalt Psychology

Gestalt Psychology is the theory of the human mind seeing and organizing shapes to see whole forms that might actually not be there.

 In this picture on the left the only objects that are actually there are 3 circles with pieces taken out of them. But our mind tells us that there is a triangle in the middle.









In this image on the right a three dimensional shape can be seen even though there is no such thing there.






This is what i hope to achieve with my series. I will try to photograph everyday objects that we recognize easily and then I plan to 'Light paint' behind them, but use less and less light until we can no longer recognize them.

First Shoot: Experimenting with light drawing

This is my first shoot, I found my favourite photos were the ones that created silhouettes by scribbling the light behind an object. This gave me the idea of making a series of photos to see how little amount of light we need to recognise an object and at what point the object disappears to us and it just looks like a bunch of lines. 

Project Three: Light

Thoughts:
Originally I was thinking of two different approaches to this project. To either play and experiment with light drawing/painting by using small L.E.D’s and long exposure or to capture the bending of light by photographing reflections in concave/convex mirrors and refraction of light through water. Instantly when i thought of photographing mirrors the cover of Pearl Jam's 'Rearview Mirror' came to mind. I really like the aesthetic of this photo and it could have been a good shot to base my project on. However, I decided not to go with idea for three reasons. 1) I wasn't sure if i would be able to find a big enough variety of surfaces and objects to photograph, 2) I heard a couple of people talking in the lecture that had the same idea.. 3) the thought of light painting was just too interesting to resist.

Proposal: Light Drawing/painting
I want to experiment with light drawing/painting by using the same technique we used in the group studio. Using a long exposure time on a camera and using small L.E.D lights to draw in lines on the photograph. I would like to try taking this beyond just making cool pictures with lights.

Final Photo Choices

Shoot Four

Shoot 3

In this shoot I tried to make my photos a little more abstract with the blur and motion of the lights but i found that in most of the photos it just ended up being distracting.

Artist Precedent: Tony Howell

I know that these style of photos are and obvious choice for night time photography and almost cliche' but i do feel that they portray my idea nicely. I think that using light is a good way of showing movement which in turn is a good way pf showing the pace of life. It's almost like these people are to busy with them selves that they don't even have time to stay in a photograph.

Shoot two

In this shoot I experimented with keeping the camera stationary and also tried having some movement when taking a photo to show the warping of lights. I think some of these are starting to show that the environment around us determines how we perceive time.

Revised Proposal

My plan was to compare the feeling of time and how we experience it depending on the environment around us. I was going to do this by comparing the fast pace of the city to the slower pace of a smaller town and the country side, unfortunately getting photos of the country side and my home town fell through. So, my proposal will now just concentrate on capturing the pace of the city. I found that during our test photos with fast and slow shutter speeds I really enjoyed taking photos of the city at night so that is what I'll focus on. I've also taken inspiration from the night shot of Alec Soth's below.

Artist Precedent: Alec Soth

What i really like about Alec Soth's photos is that he manages to convey a real sense of time and stillness. Each of these photos have a definite feeling of what it would be like to be in that environment. this is an idea that i would definitely like to explore and maybe even try to reproduce the same feeling with my own photos.

I love how each of these photos are very different in their own way but still convey a real sense of time.

First Shoot Contact

I struggled in my first shoot dealing with the weather and also finding the right settings to use to capture my idea.