The Brief

Start doing your own research into some of the artists discussed above.  Then, using slow shutter speeds, ,multiple exposure function, or another technique inspired by the examples above, try to record the trace of movement within the frame.  You can be as experimental as you like.  Add a selection of shots together with relevant shooting data and description of process (how you captured the shots) to your learning log.

My inspiration

Prior to starting part 3, I had already become familiar with the use of shutter speed to record or freeze time.  Over the past few years, my two most common types of photography have been shooting sporting events and landscape.  In the former, the freezing of time is generally used to show the action, where a technique commonly used in the latter incorporates capturing movement of clouds, water etc through the use of slow shutter speeds.  What I learned in part 3 was that the movement within the frame is the third dimension to the image, whether it is time between events or simply relative movement between the camera or the subject.  The impression of speed of the subject can be created by using a slow speed to capture motion blur, while the same effect can be used to express chaos and panic by capturing the camera movement.  In an artistic sense, it doesn’t matter which tool is used to create the effect as long as the photograph works.  My research into the decisive moment (Project 3) led me to examine the works of highly creative artists such as Aïm Deüelle Lüski, who uses both long and multiple exposures combined to produce ethereal, semi-realistic images with the camera as part of the scene.  As a film shooter, I was also aware of the classic technique of multiple short exposure of single frames of film to create the effect of a long exposure, the motivation being to retain texture and avoid issues with reciprocity failure of slow films.

Last year, I purchases a long focal length macro lens for my D4.  At 200mm, it offers both the very short focus distance and telephoto magnification, which has allowed me to capture very small subjects such as bees with high precision.  I’ve grown to love the details this lens reveals, so my starting point for this exercise was small movement in the frame.

The images

The E String (3s at f/40, ISO 800)

This first image was inspired by my renewed interest in the guitar and the memory of a late friend once trying to teach me, to no avail.  I borrowed an electric 6 string guitar from a colleague so that I could capture the tiny movements in a string when it is plucked; in this case, the E string.  My first attempt at this shot was ruined by my being too heavy-handed with the string.  The vibrations induced into the rest of the guitar made all of the strings move.  Eventually, my plucking of the string was gentle enough to keep everything else still.   I used a continuous LED light from the left of the frame to light the strings and pickup.

Vinyl Queen (composite of  6 frames all 1/400th at f4.8, ISO6400)

This image was inspired by my recent rediscovery of vinyl records and of the band Queen, following the recent film biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.  I started listening to vinyl again because of the tactile nature of the medium, which has been lost in the digital era. For this image, I shot the record label with the camera on a tripod and the shutter release set to High Speed Continuous.  With the same LED light at 45 degrees from the lens, I shot 6 frames as the turntable rotated.  In Photoshop, I combined the images as layers with increasing opacity up to the final frame.  This is essentially the equivalent to shooting multiple exposures of a single frame as one would in film, the key difference being that there is always only one photograph in that medium.  As I’ve progressed as a photographer, I’ve moved away from using digital manipulation in Photoshop and Lightroom.  However, the effect is what I was looking for and as the man said:

“The negative is the score, and the print is the performance.” – Ansel Adams

View from the Deck (GoPro at 30fps, combined in Photoshop)

For my final shot, I was inspired by the works of Lüski   I placed a GoPro camera on the turntable of my record player, facing outwards.  With the camera set to 30pfs burst photo mode, I rotated the turntable and shot a 360 degree panorama of the room.  I used the same process of layering different opacity frames in Photoshop to create one image.

Reflection

I enjoyed shooting for this exercise as I was able to try three different techniques to capture movement within the frame.  The first image showcases macro photography and in particular how it reveals detail that the eye struggles to see.  The use of traditional slow shutter speed captures the difference between the strings well and the composition is clearly of a guitar pickup and fret board.  The second image is more technical, post-processing than photography, but it is a variation of a classical approach to slow speed film photography.  I like the way that the text is still legible this way, as with simple long exposure the effect is not as easily achieved.   The final image was my tribute to Lüski.  I loved the concept of the camera being part of the image rather than a tool for capturing what’s in front of it.  In this image, we can see all of the elements that make up the scene, from the record player’s tonearm and bright green cartridge to the ceiling cornicing, sofas and even my camera on its tripod.  The camera appears twice as it is also reflected from the inside of the record-player’s perspex lid.   I love the way that the only stationary element is the turntable mat in front of the camera and the way that the finished image is lo-fi, in a similar way to Lüski’s pinhole shots.

Depth of Field and the Realism of Photography

When I first started taking photographs as a child, my keenness to operate the camera correctly far outweighed my concentration on what I was pointing it at.  If a photograph was, albeit it accidentally, exposed correctly then the result would be straight representation of what I was looking at.  Needing no skill beyond pressing a button and waiting for the film to be processed, this child-like documentary vision was easy to achieve and its importance as a piece of work, fairly trivial.  I was listening to a podcast recently where one of the hosts talked about ‘found film’; that is film left in cameras that he had purchased in a thrift store or flea market.  He was routinely processing these rolls and in many cases finding photographs that were like my early efforts.  What was interesting was that many of these fairly uninteresting photographs were shot over 50 years ago.  The fact that they were straight documentary wasn’t interesting but the clear view of how the world and subjects had changed over that time, elevated the images to art.

“Deep focus gives the eye autonomy to roam over the picture space so that the viewer is at least given the opportunity to edit the scene himself, to select the aspects of it to which he will attend” (Bazin, 1948).

The Bazin quote rings true in the above case because as the eye wanders the frame, the passing of the time since the photograph provokes either a feeling of unknown (if the viewer has no memory of the time) or the familiar in the case of the older generation.

Ansel Adams is one of my favourite landscape photographers but although I’ve marvelled at his famous works like most others, his main influence has been technical.  Through his collection of books: The Camera, The Negative and The Print, I’ve sought to improve my technical skills in both film and digital photography.

In his early years as a photographer, he used technical skill to enhance or emphasise beauty in an image, to move away from the mechanical representation of the subject.  The more pictorial style [4] was still very evident in photography during the early 20th Century, so it was a natural reaction to want to embellish the image to stand out from the crowd.  When Adams encountered Edward Weston and Dorothea Lange and went on to form the f64 group, his view had changed dramatically to using photography to reveal what is already there, concluding that there was beauty to be found in the subject already and that it was the job of the photographer to bring it out.  Small apertures were the way to achieve this.  Weston said his own work “Such prints retain most of the original negative quality. Subterfuge becomes impossible. Every defect is exposed, all weakness equally with strength. I want the sharp beauty a lens can so exactly render,” [1] 

Adams went on to demonstrate the power of this approach to landscape photography to influence the politics around nature, wilderness and the environment; most notably in putting the case for the Kings Canyon National Part in Sierra Nevada.  The staggering detail and beauty of his work proved persuasive in the argument being put to the National Park Service.[1]

What I find interesting about this approach is that the need for strong composition, light and being able to see the moment are even more important if the photographer wants to convey beauty than if lens distortion is being used to focus awareness on a particular element in the scene.   In the case of the photograph in the course notes by Fay Godwin (below), the subjects and their relationships to each other already have the potential to tell their story.  Careful composition and large depth of field avoid tricking the eye with perspective and exaggerated depth or space.

Fay Godwin, Night Guard, Stonehenge

In this image, the large rock anchors the sense of space and points to natural history, while the ancient monument of Stonehenge invites the eye into the frame.  The difference in size of the structures asks questions about whether the large rock is a natural occurrence and whether it is dominating the impact of man.  The final element in the frame is the closing off of the subject.  The fence and its clear guard measures deliberately prevent the viewer from investigating the subject further.   This photograph holds attention because everything is sharp and while wide angle, the perspective doesn’t create a sense of unreality.

By stark contrast, the work of Gianluca-cosci adopts extreme shallow depth of field to lead the viewer to the obscure but recognisable.  In his collection ‘Panem et Circenses’, he   often uses the camera on the ground to create a large textured out-of-focus region to exaggerate the perspective.  Interestingly, not all of the sharp subjects are actually sharp which is as if the photographer wants the view to decide as opposed to automatically seeking out that point.  The lessons from the Woodpecker exercise are evident here, with the view appreciating the soft, texture and colour of the bokeh without it being a distraction.  For me, the choice of subjects for the collection don’t work on a personal level in the same way as with Mona Kuhn, the other photographer mentioned in the course notes as while I appreciate their aesthetic qualities I find it difficult to connect with what they mean as an intimate collection.

Mona Kuhn’s collection ‘Evidence’ takes the very familiar subject of the naked body and creates a strikingly intimate aesthetic.  The achievement through her approach is to reveal beauty, ask questions using what isn’t in the frame and keep the viewer’s attention  through the interest in the out-of-focus regions.  A good example from that collection can be seen below.

Fatale, Mona Kuhn, from the series ‘Evidence’

What we see here is a beautiful woman sitting on the end of a bed that has another girl on it. The point of focus is the eyes which are looking out of the frame at something unknown. The fact that both subjects are nude suggests an intimate moment, but steers away from the overtly sexual.  The demeanour of both women is ambiguous and more thoughtful than passionate, so what is going on here?  Are they lovers who have had a disagreement or are they sharing a daydream moment together?  The title of the photograph suggests danger or seduction, so why the separation.  I really like this photograph because it doesn’t conform to the rules of composition and majors on an aesthetic that could only really work with a shallow depth of field; the impact and mystery would have been reduced if any of the other detail in the frame was embellished in any way.

The conclusion of the exercises in Part 2 refers back to how photographers have forged their own way in expressing their vision.  Looking at my own historical work, I’m honestly unaware of any conscious decision to use depth of focus in the ways described here.  However, when I moved on from the style, or lack thereof, I had when I was a child, I have tried to keep composition simple and used both perspective and depth of field to steer the viewer to the heart of the photograph.  Of the works that I’ve looked at in this project, it’s Mona Kuhn’s collection that is most powerful to me, which isn’t a surprise when shallow depth of field has been a tool I’ve used many times in my photographs.  What is different here is it’s use to create an aesthetic.

My image

Confidence, R Fletcher, 2017

I shot this photograph of my friend Clive about to take part in a long distance triathlon a couple of years ago.  The first discipline in the race is an open water swim, which well known to be the least enjoyable event for him.  Using a long telephoto lens at f2.8, I wanted to isolate Clive from the rest of the swim pack and with the early morning sunlight, I really liked this image.   I’ve called it ‘Confidence’ as with the Kuhn photo above, there is not obvious story here.  In actual fact, he is looking at the lady in front of him who is his wife.  They frequently take part in events together and when I look at this image, his expression points to looking for a sign that the race will be ok.

References

[1] Robert Turnage, The Living Wilderness, reprinted by The Ansel Adams Gallery

[2] Gianluca-cosci, Panem Et Circense, http://www.gianluca-cosci.com

[3] Mona Kuhn, ‘Artworks’, accessed via http://www.mona-kuhn.com

[4]. The Art Story, ‘Pictoralism Movement’, https://www.theartstory.org/movement-pictorialism.htm

The Brief

Find a subject in front of a background with depth.  Take a very close viewpoint and zoom in; you’ll need to be aware of the minimum focusing distance of your lens.  Focus on the subject and take a single shot.  Then, without changing the focal length or framing, set your focus to infinity and tone a second shot.

Without moving the camera, select a very small aperture and find a point of

 My Approach

Using the same camera setup as the previous exercise, I found an old wrought iron gate at the end of a pathway to shoot.

Photo 1

Photo 2

My first attempt at this exercise wasn’t all that successful as I made a simple error that is common with modern zoom lenses such as my 70 to 200mm.  The lens has a manual override of the auto-focus function which means that if a subject is locked in focus, the photographer can manual adjust the focus to something different simply by grabbing the focus ring.  I always shoot with a single, central focusing point because of my enthusiasm for old film cameras which often don’t have a fancy autofocus system.  When I reviewed these images, it was clear that I must have momentarily let go of the shutter release button between frames which allowed the camera to do the focussing for me.  In Photo 2, the sign is sharp but beyond that point the effect of using f8 is seen with the railing and dust losing sharpness.  I concluded from this that the camera was not focused at infinity.

Second Attempt

This time, I shot through the railings of the bandstand in the Winter Gardens park.  In these two photographs, the focus was achieved as directed in the brief.

Photo 3

Photo 4

Reviewing the Images

The effect of leading the eye to the area or subject that is sharp is clear in all 4 photographs.  This effect was first highlighted to me long before starting this course, however.  During some previous learning it was suggested that I watch a drama programme on television and pay attention to scenes where multiple characters in dialogue with each other.  When the subjects are in the frame together, i.e not in individual close-up shots, the camera operator shifts focus between the characters when they speak.  The connection between the dialogue (sound) and the action (vision) is made by exploiting the left hemisphere of the brain’s need to look at the subject that is sharp.  Throughout the scene, the viewer is aware of the other characters and their surroundings, but don’t consciously look at them until the camera focus changes.  This is what this exercise reminds me of and indeed was the most significant shift in my early photography away from simply documenting what I see as ‘photorealistic’.  Looking at Photo 3, the detail in the railing really stands out because it is sharp and the shapes lead the eye around the detail of the ironwork.  However, the depth of the image is something that the viewer is aware of;  there is clearly a path leading off into the distance and some kind of staircase in the distance. The sign on the right only becomes clear when the focus shifts, though.  In Photo 1, the viewer can see the detail of the wrought iron and if looking carefully, the tiny lights that are around it.  However, the effect of shifting focus in the composition in Photo 2 creates the bokeh effect on one of the lights, which now becomes something the viewer is aware of, even though the subject that is sharp is the sign in the background.

Photo 5

Photo 6

For the third image, I had to return to the subject some time after the original shots. I set the camera to 200mm and selected the smallest aperture possible, which was f22. In order to get a decent exposure, I had to increase the ISO to 3200 to accommodate the low, overcast light. Photo 4 was shot with the foreground in sharp focus, but the background can be resolved easily when looking around the frame. Photo 5 shows the inverse with the focus set to infinity and the detail in the close-up subject being easy to see despite not being the point of focus.