Foggy morning 2 - 19 11 10

...or a walk around Swadlincote.

               

35mm, 1/2Sec, F16, ISO100

It was foggy again this morning as expected - I had checked the forecast.  So in to work early to give me time to walk into Swadlincote.  The aim was to concentrate on the Town hall as a community building for theme 1.  Had planned various ideas, angles, exposures based on feedback about the previous series in the fog, however, as with all great plans of mice and men...

When in position things just did not feel right.  Spent a short while focusing on the new railings outside the building.  These have been installed as part of the redevelopment of the whole market square area.  They are an individual piece designed and created by a local artist/blacksmith. 

Swadlincote Town Hall Railings i

26mm, 1/2Sec, F4.5, ISO100

Strong lines, the black finish emphasised by the dew from the fog settling out on the cold metal, make a good subject in themselves.  Drops of water also provide a reflective surface that catch some of the surrounding colour.  Have used a large aperture to focus on the railings and blur the background, this is aided by the fog.

I have cropped the first of the series so that the railings fall on to the third lines, conforming closely to the rule of thirds. 

Swadlincote Town Hall Railings ii

17mm, 1/15th, F4, ISO100

For the second in the series I have also used the Rule of Thirds to position the railings in the shot.  The background is too close to the subject in tonal range and draws away from the railings themselves, although I like the orange glow provided by the streetlight through the fog.  This could be corrected in Photoshop or similar package to lighten up the background.  Idea is OK, execution could be better.

Swadlincote Town Hall Railings iii

17mm, 1/4th, F4, ISO100

The purpose had been to explore how the town hall related to the changing area in which it is sited.  The focus has ended up being the changing surroundings - literally.  This shot looks as though I have cropped the image around the hall - not actually the case - partly down to exposure - dark subject / light sky + fog and partly wide aperture to provide sharp subject and blur background.

Swadlincote Town Hall Railings iv

18mm, 2sec, F16, ISO100

For the final image of the Town Hall railings I have narrowed the aperture to increase the depth of field. Have sited the camera close to the railings as well to increase the effect of perspective.  The greater depth of field has allowed the entrance to the hall to remain sharp through the railings. 

Political comment?

38mm, 1/2sec, F22 ISO400

This is almost an aside.  I had walked past the Conservative HQ for South Derbyshire, not really paying too much attention as I was on my way to Eureka Park just to see what might be around.  I had to walk back to take this, in the current climate it just made me smile.

It's all about perspective

Last colour

21mm, 1/15th, F4.1, ISO100

I had read an article by Andrew James in the December 2010 edition of Practical Photography magazine about using slower shutter speeds and moving the camera to produce art images of trees.  Not really my thing, but then I had not been able to achieve what I had set out to do so why not?  The recommendation was for F11 aperture and a shutter speed between 1/30th and 1/8th and using a vertical sweep with the camera to produce streaky vertical lines.

I tried a couple of these using the avenue of trees shot above, but I could not get it to work.  In error I let the camera slip around a 1/4 turn instead of a horizontal sweep - the results below are two square crops of the same image.  Have chosen the square as it emphasis' the circular rotation.  Still not really my thing, but surprisingly taken with the result.

17mm, 1/4sec, F11, ISO100



17mm, 1/4sec, F11, ISO100

I share an office with an Arts Officer, he says that I am turning into an "Arts Ponce". 

If you look up "ponce" in the online Urban Dictionary   www.urbandictionary.com/
it give the definition as:

An individual who attempts to fake having intelligence, class, or culture.

In the US it also takes a bit of a tone for a poser or wannabe, primarily in the punk, ska, or artsy scenes.

Mmmmmmm.......   Harsh, but..............

Everyone's a critic.

Foggy morning

As part of the background research for this course I came across the work of a photographer called Brassai.  He undertook a projet photographing Paris by night.  The images are all sharp with great attention to detail. I was particularly taken with one image - foggy Paris (1934).

Although not at night the fog on Tuesday morning presented an opportunity to think further about images in difficult conditions. 

Foggy morning, Derby

14mm, 1/30th, F3.5, ISO400 

Strong centreground with detail in forground and back ground; the centre leading away from where the image was taken.

Foggy morning, Derby ii

21mm, 1 Sec, F16, ISO100 

No street lighting; the lights in the shop window have an old fashioned yellow/orange glow.  Strong foreground with the fog blurring bachground detail gives a greater feeling of depth to the image.

Melbourne Pool
14mm, 1/15th, F16, ISO200 

The sun had risen, but not burnt off the fog making the sky very bright behind the subject.  The colour image is almost sepia.

Melbourne Pool ii
17mm, 1/15th, F16, ISO200 

Foggy morning on the way to Leicester
34mm, 1/60th, F16, ISO200 

I wish! (Brassai 1934)

Gleam - Festival of light Derby

I read about the Festival of Light in a newsletter that I receive at work.  This is part of an arts festival in the city of Derby. It presented an opportunity for me to practice photographing buildings at night.

Specific techniques to be practiced include low light photography and use of a tripod.  Although image capture would be colour the intention was to look at the possibility of B & W conversion to look at replicating the feel of some of the works of Brassi that I had seen during research.

This is a public event so it will be necessary to be aware of the public as well as equipment when considering safety.  Weather is cold so warm clothing required.

The Gleam festival was using buildings within the Cathedral Quarter of Derby as the backdrop for a series of light shows.  In order to capture elements of the moving light show I would use longer exposures 15-30seconds.

The camera that I am using has image stabilisation built into the body.  As I will be using a tripod this is to be turned off. 

Derby Cathedral

Gleam event i

15mm, 15sec, F5.6, ISO400

The buildings were being illuminated by a series of moving lights.  By using long exposures of 15-30 seconds it allowed the overall pattern to be recorded.  I had read about a similar technique in a photography magazine where specific sections of a building had been highlighted by firing a flash-gun a different sections of the building while the shutter remained open.  It has proved very effective with these images.  The lenth of exposure has allowed a lot of detail to be captured, however the clouds have become blurred as they have moved.

Derby Cathedral

Gleam event ii

15mm, 15sec, F5.6, ISO400

Derby Cathedral

Gleam event iii

25mm, 15sec, F86, ISO400

Derby Cathedral

Gleam event iv

17mm, 15sec, F8, ISO400

Derby Cathedral

Gleam event v

14mm, 15sec, F8, ISO400

Derby Cathedral

Gleam event vi

14mm, 30sec, F8, ISO200

Gleam event vii

19mm, 4sec, F8, ISO200

Gleam event viii

33mm, 4sec, F8, ISO200

Gleam event ix

14mm, 1sec, F5.6, ISO400



Gleam event x

42mm, 4sec, F5.6, ISO400

Gleam event xi

26mm, 30sec, F8, ISO100

Gleam event xii

31mm, 15sec, F5.6, ISO100

Focusing the camera manually at night proved to be a challenge.

Gleam event xiii

31mm, 8sec, F5.6, ISO100

Gleam event xiv

32mm, 4sec, F8, ISO400

Ezra Stoller

 Last Thursday Steve suggested that I take a look at Ezra Stoller as an example of a highly influential architectural photographer.

Ezra Stoller, architectural photographer, was born on May 16, 1915, He died on October 29, 2004, aged 89.  His full obituary can be found here http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article391853.ece

The first para says it all really:

EZRA STOLLER was the American architectural photographer whose memorable photographs of buildings by the 20th century’s leading designers popularised architecture for a whole generation. His striking black and white photographs, which are among the world’s most frequently reproduced architectural images, played a key role in the shaping of public perceptions of modern architecture. 

 www.timesonline.co.uk



Ezra Stoller, architectural photographer,  1915 - 2004

Many of the images taken by Stoller are very striking images of modernist style buildings, typified by clean strong lines.  At first glance the images look almost simple.

Reading through various articles about Stoller it becomes apparent that he took great care to plan the images that he took.  He would visit sites many times to explore the site itself, how it reacted to the light at differing times of day and as can be seen in this image how the building reacted with shade and shadow.

The image above is one of the few that had a person in it.  Then you realise that this is also planned, as without the person there is nothing to judge scale.  As you start to deconstruct the initial simplicity you see the adoption of rule of thirds, both horizontally and vertically, triangles, stripes, reflection, shadow, shade; all of a sudden it becomes less simple.

Whorls into an abstract form: A 1959 photograph by Ezra Stoller of Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum.

TWA Terminal, New York, 1962

Why / how it this strong style appropriate to my theme of community buildings that cover so many periods of architecture?  As I look deeper, past the commonly occuring images the light begins to dawn.

This image from an earlier post has some similarities in perspective and composition, but is also a world away.  Need to reflect more on shadow, use of light and reflection and how they can emphasise different aspects of the subject.

Use of shadow to focus the eye adds real depth to this image.  There is incredible depth of field with both foreground and background remaining sharpe, but destinct. 

Bell wharehouse - How do you make a box interesting?  Add foreground, perspective and blocks of colour.

Although this is removed from many of the images I was able to find, taken by Stoller, this and the the folllowing image have made me think more about my theme.

Graham House, 1962

This is very different from many Stoller images -still the modern architecture, but the setting becomes almost as important.

And finally.................

While  looking for images taken bt Syoller I came accross this image by Balthazar Korab

Barrow upon Trent

The forecast for the weekend is mixed, best Saturday morning - getting greyer and wetter as the day / weekend progresses. 

The aim is to capture external images images from around the site of the church at Barrow upon Trent.  This church dates back to the 11th century.  The architecture is less ornate than later buildings and is early Norman in style.  There have been some alterations over time, but most are old and form part of the character of the building.

The site has been visited on a number of occasions to gain an understanding of what is there and how colours chnge with differing light conditions.  The site is open with some trip hazards otherwise fairly safe paths. I have spoken with a keyholder for the church and have arranged access at a later date to photograph the inside of the building in exchange for access to any images.  This visit is to capture external images.  Equipment to be used is Olympus EP-1 + standard kit lens, Poloriser and tripod. 

The building is of a pale stone and the aim was to enhance colour, taking advantage of early morning light.  In practice, although the morning was bright it had characteristics of later in the year, being very pale, with none of the autumn gold that I had hoped for.  The cirrus clouds were almost wintry, closely followed by a solid bank of cloud that indicated an approaching weather front.

This first image is taken of a gate that is set into the curtain wall of the cemetery.

Barrow upon Trent i

25mm, 1 sec, F5.6, ISO100

There was a very short window of time where the light added some colour to the stone of the church.

Barrow upon Trent ii

19mm, 1/4th, F11, ISO100

Some of the history is there to be seen by those who have the ability.

Barrow upon Trent iii

33mm, 1/2sec, F8, ISO100

Barrow upon Trent iv

20mm, 1/2sec, F16, ISO100

The sky became wintry.  I was not able to achieve what I had hoped with the building.  It did give an opportunity to attempt photographing silhouettes against the sky.  Used small aperture to increase depth of field and to allow elatively slow exposure without bleaching the sky.

Barrow upon Trent v

14mm, 1/15th, F16, ISO100

Barrow upon Trent vi

22mm, 1/3rd, F16, ISO100

Before the game

Small personal project, additional practice; buildings and people.  It has to be before the game, I'm there to watch - perspective in all things.

The aim of this project was to capture images of he industrial structure that is Twickenham as well as images of people connected with the event and the day.  The space will be open public space with large crowds.  Safety concers are general  - traffic, people etc.  Equipment - EP-1, standard lens and circular polorising filter.  Chosen for ease of use, forecast bright conditions and photographing in crowds without drawing too much attention.

Stadium structure       

28mm, F8, 1/60th, ISO 200

Pipeworks           

25mm, F8, 1/60th, ISO 200

Skyline               

26mm, F11, 1/60th, ISO 200

Starters Orders         

39mm, F5.4, 1/30th, ISO 200

Inclusive shade        

42mm, F8, 1/60th, ISO 400

Seated early            

34mm, F5.6, 1/60th, ISO 400

England Expects         

35mm, F5.3, 1/30th, ISO 400