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

Ansel Adams

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.

A good photograph is knowing where to stand.

A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into.

Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.

Ansel Adams was a serious perfectionist, sometimes taking days or weeks over the taking and developing one photograph.  Much of his photography was black and white developing using gelatin silver.

Many of the quotes that I have been able to find are about photography being self-expression not use of rules.  The images all have incredible depth, almost a 3-d quality about them.  The tonal range in each image is very exact.  Adams writes about using the step wedge system to ensure that the tonal range for each image is as close as it can be to what was seen. 

Each element of the image compared to exposure readings taken at the time and measured against a known grey-scale - the step-wedge.

Having said that there are no rules it is still possible to see influence in some of the image compositions.  Placement of subject or horizons approximating to third lines.  For me one of the striking things is the shear scale of the image captured.

Theme 1 Community Buildings - Hilton Village Hall 30 10 10

Have been reading some stuff about photographing buildings and I will put some of the detail on here, but I figure that while there is still some good weather I should get out and take some photos

14mm, F16, 1/4sec, ISO 100

 Hilton Village Hall,
Half in Shade   

 

Out of the sequence this one stood out for me.  Kit zoom lens set as wide as it will go.  Still early morning so camera supported on a tripod to enable me to use a small aperture - F16 and a longer exposure - 1/4 second while using an ISO of 100.

This was taken from as close as possible to the building while still being able to see it all within the shot.  Unfortunately I was not able to get square on to the shot as the skate ramps were in the way.

I have seen this building many times, usually either early evening or late in the day.  This rear wall usually appears very dull, almost featureless.  It is the external wall of a hall that doubles as a badminton court and a performance space with the traditional village hall stage at one end. The early morning sun changed the colours of the brickwork, emphasising the red.  Long shadows have added a real difference to the appearance, highlighting the shallow buttresses and casting a series of shadows that cover half of the building.  The shadows only struck the top of the window arches for a short time as the sun rose.  Fortunately I was there to see it.

If I have another opportunity I think that it would be possible to improve on this by taking the shot from the top of the skate ramp.  This would put me square on to the building.  The additional height would also improve the image as the whole of the building would appear above the fence line.  All in all not displeased for a first effort.

I have added the images below as they place the wall in context.  The 16:9 image is taken from the north-east of the building.  Early shadows from the east.

 Hilton Village Hall                                                               Hilton Village Hall

Early Autumn Sun                                                                 Early Shadows

14mm, F22, 1/4 sec, ISO 200                                        14mm, F22, 1/2 sec, ISO 200

Hilton Skate Park

14mm, F16, 1/15, ISO 100

The image of the hall was taken while I was stood next to the large ramp on the right. 

If you enlarge the image above you are able to see the edge of a new building that was built for the Scouts.  During the development they had real problems with vandalism on site adding many £1,000's to the cost of the project.  Even after it was built there were a couple of attempts on the storage yard at the back.  One solution is captured below, not everything to do with the community is fluffy.

Warning, razor barbs!

25mm, F11, 1/8th, ISO200

This is the shot as taken.  Having just spent time looking at other walls I wanted to do more with this.  Taking the image on the angle, while focusing on the warning sign.  I tried the shot with a wider angle, which was not as effective - it was just a wall.  Filling the image and cropping in close was far more effective at producing a dramatic image.  Have still used 1/3rds, but on the diagonal.  The edge of the gate brings in another texture and reveals more of the spikes.

One of the filters that Olympus include with its' software is one called 'Grainy Film'.  While reducing the size of the file to upload to blogger I applied the filter, which made the image much more dramatic