Final Major Project-Photo-Book.
Original idea before Tier 4 and Lockdown number 3.
The images above were all taken during 2020 and the type of images I wanted to take for this project originally. Before tier 4 hit back in late 2020 my ideas for this final major project were quite wide and I was thinking of doing something around landscapes in Dartmoor Devon as landscape photography is my biggest passion even more than architecture. While in Dartmoor just before christmas I was shooting landscapes around the area I was staying and was having a good time and was think if I could do this for my FMP then it would be great. But due to us going into a lock down again that has changed. I have done a project in the area before earlier this year and I feel as if I could of done something similar but on a higher level and create something more professional and good to look at.
Mind Map ideas
Above is a mind map of ideas for this project that I have come up with so far, some have some potential to be really good and others need some more thought and work for them to work in the long term.
First idea: The first idea is centred around the river Thames and at the moment is looking at a range of subjects from wildlife to architecture.The main idea behind it would be how it has changed since covid hit and this could be both environmentally and even the amount of human traffic along the river. To add to that I also thought of concentrating on the architecture only along the thames and look how that has changed over the last 20 years.
Second idea: The second idea I had was to look at hidden rural landscapes London since we cannot travel outside of it. How I would go about this idea would be to simple find interesting locations in London that allow you to escape the urban city and feel like you were in a rural part of the country. There are plenty of parks and green areas in London so I will have to look more into it.
Third Idea: The third and final idea is much more broad and is looking at the architecture in London. This idea has not real idea behind it at the moment and I will explain this next.
Why Im not necessarily going to do architecture photography.
So far for this project ive been looking at two major types of photography, the first of which being landscape photography and the second being architecture photography. These two types are my favorite types of photography and the ones i'm the best at. For my dissertation last year which finished earlier this year I did architecture around regeneration in London as its one of the biggest aspects of architecture in London, and is always changing and I dont really want to do something too similar for my FMP and wanted to do something slightly different to keep my interest in architecture photography going strong and not burn myself out on doing the same thing over and over. This is why my main idea ive come up with about the River Thames is more broad and has other aspects of photography not just architecture.
Mood Board for the first idea-River Thames.
Here is a simple mood board of some images of the river thames and ones I like and find interesting. The top row of images are all in black and white and very nicely shot and are of lots of different angles of the river from its famous bridges to its not some famous thames barrier, all interesting. The images on the bottom are completely different and full of colour, once again from lots of different angles all at sunset or sunrise where these lovely colours occur. If I was to shoot images like these I would first choose between black and white and colour, then I would go for a certain aspect of the river like for example its history and find interesting locations to photograph certain aspects of the thames history from Greenwich and Queen elizabeth the first's old house to the thames barrier and how they have changed over the last 20 to 200 years or so. When it comes to what id photograph it be mostly urban landscapes like you see above in those images.
Mood Board for the second idea-Hidden rural landscapes in London.
The second set of images are for my second idea of hidden green spaces in London and as you can see ive found images either of locations in London or images of what I may want to recreate. My favorite image is of Abney park cemetery which is bottom middle and is one that interests me a lot. The other images are all very interesting and ones I could recreate but in my own style and so far this second ideas example images have interested me the most. The light is also a big factor in these images above which is why they work so well and draw you in. How i'd go about shooting these images and second idea would be to research into London's most interesting hidden green areas and their history and pic a certain aspect to photograph in my own way.
Research into idea two.
Hidden gardens in London: After looking online I found 15 hidden green spaces in London that are all very interesting the the sort of places I could include in this second idea if I choose it and went ahead. Each location has its history some more then others i.e. St Dunstan-in-the-east which is a medieval church that was bombed in the second world war and a location that could be very interesting to photograph. The only big problem I would have with photographing these locations is if they were actually open which most of them probably are not due to the lockdown so it may be very difficult getting access. There are other locations to photograph have one big thing I want to avoid is photographing cliche locations and going for the obvious shot. There are others like highgate cemetery which opened back in 1839 and for 132 years it was used and owned by a private company till the 1970s where the company saw it was no longer profitable and let nature take its hold over the place till a charity brought the place and now its open to the public and a very interesting place. Currently its closed till the 15th of January when you can book time slots it would seem so If I do go through with this concept a place like highgate cemetery would be good one to photograph.
Second Mind Map
For the second mind map I came up with three more ideas for this project and there are a real mix of genres but they are all architectural.
First idea Forgotten buildings: This second idea has come from a long time interest in abandoned buildings and have photographed a couple but I do know from experience that they can be very difficult to get into. The idea behind the project would be to find old abandoned buildings that have history to them and explore and photograph the buildings to show this. I could also photograph important historic forgotten buildings that are still in use as well.
Second idea Regeneration in London: This second idea came from my very recent practical dissertation in which I explored regenerated areas and buildings in London. The reason why I decided to think about the idea again is simple I only photographed two locations in london that have been going under heavy regeneration and there are plenty more to look at and photograph. The only thing is that I have just done this and doing it again may become boring and I need a project idea that really gets me excited and inspired to create some good images.
Third idea professional work: This second idea is more of a backup and may be one I develop for term three as I believe we are going to do something similar in that term. The idea is this, I would contact a estate agency and ask if I could photograph some of their properties with the idea of exploring and interesting aspect of this professional life even. I'm not sure so much with this project and it would require a lot of development and thought.
Making any project I choose covid proof.
What I mean by this is that last term with the Sony Award project I made it covid proof by making the idea of the project very local so that if suddenly I could not travel to other areas i.e. north London I could still shoot the project and hand in the images at the end. So for whatever project idea I go for I need to be able to make shootable in Greenwich were I live so that if suddenly they change the lockdown rules I can still shoot the project. On top of that I should have a back up project that can be shot in my house with my studio lights just in case the government really restrict our movements and make so i'm not even allowed to go outside to shoot images.
Mood Board for Idea three: Forgotten Buildings
The images above are of abandoned buildings in London with few extra places, but they are to show the types of images I want to take if I went for this idea. As you can see they are lots of different types of abandoned buildings some being old grand houses while others being big industrial spaces all now left to rot.
The love for photographing abandoned buildings and why im so interested in it.
The reason why i'm so interested in photographing abandoned and forgotten buildings is simply how some of these places you can explore have this feeling of mystery as well as the thought of how humans use to use these places and now they are left some times with everything in place. This allows for some very interesting and and exciting photographs that can be created. To add to that you get a sense of history and how i.e. a old house from the 17th century was and that just really interests me.
The difficulty of exploring abandoned buildings.
When it comes to exploring abandoned buildings like the ones above for some photographers like me it's one of the more exciting types of photography, but it's also one of the more difficult to pull off for a couple of reasons the first of being access to the building, some are just too well boarded up and to difficult to get into without breaking in which is a no no if you dont want to get arrested. Others have lots of heavy security and you are found and removed with the risk of getting bitten from a guard dog. All these are things that ive experienced from trying to get into buildings over the years with little success. Another big thing is safety as some of these abandoned buildings are very old and one wrong move and you could be dead and that's the biggest difficulty and danger, and thing that puts me and most other people off, unless your with someone who knows where to go abandoned buildings are often a no go. To conclude if I was to go for this idea i would need to find someone with experience who could show me or give me some tips.
Plan for first reccie/test shoot for idea one-River Thames
After week two of term two ive had some more thought and discussions around idea one and i'm going to carry out a reccie shoot just to get a feel of the river near where I live in Greenwich, as well as walking up the river towards the Greenwich peninsula to explore the different parts of it. Even though ive been along this part of the river many times over my life this time is different since I will be bringing my camera and tripod and looking at it from a photographic point of view. In terms of equipment I will be bringing it will be a couple of lenses, the 16-35mm and the 24-120mm even if it's not the best it's the most versatile and will be fine for this reccie trip. Also the weather will be quite nice with mostly cloud but also sun at times for this shoot on friday 15th. What I aim to accomplish on this reccie trip is to develop what this idea could be i.e. explore and photograph as I go, then when back editing the images it should hopefully give me more of an idea of what this idea/concept could be and a good idea behind it may develop with the images I take on this reccie.
First Reccie/test shoot for idea one-River Thames.
The images above are the results of my first test shoot along part of the river Thames from The Cutty sark ship to near the O2/Dome. My aim for this shoot was to firstly remind myself of the area and what it offers as ive been there a few times before, also it was to capture what I saw and to see if I could get an idea out of it and I think I have.
What went well: The main thing that went well with this first shoot would have to be what I found out about what the area could offer interms of a idea for this FMP book project. The big idea that came to mind while shooting and editing was industrial vs modern regeneration, what I mean by this is that all the way along there was a mix of modern new buildings and also old industrial sites and areas that really contrast each other and this really interest me. Another thing that went well with this was that I went out and got what I set out to get which was fresh ideas and images to look over and help me decide on an idea.
What went badly: The main thing that went badly for this shoot would have to been the light as it was a very dull and cloudy day with a bit of mist in the air which for the most part cause some of my background objects like buildings to have this haze effect in some of the images and not in the moody misty way but the haze way which often ruins these kind of images. But I have to say in some of the images this misty haze did have a bit of a positive affect.
What id do differently next time: What I plan on doing differently next time for this shoot would be to firstly head the other direction from the Cutty Sark ship towards deptford and deptford creek to explore a area ive never really been to along the river. To conclude this first reccie shoot went well and gave me much more of a perspective on the river today and helped my idea along.
Are these the type of images I want to take for this big project?
As seen above with my first reccie/test shoot for this project ive captured around 9 colour images that ive then turned black and white simply because of the lack of interest when i colour. What I want to answer this section with is this the type of images I want to be taking for this project. The answer is sort of as for my there are two types of photography I can take for this FMP the first of which being artistic and the second being professional or images more aimed at clients that aren't necessarily liked by most but the type a client would hire you over. The image above I would say are more artistic in the way they are composed and are in B&W. So should I go for the artistic approach or the professional carefully shot approch, well I think a mix of both would work for this project.
should I do better and can I?
When I was looking at the images from this first reccie/test shoot I was for the most part happy with them but not really satisfied and excited that they were really good FMP level images and I fell as ive I could do better in general and for this project I should do better as its my FMP and it needs to be of a high standard. So for the rest of the project when out shooting I will be very particular about what photos I take and take my time, as well as when im selecting images on my laptop Im planning on being very harsh and selective.
My current idea for this project and how it has developed.
My current idea is centered around the river Thames and before I went on my first reccie/test shoot I had no real idea of what I wanted to do for the idea and the concept behind it. But after shooting and editing the images I took a idea came to me to look at the contrast of industrial and modern development of the Thames as along the Thames, at least where i was it was very much a mix of this industrial and new development and at the moment I im thinking of this as my main idea as I think it could really work. Although I need to look into more of the other parts of the Thames to see if it will work. So ive got an idea and now i need to develop it in to solid concept and idea for this project, although my idea may change again with more parts of it developmening.
Research into the history of the Thames.
It's thought that the thames dates back as far as 140 million years ago during the dinosaur era although it's hard to be said. But I'm looking at its history of more recent times and how it could play a part in this project. From what I know during the 17th to the early 20th century certain aspects of the Thames were used for trade because of the of entry from the sea and the Royal Docks was a big part of this.
Royal Docks: Moving on what ive found out is that the Royal Docks. Before the Royals docks existed back in the 1800s there were smaller docks used to bring in trade for the British Empire and a big issue was size, as collisions were frequent and plundering was rife. So to stop this a group of entrepreneurs spearheaded by George Parker Bidder, created an interesting plan to build docks that were bigger and deeper then the current docks and these new docks were to ensure London could be supplied for a century or more to come. In 1855 Victoria dock was completed being 13 metres deep and having new technology to help the docks such as dockside cranes and services and more, importantly it could handle multiple numbers of the new large ships at a time. Later in 1852 Samuel Silver’s waterproof clothing works which was given its name by the Silvertown district. By the 1880’s, the docks were one of London’s biggest bases for the cargo industry.
A while later after Victoria Dock opened that more space were required and plans for another dock were developed. Longer than Victoria dock, these new docks would feature some unique innovations railway lines that went straight to the dock edge, refrigerated warehousing to store perishable goods even electric lighting would follow. Named Albert Dock this new addition was opened in 1880. This aspect of the River Thames is quite interesting as they have combined a industrial past with a new regeneration, this was because when you visit the area today its very different with plenty of new regenerated buildings along with also a university and a airport and shows how it has changed, I may use this as a location for this project as it seems in interesting one because of the contrast of its history. The only drawback is that there is not a lot left to show this rich history apart from some of the cranes used to unload trade from ships so It also may not end up being used but I will most likely do a reccie and shoot the area to find out if its a usable area.
What area's should I look at for this current idea of the River Thames?
So far ive explored the Greenwich part the Thames, well at least a part of it. I've also looked into the Royal docks a possible location for this idea. But there are other areas that I can also look at the first that comes to mind is the Regents Canal: I've been there a few times and created images along it as well, but like the river thames that I shot for the first test shoot ive never properly shot it with my tripod and its a interesting area that once we are more freely allowed to travel will be interesting place to reccie and test shoot.
River Ravensbourne: Which is more commonly known as deptford creek and is 11 miles long that runs through Bromley, Lewisham, Greenwich and Deptford although some may say its splits parts of Greenwich with Deptford as the creek runs through parts of both areas. This river that feeds into the Thames would be an another interesting one to explore not only because it has the same name as the universty but also because it has some interesting areas that ive been to and others I have not and could be interesting to photograph and one I need to visit, or at least do a reccie visit of the part of it closes to me.
Second Test shoot.
Above are the some of the images from my second test shoot along the Thames and as you can see they are very different from the first images I took firstly because I went to a different location which was from the cutty sark ship in greenwich till just past the Ahoy centre where I went onto the beach to get the final images as seen below on google maps.
What went well: The main thing that went well with this second test shoot would have to be firstly the images I took as they came out much better then the first set from the first shoot because I was shooting on a much nicer sunnier day were there was some nice sun to bring out the lines and shapes on the buildings I was photographing. Also in general I composed some of the shots much better and thought about how to fill the frame a bit more. The other thing that went well with this shoot was that it gave me even more of an idea of what I could do for this idea and my current idea is still to look at the contrast between two things on the river.
What went badly: The only real thing that went badly with this shoot was the lack of clouds as this made for some empty spaces in some of my images which is never good and can make the image come across as not so well shot and amatuer.
What I should do differently next time?: If I went back along this part of the river again next time id firstly pick a day with clouds and sunshine. Secondly I would most likely go a slightly different route and walk along the deptford creek other wise known as river Ravensbourne. Overall this shoot went very well and I got some nice images along the way as well giving me more ideas for my project.
Feedback from progress so far from Geraint.
Wide shots vs tight shots
After my first bit of feedback from Geraint on what ive done so far was good and one of the big things he said was my wide shots vs tight shots, and I thought how could I develop this with my final idea and should I choose between the two styles/methods. Firstly you have the image on the left which is a nice wide shot of some of the new modern buildings along the Thames and you can see a lot of what going on in the image. For example you can see how the buildings change along the river design wise or how the light is hitting them from the left helping to bring them to life a bit and show them in this image. By comparison the image on the right is much different and is a tightly zoomed in shot of some of the old structure's along the Thames as well as with some buildings nicely framed in the background which I think adds some further interest. This tight shot also is quite abstract feel to it with all the lines and shapes created by this pier/bridge structure and along with the reflections really helps pull it into a nice tight shots of an aspect of the Thames. So overall there are many benefits to tight shots vs wide shots and I plan on to continue using this method even to show the contrast between things as this could be a interesting concept for the project.
Equal waiting between old and new
Another bit of feedback and a suggestion was to think about the equal waiting between old and new and in this case at the moment i'm looking at the equal waiting of old vs new buildings along the Thames, and if I am to go with this idea I need to make sure there is an equal amount of old vs new images and to show these two aspects equally as it simple to me makes sense. So to do this as an example I would need to research into certain areas along the Thames, to start off with id find interesting aspects of it where there is a big contrast between new and old, then simple see if I can equally show this old vs new in images and when editing the photo-book do the same.
Colour Vs Black&White.
Above are two images from my first reccie/test shoot and for the editing aspect ive edited them firstly in colour and then in b&w just so that I could get an idea of how this compositions works. But when it comes to the final aspect of the project and how I shoot the images as well as how I edit them, I need to have chosen either one the genres of photography also so that my photo-book can look more consistent. Also so that when im shooting images for it I can make sure to either shoot colourful scenes or scenes that would look better in b&w. To add to that I have a love for both of these types of photography as they both have there merits, firstly when i'm shooting landscapes in devon I always shoot in colour and edit in colour as for 95% of the images I create this looks much better and brings out interesting certain aspects of the scene im shoot. When it comes to b&w its something I dont do too often anymore and is mostly reserved for shooting in London where I live as there are many genres such as street photography that really shine in b&w.
The Final Idea-What I want to create. (This is not set and may change)
So far for this project ive gone through a lot of ideas with the biggest being around the river Thames as its the concept that interests and excites me the most out of other ideas, like hidden landscapes in London which would of been interesting but at the moment with these green areas mostly being closed due to covid it wasn't going to be possible. Other ideas like my original one back in 2020 was around landscapes in Dartmoor Devon but due to the travel restrictions once again not possible. This brings me to my current idea which is to look at the contrast between old and new along the River Thames, with buildings being the focus and showing how the thames has this interesting contrast between the old and the new. I will also look at some of the old structures along the Thames such as some of the old jettys that are quite interesting. In terms of wide shots vs tight shots for this project to work I think a mix of both is the best, as it will allow me to show certain aspects of buildings and structures close up to show the detail and far away wide shots to show what's around it today. Next when it comes to colour vs black & white I think colour is just going to work more for this project and what I want to photograph as when photographing architecture I find colour to be much more appealing and on a good day with the right light can create some good images. The reason why i'm not going for black&white is because after a few of these test shoots ive found the colour images to work better and the black and whites ones to be nice but not as nice and I need to have one type of photography in my book to make it more consistent. To conclude my project is to show contrast in the thames and its new and old buildings and structure in colour with a mix of wide and tight shots to get my message across.
Inspirations
Chris Hamilton-Photographer.
After looking around a bit for a interesting photographer who has looked at the river Thames I came across Chris Hamilton who is a photographer here on Behance and has a few nice images of the Thames and regents canal that feeds into it. The images on the top left are the ones that jumped out to me and are quite interesting as the seem to have odd effect like they were printed on wrinkled paper or this was something added later. The rest of the images are quite different with some being reflections, the middle bottom image has been quite nicely composed with building being reflected in the canal below.
Guy Sargent-Photographer
The second inspiration/interest ive found is quite different from the first and is a series of large format images of the Thames all being long exposure with a few shots at night but they have this really interesting atmosphere to them which really stands out to me and is what caught me eye. My favourite would have to be the top middle which really has some nice colours to it and along with the night lights really makes the image special. Over all Guy Sargents images for this project he conducted are very interesting and something ive been interested in doing in the past but have never done so, but i do have a large format camera and may try this one day.
Ilias Mavropoulos-Photographer.
The next photographer ive found is also on Behance and has a series of b&w images of the Thames that I really like and stand out to me as you can see above. My favorite image out of the set would have to be the top right which has a lot of texture and interest to it and even though its not in keeping with my current idea much in comparison to the other images its still interesting. When it comes to the other images they are nicely composed but are shot of very well known buildings in London and im trying to stay away from the cliche images of the London. Over all these images have given me some good inspiration and ideas for what I can do with my project and how I can do things differently and in my own way.
Experiments
After looking at some of Hamilton's images its given me and idea to do with contrast and my idea of looking at old vs new and how I could integrate two images into one in photoshop.
For this experiment my aim was to photoshop the left image of the modern buildings into the right image of the beach and jetty so that the left image was sitting in the reflection. What I got was this above which is not the best and as per usual photoshop was being overly complicated which made it quite difficult for me to get it right but this is what I got and i plan on doing further experiments with this idea in the future. Next time I will go for a easier experiment that is within my skill level.
Plan for next shoot after formative
For my next shoot I plan on doing it anywhere from 3rd of February onwards after my formative assessment of my project like a sign off. For my next shoot I am going to concentrate more on what i'm shooting and choose a specific area to explore and photograph that has some old structures and buildings along the Thames.
Above is a map of the area of the Thames I want to explore and photograph which is via the red line from Olympian way to the Thames Barrier going around the Dome and photographing the old structures as I go. If I do see any interesting new buildings along the way which i'm sure I will I plan on photographing them as we if I can find a good comp just so that I have more images to choose from and this serves as a reccie as well so if I want to come back along this route to photograph again I know were the newer buildings are.
First non test shoot results
For this third shoot and first proper non-test shoot of this FMP I once again went along the Thames in Greenwich from the same point I ended on the first shoot near the peninsula and carried on walking around the Dome to near the O2 to Tide square were I stopped because of running out of time.
What went well: The main thing that went smoothly with this shoot would have to firstly be the success of some of the images as I took my favorite images for this project so far and in general enjoyed myself. Secondly I was able to figure out more the type of images I want to take for this project as well as improving how I composed these kind of cityscape images of open large areas with lots of tall buildings.
What went badly: The only big thing that went badly with this project is that I did not get as far as I planned as originally I wanted to get to the Thames barrier but this ended up being to far even though I checked on google maps as I only had a limited time and one of the mistakes is that I was stopping to regularly taking images not so well thought or composed.
What I will do differently next time: Next time if I reshoot along this area I want to make it all the way to the Thames barrier and make sure I give myself more time to do so. Also I want to stop less and when I do stop to make a images I want it to be a worthwhile composition instead of a bit of a snapshot image as this is the FMP and I want to be creating the best images that I can.
Analysis of the 4 best images from first non test shoot.
This first image above is my favorite out of the four images ive selected for more in depth analysis with the import of Geraint. To start of with when I was in the Tide square near the university building for the first time I went up onto the platform just to explore it and see if I could see any comps from up there but nothing worth it appeared so I came down and went under it and this is where I saw this framing of this building across the river and took the shot you see above. What I mainly like about the images would have to be how the framing brings it together and helps centre the viewers gaze towards the buildings across the river. Also I was very lucky with the light in this shot as it was a cloudy sky in the shot but the sun behind me was shining on to the buildings which in architecture photography really makes a difference and brings out texture, shapes and lines of a building and it really works in this case if not perfect because of the shine and a polarizer may have solved this. The only big thing I don't like about this image is the foreground which isn't the best as the steal barrier is a bit of an eye sour and if only it hadn't been there as there is some nice tall reeds behind it which would have made for better foreground material. Overall the image works really well and is good first contender for the photo-book.
Images 2 and 3
Above are images two and three of the same building but from different distances and orientations. We will start of with image two which is the portrait orientation image on the left. The main interests of image would have to be the reflection in the water in the foreground, along with the leading lines really helps make the image an lead the viewer's eye to the buildings in the background. When it comes to the not so good parts of image two it would have to be the light hitting the buildings as the sun was not fully out and part of the buildings is in shadow which reduces the detail and information of it. Moving on, image three was taken much closer and in a landscape orientation with quite a different composition with and old jetty in the mid ground along with the beach in the foreground and the same buildings in the background, it does not necessarily work but I think this image may grow on me over time. With image number three it's the building and the light hitting it which catches the eye and really pull you in. On the other hand image three composition just isn't as good as number two and the foreground is interesting but doesn't draw the viewer's eye were you want it to and in general isn't as interesting as a image as image two. Overall these second and third images are still quite interesting with image number two being the better one.
The fourth image above is my favorite so far for this project as I think in incompases my idea of old vs new the best, and here is why firstly the image is split up into two different sections first of which is the ship sculpture on the left which is old and has some nice sunlight hitting it. Next you have the buildings on the right which are much further away but because of the compression of the lens they seem much closer this help show the buildings off much nicer and the modern aspect of them is the new part and contrast well bringing the image together well. To conclude these four images from first non test shoot are some of my favorite so far and I plan on using them in the final book design.
Possible locations for project
Royal Docks
1800-1856-Chaos on the river.
Before the Royals docks existed back in the 1800 there were smaller docks used to bring in trade for the British Empire and a big issue was size, as collisions were happening a lot. So to stop this a group of businessmen lead by George Parker Bidder, created an interesting plan to build docks that were bigger and deeper then the current docks and these new docks were to ensure London could be supplied for a century or more to come. In 1855 Victoria dock was completed being 13-14 metres deep and having new technology to help the docks such as dockside cranes and services and more importantly could handle multiple numbers of the new large ships at a time.
1880-Growth and Innovation
A while later after Victoria Dock opened that more space were required and plans for another dock were developed. Longer than Victoria dock, these new docks would feature some unique innovations railway lines that went straight to the dock edge, refrigerated warehousing to store perishable goods even electric lighting would follow. Named Albert Dock this new addition was opened in 1880.
In Terms of shooting this location for this project its one I definitely need to look into and one ive always been interested in photographing with the only big thing holding me back being permission to use a tripod, as I could easily travel there and take some images hand held but I often find that these hand held images end up being snapshots and not very interesting. As this is my FMP I need to be creating the best images I can for the final book, so I need to get permission from the owners of the land to use a tripod so that I can create some much more thought out images of the Docks.
St Katharine Docks
With history tracing back as far as the 12th century when a women named Matilda wife of King Stephen built a hospital which back then meant a place of shelter for travelers, the sick and the elderly where they could be cared for. Later in 1796 the first attempt to turn the districts into a wet docks happens when the City of London Corporation applied for an Act of Parliament, but the attempt failed and, as we have seen the city merchants instead created their new docks at Wapping, the Isle of Dogs and Blackwall.
In the 1820s a group of businessmen once again looked at the district of st Katherine looking to turn it into docks for trading. Later in 1825 finally after a lot of people being against the docks including the local residents, most of parliament the St. Katharine Dock Company got the bill passed by parliament and 13 acres of land were given to create the st Katherines docks. At the time The Times reported that 1,250 houses and tenements were destroyed – displacing 11,300 inhabitants – as well as the medieval and historic hospital and its 14th century church. The final church service was held in October 1825.
Today the docks are considered to be a world away from the area they sit in being a two minute walk from tower bridge. When you look at the place there appears to lots of different buildings around the place along with 18th century pubs. There are also some more 18th century buildings and a mix of others along with boats in the docks. In terms of a location for this project its definitely going to be considered as it has lots of interesting buildings and a rich history. But i dont want to make every location a dock somewhere in london as then it becomes about something different and I want to have some different locations like canals and buildings to show in this photo-book.
Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf is yet another docklands and part of London's many docklands. Canary Wharf takes its name from were fruit and veg from the Mediterranean and also the Canary islands was once unloaded, also it was once the busiest docks in the world back in the 18th century. Canary Wharf history started around 1690 when a set of docks were built, the location seemed to work well and more docks were build close by i.e. St Katharine docks. This hot spot of possible trade attracted workers from all over the country and the world because it would have lots of national workers living and working there at the time. As you might of thought back then the place was rich because of the trade but it suffered from poverty and crime. Later in the 1940s when WW2 was raging on the docks became a big target for German bombers as if you shut down the docks you made life very difficult not just for London but the whole of the UK, it was said that over 2,500 bombs were dropped on the place destroying many buildings which was one of the big cause of why today there are not so many old industrial buildings left, as well as all the development as well of course.
This is my third dock ive looked at for one big reason, and that is history as these docks on London have lots of rich history as they played a big part of helping London grow. For my project im looking at the contrast between old and new and most of these docks have this but I will need to show this in my images if I am to use these locations for some of my shoots. Another big thing is once again permission as Canary Wharf is very strict with tripods and I will have to get permission for sure to use a tripod and photograph the place. I also need to decide on whether this photo-book is all about docks or just has a unmentioned interests some of the docks because of the location ive chosen which is the london concentrating specifically on the Thames.
Millwall outer dock.
This next location is Millwall outer dock next to Canary Wharf and was built 1802 and from what ive looked its another dock but with similar if not lesser history. Also it appears to have less old buildings still standing if not none, with a couple of cranes still there but what I can shoot this location as part of Canary Wharf shoot if I get permission and that way ive shot two locations.
The Isles of dogs
So far most the two biggest areas ive looked at are Canary Wharf and the Royal docks both situated in the Isles of dogs peninsular. Before it became the Isles of dogs it was mostly marsland back in the 14th century called Stepney Marsh and was really much there but later in the 1500s its said at times royalty would sometimes dock there and in 1520 records showed that ships preparing to carry the royal english household Calais docked there which is its first bit of interesting history. The reason behind its name The Isles of dogs applied to a small island in the peninsular were the named applied to the The Isle of dogs farm shown on a map back in 1683. At the same time the area was known and the Isles of dogs as well as Blackwell levels.
When it comes to if I will make my project all around the Isles of dogs its a no as there are other areas of rich history in London to look into and photograph. Also I dont want to restrict my options and change my idea at all to suit this. but I will include some of the areas for this project keeping in mind the contrast between the old and the new.
What is the meaning behind this project and why am I doing it on this subject.
So far on this project ive come up with the idea/concept behind it along with doing a couple of reccie shoots to give me ideas and help the project along, but Ive not really put much thought or depth into the meaning of this project and why im doing this particular area i.e. the River Thames and the old and new. So to begin with ive always lived in Greenwich and walked along this part of the Thames (Greenwich peninsula) many times and never really photographed it properly and on my reccie's I noticed the contrast between new and old along there more so with all this new development. This sparked my interest and helped me decide on my idea/concept. This one of the reasons why ive decided with this idea and concept as I want to create some really nice images of the Thames and show its beauty in this way in a photo-book. To go into a little more detail when I started this project I had no real idea what to do and to be honest the Thames ideas was the best one I had and at first I didn't even have a idea just a location/part of London I was interested in and I had images in my head of what I wanted to create and like I said earlier the reccie shoots helped with this. To sum it up I now want to create meaningful images of the River Thames to show its new and old history in my own style whilst staying away from cliche areas such as tower bridge and showing the reason I decided on the Thames which is to see what's the best I can create of not just my local area of greenwich but London's river as a whole if possible.
The Isles of Dogs or individual locations.
So far ive looked at four possible locations for this project all of which being docks and the reason for this is simple, when ive been looking for interesting places along the river Thames with a rich history but also a good contrast between new and old ive only really come across these docks so far as they seem to have lots of interesting history to look and and ideally photograph, but I dont necessarily want to make this project all about London's old docks as it's about the old and the new along the river thames and the contrast this creates. So below are some non dock locations that are interesting and have a rich history with new buildings.
First location outside of Greenwich-Regents Canal
History-The constructions began in 1812 and finished in 1820 and was completed as far east as camden town. The purpose of the Canal was to link the Grand Junction Canal at Paddington Basin with the London docks at Limehouse. The Canal played a fundamental role in London's transport of goods during the industrial revolution and showed London's influence over the rest of Britain. When opened in 1820 its first job was to transport goods to the midlands of Britain, and then later on to transfer cargo from sea vessels to canal boats in Regents canal dock, which was the main centre of trade and the area with the heaviest traffic. It was also along the canal that barge horses pulled train rails to King’s Cross during the construction of its railways. Later by the 1840s the railways took most of the traffic and goods from the canal, and there were even a few attempts to turn the canal into a railway itself but these were never approved and never went ahead. Over the next 118 years use for the canal fell into disrepair and in till 1956 when the last commercial traffic went up the canal.
The reason why ive looked into the Regents canal has two reason the first of which is that it has a rich history, with its industrial past with trafficking goods along it and has lots of old and new construction along it which interest me like old warehouse's the use to house tradable goods turned into flats in a very interesting way of preserving history. The second reason is that ive done a much smaller project on the Canal before where I shot it all on medium format film (handheld) back when I was doing my HNC in photography. What I learned from this first mini project of the Canal is that it has lots to offer in terms of architectural photography and lots of contrast between old and new which fits my FMP perfectly.
Plan for Second-Regents Canal shoot.
For my next shoot im planning on shooting along Regents Canal as I want to include its history and architecture through my images in the photo book. Even though this is not the river Thames it feeds into it and in a small way is part of it which is another reason why im looking into it and planning on photographing it in my own way. It has a rich history and lots of interesting old and new buildings along it that would be very interesting to explore. So my plan is to start at the limehouse basin which is a dock area right next to limehouse station were I will get off, then I will start to walk along the canal seeing what I can photograph to show the old and the new and im using this as both a bit of a reccie and to see after feed back if the images will work in the book and its idea.
Results from Regents Canal shoot.
The images above are from my second shoot at regents canal were I walked from the limehouse basin along the canal and looked at all the buildings and structures to see if I could make any images of the contrast between old and new along this canal.
What went well: The main thing that went well with this shoot would have to be firstly what I found out about the canal by walking along it and how much of its history is still there and how much is gone, what I found was that there are a lot of new buildings along the place with the old canal in the middle and lots of old bridges that were not image making worthy. The second thing that went well with this shoot is that I got some more images and above are a selection of the best, and I plan on narrowing it down further for this photo-book.
What went badly: The first thing that went badly with this shoot would have to be the light as when I got there it seemed there was not any sunlight and only towards the end of the shoot did I get a enough sunlight to create some images with it. The other thing that I feel was so good was that most of these images now looking back at them were not well thought out or composed particularly well and I could of done more.
What id do differently next time: The main thing that I would do differently next time if I go back would be to take my time just that bit more to create some better images of the canal as one of my big problems with this shoot was that I didn't put my camera away between shots and carried it with my tripod as I was stopping so often to create an image. The second thing that I will do differently next time is to either go further along past were I turned around this time and continue or start further along the canal to see what I can create and take my time more with this next shoot overall.
Analysis of the best and worst photos from the second shoot.
Best/favorite image
Above is my favorite image from the shoot as I though it has the best contrast of old and new in one shot and the frame gets filled nicely. Also the colours are quite nice and help the image gain a bit more interest and stand out a bit, the only colour and object that stands out that bit to much would be the purple rubbish bins in the background and pull the eye a bit to much away from the main building which I dont like particularly. Overall the image stands out well and one I will definitely consider for the final photo-book.
Worst/most disliked image.
Above is my least favorite image from out of the selected images and one that I feel i could of done better if firstly I handn't shot facing the sun creating this bad looking back light and secondly composed it better and showing this interesting building in a much better way. Also the background behind the building of a car park really ruins the image and is something I dont want in any of my images for this project as this kind of background distraction is very unprofessional and I would not want to submit this to a client. Overall this image could of been so much more but has come out badly but one that I have better images of from better angles.
Comparing old and new.
Images 1&2
Above are two images of the same building one being shot 4 to 5 years ago and the other shot last week on the 11th of feb 2021. I thought id just compare two of my images to see how ive changed and which shows my development and how my technique has changed over time. To start of with the two images were taken during two different seasons the older one on the left taken during the summer with lots of nice green tree's to add some nice colours and the more recent image in the right as we know taken during this very cold winter. One other very big difference is technique as with the first shot I created it handheld using a single exposure with the other on on the right I took two and created a HDR image to get a much better exposure using a tripod. Also I two the second one on the right in a landscape orientation which I think works just that bit better and also gets my idea of old vs new across and if the other was taken for this project it wouldn't simply as it doesn't really show what other structures are around it and I wouldn't use it for the book. Overall this little comparison has highlighted some key changes in my technique over the last few years the main ones being my technique with exposures as well as taking my time and composing images better with more care.
Images 3&4
The second set of image as are once again comparing two shots of the same building and like the other one the image on the left above was taken a few years back for another project and once again im comparing them. To start of with the first win if you will for the image on the left is the light as there, is far more great light on the building and with architecture photography having harsh sunlight on a building brings out all the lines shapes of a building and really helps and for this aspect, the image on the left is greatly helped with this good light, whilst the image on the right had barely any sunlight. Next is the composition which the image on the right clearly wins as ive composed the canal lock doors in the foreground to ad some nice interest and show my idea of old vs new but ive also got a the buildings in the background which complete the image and a good composition. Overall these two images have there pros and cons but once again time shows the improvement of practice and my image on the right is better.
Summing up my idea into one small paragraph.
So far for my project ive created one large paragraph explaining my idea but the paragraph is quite long and doesn't necessarily explain my idea that clearly so here I want to explain it in a simpler way for viewers, I will also include this paragraph at the start of my photo book to explain to the context of the book.
This project is about exploring the river Thames and to show the old and new buildings along the river as well as the tributaries that feed into it and show how well they have blended old and new structures along the River Thames.
This explanation for the book and in general may change over time throughout this project but not massively and will most likely change when im explaining it or if I come up with a new idea to do with the overall concept.
First draft of images for photo book.
The images above are a selection from my first and second reccie shoot from the last few weeks and these images are the best from these shoots as they firstly show my idea and concept in the best light and also are composed reasonably well. The best image out of the selection would have to be the top right as its well composed with a nice framing with a interesting subject and reasonably nice light, with the only drawback being the foreground. The worst out of the bunch would have to be top middle of the underside of the jetty with canary wharf being framed in the background, I think this images has too much of the jetty's structure in the image and it fills up the frame in a negative way and with very little of the buildings in the background. Also there is no real composition to it and even though its a nice image, it most likely won't make it into the final book. Over all these set of images taken so far are good and I plan to add to them.
Plan For Third non test Shoot-Royal Docks.
For my next shoot I plan to go to the Royal docks near the Isle of Dogs over the other side of the river as its somewhere with a lot of rich history and it played an important part in London's growth and history. Before I can confirm that I will shoot there I need to get a permit from the Royal dock website that i'm currently in the middle of sorting out, in till I get the go ahead and the permit is approved I won't go as taking shots handheld won't do for this project and I want to take my time and use a tripod like the other four shoots. After researching the history and then exploring the place on google maps ive found that even though the place has lots of new buildings it also has a few old ones that are either still standing or have been regenerated to be reused and live in, also there are the old cranes once used to load and unload goods back when the dock was in proper use.
So when i'm out there shooting I will be looking for compositions that show the old vs the new in a positive way. Also for this shoot im going to go back to the 70-200mm as when i'm going to be photographing these buildings from a distance because of the little space between the buildings and the water I will stand on the opposite side of the dock to the building I will be photographing and then using my 70-200 I will zoom in and get the show the buildings nicely framed from across the dock. Overall for this next shoot my aim is to create a selection of images to choose from for my book and create images that show new vs old in a interesting positive way.
Possible mini shoot in Woolwich.
Above are a few images that I took a couple of years ago of the old abandoned Royal Iris ship that is currently sitting next to the Thames-side print studio in Woolwich. The reason why im thinking about a possible mini shoot of the boat is that its one of the few abandon ships along the Thames of its size and its an interesting old piece of history left to rot, and even though my project is not looking at abandoned buildings the images I could make again of the boat could be quite interesting and I could incorporate new buildings in the background to keep it with in my idea of old vs new. I may even go aboard the ship if its close enough to the bank and take some images inside and also use parts of the ship to frame shots looking across the river ,to any possible new buildings and also the Thames Barrier which is not to far down river. To conclude this shoot is a maybe and a back up mini location to shoot for this project but still an interesting one to have in my back pocket.
Second Draft Of Best Images For Photo-Book.
The images above are my second selection of possible images for the final photobook and are from two different shoots. Also like the last selection these images are the ones that I think either show my idea/concept in the best way or are simply nice images that are composed well. To start off my new favorite image out of this second batch is a difficult one and I no longer have a particular one that interests me or I consider to be the best, but for this selection process to work I need to choose. The images that show my idea the best would have to be the top second left of the canal locks and old lock keepers house that has had a very modern extension added to the side, the image itself show my idea in this interesting way by having these two completely different buildings put together along with a nice even mix of old vs new. The second runner up in terms of photo that keeps with in my idea it would have to be the bottom right of the old boat sculpture, and even though ive already talked about this the contrast between old vs new is so good with this old cross section of a old ship with the leading line to the new buildings in the background really makes it not only a reasonably well composed image but one that fits well. The image that does not show my idea or shows it the least would have to be a original favorite and that's the bottom left which has been very nicely composed and framed but has very little old in the image and is very modern looking with a terrible foreground subject that once you see you can't unsee. To conclude these images that I have selected and analysed and ones that i have chosen to be the best or worst they are not set in stone and I may include some and not include others as time goes on with this project.
Perspective in architecture photography and why its important.
Above are two of the same images with one major change to them which is the perspective of the vertical lines in the image, the reason why ive done this is because the original image was taken from such a low angle it looks like the building will fall over backwards. If this was for a client then that image on the right would not be good enough and unprofessional. So to correct this using Aurora HDR which is the software I used to edit this ive moved the vertical lines so that the building moves forward and looks a lot better and looks like its standing up, the only drawback of this editing technique is that it means you have to crop the image quite a bit after. The other way of correcting this type of issue is in camera by using a tilt-shift lense which has the ability to change is perspective and correct issues like this in a much better way. To conclude for the final edits of this project I plan on using this technique to correct any issues like the image on the top right.
Details and plans about the book.
So far for this project I carried out two test shoots and two proper shoots of two different locations and have yet to think or figure out some of the other important factors of the book like how many images, or how many images per locations. At the moment per location ive created around 2 to 4 reasonably good images and if I was to edit the images down id have 2 per location at best and I have two ways at looking at this which is does this meet the requirements of this project and should I have more images per location.
Indesign Photo Book Page Mock Up.
Above is a screenshot of my first photo book layout test and as you can see ive gone for a one image double page and included a image on the right in a full bleed style. On the left page ive got a shot from google maps of the area I took this image as I wanted to show the viewer of the book a bit more detail of the image and where it was taken.
What looks good and works: With this concept the main thing that works with it for me is what the map adds to the image and how it adds a extra layer of interest to the image and I know that if i improve it, then it will look even better.
What looks bad and doesn't work: In terms of what looks bad the map is a big thing that even though I like it for the most part it's a bit too much detail and has text of locations that are irrelevant and as well as streets and areas that are distracting. To add to that the basic title is a bit distracting and I need to rethink the location and the font along with the colour.
What I plan on doing differently next time: In terms of what I will improve and do differently next time it would have to be both the amount of images on the page to start off with to add more interest to the page. Next I plan on making a much more simpler map for the page and make it go across both pages, I plan on creating this map in Adobe Illustrator which ive never used but I want to learn and see what I can create for this project.
To conclude this idea has some good promis and I need to develop it further, as well as my ideas for the book and its contents.
Third shoot cancelation-Royal Docks What's next?
For the third shoot I had a plan to shoot the Royal Docks across the river near the Isles of Dogs and had submitted a application to shoot there with a tripod, the application I sent was to the film hub and as you can see above its a website all around permits and shooting in locations all over the country, but one big thing I didn't look into was that all of these places you can get permits for are all cost money. I sent my application on the 23rd of Feb and thankfully heard back from the film hub on the 24th with a phone call and this is when I found out it costs money and some of the places I had asked permission for were £300 just for one or two shots and this is just not worth it, ive decided to cancel the third shoot to the Royal docks and find somewhere new. Next time I need to look into the website i'm using to apply and this is something ive got to get use to, as in the future I will often be applying for permits to shoot on certain private locations.
Third Shoot Original plan and Results.
The original plan for this third shoot of this project was to go the Royal Docks over the river near the Isles of Dogs and create a series of images showing the old vs the new like many of these shoots, I also had the plan of using a longer lense again which is the 70-200mm so that I could shoot images across the dock and get the buildings nicely framed and have all the vertical and horizontal lines looking good, as these things are important in architectural photography, but as you know canceled the shoot due to finding out it would of cost £1000 or more just to shoot there so it was no go. For this new location from Greenwich peninsula to the Thames Barrier I plan on using the same lense and technique to capture my images.
For this third shoot my original idea was to carry on the the route I started for my first shoot to the Thames Barrier, but on the first shoot I started from the Cutty Sark and only just got to north greenwich via the thames path but as I was stopping to take images it meant I ran out of time to reach the Barrier. So on this shoot I decided to go back to North Greenwich and carry on that route to the Thames Barrier and explore the old vs the new along the way. What I found was lots of new buildings mixed with old industrial sites, and along this area its been quite badly done and there is a big contrast between old vs new, unlike other places ive explored in London.
What went well: The main thing that went well with this third shoot would have to be firstly the images I created as there were more reasonably good ones that I created then I thought, also I took quite a phew which will give me more to choose from when editing them down for the final edit. Secondly I had good light which meant the buildings and subjects I was photographing had some good light hitting them and it brought out the details.
What went badly: In terms of what went badly or I didn't like there was much but there were a phew images that I took that could of been better if the had been a bit more thought out, but I rushed them a bit maybe and didn't think about the subjects in them. Also even though I had nice light to shoot with there was very little clouds in the sky which meant that some images had some large areas of negative space which with a few extra clouds it could of improved the images a lot.
What i'd do differently next time: What I do differently next time there isn't much really apart from maybe shooting on a cloudier day. To conclude I think this third shoot went very well and ive created a nice amount of images to choose from for the edit.
Analysis of my favorite & least favorite photos out of the 20 selected.
Best image for concept/idea of project.
This image above is my favorite image in terms of how it fits in with my idea of old vs new and how it all fits together. Firstly what makes the old vs the new really stand out is the new building on the left in the background that has caught the light really well and the light hitting it really brings out the detail of the building. The main subject of the image which is on the right hand side of it is the Greenwich Yacht club which was founded in 1908 with this building being built 1999 which is quite interesting as the design of it seem more modern, this all adds to the interest of the image and if I was to include this image into the final book id have annotations explain the image and say the dates everything was built. What I dont particularly like about this image is the bridge that connects the yacht house to the shore as its a bit distracting and blocks some of the objects behind it. Over all this image has lots potential to being a good image that ends up in the final book.
Worst/least Favorite image of the 20 selected.
The image above is the worst image out of the bunch for a few reasons, firstly the foreground in the image is being blocked quite a bit from these reeds that I originally thought would add some interest to the image, but have just become a bit to distracting. The next part of the image that doesn't really work is the background which as you can see is a lot of buildings that due to the compression of the lense all look very close together and make the image very busy with no clear subject. Also to add to this analysis the colours in this image are not as vibrant as the other images in the selection and theres a lot of dark dull browns which don't compliment the image. Overall this image could of been better with a bit more thought.
Adobe Illustrator Experiments
For my photo books final edit I want to have something extra along with the images and any text. One of my biggest ideas is to have a map of the area the images were taken, and like seen previously I made a mock up of this using a screen shot from google maps of one of the areas. For this mockup to start off with ive like last time got a screen shot of and area were some of my images were taken, and in this case its North Greenwich to the Thames Barrier in Woolwich. Next I imported the screenshot into Illustrator the screenshot and traced the image with a graphics tablet and this is what came out.
Above is the traced outline of the google maps image and as you can see it doesn't look the best, as most of the lines are not perfect and it obviously hand drawn. The graphics tablet I used to draw this was quite cheap and difficult to use but manageable which is why I got this level of image drawn. Next time i'm planning drawing a different part of the river in a much better way and I want to take my time to see what I can create. Also next time I may zoom in more on the google maps area ive chosen to see if its a bit easier. To conclude this is a ok first attempt and so far im not massively liking this design but I will experiment more to see how it goes.
Illustrator Experiment Part 2
Once again ive created another basic outline of google maps just to experiment with Illustrator and my idea for my book and weather it will work, next I need to go into indesign and see if this new idea works in a book format along with images. The location ive chosen for this next illustrating is Limehouse basin which is were my second shoot started from and I thought this would be a good one to go for, so like last time ive drawn out the water with a blue colour and the roads with a dark grey, and then the park areas with a green colour just to see if it works. For the most part I kinda like this design and idea and I may add more to it and completely finish it as some point soon. In terms of were this may go in a book it would be on an empty page at a start of a section to mark a new area of London, it may also have the text fitted in the areas you see above were there would be warter, I think this could be quite interesting and something I also plan on doing in Indesign soon. One thing I dont like about this idea/design is that it still looks a bit rushed and not that well drawn and if I wanted to include it in my book it would have to improve a lot. Overall these experiments are coming along nicely but still need some work.
Adobe Indesign Experiment Part 3
For my next Illustrator experiment ive hand drawn a map of the Greenwich peninsula/Isle of dogs areas as you can see above. Then I scanned this drawing to make it digital and then using indesign ive put it all together. At this point in the experimenting it's gotten to the point where i'm starting to not like this idea so much not because these drawings are very rough just the idea doesn't look as good as it did in my head. But these drawings do give you and idea of what it would look like and I think if these were drawn with more time then I could of produced some better drawings and therefore they would of looked better and my idea of having maps in book may look better in real life.
Adobe Indesign Experiment Part 4
Like the previous one above this one ive found an image of a location ive shot and traced it and then hand drawn a very rough edit of and how it may look in Indesign on a double page spread. Ive also put some text saying the name of the location and were you can see the text above in the drawing if I was to go with this idea I could have the information of the location in this area as a nice way of keeping the rest of the drawing or illustration looking clean with no text and then the image or images on the right page. Over all this idea and designs are interesting but not good enough for this FMP and I need to look into other ideas and experiment with other designs.
Feedback From Geraint, Chris and Sabela before Easter Break.
For our end of term session as you know we had short presentations were we talked about were our projects were and how we got there. I did mine showing all my best images from the last three non test shoots of Regents canal and the River Thames from the Cutty Sark to the Thames Barrier. After getting my feed back from Chris, Sabela and Geraint the main thing they talked about was the different between some of my shots were I had some open wide shots of buildings and other close up shots shooting through structures and said the latter one of shooting through objects was better and abstract and that I should look into this more and maybe concentrate on this style of shooting from now one as idea. I found this feedback to be pretty good and very helpful as all feedback other people always helps with these kind of projects and for may next shoot I plan on keeping this feedback in mind and shooting abstract style images through objects that frame that frame interesting subjects as well as having good strong contrast between new and old in the images.
Abstract images ive taken so far for this project.(Well reasonably abstract.)
Above are some of my best abstract images were ive shot through objects and framed my subjects up nicely. To start of with we will talk about the best and my favourite image out of the five which is the top right image that is just full of lots of different colours, along with having interesting subjects and a good contrast between old and new in the image, the old part of it is the concrete works ship and the structure you see on the bottom and the top of the image with the nice colourful new buildings in the centre. This helps produce a really nice reasonably abstract image and works very well for this project. The worst image out of the five would have to be the bottom left that even though there's lots going on in a good way it's quite busy in the middle and not necessarily that clear what's going on. The subject of the image is the ship that is attached and is either unloading on loading goods and is quite interesting and what I tried to do with the structure in front of it is frame in but as you can see it hasn't really worked that well and I should of gotten closer and framed it better with the structure like the top right.
What's Next?
After my end of term presentation on my progress I want to clarify what's next for the project. Firstly there is the shooting side of it, ive only done three proper non test shoots that have been pretty successful but I need to carry one shooting and creating images for this project. So I want to do at least minimum 2-3 more shoots weather they be reshoots of previous locations or new locations. Firstly I plan on going to Camden town were part of the Regents canal goes through as there are some interesting buildings. Also I will be continuing to design my photo book and its layout figuring out what will make the images look good and how many I will have on each page. To conclude ive got a few different things to do over the next month or so but all are do able and will be done.
Fourth Shoot Plan-Camden to Kings Cross
For my fourth non test shoot of this project im planning on traveling back to Regents Canal but instead of traveling from Limehouse Basin im going to either start in Kings Cross and walk to Camden along the canal or the other way around it depends of the travel time to get to these locations. What I want to do along these part of the canal is similar to last time which is to photograph the old and new buildings while in keeping with the projects concept. But also i want to do a better job photographing the canal as last time along theo the other part of the canal from shoot two i took some nice images that were interesting and i had a few i could share, but i could of done better so this time in a fresh location with different subjects and scenery i plan on doing better by taking my time more, as well as only taking my camera out if its worth it. In Terms of lenses and extra pieces of equipment I will be using my Nikkor 16-35mm like last time as I will be needing that wide angle lense more often the not, also I will take my 24-120 as well as if I do need that extra reach it will be lighter then my 70-200mm and easier to carry around. To conclude for this shoot I want to create some interesting images of old vs new along the Camden and kings cross section of the canal in a slow well thought out way so i can create some nice images.
Further Indesign Book Design Experiments.
Above is another rough design of mine for possible use in my photo-book and as you can see it's quite a simple design, let me run you through what ive done and why. First off I went for a double page spread and created a grey background as I thought going for a typical white or light colour not going to cut it and I wanted to do something different so grey and I think this colour choice has given the bright colours in the image a good look and the pop just that bit more and next time i'm thinking if I look up the opposite of blue shall we say and see what the opposite colour is to blue and see how that looks as a background. Next ive used an idea from Chris to see what putting in the coordinates of the location the photo was taken to see what that may look like and at the moment it does look good and interesting, but I need others opinion on it and the design and placement of these coordinates. Adding on to that ive added in some placement text on the left page as you can see as I want to have some text giving and explanation to my thoughts of the image as well as information on either the thames in general or that part of it. When it comes to the placement of the images this isn't so good and I need to get more creative with where i'm putting the text. To conclude this different approach of design to what ive done previously with this project is good and ive gone for something different but I need to design more pages and get more creative.
Part 6 Of Book Designs Using Indesign.
For the first part of 6th design experiments ive as you can see above ive gone for a two image spread with both images having been cropped to a 16/9 aspect ratio to allow me to fit some text. The reason for this is firstly the idea came to me and I wanted to see what it looked like digitally and secondly I want to design a page that would be text heavy and would have large chunks of information on the river or part ive photographed. Then when it comes to background colours ive gone for two very different ones with the first being a blue/purple colour which I think works okey but not the best, the next one on the right which is a grey works far better and helps the images stand out that bit more than the previous one on the left. To conclude this design above has come out ok with the second design looking the best, but they dont look how I imagined them in my head and I will probably not use this design in my final book edit.
This second design is very different as ive gone for a double page spread with one image once again in a 16/9 aspect ratio. This very simple design so far is my favorite for a couple of reasons the first of which being the image itself which ever since I took it has grown on me and in this design in indesign it works really well and is just a nice image, the second reason is the crop aspect ratio which is my favorite as it just makes some images really stand out and work on webpages, wallpapers and in this case a photo book. I also played around with the colours of the background which like the design are very simple and as you can see its black or white, at first with the stantard white background I thought it made the image look good and stand out but after comparing it the black one on the right it does not look so good. The image on the right with the black colour background looks the best as colours in the image seem to contrast very well with the black and it helps the image stand out in a really nice way. Overall I think this second design works really well and some other expriments around this design could work even better.
Sun Vs No Sun-Why In Architecture Photography This Is Important.
So far for this project ive shot my images on sunny days and only sunny days and almost all of my images you have seen so far all show that very clearly. The reason why ive always shot on sunny bright days with harsh light is because of one big thing I learnt last year during the summer, when I did a shoot with a professional architectural photographer who taught me a lot about architectural photography with one of the biggest things being light and how with architecture photography you want this harsh light. Coming from being mostly a landscape photographer this is the complete opposite to what i'm use to which is cloudy days with no real harsh light as this is not what you want in landscape photography. Above are a couple of examples of a couple of photos I took last year were I was trying to photograph this building and was waiting for some nice harsh light and as you can see the image on the left has harsh light hitting it, and the image on the right has some light but no real harsh light which is why it does not look as good and you can not see as much of the lines and shapes of the buildings as with the left image. (note left image is a HDR shot and the other is not but my point gets across) Still this is the big reason why i'm always waiting for bright days for this project. So to conclude from now on I will continue to shoot architectural photography on sunny days.
Part 7 Of Book Designs Using Indesign.
Once again im created some more designs for my book using Indesign and this time ive gone for a more of a split up look as you can see above, this idea came to me so like previously I digitised my idea. The first one I came up with and perhaps the best is the top right screenshot of the double page spread were I chosen a random image of the Thames and split it into three different parts of one image, on the right and zoom in to aspects of the image and as you can see for the most part it works quite well and i like the look of it. I do need another person's opinions on this design and the others ive created recently to help me fine tune my ideas for the design of the book. The next design is the top right and a single page of Regents Canal and as you can see my idea for this didn't translate so well and even if I was to get rid of the blue lines it still just does not work and looks a bit cheap and badly put together. The third and final design is the bottom left and is another interesting one that I think could be interesting to develop. With this third design ive once again chosen one image and put it on the right side and then created a split of the image and zoomed in on interesting parts of the image, in this case the building with the interesting modern extension on the side and ive shown this aspect of the image. The text in the middle would explain my thoughts and the history of either the building or the canal. To finish up this latest idea and design is one of my more favorites out of all ive recently created and i interested in designing more like what you see above.
Updated Draft Images For Photo-Book.
Here is the most recent draft of images that im currently planning end up in the book and as you can see they are the same images from the Presentation at the end of term 2. The image are a mix from shoot 1 till 3 the most recent and are either my own favorites or generally good images that are well composed and interesting, but most important of all show the old vs new between the buildings in the image. The best overall image out of the 13 would have to be from the middle section on the left of the ship thats been cut in half from the first non test shoot. This image is just full of life with a interesting subject being the ship on the left part of the frame and then leading line that then leads you to the new buildings in the background, and then to finish it of there are the clouds that fill up the sky leaving no negative space which I like in a image like this. The worst image out of the 13 is in my opinion is the top right of the new buildings in the background as the subject and then a tug boat in the foreground, what i dont like about it and what just doesn't work is the composition which is not very interesting with the subject not being that clear, also the light is hitting at the wrong angle which means the buildings aren't lit that well and overall the images is not so interesting. To conclude ive got 13 good images that will almost definitely make it into the final edit of the book with some really well composed colorful images, I plan on having a minimum of 20 in the book so I need at least 7 more images minimum.
Fourth Shoot Results/Analysis
So for my fourth shoot as you know I went back to Regents canal but this time I walked from Camden to Kings Cross and created images of old vs new as I went along and the shoot was ok, not particularly interesting but went better than expected. I used my 16-35mm the whole time and for the most part it served me well.
What went well: The biggest thing that went well with this shoot would have to be that I got more usable shots then I thought I would, the reason why im saying this is that I went looking at my route on google maps in street view the area of the canal I was going to walk along wasn't going to end up being that interesting with what seemed like a lack of contrast between old and new which would not suit my needs, but I was wrong and there was a reasonable amount interesting buildings along the way. Also I got very lucky with the light as it was a nice bright day and as explained previously this suits architectural photography and my style, also there was just the right amount of clouds in the sky to fill in some of that negative space.
What went badly: In terms of what went badly there was not much apart from that at certain parts of the canal path you would go around a bend and the light would be hitting the wrong side of the canal which meant some of the buildings I wanted to photograph were back lit and as I know from my previously Regents canal shoots back lit shots simply don't work. The only other negative of the shoot was that even though I got more images usable images then I expected, in comparison to my third shoot there was a lot less images which I didn't like.
What id do differently next time: The main thing that I would do differently next time would have to be firstly using a different lens like my 24-120 as in some of the situations on this shoot I just needed that bit more reach in my shots . Secondly next time I would just look around more for different compositions and work some different angles as i'm sure I could of squeezed out a few more images on this shoot. To conclude this shoot didn't go as well as the last one but still turned out some interesting and usable images.
People In My Architectural Images, Keep Them Or Remove?
So far in my almost all my images I have taken for this project have had people in them, no on purpose, in fact I try my best to wait for a clear moment when there is no one around to take the shot. But one thing ive been thinking about is should I remove them from all my shots using Photoshop or should I leave them?. Well some architectural images you see wether its a interior shot or exterior may have one or two people in them to show scale or the use of something, but the answer is yes I should as for this project I want to have clean images with no people. Often you don't see people on your camera or computer screen but when printing they will show up. For example above is a image from my fourth shoot back along Regents Canal and when you first look at the image you see the bridge, tree, building in the background and finally the people on the other side of the canal with the person in orange especially distracting. So to conclude what I want to do next is start trying to remove all the people from my best shots using photoshop to the best of my ability but from previous experience is that not all objects in images can be removed cleanly and completely, but I will experiment and try my best.
Photoshop Experiment To Remove People From My Photos.
When it comes to my Photoshop skills they are very limited even with the last two and a bit years of university I find the software over complicated and generally don't like it, but I do need to get better at using it. In this experiment ive exported from Aurora HDR editing software as a PSD file and then opened it in photoshop. What I wanted to accomplish with this experiment is to see if I could cleanly remove all the people in the image and as you can see ive removed them, but as you can see above on the left it looks quite bad and parts of the image where ive removed the people the image looks strange and is obvious ive removed something. If I was to leave this currently as it is then it would show up very clearly in the prints if I was to get this book physically made. I know there are other ways to do this and this is what I plan on doing next and working at it so that when it comes to the final edit in the future I can hopefully remove any people or objects with ease. To conclude this quick experiment has given me an idea of how hard this is gonna be but I plan on working at it.
Fifth Shoot Location-Where to shoot next and why?
The River Lea.
After shooting from central Greenwich to the Thames barrier as well as the Regents Canal im looking for my next location to create images for this project that shows how interesting and good old and new buildings get along in London. For my fifth shoot I thought about carrying on from where I left of on my second test shoot but after some exploring on google maps and thinking about it I decided it was just not interesting enough and lacked that old vs new aspect which as you know is the theme of the project. So I explored google maps some more and came across an area I had looked at briefly before which is the Lea River which seems to be very interesting and be and area of greenery. The river itself is opposite to the Greenwich peninsula across the river Thames.
History on the River Lea
The Lea river has been used for many different things over the years from fishing to transport to flood control and there is evidence it dates back to the bronze age so 4000 years of history lays behind this interesting river and remind me how rivers have played a vital part in human history not just in the UK but around the world.
The River was approved between Hertford and the river Thames under the 1767. To start of with it seems the river was used as a water supply to the local communities, but after some time people working along encouraged industry growth and it went from a water supply to a area of industry were things such as small arms manufacturers were, as well as gunpowder mills and furniture making. These days it's used for different things and has become a somewhere technology has progressed with things like computing and Tv broadcasting as well as many other things.
Why I want to and should create images of the river Lea?
Well the reason why I want to photograph the are of the river lea near the Thames is simple it's a very interesting and has lots of interesting new and old buildings along it. Also to carry on with my theme of the project ive looked at the regents canal and it feeds into the Thames and is a tributary like the river Lea so it makes sense to photograph the river. To conclude the River Lea has a lot to offer for this project and next I need to plan my shoot for next week.
Plan For My Fifth Shoot-The River Lea.
As you already know for my fifth shoot ive decided on shooting the Lea river as like the Thames and Regents canal it has a interesting history and is a tributary into the Thames. So when it comes to what I want to accomplish its to explore a small area of the long river and create some images that show the old vs the new in a positive way. In terms of were id go along the Lea either id get a train to canning town station and walk along the Lea to Bromley by Bow station as an endpoint and maybe walk past the station further along to see what was there. Or what would make more sense and would be easier is to start at Bromley-By-Bow and walk up river and around that area as its got a bit more to offer in terms of images then further down river, well at least this is what it looks like. Then I would like previously walk down river towards were the river Lea meets the river Thames near Canning town station and get home from there but obviously not until ive got the images I need first.
From what ive looked at on google maps and what I know of the history of the river is that there are plenty of interesting old and new buildings along it and I think it could be a very interesting place that could produce lots of nice images for this project. In terms of equipment it would be my 16-35mm and my 24-120mm for the lenses as well as a tripod, also a polarizer and a ND filter. So far this project ive shot with a mix of my wide angle lense the 16-35mm F4 and my telephoto the 70-200mm F2.8 and when shooting with two very different lenses you get different results with the 70-200mm being very sharp and in comparison the 16-35mm being not so sharp but this is because of the level of the lenses with one being much more expensive and being a 2.8 aperture, but for this shoot it's the 16-35mm for its focal lense not sharpness. To conclude im looking forward to this fifth shoot and what it has to offer.
Book details: How many images should I have and what order?
So far I have not thought a lot about some of the other details of this book like the amount of images or what order they should go in. But I want to start thinking about this as its important and I need to get it right for this bit project. In terms of images and the amount that would work i'm not that sure as so far ive got maybe 13 to 17 good images for this book and a bare minimum I should have twenty good images for the book, but if possible I want to have more like 25 to 30 images for this book as I feel 20 is not to be enough. At the moment this is not set in stone and will probably change as I need other peoples opinion on this idea. Next is the order of the images as this is very important in any photo-book and I want to get it right. So at the moment i'm thinking show the images in the order they were shot from shoot one to five but this may not work so I was also thinking maybe show the images by location in London, so for example if there is a shot of regents canal which is across the river upstream a bit then show that first ahead of a image taken on the ravensbourne side of the river downstream near the university building, and then have a image of the river Lea in a similar place as its opposite the university building and Greenwich peninsula.
This idea of having the images in the order of were they are on the map in terms of locations is really interesting and the one image interested in most and could work really well. Another way of organising the images is via the images themselves and how they look i.e. if two images have the same colour in them, or the same building in them but from different angles. Just any images the work together well by what's going on in them could work well. The other thing ive got to figure out its text and how much to have as well as what the text is going to say. What I want to include in the book in text form are little paragraphs through out that are either my opinion on the images or shoot, or text in the history of a particular building or area. I may well do both of these ideas as I think they could work well, but ive got to make sure I don't put too much text in and overcrowd the pages so I will choose caferly how much text to put in. All of what ive come up with today needs a second opinion on as this always helps with ideas and at the moment i'm not sure of my ideas. To conclude ive come up with a lot of ideas for a lot of different things and I need to experiment in Indesign to figure out if they work.
Part 8 of Indesign experiments
As you can see above there are a couple of pages of my latest photo-book design. Ive started with a few shots from my second shoot along Regents canal from Limehouse basin and back again, then ive moved on to shots from my first non test shoot from Cutty Sark ship in Greenwich town centre to the Greenwich peninsula and a bit past it. The reason why ive put all these images and location in this order is because of one of my ideas I came up with recently which was to instead have a physical drawing of the Thames in the book with the images being in order of where they were taken on the map with the illustration of the Thames. Instead ive got the images in order of where they were taken along the Thames, i.e. the Regents canal shots are first because on a map Limehouse Basin in further upriver then Greenwich peninsula. Next ive got the shots from the first non test shoot which are further along on the map of London. So this is my current idea for my book and one I feel is most interesting and is most likely to succeed over some of my previous ideas. To conclude this is a good idea but like most ideas it needs another opinion and that's what I need to get this idea along further.
Photo-Book Design examples and analysis.
1. The Touch-Spaces Designed for the Senses
The first book im looking at is The Touch-Spaces Designed for the Senses. What i'm looking at is not who wrote it or who photographed it but the design of the book and how everything is laid out for the viewer. Firstly the colour of the book which seems to be a cream colour on the cover of the book with the title being in black and a drawing in red has in interesting contrast and works well. The inside of the book is a more light grey colour it would seem and is nice and subtle. In terms of the layout it seems reasonably consistent with pages having two maybe three images max on them but very thoughtfully laid out and the images as well all relate to each other on each page but if put together are quite different but when you are looking through it I suppose you don't notice the change in the images as much.
This page out of the selection above is my favorite not only for the images in it but the design as it just work really well with a single image on the left page at the top but then a large gap between that and the text below which seem strange but works. Then on the right there is one single large image with a border that seems uneven and a small piece of text which I presume explains the image a bit.
To conclude this first analysis of this book has interested and inspired me with my own ideas and designs for my own book, especially the orientation of the book which is portrait instead of my current idea of doing it in landscape. My plan next is to do some experiments with this idea and create something of my own.
2. Eric Mendelsohn Synagogues In America.
Above is my second book Eric Mendelsohn Synagogues in America which is quite different from the book previously and to start off with has lots of full bleed pages it seems with small pieces of text in the actual image which works well enough but I don't think is that good and maybe could of been done differently. The other type of page in this book is a double page with two different images at the top with lots of space below as you can see above, also there is text which I presume has the name or date of the image. If you were to compare this book and the previous one they are quite different with the previous book having not full bleeds and a lot more text it would seem. The only way to get a full sense of any book is to hold it in person and i can't do this but im analysing on what I can see above.
This single page from Eric's book is a very simple one with a double page with one single image in it. The page I think is ok and works for the most part with one big thing ruining the image being the middle were the line is which in a physical copies is were the pages meet and I think this ruins the image a bit and should of been done a slightly different way. Also maybe more information on the building im looking at instead of the location only as me and other viewers want to know more about what's going on and this book seems to not always provide it.
To conclude this book is an interesting one with some nice images but the layout is not for me and very very simple, but I may see if I could improve on the design in Indesign and experiment with the design.
3.Peter Salter: Walmer Yard
Above is my third and final book of this first analysis and its a bit of a different book by Peter Salter and appears to have a cover that's made from brown fabric which is quite different and interesting to me with the title and illustration looking like its been taped on in some way and it works really well. The inside pages are quite different and maybe not what you would expect from the cover but the inside of the book seems interesting with the pages with images on being design well with one image per page on the far let and then with the gap on the middle of the book were the paper meets the spine of the book you have a small paragraph of text.
The page above is from Peter's book and once again its quite different like most page's it seems in this book. To start of with there is two images per page that are quite small in the page with lots of border and empty space with a gap between two images, I quite like this design and it works for the images and Peters whole book design. There is also text on the top left of the left page that explains what's going on and for my idea in comparison this is the type of thing i'm interested in recreating for my book.
To conclude this third book is another very interesting book with a very good design with lots of thought put into it. Like the other books ive looked at I want to see if I can recreate the design in my own way and improve on it if possible.
Fifth Shoot Results-Was it a failure of a shoot?
For my fifth non test shoot of this project for the first time I went to the river Lea which feeds into the river Thames. After getting off the train at Devons Road DLR station I walked up river a bit towards stratford to see what I could capture along the way, then I turned around and head downstream towards canning town station were I would go home and along the way photograph anything interesting that showed old vs new.
What went well: The main thing that went well with this fifth shoot was that I got a couple of usable images from the shoot and was able to explore the river Lea a bit and get a sense of if it would be a good place to return, and apart from the piles of rubbish in some parts it was a nice interesting area with lots of different buildings. Also I was able to photograph quite interesting building which is The House Mill a museum which has been restored and a very interesting one and one that i wanted to photograph.
What went badly: Well to start off with the weather did and didn't live up to its forecast as it kept changing and on the day (1st April) it was a very very hazy day with little sun and as you can see above in the images this haze really didn't help and creates a horrible sky in my images. Another thing that went badly with this shoot was the lack of images in general as I only took maybe 5-10 images and as I already said only a few of those can be used in the book. Another thing that went badly was my use of a polarizer and forgetting to turn the White balance off auto resulting in some of the images looking a bit funny and off colour because of the camera getting confused over the white balance, the same thing happened on the fourth shoot with my ND filter and forgetting to change the white balance settings.
What id do differently next time?: The obvious thing that I would do differently next time for this shoot would have to be the weather and the day would shoot it on which would be a completely clear sunny day with no clouds at all to avoid the haze. Also allow more time and explore more of the river upstream and create better images.
To conclude this shoot overall did really go well with the lack of images and the heavy haze in the sky, but I did get to explore a somewhat ineresting area and got a few reasonably good images along the way.
Photo-Book Design examples and analysis Part 2 my own photo-books.
1. Cape Light By Joel Meyerowitz
The first book of my own i'm going to look at is as you can see Cape Light by Joel Meyerowitz one of my favorite photographers. What im going to explore with this book is like the last analysis im not looking at the images or what the book is about that much but more so the design. Firstly the front cover of the book is simple but interesting at the same time with a single image in the middle but the name of the book and photographer are appear cut out of the image and have this pink light from the image below, which is very interesting and not something ive seen on any other book. When it comes to the pages with images they are very simple and only have one image per double page with one of the pages being blank apart from the title of the image. I think for the most part this works and there are some great images but maybe having a bit more to the page would be just that bit more interesting. Overall I like the design of the book from the light cream pages to the colorful images that pop out at you and catch your eye. In terms of if I would use this design in my book probably not.
2. 7 Years of Camera Shake(Ignore the "TapScanner")
The second book "7 Years of Camera Shake" by David Plummer is another interesting one as the photographer behind the images has parkinsons and can't keeps his hands still, ive seen this first hand when I did one of his work shops and some of his images are amazing. Back to the book and its design, firstly the front cover is a full bleed of a black and white images of a leopard with his name in small white print on the bottom left and the title on the top left. This design of a front cover is not particularly interesting and unlike Joel Meyerowitz front cover which plays a bit more with the design Davids is more about the image and the title and photographer credit are a after thought. When it comes to the images in the book and how they are laid out there's a bit more to it then Joel's book. With at least two images per double page that relate to each other either by the fact that it's the same animal or the light like the bottom right of the lion and elephant which I find to be really good, by not just the images but how they have been put with the image of the elephant and sun above it and then the lion with the light coming in from the top which creates this almost feel of the one sun lighting up both animals in a really interesting way, well at least thats my thoughts on it. To conclude this second book has a interesting design and I will be using some of what ive analysed from Davids book into my own.
Part 9 of Indesign experiments.
My aim for this 9 experiment of Indesign for my book is change things up a bit more and use the inspiration from the books ive been looking at to create something more, obviously whilst keeping it within my own style. Also I plan on creating a book draft in a portrait orientation as this is something i haven't done before in any experiment or past photo-book and I want to explore the possible designs.
Above is edit of my 9th experiment with Indesign and my photo-book designs and for this one ive taken some inspiration from a couple of the books ive looked above the first one being The Touch-Spaces Designed for the Senses which has some interesting layouts. Starting with the front cover of this edit its a very very simple one with just an image in the middle and a title at the top and my name at the bottom, I was trying to go for some fancy design but it ended up just not looking remotely good and next time i'm going to concentrate on it a bit more and come up with one that works. With the pages each one is different with the first being the top middle image were ive got a full bleed on one side and then another image on the left that stops just above the bottom with text, I not sure of this one as its interesting but not so much that it's that good and I most likely one use it again in future designs. A good one would between the top right and bottom left screenshots, the top right screenshot has two images on each page on the furthest side away from the middle as you can see with text at the top and bottom in the middle as seen. I think this design is simple but works quite well at the same time and with different images could work even better. The bottom left screenshot has a full bleed image on the left and then a image on the right in the middle with text at the bottom, this design is good but just not at interesting and I really need someone else's opinion on my designs to get a better understanding of what's good and what's not. To conclude there is a good selection of designs above and like I said a couple of them really work well together and I plan on developing them further with more experiments, also the designs that didn't work will be redone and redesigned better and experimented on.
Five shoots done, do I need more?
So far on this shoot ive done 7 shoots in total the first two being test shoots, but the rest being non proper test shoots around the river Thames. I've got a good selection of images maybe 20 usable ones for the book and at the moment I have no plans for another shoot in a new location although I may revisit the Lea river. I'm thinking that unless I suddenly need 10 more usable images for this book then I don't really need to carry out another shoot and i'm going to play it by ear and wait for feedback on my last two shoots and see if my teachers i.e. you reading this think that my recent images are good or can be improved and reshot. Also I think quality over quantity is a important thing with this project and im only really coming to this conclusion now as ive done five non test shoots with a couple of really successful ones like the second shoot, other shoots like the more recent one were a bit of a failure with only a few images taken but I did get three or four more for the book so it's a different each shoot and maybe I should just concentrate on the quality images I have taken so far instead of worrying about have I done enough shoots for this final major project.
In depth Analysis into some recent images.
1. Fifth Shoot River Lea.
When it comes to my images and when and how I analysis them on my shoot results part after a shoot it's generally a rough analysis and I would like to do some more in depth analysis so this is my first image. When it came to photographing this building I had it in my mind all along and when I was researching the river Lea this building is what I came across as its very old and probably one of the few buildings ive come across during this project that has been restored and is older then the 20th century, as this building is from the 17th and is in nice condition. So when I found this building and saw it in person I knew it had to be used in this project and wanted to get a nice clean shot with no people and good light. In Terms of the lighting on the day I shot this as previously explained it was supposed to be a nice sunny day with a few clouds, but on the day it was very hazy and I only got a few moments of strong sunlight so with this shot above one of the things I had to wait for was the sun appear from behind the haze. Another thing I waited for was people to disappear and after 5 minutes or so I got a moment of nothing so I was able to take this shot.
In terms of the actual composition of this image its very simple and I just made sure when composing this shot to have the camera face on as much as possible and have all my lines to be straight and not to let the building look like it was falling over. Also I wanted the foreground to be pretty simple and not be to distracting from the subject and forturaly the foreground here is nice and simple and works for the images. Things that dont work in this image I think is the left hand side with the fence and the other building and blue crane far in the background and I may end up cropping the image when I include it in the final edit of the book.
What I think of this composition overall is that in a way it's probably a bit to simple an maybe I could of spiced it up a bit, but then again there is only so many things you can do in a scene like this and overall the image work in my eyes but like ive said before I need a second or third opinion on it. To conclude this analysis the image you see above I think is nice and works well for my idea of old vs new for the most part and maybe I should of tried to include more of an new building to get the message across better but even so in a sequence this image will work and get the message across.
2.First Shoot River Thames.
For my second analysis im looking back at a older photograph from the first non test shoot were I walked from the Cutty Sark to North Greenwich peninsula and I always wanted to photograph here because of the sculpture you see on the left which is a section cut of a ship that has been turned into art and when I was first thinking of the River, I new at some point I wanted to create a new vs old image with this sculpture in the shot. So when I was walking along and saw the ship I set up my tripod and camera and looked for different angles I could capture it from and this is what I came up with and out of all of the shots ive taken so far for this project its my favourite. Let's talk about the composition then, when setting up my tripod I was trying to get it as close to the side as I could and I saw this composition with the ship on the left as the main subject and then the buildings in the background with the light hitting them and the leading line you see was what I saw last and I knew it would be a great shot. Next was thought about it was were to focus as the subject and background were both very interesting so I ended up simple keeping the camera were it was and just taking a few shots were I focused on the ship then the background buildings. In terms of editing this image it was quite simple and all I did was fiddle around with the exposure level as well as the highlights and many other little things, for the final edit of the book I may do a re-edit and maybe use photoshop to remove some small things that I don't want but apart from that I will leave it as you see it above. Overall this photo and its composition in my opinion really works and its one photo that will definitely be going into this final photo-book.
My concept behind why I shot in certain locations and why I went for a mix of wide and zoomed in images.
For this project ive done five different shoots looking at the river Thames and its tributaries photographing the old vs the new in a positive way trying to show how old and new buildings and structures coexist and not be removed because it doesn't look good or not interesting architecturally wise. I will start off with first two test shoots which were before I had the idea of the project nailed down and was simply exploring locations near my house these shoots started the the Cutty Sark ship in central Greenwich and I moved along the river firstly towards the O2 and then on the second test shoot up river to see what I could see and what images I could create and on my second shoot that's when my concept for this project came together a bit more. For my first non test shoot the location was the same as the first test shoot but I walked much further reaching the O2 and with the concept in mind I created some good images for this project, the reason why I went along this part of the river again was that I new it has some interesting buildings both new and old and is and it showed them together also this area of the Thames is one that ive been along many times and never photographed properly which is why for the first part of this project and the first few shoots I went along this part of the Thames. For the other shoots I went to Regents canal for the second non test shoot and then again for the fourth but from Camden and then for the third shoot I revisited the Greenwich pernulia and walked to the Thames barrier and back and for the last shoot I went to the river Lea. I went to all these locations for a reason which was they played an important part to the river Thames weather that be the river Lea which feeds into the Thames and has lots of interesting history along it with new buildings and old, then there was the visits to Regents canal which also feeds into the Thames and like the river Lea played a important role in not only the Thames but london's history. Over all these locations were visited and photographed because they were important to our history and show new vs old in a positive way.
Wide Vs Zoom in shots.
At the beginning of this project I briefly talked about wide vs zoom images and why I chose to do what and my plan for this project. Since then ive carried out 4 to 5 shoots and things have changed and to be honest I forgot about concentrating on a certain type of shot and ended up do a mix. When it comes to wide vs zoomed in shots now ive found that while out shooting that it was how good the composition was that made the decision on whether to do a wide or zoomed in shot as the were many shots that were good zoomed in with 70-200mm that worked because they were zoomed in and a wide shot at 24mm just wouldn't of worked and i wasn't going to ignore a good composition because it wasn't what I had decided to do so I shot a mix and its worked out and i'm planning on using both wide shots and zoomed shots in the final book.
Final Book Design (Draft)
Above is my final book design draft and I say draft because I need a second opinion and some feedback on my design as its very hard putting these kind of projects together without a second opinion. But I will be analysing the design and giving my opinion on it beforehand and then I will do another analysis on it after with the new feedback. Ive also decided on the amount of text and it will be a reasonable amount on the first page explaining the project and the contents of the book and then as you see above on the pages with images ive put the coordinates of where the photo was taken, the reason why ive done this is simple it's because firstly I didn't want to name all the individual photos and secondly its something that's different and I like the look it gives the book and also to the reader they can type these in on google and find the exact place the images were taken.
What works: When it comes to the first page I think it works the best and is a classic design for any photobook which is why it looks good, also the placement of the text which is in the middle is very simple and doesn't distract from the images you see. In terms where ive put the images on each page as well as the size, well I didn't want to put them slap bang in the middle and wanted them to look different and it looks a bit more interesting than just having them in the middle. Another thing that kinda work is the colour which ive been debating over and over in my head whilst doing the experiments for this project and this very light blue works well although i'm not 100% sure and it may be changed.
What doesn't work: With this draft what does not work I would say not much but the pages the dont are the double page spread which I fell could be a bit different and now looking back the size of the image could be bigger and have less of a big border like the other pages. Also the last page with the only portrait image in this draft does look a bit off and maybe a move of the text could change its feel on the page.
To conclude my thoughts and analysis of this final draft of the book is that it's the design I feel is right and with some more small changes it will look good.
Final images for Book.
Centered Vs Lifted Layout Designs
So far for my most recent draft book layout ive had my images for the double page lifted towards the top of the page with a thick border at the bottom as you can see in the middle screenshot and for my this has worked, but recently ive got some feedback about the positioning of my images from both Geraint and Chris with Chis saying it may be an idea to change it. So with the top screenshot ive taken the two images and centured them to see how they work and it looks good for the most part and does make the other pages look bad when next to each other, my plan is to next change a few more pages and leave it for a few days to see how it sets in my mind and i'm planning to also get some other opinions on this as well so that I can get some more thoughts and feedback. The big reason why ive not gone with a centered approach to the pages is simply because this is what i see in a lot of photo-books and it just does not look good and is quite boring which is why after looking at some alternative examples i decided to got for this lifted look and liked it for while. Overall ive had some good helpful feedback and plan on doing some more experiments with positioning.
Finished Final Photo-Book Design Analysis
Above is the final design of my final major projects photo-book and its come out rather good. I was able to create a book that showed off my images well with the simple pail blue background and images not centered like every other photo-book out there and it made the layout that bit more interesting. I've also kept it very simple and with a front cover with a simple title and author name and then a short paragraph on the first page to introduce the book and what it is about.
What works: The main thing that works with this final book design would be is how the image pop out at you and are very striking and along with the simple design it really keeps your eye on the image and not distracted with extra text at the bottom. To add to that the front cover works really well with the simple title at the bottom and no images, originally I wanted a image on the front cover but I felt this was to boring and wanted something different that wasn't like 90% of other photo-books.
What does not work: In terms of what does not work I would say mostly it's the difference in some of the images the weather is quite different and to someone viewing it for the first time it may make some of the images not work, this is very much a minor thing the book has not real proper things that dont look good.
Conclusion: To conclude this analysis of the final book design id say its turned out very well and the layout especially along with how the images stand out really brings the whole thing together and if I was to do this again in the same locations there's not much id change.
Project analysis and conclusion.
After 15 or so long weeks of image making and book design ive created my final major project photo-book looking at the River Thames and its tributaries and how long them the old and new buildings and structures have been kept together and keep the history of the rivers alive.
What went well for the project: During this project there were a lot of things that went well and to start off with my first shoot gave me some really interesting images along the Thames from central Greenwich to the north Greenwich and it really kicked started my project and gave me some good inspiration. Moving on the other shoots I carried out all went well with no real issues. Even though the majority of this project was shot in heavy covid restrictions I was able to travel with no issues, to add to that I also had a reasonable amount of sunny nice days throughout this project which meant all of my images have been shot on sunny days which brings out the shapes and other aspects of buildings that normally on a cloudy day would be harder to see and I think this really improved my images. Also I was able to find enough interesting places, this one sounds a bit unreasonable but a lot of the places I wanted to shoot either required me to pay a lot of money for a permit or were simple not interesting and i'm quite happy that I found some interesting compositions in these locations to create a book with 24 interesting images.
What went badly during the project: In terms of what went badly during this project there were a few things like during the earlier stages I found it hard to come up with a solid idea that was good enough for this project which is worth so many credits. Other things that went badly during this project would be things like the weather not living up to the forecast and a couple of my shoots not having enough sunlight to create the effect I wanted. Also at some points during the project I was questioning my own image making and thought are these images im creating good enough for my final major project, but now i'm finished im happy with the images I created. Some other smaller issues I had were getting permission to shoot in certain locations i.e. The Royal Docks which required pre approved permission that cost a lot of money this particular shoot had to be canceled.
What id do differently next time: If I was to do this project again some of the things I would do differently would firstly be the setting and what I mean by this is that I would shoot the project in the Dartmoor a completely different setting, secondly the project would be a landscape style on looking at Dartmoors unique landscapes as this is what I wanted to do in the early stages of this project before tier 4 and then lockdown was introduced. Also id take that bit more time planning each shoot and do a few sunset ones and make sure each shoot produced a higher number of good images.
Conclusion: To conclude this project considering all the restrictions I think ive created a good photo-book at a third year final major project level with the right amount of pages as well as a good design I think works well. Even though some shoots didn't go to plan and others had to be canceled and the universty side of it was done via zoom which is hard, it's all gone very well and I don't think I could of done a better job overall.
