Update on feedback on thursday 28th nice

Careers in photograpgh (unit 1 part B)

Most of the  research into careers I've look at say I should be looking in doing schooling and having a degree in photography you have a better chance in getting job.


Also says that  some companies only hire photographers with the proper training like a degree or training.
 A photographer often has the option of working at photography studios, newspapers, magazines, advertising agencies, and website design agencies.

Photographers that choose to work for themselves, has more freedom. They get to pick and choose which jobs they accept. Some may prefer to shoot photographs at weddings, portraits ( like Karen and Jan  )for instance, and others may only sell photographs to certain magazines or papers.

I have recently been involved in taking photograph for the local area Reveo in which I was involved in my unit 2. Angie ask if I would like to take photographs for lotto funding advising the area. I got involved I have couple session taking photographs of the local people and meeting for council. I hopefully will carry on with the project which build up my photographic skills

A sample of what I took for Reveo

the feedback so far at Poulton Libary (unit 1 part A)

My Photograph display in Poulton Library, (21-11-13 - 26-11-13 to be continue)

These are the result so far from my picture after less then a week display with a few comments in the book which I will scan in later blog so they can be display clearly. I am very please with the results  so far. I will keep going in to see how the feedback is going.

Displaying Final Photograph at Poulton Libary (unit 1 part A)

 Opening hours of Library for viewing photograph :

Monday

09:00 - 17:00 

Tuesday

09:00 - 19:30 

Wednesday

09:00- 12:30 

Thursday

09:00 - 19:30 

Friday

09:00 - 17:00 

Saturday

09:00 - 13:00 

 

Evidence of public showing of my final photograph

 

When the photograph is display here I have created a feedback chart where people could stick sticker on a chart to index if they like it or not, on a scale 1 to 10. These is also a comment book for  people add other comments. I will keep popping in to see how things are going and weather I will need to advise my photograph to get more feedback. I hope to get a range of people who go in to the library.

 

 

Think of reviewing the photograph piece with help from Karen notes (unit 1 part A/B )

 

This information from Karen Help me make a decision on which photograph I should pick, The quality I should be aiming for. I was struggling at 1st to get some this quality to fit but I feel I got a good image so far.

Interview with Karen 12th March (unit 1 part A/B)

Karen Duck worth, feedback on the photograph (unit 1 part A)

Image 2

·         Karen Elizabeth Duckworth

Image one

Hi Nikki, sorry for late reply only just got internet today & was proving very difficult to make it to internet cafe for anything other than essential work stuff, even with the best of intentions. Not really sure what to put as comments as only done an a level myself in photography so not sure what they're looking for so here goes- I like the macro aspect & contrast on mirror like reflections where crystals catch the light. Good use of depth of field to highlight this & also emphasising the cuboid shapes of individual crystals. Point of focus used to highlight crystals in foreground, though light source seems to be concentrated on mid ground on left of frame. As I personal opinion, i really like the use of light in pics 1 & 2 of the first lot you sent through as I think this illuminates the crystals on sharp focus 7 differentiates them more strongly from the background, as well as emphasising their structure & shape, creating a stronger focal point for the viewer. Is the image you got printed one of the first lot rotated & cropped, was trying to work that out. Seems similar to image 10, but image 10 seems sharper in more areas to me & gives a more 3d approach as distinct fore, middle & background, with similar tones, I also like the way the crystals in image 10 & highlighted mid ground lead the eye. Alll in all think they're great, very well done. Hope this helps x

Image 10

Karen review on my final piece:

Karen Elizabeth Duckworth

what was your career paths that direct you to photography ? My degree was actually in Biochemistry & I work in medical sales, initially started photography a level at night school for work life balance & being inspired after travelling the world. Always been fascinated by nature & people, mainly documentary style 'capturing things just as they are' possibly from my curiosity to understand how things work & peoples mindsets. Genuine not staged interactions etc etc

How did they get to w    here they are today? erm I've no idea! I 've taken a step back from being full time self-employed with photography as I've realised I'm more interested in taking pictures of people, places & subjects that interest me, possibly with a view in mind to creating a longer term collection of images for various themed exhibitions, rather than kids, portraits, weddings etc. Now the plan is to work out how to get paid for the type of photography I love.I have had several of my documentary & music photo's published in magazines, books etc. & this has come about mainly through my exhibitions How is their work financed? Self-funded predominantly, arts council grant for Blackpool Culture shops exhibition.

How do you continue to develop your own skills? Self analysis really, discussions with peers & other photographers re techniques, being inspired by other artists (inc Nat geographic) & what takes my eye around me. Experimenting. Do organisations support you? No If so which ?

Hope this helps, difficult to answer a lot of the questions as I am only sporadically dabbling in photography at the moment. Oh correction re last message meant to say I also like the way the crystals in image 10 are positioned diagonally etc.

Just a quick point, the questions seemed a bit higgledy-piggledy switching from third to first person, would probably be a good idea to maybe put in your own words or make more personal,

Good luck with everything,

All the best Karen x

Karen being my main practitioner can  me advise on other photograph to try improve the final piece. I felt Janet was more give constructive criticism  on the final piece, Karen was more positive toward the final because she had seen my step by step improvements. She helped work towards the final piece.

 

 

Feedback from Janet Waters on photographic work (unit 1 part A)

Janet Waters

·         Hi Nikki I have some general feedback for you alongside the visual analysis and I hope you find his helpful. The set of questions that you have set has proved arduous for me to answer. They require a lot of personal information

sent before ready....still feeding back

Janet Waters

.....and much consideration. This kind of administration unfortunately does not come easily to me currently. 

Currently, I self finance all art and photography work. My skill continually develops with all the travelling I do. I am stimulated by new sights and sounds and this leads to a desire to capture, translate and communicate understanding. You can find a lot of the information you require here: http://buildmakecraftbake.com/2009/06/janet-waters-macro-photographer.html

The information from the links is  display on my blog below

Janet Walter comments and review on  final photograph:

Janet Waters

Composition is good. Nice use of focus and shallow depth of field. Variety of surfaces shown through variety of colour, shape form. Some pointers: 1. Exposure. The area that you have chosen to overexpose (top left) lacks detail. Is this a conscious decision? Explain why....(so, maybe you used overexposure to push the sharpness of the cube edges?) The bottom right side of the crystal also lacks detail. 2. There is quite a lot of colour cast on the image. Red and blue, I would say, but I haven't run it through photoshop, so cant be specific about that. I find it a little flat in terms of levels. With a tweaking, it could 'pop' a lot more. 3. The success of your image depends upon what you actually set out to achieve in the first place.....are you trying to record scientifically, artistically? Both? What are you trying to communicate? I would say a scientific image needs more accurate exposure. Well done for growing the crystals and getting these images Nikki. I hope you achieve your Gold Arts Award


I feel this give constructive criticism to my work which I can learn from and improve in my development in my photographic skills, I feel happy knowing I can improve yet there overall was impressed with my piece.
 

mixed media sculptor Janet Waters, macro photographer extraordinary (unit 1 part C)

Janet Waters  

Janet Waters, macro photographer extraordinaire [Sunday shout-out]

I love cafes that serve tea in clear mugs because that gives me an additional view as the milk swirls in. So imagine my delight at finding the work of Janet Waters, who specializes in macro photography of liquids. Swirls and bubbles all day!

Janet finds grace and mystery in the combination of everyday liquids. Each of her compositions tells a new story. Take a look:  

http://buildmakecraftbake.com/2009/06/janet-waters-macro-photographer.html

Janet was kind enough to answer a few questions in addition to letting me use her photos here. After you read the interview, be sure to check out the rest of her photos on herFlickr site.

BMCB: How did you get your start in photography?
JW: I began taking photos from a young age - more seriously when I was about 11. I always thought of it as a hobby and didn't really make a connection with earning a living! It was only when a very dear friend of mine suggested I should go to College (at the age of 25!) that I decided I was going to try to make a career out of it. So I got accepted for a foundation course in art and from there went on to do a degree in Documentary Photography - both at Newport Uni, Wales. I then went on to complete a PGCE in secondary education at Bristol UWE.

Have you always been drawn to macro photography?

I only recently started enjoying macro photography - because I bought a Ricoh GX100 and discovered the amazing macro range it has.

What inspired you to start taking photos of liquids?

I was experimenting with light and texture to begin with. Then, one day I was having a bubble bath and realised how odd-looking the foam was. This inspired me to set up a shoot immediately after the bath and try to capture what I had seen….

I suppose it was a natural progression to begin using liquids - I wanted to capture bubbles and their intricate structure, but incorporating colour - and liquids seemed the best way forward.

What goes into one of your liquids & bubbles series photos? How planned are they?
I have always enjoyed painting, but lack the discipline and perserverence necessary to become accomplished. I also get frustrated because I cannot translate my ideas easily onto canvas.
Using liquids as my "photographic paint" has opened up the best of both worlds for me.

When I'm thinking about a new series of shots - I go shopping! I investigate and buy cheap liquids available at my local pound shops and then play around with them to see how they react with each other. If something interesting happens, I spend a couple of hours playing with the medium and trying out colours, etc.

What's the creative process like for you in general?

Generally, I have spurts of huge creativity and then a couple of weeks or even months when I produce nothing. I can physically feel the ideas building up within me...

Who are your artistic influences?

My influences come from numerous sources. Parr, Lux, Pollock, Rothko, Monet, Meyerowitz, Van Gogh - anywhere and everywhere. I am also hugely into quantum mechanics/physics (although my depth of knowledge is extremely shallow) and the writings of the wonderful Deepak Chopra. There are too many influences to name - my students often play a part. They can inspire me to come up with ideas and suggest new approaches.

Do you have any advice for the beginning photographer?

First and foremost advice to budding photographers is to take A LOT of photos. Get used to trying out different compositions, move the camera around the subject, play with your white balance and shutter speeds. Don't be afraid to try out ideas - it doesn't matter if it doesn't work as long as you understand WHY it doesn't work.

Oh, and get used to using tripods - they can make such a difference to any type of image.

Finally - photography is the best skill I ever learnt. It has stood me in good stead - and earnt me good money too. It is a fantastic hobby and you can pick it up whenever you feel like it.

Anything else you'd like to share with my readers?
I would recommend taking photos to everyone. My dad didn't start til he was 60 - now he is 74 and retired, but has so much [to] work on, he has to turn jobs down!

*****

I feel Janet's work is similar in the way I work using scientist way to influence art,  I think my photograph work with using salt crystals in the past and her work really influence the way my photographic skills and final piece end up.

Description of the placement and my reflection (unit 1 part A/B/C)

Description of the placement and my reflections

Since my training with Karen and Jan I feel a lot more confident in taking a professional photograph than when I started.  I feel like I’ve learnt a lot from the two photographers because in the beginning from my own experiences I just thought I could point and shoot and you had a photograph, Now I feel I can really capture a professional looking image. I have learnt how to use SLR properly and although I have still a lot to learn, both Karen and Jan say practice is the key to this.  

12^th  March = We discussed the photographs I have done in the past to see where I am at because Karen had never seen any of my work, We discussed my interests and the styles of my art work she was interested in. I brought along some of my photographs I had taken to see how she would suggest they could be improved. I then got to look at her work discussed where she began and where she was at now. She showed me the work she had done for Culture Shop last year which was very interesting as we were going to do this for our unit two.  I found this Information very useful for both my units in the gold arts award. We spent 2 to 3 hours going through this to see where we wanted to take the project. Karen was very interested in working with another photographer, Janet Walter to give me a wider range of skills.

22^nd March = We worked on the photographs I had already taken to improve them by working in Photoshop. Karen showed me a wide range of skills including Raw which I didn't know about. After this session she e-mailed me back the work we had done and I was amazed at the improvement it made with a few small changes. I was very pleased with the progress we had made in just a few sessions. I feel I have the confidence now to begin to take professional photographs because I could always improve them in Photoshop (images can be seen on blog 28^th March).

26^th March = This was when Karen e-mailed over images which we worked on and other information and she would set me a task to do to find out about, for example how the aperture of a camera worked. Communication was usually done via e-mail phone or text messages. The project was put on hold till May due to Jan being away on holiday and Karen wanted me to work with her together. Meanwhile this gave me time to research and carry on getting to grips with learning the theory of photography.  I struggled getting the idea of the main concept of photography.   I felt I was getting very confused at the different aspects including Aperture, depth of field, Shutter Speed, and ISO.  At this point in time I felt I was never going get the hang of it.

17^th  May Jan was due come back off holiday soon and after discussing my degree project with Karen she was very interested in seeing it for herself, Karen and I set up growing salt crystals at her house ready for when Jan came back.

21^st May after phone calls and text messages we agreed a date to meet up to get the project started.  I went round to set up the experiments ready for the photo session with Jan the following week.

2^nd June Meeting up with Karen and Jan was interesting to see how different photographers would work. We had a training session first because I was still struggling to get my head around Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO. I felt way out my depth when Jan explained this to me.  She helped me by drawing diagrams and picture to explain how they worked. I felt really worried that I had chosen something I wasn’t going to achieve. The challenge of creating a professional photograph at this point seems too difficult to do.  After a few hours of training and explaining how a camera worked Karen and Jan thought it best to show me so I could practice this in my own time. Karen explained to me that the best way to learn was by doing it and seeing the result.

After this session I felt completely overwhelmed and very confused with a lot information to process. After a while I worked on taking photographs of different things to see if I could recreate photographs like Karen and Jan had explained to me.  This process took a while and because I was starting unit two at this point my project got put to one side until I could find the time. Throughout my blog you can see some of the practice shots I took. There were many so I have only put a key selection of these images in the blog to show my development.

I also had online help form both Karen and Jan to help me on my final piece to try to improve it before I got it printed.  I also had suggestions off my father who mostly learnt from self-reading a lot books and practice over the years.

prastise photograph, (unit 1 part A,)

 

Here are some sample of some photograph I took in the lead up to final photograph. As you can see some are not as good I most have taken lots but could put all on so I have just show a selection of subjects I practise with. Flowers and vase where my main object practise with.

the images before the final ... (unit 1 part A)

Development of photograph skills in editing photographs using filter shown by Karen. I use most coloured filters on this images to make more interesting and show off the shapes of the salt crystal's.

skills leant from  Karen  and Jan as photographer practitioners

 

 

Photography Basic

 

 

Important to capability of seeing the surrounding and use knowledge and personal feel the subject you want to take photograph of. Photography is basically seeing and balancing the light.

 

 

Aperture is placed inside the lens and is basically an opening that controls how much light reaches the sensor.

 

 

A shutter is inside the camera body this is the key which controls how long the sensor is exposed to the light.

 

 

Aperture

Knowing how the aperture affects the photograph is one of the most important parts photograph. Affects the amount of light, depth of field, lens speed, sharpness .

Higher f-number = a smaller aperture = less light

Lower f-number =larger aperture =more light

 

Karen explain the best way of  learning how to get my head around aperture was tp get my camera out and do some experimenting shots.

 

Final photograph (unit 1 part A)

My produce new piece of artwork, my final result from artistic challenge

 

The Artist

Nicola Dolphin is a local artist interested in how things work and what purpose these have in the world we live in.

After completing a Degree in Fine Art and I.T. she wanted to get more involved in Community Based Art  and went on to do the Alchemy Project Gold Arts Award to develop her skills further. As her main practise is usually in painting, Nicola shadowed a local photographer Karen Duckworth to develop skills in Photography. She hopes to capture a professional photograph from the skills and techniques learnt from Karen.

The idea for the photograph

Experimenting with evaporating water to allow it to form salt crystals, Nikki wanted to capture the real beauty of the sculptured form of the crystals. The idea came from combining art with scientific knowledge to create the photographic piece. The concept is about looking at experiments in the same way a child would, as if it were for the first time. The magic of looking at the various shapes and textures the water has created.

Feedback

As part of the evidence required for my Arts Award qualification I am required to produce a piece of art work and gain feedback from an audience on it.  I would be grateful for your feedback, Please take the time to rate my photograph on the scale 1-10 by placing a coloured sticker on the chart. There is also a comments book if you would like to add any other comments about the photograph.  For any future questions or comments please contact me at nikkidolphin@hotmail.co.uk

Thank you

Nikki