24th juneeeee

today was a caotic day...

As most of us had a science GCSE after lunch, we had to get a taxi home just before. we had to leave at 12.15 to get there in time, so this gave us limited time to do things we needed to do.

i finished anotating and writing my initial ideas. sticking photos in and writining about them, good job that didnt take to long.

it was then time to start my test shots. i decided to see what idea 2 would turn out like. this was because idea two was easiest to do. I needed my younger cousin to help me with idea 1 ( the hand saying believe and the tiara) and idea three i also need her nd i didnt have time to find a lot of dandelions.

so i asked tia + kara to help me. I took a camera and went out onto parkus peice. i felt really bossy telling them what to do, but i later realised that you had to be to get what you want, in that case its not so time consuming.

I took close ups and distant photographs of the same thing. it didnt take as long as i thoought it wouldve. We had a laugh doing it, as they didnt really know what they were doing, but it was a good learning experience. Im glad that they were my friends and know that i was only being bossy to get the photograph, and gratfeul that they were letting me boss them around :P taking the photographs only took about 10 minutes and i got quite a lot done. but i know it wont be the same as for the real thing we wont be taking them on digitial cameras. It was editing them that took the time. once i had uploaded them from the camera to the computer i got cropping and contrasting them.

i made every signle photograph black+white to fit the brief and get a good taste of how the photos would turn out. i made th shadows darker, and the light bits een lighter, this gave a good contrast and made it seem more sharp and bold. this is the effect i want for my final peice.

these two photo's were the same photo, but i cropped it in half and then the would be placed next to each other but with a gap. this gave a sense of space. also makes it interesting to look at, the look striking at the shadows are so strong, and you can see the way the light is hitting their face. it looks very peaceful something is hidden.

like a secret.

i love this project and i think im making good progress. Before i come back next thursday i plan to do another test shot of idea 2, as i will have my little cousin and i cant wait!

17th juneeee :)

today has been a really sucessful day :) it was all aout your own indepedant work so you had to chose when and what to do. Sir said we had this weeks lesson and next weeks lesson to complete our three final ideas. By the end of next week we have to have our three final ideas, secondary research to do with our idea, a photographer research who photographed some simliar and a test shoot on your idea to see how it will turn out. I decided to leave my test shoots till next week as id have a etter idea of what im taking.

i went into this lesson having NO ideas what so ever so i didnt know what i would do. So i looked at my mind map and focused on main words that i thought would give me ideas.

wishes and dreams caught my eye, then that turned into my first idea my first idea is a girl wearing a tiara with her hand up to the camera with Beleieve written on it. This shows foreground as its coming away from her and towards the camera. with a cute cheeky smile to make the picture seem opptimistic and hopeful. It will be straight on like a portrait, so i researched portraits, i didnt realise there was so many different types!

like this one, didnt realise a portrait could be taken from above, it gives the protrait a twist. and the fact she is looking up make it different and its almost like she blends in.

and this one is a good example of forground, like my first idea will show as the hand is closest to the camera just like the feet are in this photo.
this one is so cute. its a simple portrait and a close up. because its a close up the baby looks even more innocent as you can see every detail.

i then researched a photographer called mario testino. he is a famous fashion photographer but has photographed celeberities models and the royal family! all in the style of portraits, but some of his work is amazing :O some of my favourite work that i found today was...

i liked these because there were so bold and all stoof out, Angelina jolie is in black and white and is so simple, but she looks gorgeous! the angle of the photograph is genius.

The other two are more like high fashion shoots but they two are my favourites! they stand out and show good contasts!

My second idea was involving two people, one whispering something into the others ear behind their hand. the person who was listening would be shocked and have her mouth wide open to show that what you hear is what you beleive! it reminded me of a closed flower bud, all secretive and nothing would get let out. when i was doing reseached i devloped my idea further, so instead of have he girl shocked i could have her having one finger over her lips like a SHH DONT TELL ANYONE feel to it, or a girl with tap over her mouth so she CANT tell anyone.

My third idea was influenced by one photograph.
th girl with the flower. it reminded me of a yound girl with wishes and dreams. i want MY photograph taken from the same side on angle but instead of the focus point being a flower i want a dandelion instead. the person would have their eyes shut and they would blow the dandelions 'petals' away. and i would capture that moment. so it looked like they were making a wish. then i thought a boy or girl? but then i considered doing both, and it worked out because everyone has dreams!

i have decided that whatever idea i decide to go with on the final photograph, i will cut up that photograph into different close ups and different angles and put them all together. so i will have the MAIN photo and then the photo split up different with smaller close ups of different bits.

this week was more of a research week as i decided that was best, next week i am going to constantly be shooting ALL of these ideas and deciding which one is best. which is going to be hard because i like all of them. but whatver turns out best on film :P i cant waaaaait!

10th junee 2010

Today has been a good day :) i am really enjoying this project as you the freedom to do what you want. and its ART!

first thing this morning we got our breif from sir, we have to create a peice of artusing black&white photography its got to be 3D so it could be free standing or hanging in mid air, it could be a circle or an idea i had was a dice! or maybe even something like an installation. Theres no restriction on size so it could be a BIG or small as you want. it could be personal to you or say something about you, it good to be brave and be creative. we learned that our focus point our starting point was the word BELEIVE!

So we then had to research the word beleive. i got photo that represented the word beleive, i typed it into google and hands and flowers seem to come up alot,. i think hands came up aloot because they represent pray and peacefulness. Skies popped up a lot aswell, maybe because angels and god give people hope?

I didnt really think about just how many meanings BELEIEVE could have! like you beleieve in ourself and have confidence, you beleieve in someone else and rely on them. You could beleieve in god and or a religion. You beleieve in hope and ambition that if something bad happens its for a reason, and you beleieve you can acheive your dreams! a found such a lovely photo when i was researching, a little girl holding a flower. its all black and white with just the flower in colour.its so cute yet so simple and is so peaceful! its almost like she is making a wish and holding onto it tight. another picture i found was like a cartoon woman. its called Fragile beleief and this again includes hands. almost like she is trying to hide behind her hands OR her makeup! like the make up is a mask a barrier. WE then had to brainstorm everything we thought was to do with beleif, some things popped up that i didnt think of! so i quickly wrote them down :P

after this we took our concept photos, i was working with jamie and melissa. We didnt really have a core idea, we just went out with a camera. Even though we all knew we wanted to use water we didnt have any ideas on how to portray it. so i came up with the idea of having coloured water being used instead of normal water. Jamie came up with the idea of using powder paint to make it colourful. Jamie picked a nice calm blue and i chose a bright neon pink. We went outside and had no idea what to do. in the end we found a big beice of flat wood leaning up against a wall. jamie out it flat on the ground and it just started from there. we decided to just throw the water from opositive directions and catch it at the moment its in the air. jamie was taking the photograph and me and melissa where throughing the water. you HAD to communicate with each other cos you had to know when to throw it and when he was taking the picture.

we uploaded the pictures we took onto the computer and to make them stand out we edited them on photoshop. brighten the colours and darkened the background so the relevant bits stood out. blurred the background and saturated the colours to make them POP. some pictures turned out better than others. on some we completly missed the water and n others we only got one colour of the water. i was very happy working in the group i was working with and i felt we worked well as a group. I'm very proud of our end photograph and pleased with how it turned out.

Looking forward to next week where we start considering ideas for our OWN final peice!! x

27th may third lesson :)

i was away last week and had to fnd out what i had missed. turns out i missed the group going out shooting and taking pictures of what they wanted. Then had to come back and develop them as we did the week before. this was just to get extra practise, practise that would of been useful but cant go back now. My first attempts werent that bad anyway but practise would of been useful.today we started by reseaching not only artists like before, but photography artists. I researched Francesca Woodman, and misha Gordin. Both of their work was SO weird, i didnt understand any of itthey were both unique and different from anything i ever seen. Francesca Woodman photographed naked women and people, whilst Misha Gordin photographed objects and faces. some are distrbing but they dared to do it. When you look at them you think why? what is the point they are trying to get across. like >> makes me thinks like something cannot be said. something has to be kept inside little secrets. we then looked at a famous photograph by Halson, called Dali Atomicus. When i saw i was was like random much. A random chair in mid-air with flying cats and water droplets, all frozen in a moment. how long it mustve taken to get right, and everything perfect. we then had to try and RECREATE this shot as best we could. with the hanging chair the person jumping and water being thrown. i worked with melissa and jamie and i think we worked quite well. melissa was the person jumping and me and jamie kept sapping from throwing the water to taking the picture, i took the first picture which worked out quite well, except for the fact the water line isnt a line, it looks more like rain. Another picture jamie took worked well as then water is in a line but doesnt reach the other side of the photo and melissa wasnt ready to jump. With photos like this it is all about timing, and you have to get the timing perfect or it wont work. From the picture i had to create mindmap of how the different things can influence my final product, how water can be used as tears or taking a picture of something dropping into water, how you can take a picture of something being suspended of your final product being suspended :) i have leanrt alot today and i am excited to get started x

13th may.. second lesson :)

today was a good day :) we developed our pictures using the enlargers and learnt about the techniques that you have to use. This was my first real time using the dark room and it was such a good eperience. WE got our film from the cupboard and slipped them into the 'neg files' this was so we didnt loose them :P we then had to make contact stripes to decide which photographs we were going enlarge. this turned out good first time. again having to use the developer..rinse...and then FIX it and then leave to rinse..technique. then we decided which ones we wanted to enlarge and fitted them carefully into the little box which fits into the enlarger. we measured 5 by 7 and did a test. this was to see how many second you needed to expose light onto the photography paper to get the pisture to come out right. this took a few times getting used to but the testers reallyy helped! you exposed some parts of the paper to more light for longer than other and this tells you how many seconds the picture needs. you also needed to adress the focus to get the sharp edges ans the light, from red to white and the photogrpahy paper isnt sensitive to red light. its only when you use white light does the paper pick up the picture it is exposed to :P i did quite alot of different pictures to get good practise and i have improved masses. from not knowing what i was doing to getting the exposure right and making the pictures was amazing :) seeing the pictures develop was immense. not that you could see it clearly in the dark room but you could see it developing kind of :)

i then stuck the pictures in my sketch book and annotated them :) cant wait for next week now :)

first lesson....

first lesson :)..
we first got told what the new project was, ARTEFACTS. We got told that this would be an art unit, a unit where you would produce a 3 dimensional work of art, also using photography. We got given a few names such as Tracey Emin, Damien hirst and Anthony Gormling are all artists that are out of the ordinary. They all do something that stands out from the rest.
like TRacey Emin, her art is personal to her and reflects how she feels, some of her work is sexual but some is also aggressive. some may not think its art, but it is to most. its art from a different persons perspective and she thinks outside the box.

Damien Hirst, is also a well known artist. he was commissioned to a diamond encrusted skull! he also uses animals, and slices them in half and puts them in a frame that you can walk around. Some also say that this isnt art but it buts things in a different perspective. This is taking art to an extreme. When you look at his art, you think why? what? how? he takes his art to a new level. his art is amazing to look to think how the animals are real but just he he did it. sometimes its scary but its like framing something he is proud of.

Anthony gormley is ANOTHER well known artist that we all researched. one of his main focuses is people. his artwork confuses you as you think how is this possible? how did he do it? it reflects his intelligence as he designed it. All his work is complicated and complex but amazing to look at!

All of these artists have created installations, art that you can walk around. Like a how room full of art. and its even more amazing to look! ]

after we researched these artists we went out with a proper film camera. we learnt how to put the film in and move the film along so no light was let in. we used to light proof bags and it was such a challenge! you had to do everything without seeing and it was the first time! i was working with melissa and i thought we worked pretty well :) everyone got one subject and ous was LINES. we got the camera and headed out.

because it was a proepr camera you had to get the exposure and focus right yourself otherwise the photo wouldnt come out, and you dont find out until you develop your film. you had to the green circle to come up other wise it was to much or to little exposed. we developed the film and it was soon end of the day!

i think im going to enjoy this project. Next week we are actuallyy working with the pictures :P:L