Made my choice of image

Well, I've decided which picture and photographer I'm going to feature in Exercise 4 Research and Analyse.  I had narrowed it down to either Shell Shocked Soldier, Hue, 1968 by Don McCullin or Afghan Girl, 1984, Steve McCurry.

I've decided to research the Afghan Girl image as I have more affinity with portraits and this one appeals to me more than the Don McCullin picture.  I'm sure my tutor would say that I should stretch myself by researching into either the street scene by Robert Frank or Pikes Peak Park by Robert Adams but I can't summon up any empathy with either of those images.

So Afghan Girl it is.

Procrastinating again!

I'm struggling to get started on Exercise 4, that of writing an analytical account of one of four images. It would be easier if there was only one picture to choose from, but four make it far more difficult.  I'm also struggling with having to write to Her Majesty's Customs and Excise over an unpaid tax bill back in 2010 which is affecting my mind set at the moment.

I must decide which picture to choose; I'm more drawn to people portraits than landscapes so can narrow it down to either the Don McCullin 'Shell Shocked Soldier'

 or Steve McCurry's 'Afghan Girl'

I can see the merit in both images but I have to research and analyse the background and that is making it difficult to decide.

I saw a Don McCullin exhibition at the Barbican,  in London, back in the mid 1990s and was shocked and disturbed by what images were on display.  It makes you wonder what seeing continued violence does to a person and how they keep going.

Exercise 3: Analyse a photograph

 For this exercise, choose one of your own photographs – one that you are happy with and which you believe achieves what you set out to do – and subject it to this kind of analysis.  Base your analysis on the 10 points below (adapted if necessary) and write around 500 words.

Did this detailed analysis alter your opinion of your chosen photograph?  How?  Make notes in your learning log.

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First Impression – what strikes the eye?

This picture shows the local church and churchyard the morning after a heavy frost. The sky was blue as it had been a frosty night.  The first thing your eye sees is the east window of the church but your eye then moves round the picture to the frost covered seat on the lower right hand side of the picture.  Eventually your eye moves on round the picture and follows the path which leads back to the church window.

The genre

The genre of this picture is a standard landscape picture that would be suitable for use in many ways. 

The intended use

This image could be used in various ways including tourist publications and brochures, local newspaper features, websites, etc.

The immediate situation facing the photographer

This image was taken in early December 2010 at 10.53 am.  The sun must have been fairly weak as I was able to still see the frost even though the sunrise would have been approximately 8.00 am.  I had to be fairly quick to take several pictures from different positions as the sun could warm up as the morning progressed and melt the frost or people could walk into the picture when didn’t want a human interest in it even though it would enable the eye to gauge the height of various items in the picture.

An unplanned or planned photograph

This was an unplanned picture taken when I realized that the heavy frost was still in evidence after sunrise.  I’m always looking for different views of Lyme Regis and to get some pictures with the frost would make them slightly different and have more appeal.

Technical details, if important

Camera: DSL Nikon D5000

Mode: RGB

Aperture and Speed: F11 @ 1/125

Focal length: 18mm

Metering: Centre weighted

White balance: Auto

Style or mannerism

I have a traditional style of photographing landscapes.  I tend to prefer the bog standard type rather than something funky.  The market for this type of image needs to be fairly standard as the market could well be restricted if any quirky views were produced.

The photographer’s intent

It was my intention to take the image showing the town/church with a slightly different approach.  Most of the visitors that come to Lyme come in the summer and would therefore miss the evocative views that come unexpectedly in the autumn and winter.

Is there sufficient information available?

I had to be careful with this picture, as it was very difficult to maintain upright verticals as the church is very old and leans to one side.  I used the Edit/Transform/Skew, after I had inserted a non-printing guide, to make sure the main corner of the front wall was vertical.  It’s okay to have other walls looking slight skewed but the area the eye focuses on first needs to be upright.  I had to ensure that I didn’t make the other walls to far out of upright as I used the skew, as it would look extremely odd.

I was also concerned that the top of the seat on the right hand side was lost in the dark mass against the far church wall but I thought that the line of hoar frost was sufficient to bring it out enough to distinguish it from the background.  

 I had taken another picture where I had stood upright and looked down on the seat and across to the church but the angle seemed wrong.  The eye line seemed much higher than with the photographer positioned lower than the seat even though the seat was defined better in this image and didn’t merge with the dark mass in the background.

I also had to lighten the church area as it came over rather dark in the original image, but I only needed to use the Levels palette to make the adjustments rather than Shadows\Highlights, which can be too extreme at times.

Success

I like this image very much; I think it succeeded in what I started out to do which was show a different view of the parish church at a time of year not always seen by visitors.