2017 – Elizabeth Cox 15617822

December 5, 2017Elizabeth Cox

Architecture

We were instructed to take pictures of architecture around Lincoln using different lenses on the Canon 700D camera, I mainly used a 18-55mm.

Architecture Contact

I really liked this photo that I captured of a statue. I decided to capture a close-up image of the statue rather than the whole thing as I feel it created a sharper impact from the image. I dropped the background out of focus so that the audiences eye was drawn to the face .

I also liked this photo and how the sun hit the spikes on the sculpture, despite it creating the right hand side of the shot to become slightly out of focus. The tree in the background on the left creates a sense of nature and architecture coming together.

December 4, 2017Elizabeth Cox

Street Photography

Our task was to take photographs of people that we had no previous relationship with. At first I was extremely nervous about this task and because of this I adopted a more hands-off approach and focussed on full body images also capturing the environment surrounding the individual. Strangers Contact Sheet

One of my favourite from this task has to be this photograph of a man busking (left). Despite the photo being slightly over exposed in the top left corner and being of more soft focus which I would normally try and avoid. Something still draws me to this photo and I believe its the body language and facial expression captured from the inidividual and his passion for music clearly translates into the image.

I also find this photo (right) of the festive woman really sweet. However, the focus is slightly off and there is lots of negative space in the image.

My favourite image is this one of the elderly man overlooking the water. Personally I find this photo extremely endearing and by keeping the man to the right hand side of the shot, what would be empty space on the left is filled with the reflections from buildings onto the water.

November 15, 2017Elizabeth Cox

Seminar Task – Image 17

What time period, decade or year do you think this photograph was created in? What visual cues support your choice?

The image is in black and white which makes be believe that it is from early 1800’s due to colour photography beginning to be used around 1860. Furthermore, the image is mainly dominated with white people. The only two coloured people in the image, one is wearing handcuffs and the other, further back in the image appears to be working on the ground; this leads me to believe that slavery was a common thing around this time, also pointing me to early 1800’s.

Where in the world was this photograph taken? Again, please detail your reasons for asserting your choice.

This image could be taken in a wide variety of places. However, due to the infrastructure in the background and the apperance of the Officers in the background of this photograph, i think it was taken in America.

How would you describe the key visual elements of the photograph? What is contained within the frame?

The main focus of attention in the image is held front and centre with the man in handcuffs; following on from this the eye is led to the line of people behind him, further back in the shot seeming to be looking over towards the man.

How is/are the human subject(s) of the photograph engaging with the camera/photographer?

It appears that no-one in the shot is looking directly at the camera and their focus seems to be on the man in handcuffs. However, the camera is next to the man therefore some of the attention could be towards the camera. The main subject seems to have his eyes fixated on something straight ahead of him rather than the camera.

What, if any directions do you think the photographer may have given to the subject(s) of the photograph?

I don’t think any or few directions would have been given for this image as it appears to be a very natural shot with police officers looking another way or at the ground and not all of the crowd is looking either.

What do you believe the photographer wants, you, the viewer to take from the image?

As a viewer when originally looking at the photo I felt a sense of fear from the main subject due to his very focused gaze at something that was out of shot. Furthermore, I believe the photographer wants to empathise the isolation of the subject by having him placed in the foreground with all other people in the shot placed much further in the background of the image.

October 23, 2017Elizabeth Cox

The Found Object – Still Life →

This weeks workshop task was ‘The Found Object’.

Originally, i found this brief daunting to me as before this semester I haven’t practised photography in this manner. I took to Pintrest for some inspiration and I found i particularly liked the work of Horacio Salinas and his still life sculptures as well as Aleksandra Kingo and her use of bright colour and food within her still life photography.

I tried to encorporate elements of this into my own work focussing on the particular areas my eye was personally drawn to; with the work of Salinas, I liked the coming together of different objects but I also liked the simplicity in Kingo’s work as well as the use of food. Personally, I think this is why I decided for my final image to be what it is.

I required the help of my flat mates for this image, to cover the ‘found object’ segment of the brief. I think the image works well as I tried to spotlight the lighting in the image like would be expected from a traditional desk lamp, however, casting it towards the object making the potato inside of the lampshade the main focus. This also created a nice shadow behind the lamp which I believe adds to the overall feel of the image. I kept the traditional plain desk background so not to distract from the main subject of the image. I did try the image on different layers of background but I felt this looked best as it cast a clear shadow onto this surface.

These are images I also took whilst attempting to fufil the set brief that I thought were particularly interesting.

The jar image (left) was inspired by an unknown photographer I came across, also on Pinterest, which looked intrieging to me, however after creating it myself the composition of the photo could be improved, especially the difference and mark on the background of the image, as it distracts from the main subject of focus. I am unsure as to how I personally feel about the image subject itself, it is quite unusual but the different textures work well together.

The image of the hoover (right) was one of my favourites that I captured as it encapsulates a variety of different textures and combines the use of commercialised fashion photograpy that the average person is exposed to frequently but then also combines this unusual element by the use of the hoover giving a deeper meaning to how the audience is sucked into believing whatever it is the media exposes them to. In regards to the composition of the image, I wish the image was shifted slightly to the left so the edge of the hoover head was visible in the shot on the right hand side. Furthermore, there is some over exposed areas on the images of the models.

I found this object on my journey up Steep Hill. It immediately captured my eye and I love the colour difference between the washed out rusty pram and the bright aqua bucket.

October 16, 2017Elizabeth Cox

Nature

I took out a Canon 700D in my spare time in order to get to grips with the features that were accessible to me on the camera, as I have never done any ‘professional’ style photography previously. This is my favourite image that I captured whilst getting to grips with the camera. My eyes were immediately drawn to these unusually coloured leaves on my journey home. I used a shallow depth of field to keep the focus on the detail in the the leaves and the contrast between the colour on the leaves keeps the attention in the centre of the image .