Product comparisons to my images

Here are some images that I have found to advertise the products that I have included in my submission.

This is my image created outdoors to give a different view on standard presentation of golf shirts.

These are two images taken from a retailers site for the sale of Nike shirts, the left one being a ladies shirt, the right image being for a boys shirt. Both are valid images, and in a way I have adapted these two images to create my own.

This is an image  taken to illustrate this particular make of golf glove, and I have adapted to a version of this to make my own image.

This is an image advertising the RAM golf glove, plain and simple, with not alot of artistic merit.

This is my version of the Ram glove, which shows alot more detail to the glove, although this an older style of glove and of a different type.

This is also my image showing the packaging and associating the product further with golf with the inclusion of the ball.With a combination of them both the product is well displayed.



Here is the image for the climbers "nuts" to advertise the product. These are the more up to date specifiaction, colour coded for ease of reference, than the items I have used for my image. These have been imaged on a plain background.

This is my version of the climbing "Nuts", ( an older version), but I have included the shadow to emphasis the shapes of the various "nuts". I think yhis is a mors interesting version to that shown above, as it shows some artistic merit which draws your eye, and is just as simple to image.

Irving Penn still Life's

Shown below are some still life images created by Irving Penn. I feel they are somewhat dated but the principle is there. I particularly like the corks on the bottle and the lighting. The others have subtle shadows which enhance the products shape, as in the cheese image. The Vogue cover is a really great advertising feature, but it does have alot in the image to look at, as well as advertising the magazine.

This is a particular favorite of mine. If I was imaging this kind of subject this is the type of lighting I would use. I do like the way that a fellow student, Ruth, has imaged and lit here ceramics etc.

Product influences for final 10 images

The Flute image for Andrea's flute

This is a small selection of images taken from the Pearl website. This is how they advertise their products (in part) but are on their main front page.

This is part of one advert showing one of the different types of flute they have available in different styles.

This is on the opening stream

As is this one

This is not on the web site but shows a different way to shoot the product, although the background does not relate to music.

This is also not on the web site, but is another different way to show the product (see my golf shirts eg).I had considered stringing the flute up and photographing it before I saw this advert.

This is my final chosen image from my shoot which I set up on my dining room table, which is loosely based on the above with my interpretation, and there is still room for some advertising text on the image. Also there is a contact sheet which shows the alterative images I was considering. I chose the image due to the shape and coloring and lighting and the overall look of the image.

This then is my chosen final image

I have used similar techniques to produce the other images in this submission. For example I have included below the contact sheet for Graig's portrait and plastering equipment.

Here is my contact sheet for Craig

And here is my contact sheet Niki

The equipment used for these images was my own, with the lighting units borrowed from college, and using my dining room for all images. I tethered my camera to my laptop so that it was easier to see the results of the image once taken, and also, when photographing subjects the subject was able to see quite clearly the image that was taken, which made it easier to follow my instructions as he had the previous image in his mind to respond to. I have found that this is a good way to enable a better rapport between myself and the subject. I also use a wireless trigger wich makes it even easier to communicate with the subject, rather than trying to talk through the camera. This also makes it easier to move around, and even release the shutter closer to the subject when required to give directions in some cases, or hold reflectors as required, as you can see the image from the subjects position. Also used in this situation was the light meter, which has proved to be a boon and makes setting the camera alot easier.

Health and Safety wise, certainly when at home, you have to be very aware that the trailing cables are well away from the working area, not all plugged into the same socket, after taking note of the electrical requirements from the lights, camera, laptop etc. Also warning others in the house about what you are doing and placing certain access points out of use. Also some subjects will need a braek due to the intensity of the lighting, and this would also give the lighting chance to cool down.

Lhottie at Calke Sunday afternoon

Once again Jim envigelled me into being his glamorous assistant, this time with Lhotte, so really did not miss the footy (well the Germans turned up anyway), much more fun out at Calke in the sunshine. Lighting was difficult, despite it being sunny (much cloud at times), but lovely and warm. Reflectors and flash just about made it. Just got the reflectors right and the sun went behind the clouds. It should be easy outside! Never the less Lhotte was very good, and very patient. Below are some of my images taken when the BOSS did not want me to hold his reflector.

Jims idea was for some Editorial shots using the light under the trees. I just enjoyed the opportunity to experiment with the light. No plan except Calke is a very good place with so many places to photgraph. I learnt a lot today, but time of day could be better, so next time will either be earlier or later in the day..

As Lhotte only had small sandles on we had to make sure that she was walking in an area without the thistles, and when she was not wearing shoes then to make sure she did not tread in anything she should not have been, especially as the cattle had been on the field.

When the sun was out the Gold reflector gave too much light(reflected under the trees on the model), the silver was also too much at times, but did good fill light to the face. The white reflector did not really register, although if placed close to the model it would have not been in the position to reflect the ambient light. Also had to be careful not to blind Lhotte.

This image was taken in the open with a cloudy sky.

Love this, taken in full sunshine and with a straight conversion. This is in line with my theme in the studio. I was pleased to get this effect outdoors as well.

Cheeky smile with my hat on, can't remember what I said now.

Somehow my hat got into this.

Just bursting into the sunshine. Fabulous dress, swayed in the breeze. I cant remember which pattern it is from the giraffe, not that Lhotte is anywhere near like a giraffe.

Mind the prickles on the grass, so many thistles, nice spot Jim!!

Peeking from behind the tree.

Lets pose now for Jim

Margaret Hardman

Margaret Hardman

Nothing could be more respectable than the devoted couple who lived at 59 Rodney Street, a smart Georgian house in one of the grandest streets in Liverpool. She ran the business, he, a buttoned-up Edwardian figure, reserved and quiet, took the pictures. Between them they created a photographic firm that proved the only place to go to for flattering portraits of plump babies, marriageable daughters, youths in uniform about to go to war, or aldermen bursting with pride in their robes.

But the photograph Edward Chambré Hardman took of Margaret Hardman in her silk camisole, or the smouldering photographs she took of actors such as Robert Donat, make it clear that there was more to the relationship than dull domesticity.

In 1926, and as a 17-year-old straight out of school, she was apprenticed to Edward, who was 10 years her senior. After she left to get a job in Scotland, tormenting him with accounts of other lovers, they married in 1932.

After her death he lived on as a virtual recluse until 1988, leaving an archive of more than 200,000 images, including thousands recording the now vanished houses, streets, shipyards and slums of his adopted city, an extraordinary body of work leading to his recognition as one of the most significant British photographers of the 20th century.

His belated fame, however, overshadowed his vivacious, clever and ambitious wife. She was the one who chatted up clients, bossed the staff and sent out the bills. But she also loved theatre, opera, dancing and music, wrote poems and music, took part in amateur theatricals, and left a wardrobe of film-star glamour, including dozens of hats and boxes of vividly coloured jewellery. Even her wellingtons had high heels.

It is Margaret whom people who visited or worked in the house remember. She stamped like a flamenco dancer and people came running, recalled a former employee. But they also recollected her kindness: one darkroom worker found at the end of the day that she had replaced his worn bicycle tyres. Margaret also left thousands of her own photographs, many stamped with the firm's name but unsigned.

"I'm starting to recognise them, they have a very distinctive quality," said Ffion George, curator of the Hardman house in Merseyside, which is now owned by the National Trust. "He was renowned for the use of shadows in his work, but she pushed that to extremes."

Her portrait of Donat, one of several of the Liverpool Playhouse stars the Hardmans photographed, transforms an actor usually pictured as gentle and soft into a dangerously sexy thug. "She has a real eye, and there's always a sense of drama in her photographs."

George is certain it was Margaret who inspired the move from the studio's first home in Hope Street, close to many other rival firms, to Rodney Street, a road still dubbed the Harley Street of Liverpool. There the couple lived in three small, dark, back rooms, leaving all the grand high-ceilinged rooms to the business – waiting rooms, dressing rooms, offices, studios, darkrooms.

The house still has its masses of toys, kept to distract and pacify small clients. The lampshades and mirrors on the ground floor, where the clients waited, are subtly tinted pink: the Hardmans could make the most unpromising subject look beautiful. The couple kept everything, including tinned food, even tinned eclairs, and medicines. But according to George there appears no evidence that the pair ever cooked anything except toast.

Margaret had been interested in photography from childhood; her headmistress sent her to Hardman with a glowing reference in 1926, and she quickly learned the business. Within three years she had left for a job in Paisley, clutching a glowing reference from Hardman, describing her as "energetic, most intelligent, versatile, and [with] an excellent memory".

He wrote: "We are very sorry to lose her." Just how much soon became clear. Almost immediately they started to exchange increasingly personal letters, and within months they were "Pearl" and "Gobbles". She sent him photographs and reviews of her roles in amateur theatricals, and accounts of at least two affairs.

That did the trick: after Edward's flurry of panic stricken letters and telegrams they were soon engaged. A touching wedding-day photograph shows him looking down at the pretty woman straightening his tie. They would hardly be parted until Margaret died of cancer, aged 61. Edward, heartbroken, rarely left the house in his remaining years. George said of Margaret. "She was the power in the relationship … and a very interesting and talented woman."

experimental imagening things no. 1

I had this idea of using my garden as a studio, and of using the lights to light the items. As part of my theme I wanted to wanted to image my golf shirts, but all I could find to get ideas from seemed rather ordinary. i was reading Lee Millers autobiography, and her adventures with Surrealism, along with some memories from my stage craft days, and the idea came to me to have my shirts floating in the air. I could have just photographed my shirts and photoshoped them in, but I knew I could not get the shirts to sit properly. So, I had the idea of stringing them up. The washing line proved to be not very good, so I went out and bought some fishing line, as this is very strong and thin, and would not show too much. Above is the result of my first attempts, along with a little embellishment. This seemed to be too much, so changed the items to 2, but the contrast between the pink and white shirt was quite great as in the image below. So I changed the shirts and got a much better image, as at the bottom, which I quite like. My lens however does not have an adequate f-stop to blur the background. The wind caused me a few problems as well.

research

Did anybody catch the "South Africa in Photographs" on BBC 4 tonight at 9pm.
Very very interesting, and was all about social documentary by various photographers over the years, from early days, through apartide and to the current generation.
The narrator was RANKIN, and I thought he could such alot better. He did meet some very interesting photographers, the favorite of mine was the young girl photographing the young men who dressed as they felt like, (and there are some notes at the end for her) not in traditional dress.There were a group of students however who did photograph in the old tradition, of just background. The progamme also covered past conflicts (with the death and injury to some mebers of the "Bang Bang" group of photographers, and finished with a sequence where people were being baptised in a river. The BangBang photographer also made underwater images with an old Nikon, but he generally uses an old Rolliflex film camera, even over the years he photographed the past conflicts, no 35mm camera here.
I am going to have to watch it again to get the names of the photographers involved.
As my themes for this session are based on Lifestyle, portrature and products I found this very intersting as a development to look to for the future.

Nontsikelelo Veleko
Born in 1977, Nontsikelelo Veleko lives and works in Johannesburg. She is a highly original photographer and project manager/co-coordinator at the Market Photo Workshop, where she previously trained in the art of photography. In the last couple of years, Lolo has been gathering a great deal of attention with her striking work entitled Beauty is in the eyes of a beholder. She was a nominee and finalist of the MTN New Contemporary Artists in 2003 and has since been participating in important local and international exhibitions. Already this year, her photographs were exhibited in the landmark exhibition Snap Judgements : New Positions in Contemporary African Photography at the International Center of Photography in New York and in Personae Scenarios-the new African Photography, Brancolini Grimaldi Arte Contemporanea in Rome. Also recently she was participating in well publicized shows like Click at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, or Unsettled, 8 South African photographers in Denmark, Sweden and South Africa, as well as other exhibitions and projects in Switzerland, the United States and of course at home.




These images are a very good example of the lifestyle that some young african are adopting, and one image shows the dynamic fashion shot that she is already taking.

Steve Chong

 Steve Chong - Conceptual and Still Life Photographer. born 1965-started Photography 2001
His photography started by taking images of his home town for his homepage on a point and shoot camera. He decided that they were not good enough. Thus began his interest in photography. He read all he could and after reading the series by Ansell Adams, this is where his smouldering passion for photography took off.
He bought an entry level Canon EOS/88 but soon upgraded to a EOS/1V and lenses. A year later, after much experimentation, he found a comfortable niche in Conceptual and Surrealistic photography. He enjoyed creating an idea and seeing it materialise. he states that "it is like pointing a camera into the real world, but shooting form his sub consciousness".
After realising that scanning images was taking too much time, he boughta digital Sigma SD9 and lenses. He also liked the quality produced by the medium format camera, so went out and bought a Mamiya RZ Pro II with a fish eye lens, a 90mm and 250mm lens.
He ahs gone on from these early beginnings to photograph a wide variety of images and subjects, from landscapes to portraits, documentary to Urban, along with his conceptual and surrealistic images.
he now gives talks and demonstrations around the world, and alos has Exhibited his work widely. In June 2009he obtained a distinction in the Visual Art Category with the ARPS. he ha scome a long way in a very short time, and his Blog contains a large variety of subjects.
His motto is" it is not what you see, it is how you see it", which I think is a good way of describing photography.

This is an example of his conceptual and surreal imagery. This is entitled "Illusion", and is a very clever play on light and is quite surreal. the lighting is quite spectacular to illustrate the desert like feeling to this image.

This is a good example of how to make a good image from an everyday product, with simple natural lighting and composition.The leaf shows the use and the shadow clearly adds to the composition.  Steve Chong says -"As I was strolling this morning, the rake leaning on the wall really caught my attention. I find it mesmerizing when I saw the shadow of the rake created by the golden morning ray of sun. The leaf stuck on the rake was a bonus. So I ran back home, got out my gear and took this shot."

This shows excellent lighting to illustrate a product in use.The lighting on the bubbles shows the many rainbow colours you get from the source of the bubbles. It seems that there are two light sources in action here, one plain on the girl, he other highlighting the bubbles.

The combination of colours here are classic, but the use of them to produce this image, from original item to final item in one image is an excellent interpretation. The direction of the lighting enhances the overall feel for this image.

Such a simple abstract pattern with composition being the main part of this image. It also conveys the anticipation of what is to come.

I am not sure what this is but I can see that it is abstract, and the shape of the liquid almost seems to form a golf club. The texture of the liquid is well represented as it evidently does not flow like water but is a more thicker liquid which forms this shape. The container also looks surreal as it appears to have no edges.

A very good play on subject matter. The lighting is quite dramatic across the image, and picks out the elements very well. The view point is at a level to which we can see all the action.

Another simple composition, with a combination of lighting. the candle lighting the interior, and the external directional lighting emphasising the shape of the product. This is very pleasing on the eye, very relaxing.

This is similar to the golf image above, but the lighting is even more dramatic.

This is entitled "Anticipation". The lighting again is quite clever to get an even spread over the image so that all is very well lit.

This is entitled "me and my shadow" and is a very simple composition and the objects sits very nicely in the top corner. The colour chosen is very easy on the eye and with an even shiny surface gives that wonderful shadow. With the one directional lighting this enhances the product shape and size.Light source was derived from my computer monitor. Steve Chong says -"I wrote a simple BASIC program to obtain the colors I desired. Interestingly, the surface of the table is pink. I bought the cup during my tour to Vietnam."

This image of the apples is called going higher,and the lighting is very subtle, and is coming from 2 directions. I like to subtle colours, the soft background is a good foil for the red cherries. Steve Chong says -"Everything in this shot was planned deliberately. The folds on the background and foreground demand the highest attention. In order to get the "right" folds at the respective places, I have to stroke, rub, re-adjust and not to mention blowing air on them. The objective is to create the sort of drama at the foreground and background, particularly on the foreground where they were use to lead the vision the subjects. The fabric at the foreground was silk and normal cotton for the background. To create the sepia look I have chosen a warm filter. The flare and reflections on the apples are eliminated by the use of a polarizing filter. It has also enhanced the colors on the apples." Steve says the light was Natural from a window.

The details for this image are :-Camera: Canon EOS/1V

Lens: Tamron SP90mm

Film: ASA100

Aperture: F3.5

Shutter: 1s

Filter: Polarizing Filter, Kenko 85

Light: Natural Light from window

Just to illustrate that this photographer does not only do conceptual and still life images, this is an image from his Yuan Yang series. The capture of the light here is just remarkable, even more so the lighting on the countryside is very exhilarating.