Exercise: Control the strength of a colour.

My first choice for this exercise was a green painted door.  With the camera in manual mode I varied the exposure in half stops either side of the camera's metered exposure of 1/4sec.  Using f16 for the aperture, the shutter speeds ranged from 0.3 to 1/8th sec. Although the green door fitted in with what was suggested in the coursebook, I was sure that I could find a better subject to photograph.

When visiting relatives in the Herefordshire town of Bromyard we walk our dogs on the Downs, an area of common land.  It was here that I spotted this postbox and thought it would make a much better subject, not for its age and unusual location but because it is Red, my favourite colour!

I used an aperture of f16 for all the photographs and adjusted the shutter speed for each picture.  The exposures for the above were 0.5sec and 0.3sec, being 1stop and half a stop over exposed.  The colour in the first photograph is washed out, this is 1 stop over exposed.  Although the second picture is still half a stop over, the colour is good, not too far from the photograph below taken at the camera's average meter reading.

This is the average reading, 1/4 sec and shows how good the camera's meter is.  The red is rich and the collection sign well exposed being I think a true white.

The last two pictures are half and one stop under exposed at 1/6 and 1/8th sec.  Again the half stop photograph is not too far away from being acceptable but the last picture at 1stop under is much too dark.  I'm not sure if it's the colour I've chosen but I cannot see a colour change in any of the photographs, except maybe the last, which might have a slight blue cast.

Looking at Colour

                          Colour is everywhere.

At last I've returned to my course, unfortunately at this time of year the garden takes precedence.  Part three of the course is Colour, simple I thought, colour is everywhere.  As recommended in the introduction to this section I read Basic Colour theory on the OCA website.  Johannes Itten wrote that colours have a mystical capacity for spritual expression without being tied to objects so colour can be made the subject of a picture.  I don't pretend to understand all he is saying, however I now look at colours in a different way.  Hopefully my photographs will show that I have a better grasp of what he means.

This is Mr Abdull, he has a fabric stall on Birmingham's outdoor market, a part of what is known as the Bullring Rag market.  The colours of all the different materials were amazing, they were not in the proportions suggested by Johannes Itten but were more a kaleidoscope of every colour imaginable he looks very proud as he stands in front of his wares, his measuring stick at the ready.

The stallholders at the Rag market were all very friendly and didn't seem to mind me taking their picture.  Unfortunately I failed to ask most of them their names, something I must remember to do in future.  The flower seller above, caught my attention.  She was sheltering from the wind behind a home made wind break of cardboard boxes, I love the green hat with pink ear muffs, the following photograph taken from the back shows it better along with some of her flowers.

Alongside the fabric stalls there are a large number selling very colourful fruit and veg, all carefully displayed like the one above.  When I have time I will post more of the photographs taken on my visit to the market.

When starting this part of the course I looked around for colour, without giving it too much thought.  Nor did I do any research, a big mistake.  I believed that colour was an easy subject, after all colour is everywhere isn't it!  Before any of the above photographs were taken I noticed some fields of Oil Seed Rape, it was in full bloom and looked very yellow, or so I thought.  Depending on the light the rapeseed had a greenish cast, I used a polarising filter which helped to correct this.  Below are some of the pictures taken.

 

Both near Rhuabon

Leominster

Bottisham (Cambridge)

Both Bayston Hill (Shrewsbury)

Once I had taken (in my opinion) a good photograph of these amazing yellow fields, I looked for other colours  but soon realized that the landscape was dominated by one colour. Buttercups & dandelions covered any uncultivated land, so I photographed these as well.  Yellow certainly took centre stage at this time of Year. 

Shavington ( Cheshire)

Wybunbury (Cheshire)

Bromyard downs (Herefordshire)

It was at this stage that I re-read the course book, in particular the exercise Primary and secondary colours  and realized that I should have varied the exposure for each colour, ah well, start again.

Right place Right time

         My Tutor's report......but first!

The above photographs were taken last Saturday, July 7th.  They show the Alfred docks north bridge which carries Tower road across the dock entrance.  This and several others around Birkenhead docks are Rolling Bascule bridges, built between 1928 and 1931 replacing swing bridges which had been used prior to that.  I had been trying to photograph one of the bridges in use for some time, so was glad to be in the right place for once and to have such a perfect sky.


Assignment 2 response.

At the beginning of Clive's report he says of my second assignment;

'Overall technically of a very good standard; demonstrating thoughtful composition with attention to detail and knowledgeable control of exposure and focus'.

I'm very pleased to receive such praise at this stage of the course.  He also writes that;

'You've responded to the pointers I previously gave for this assignment, developing a theme to make a body of work that meets the requirements of the brief while, importantly, making interesting, progressive imagery'.

I could not have wished for more rewarding remarks.  He has some negative comments about some of the images, no more than is to be expected, after all that's how we learn.  He seems to be a good judge, the photographs that get negative or somewhat dismissive comments are the ones that had the least amount of thought and care at the time of taking, they are bland.

Clive finishes his report with this sentence;

'I think you can feel very satisfied with what you've achieved in this assignment'.

What more could I wish for.