Exercise A – Camera Introduction

Part 1

Fast Shutter Speed

Slow Shutter Speed

Wide Aperture Setting

Small Aperture Setting

Bracketing

Part 2

Lens focal length

Part 3

Framming and Compostion

Part 4

Light

Contact Sheets

Reflection

• Learning basic camera techniques
• Learning basic framing/composition
• Photography as an art form
• Creating a contact sheet
• Building a concept
• These lessons were important to me as I haven’t practised photography in this way in a long time.
• These lessons are vital in creating my major project as they are the fundamentals of this subject

Exercise B – Landscape as a study of the natural world

Reflection

• Learning about the definition of what is and is not a landscape photo
• Learning about the different categories of landscape photography (Study of the ‘natural’ world, documentary, popular culture, politics and propaganda, abstract form, conceptual art).
• The above photos were inspired by Ansel Adams’s traditional photography practice.
• The importance of framing/composition of photographs and the idea of looking at shapes within an image, (leading lines within a photo). This concept is extremely important as it takes a photo that looks like a point a shoot as opposed to a carefully framed shot.

Exercise C – Landscape as documentary, popular culture, politics and propaganda

Reflection

• Documentary landscapes of the Wollongong landscape from mount keria

Exercise D – Landscape as abstract form and conceptual art

Reflection

• Struggled with the concept of abstract photos in terms of creating a landscape with an aspect of a traditional landscape

Exercise E – Project concept and planning template

Project issue (topic or concept)

What aspects or concepts relating to the theme of Landscape Photography do you plan to engage with through your photographs? What interests you?

• Natural Beauty
• Ocean Landscapes (Connection to the beach),
• Traditional Landscapes/Grand Vistas
• Natural Beauty
• Ocean Landscapes (Connection to the beach),
• Nature
• Portraits
• Showing Time
• Colour Differences
• Identity

Significance to you

How/why is this concept important to you?

References (minimum of 3)

What photographers/artists and theoretical concepts are informing your work? Describe

• HIROSHI SUGIMOTO (his abstract work of the ocean)
• Ansel Adams
• Jan Dibbets 

Making / Planning

What/where/who

What/where/who will you photograph? That is, what will be your subject(s)? Where do you think you should go (or can go) to take your images? Why is this important to your project?

What: Seascapes

Where: Wollongong/Sydney

Who: N/A

This is important to my primary work as I intend to take photos of places that have significant meaning to me and the course of my life.

Light

What type of light will best suit your approach? How/why is this the best approach? What is your rationale?

With my concept, the plan is to shoot at different times during the day (Sunrise, Middle of the day, sunset, late night, and night.

Outline your shooting plan:

– Where/location(s)
– When (what weeks of class)
– How (photographic approach, resources needed, production issues)

Where: Wollongong/Sydney

When: Week 10, Week 12, Week 13

How: I will use my own equipment, which will consist of my Sony A73, 24-70mm F4 lens and a 55mm 1.8 lens and a tripod as I will be doing long exposures.

Research

Ansel Adams

Ansel Easton Adams was born in February 1902 in San Francisco and is famously known for his landscape photography and known to be an environmentalist who used his art to capture on film rare sights. His fame continually grew through his works of Yosemite National Park and his black and white photos of landscapes, He was also a co-founder of developing the Zone System, a tool to figure out the exact exposure and contrast of the image. The clarity produced by his photos played a pivotal role in the field of the fine arts world and his work is still relevant even today even though his work came to a finish with his death in 1984.

Ansel’s precision and meticulous attention to his composition and use of light and contrast in his photography is one characteristic that I am particularly inspired to implement into my own major work on this subject. Another aspect of his work that I would love to add to my major work would be his practice of pin-sharp focus throughout the entire image as well as using black and white as a colour option for my work. I have also always been into traditional landscape photography and have practised it throughout my years of learning photography. I also see potential to combine modern photo editing techniques and my own style to build upon his works.

HIROSHI SUGIMOTO

Born in 1948 and raised in Tokyo, Hiroshi Sugimoto is a photographer originally from Japan. He studies sociology and politics at Rikkyō University in the same city he grew up in. In 1974, he acquired Bachelor in Fine Arts degree from Los Angeles at the Art Center College of Design. Later on, he shifted to New York.

Sugimoto’s works are made up of several series with each one being distinctive in its theme. The photographer himself described his work as an expression of exposed time or images that act as capsules of time of a series of occurrences. Moreover, his work focuses on the variance between existence and passing away.

Sugimoto’s work’s especially the ones above have a very surreal aspect to them, as well as giving me a sense of calm in them is one characteristic of this work that particularly interested to bring over to my own work. Another aspect of his work that I would love to add to my major work would be his practice of long exposure to seascapes is really interesting to me as well as using black and white as a colour option for my work.

Jan Dibbets

Dutch artist who works mainly with photography. Born in Weert. Trained as an art teacher at the Tilburg Academy 1959-63 and studied painting with Jan Gregoor in Eindhoven 1961-3. Taught art at a training college 1964-7.

Paola Franqui

Puerto Rican-born street photographer living outside of New York City specializing in visual storytelling. She has her BA in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University and has over 5 years of experience working with brands.  What started as a hobby grew to become Paola’s passion, and it has changed her life in ways she never could have imagined.  

This combined with her chosen digital editing and colouring of her photos is a very notable aspect of her work and will inspire my own editing techniques. 

Location Scouting

Wollongong Lighthouse

Week 10 – Images

Contact Sheets

Concept Dot Points

Documentary Landscape/Mount Kiera

• Wollongong History
• Steal Works History
• Documentary
• Impacts?

Seascapes/Wollongong Harbour

• The sublime
• The sublime beauty of nature
• The sea and the air are the building block of life
• Personal attraction/connection to the sea (grown-up surfing)
• Erosion
• Cleansing the soul
• Nostalgia

Traditional Landscapes/Waterfalls Belmore Madden Falls

• Ansel Adam’s
• A personal connection to nature
• Study of the natural world

SeaScapes

Reflection

• Need to clean my camera’s sensor (dirty specs on image)
• Had to do some basic image clean up to get the spots off the image
• Also had to remove the boats I’m the original photo
• Have to reshoot that exact spot on another day/different times
• Play around with high contrast black and white edits

Week 12 – Images

Contact Sheet – Colour

Contact Sheet – Black and White

Editing Images

To edit my chosen images, I would first organize my photos in lightroom in the order of the contact sheet. Secondly, I would adjust all of the images that I have identified on the contact sheet to the correct exposures, Thirdly I applied a preset that I have already made previously. Lastly, I adjusted any images that look slightly off and export them all into a separate folder.

• Touch up
• Used the spot healing brush to clean up the dirty sensor

Final Work

The Sublime

Concept Statement

My approach to this work is based on my own personal connection to the ocean and the beach as many of us share. These photographs are successful, as I believe, they show the beauty of the ocean in the simplest form but evoke a sense of wonder and calmness within these compositions. I also like my photographs to give a feeling of looking at a hidden world we don’t normally see.

The use of long exposures reflects the chaos of a relentless ocean crash against the rocks and sand, and how in this approach slow and mindful approach to photography can create peace and serenity.

Ansel Adam’s practice was a major influence on how I approach this body of work. As I sat at the top of this headland, I had to set the tripod on a jumble of rocks and changing its position even slightly was arduous.” This “protracted ballet” of nudging, tilting, raising, and lowering was for Adams the art of organizing reality to create an aesthetically-pleasing composition.

Nature offers an infinity of views and changing light. There are great photographs waiting to be found everywhere, every day. But they are almost never to be found easily.