fern's

Feedback from the panels

As it was quite clear to all the panels of what I would like to explore and do for my photo book, the feedback I got the most is that try to keep in mind it is a photo book that is mainly about photography, the skills, and creativity. Drawing on top of the photos is creative, however, it might overlap the fact that I am more focused on the photos themselves, not so much of the drawing. One of the panel saw the photo I took for my project brief 2, which was a photo of one of my models at the rooftop car park. It was one of my best shots among them all. She mentioned about the manner and the mood out of that photo and how it is the best among all the photos I put on the slides, where the other two photos are basically the example from other artists, the idea of what I would like to do for the book. She said that I should stick with the style, just like the one she likes. I agreed with her as it is something I find I enjoy doing the most, however, as I am still new in this field, I would rather experiment and explore as much as possible to figure what I am best at and what I have to improve in order to get better. I chose to stick with the idea of the combination of illustration with the photographs, but I won’t over-draw the photos so that the quality of the photos will still show out as much as possible.

As Brian also mentioned during the presentation that my style is usually gives a bit of fashion sense in the photographs and wondering if I would stick to it for the book, then I wanted the photos to be more of action shots. However, no matter how much I tried, I still find myself taking the photos in fashion style, so I decided to continue with it. Also, I would still stick with how I like to take candid kind of portrait to give the sense of natural feels.

Illustration and headaches

And now that I’ve got some shots that I like, the part that I have to deal with now is illustration. To be able to draw on top and not let it overlap the photographs is challenging, as well as the balance the story or the art of photography and the illustration.

As I started to edit the photos and draw on top of photos in Adobe Illustrator, I found out that, it is basically not a program for this situation. My aim is to modify the photo and save it as JPG so that I can put all the photos on Adobe InDesign, however, Adobe Illustrator wouldn’t let me save it as JPG as it is not a program for that. One problem is now easily solved.

Now move on to the next challenge, what I have come to realise is it is challenging to stick with the original plan, what you had it all planned out perfectly in your head. No, it is not that easy. I might have mentioned it earlier in other posts that my theme is illustration and action shots together for my photo book. I have come to realised that my style of photography is portrait, urban/street kind of photography. So I decided to stick with that. However, to make the photo book more interesting, the theme of the photo book is basically going to be about people of Melbourne. The lifestyle. Also, I will put the sense and a little hint of fashion sense into the book as it is something I really want to explore in this industry.

The challenges

One of the most challenging parts I have had so far is to be able to take action shots. As Melbourne is now winter, it means that there is less time during the day to shoot with the good natural lighting for good photos. I’ve been quite struggling to capture the moment in fast pace environment. Most of the time I shoot during the day, depending on natural lighting and now that I have to shoot at night and to be able to get the right shot is near impossible. However, it is actually getting better in time. The more I play with the menu, the settings, the better the quality is. I find this part as the most difficult because as somebody who hasn’t been working that long in photography, it can be quite challenging.

However, the longer and the more I learn to use the settings properly for the kind of action shots I wanted, I could see the style of the photos I always end up taking. At first, I wanted my pictures to be more of action, sporty style but now that I find it quite not my sort of photography I like, my aim is to be able to combine action, sporty shots to urban photography. I would like my photos present the other side of lifestyle in Melbourne, the urban side. As Melbourne is also well-known in terms of tourism, I would like to capture the other side of the city where most people don’t usually think of. I also want to stick with how I like to out a little hint of streetwear fashion into my photo book as it is something I’ve always enjoyed doing.

More ideas

In this week’s class, we got to discuss more about the ideas of what we would like to do for our photo books. On Tuesday, we had a presentation, basically talking about the ideas, pitching the goals and how we will design the whole book. As I have mentioned in the previous post that I would like to put combination of both illustration and photography together, it was quite obvious that the illustration part might take over the main goal, which is the show my interest and aesthetic in photography. Having said that, I have to keep in mind that the drawing should be minimal and tying not to let it overcome the beauty of photography.

Another challenging aspect I’ll be facing is to put all the photos together for the book and make them compliment each other. To stick with the theme, as well as to keep the mood of the photos. My goal is also to play with a lot of white, or space, between the photos, so that it could bring out the photographs and the illustration more.

Alone together / PB3

It was a great experience to be able to work in an environment I had never been in before. It was interesting to see how other people have their own kind of hobby and activity. Squishface studio showed me so much how drawing can be such a fun thing to do. I’ve always been interested in drawing but never really thought of doing it for living. However, those people that I met from the studio actually do it for living. They actually love what they are doing. They don’t make it like it’s a job, it is not a job when you do what you passionate about. That is what great about it. Ben, the guy who owns the place said that he just wanted a studio that welcomes everybody who likes the same thing. A place to share and create. Admittedly, the studio is already welcoming for some reason, it has got the cozy vibes in the air.

It wasn’t so easy to photograph at first as the room was quite small, which makes it limited for me to change the angle. However, the longer I stayed, I discovered more angles. My aim is to deliver the feeling of how cozy and welcoming, yet the comfort of silence through the photograph. I am more than happy with how all the photos turned out just how I wanted. I normally process my photos in cold tone, however in order to get the cozy feeling, I processed all the photos in warm tone this time, which works really well. There wasn’t much to do with the processing part as the lighting was already good. I made the saturation and the vibrant of the colour a little bit lower to calm the whole tone of the photos. Making the photos grainy also helps.

Photo essays

In this week’s class, we got to study how to ‘photography journalism’ works and how still images can tell a story as well as videos. As we all know, moving images is one of the most effective and powerful ways of storytelling. There’s no word needed to explain. Also, sometimes, it can tell more than just words can describe. As an audience and also a practitioner in this industry, it is a common sense to know that all kinds of image can tell a great story.

To be able to get to learn and also work on this kind of activity is fascinating. Mostly, from my perspective, photography journalism usually comes in series. It is quite similar to moving images in terms of how all the photos are shown as scenes in order for us, audience, to understand the story.

According to what Brian had mentioned in the class, it is apparent that photojournalisms have to be in series, it can be just one photo as well, which can be seen in some of the ancient paintings. However, in order to be photojournalism, it is a must for the photos to be narrative so that it makes sense and for it to be able to tell a story. Timing is one of the most important aspects for photo essay.

Jessica Lake’s article

In the article, Jessica Lake talks about whether it is okay or not to photograph strangers or random people on the street and publish it. As she mentions that some people find it ‘violating and sickening’ to be taken photos of from some strange photographers on the street. There was even a protest in Brisbane against street photographers stopping them to photograph ‘unwanted and embarrassing’ photos of people. In my opinion, it is such a debatable issue as I find it okay to photograph people in the street as I see it as one kind of art in photography. However, at the same time, it might not be as acceptable, since if somebody randomly takes a photo of me, I might find that weird as can perhaps be violating as i don’t know who they are and why would take want to take a photo of me.

Having said that, I think it is okay to photograph people on the street, however, it is better to ask for their permission so that both sides come to an agreement that it is okay.