Paul's Photo Essay This page contains my photo essay, which I shot at Bournemouth Beach front during the late autumn/early winter. This was my first time taking stills images with a Canon 450D stills camera. As I progressed through the day I got slightly more familiar with the camera and how it functioned. While shooting I carried a fair amount of release forms with me, for both adults and children, in case I was required to get a subjects permission to photograph them, although I didn’t encounter this problem. From the get go the majority of my pictures are social-voyeur stills as I wanted to capture the everyday life, but it wasn’t a case of a decisive moment as I sat and waited for my subjects to walk into the shot. I was trying to stick to a theme of being typically British, as it was an overcast day and there were still an abundance of people wandering around on the pier and in the park, even surfing, and that the seaside doesn’t need to be sunny for people to enjoy it.
Image 1 My first image is of a group of elderly people walking along the pier. This was shot with an ISO of 400, as it was a fairly overcast day and the aperture was 14.0. I chose to use this picture as part of my essay as I used the lampposts on the pier to create a rule of thirds layout. And the railing on the pier casts the horizon line for the photo separating the sky and sea. To edit this photo I altered the sharpness of the pixels up to +60, I did this because it brought out some of the texture of the wood on the pier which it lacked before. I also changed the luminance-red- to +10, this was to draw out the lady’s coat in the distance, which I felt helped with the rule of thirds separation, as there was something eye catching within each third. Image 2 With my second image I wanted to capture the essence of the beach and its length, the picture was shot from the pier and I waited for the surfer in the foreground to emerge from the water with the waves breaching the sand. The aperture for this still was 13.0 and the shutter speed 1/320. I used these settings because I felt it gave good distance and length to the shot without distorting the waves breaking onto the beach. To edit this photo I moved the exposure up to +0.20, which gave the photo slightly more light without noticeably changing it. Image 3 My third picture is relatively the same as my second; except for I made the background surfers my central subjects. I move to get them in the centre of the shot to again cast the rule of thirds on the picture keeping the sea to the left and the amusements etc. to the right. I zoomed in more for this photo keeping the aperture at 14.0, to try and bring more focus onto the waves in the foreground. I edited this photo but altering the exposure to +0.15, achieving the same effect as I got for picture 2. I hoped this picture could evoke some sense of Meta memory as loads of people have been to beaches, or an old amusement arcade either as a child or as an adult, and with having little clutter within the shot it draws the audiences eye to either the sea, surfers or amusements/beach huts. Image 4 The forth image is six elderly people viewing surfers from the pier. I chose these subjects because if you cut the image in half it still shows the same thing. Also when learning about Meta memory we were shown a clip from ‘American Beauty’ where they show the hands of an elderly person to evoke the memory of a grandparent, which was the intention behind this image. This was still a social-voyeur still as these people were stood there a while before I got there. The aperture for this was 13.0 and the ISO 400, I altered this picture by changing the luminance of the blues +20 and purples +70, this drew out the colour in the coats of the people on the pier drawing the audiences eye towards the lady in pink and the man in blue. Image 5 For Image 5 I captured a surfer, this was a decisive moment shot as previously there had been no waves decent enough for him to surf on, but I saw one coming and decided to focus my attention on him. This picture was taken from the pier to get an ‘Above’ shot to rid the frame of the horizon line, bringing all the focus solely to the surfer. The shutter speed was set to 1/250, as I wanted to capture the motion fairly quickly, and emphasise how the board slices the wave. To edit this I turned the contrast down to -10 to make his wet suit fractionally dark to emphasise him more. Image 6 For this image I again went for elderly people to create a Meta memory, of grand parents, but as you can see surfers in the background it sort of juxtaposes the young/old within the shot. Using the railing as a premade horizon line it separates the juxtaposing subjects, but makes the elderly couple the main focus of the picture removing them from the action in the background. To edit this still I brought the exposure up to +1.00 and the brightness up to +58 as the couple walked under a sign, which cast the lady’s face into shadow. I then turned the red saturation up to +30 and the luminance up to +40. This was to bring the colour out of the bag and bring the eye immediately to the elderly couple.
Image 7 I wanted to make the background the subject of this picture so used a mid horizon line to bring attention to the beachfront and buildings behind. I chose this shot because it separates the image into thirds vertically. The huts on the beachfront were all brightly coloured, which I thought created a cliché beach setting, but juxtaposed with the hotel/flat, blocks in the background. To edit this photo I turned the vibrance up to +30 and the brightness to +60, this brought some of the colour of the huts out without making it look too tampered with.
Image 8 Using the high horizon line with image 8 I brought the attention to the surfers, and waited for the kayaker to come into shot, making it another social-voyeuristic mode, I wanted to try and show another juxtaposition between the weather and the surfers, that even though the weather isn’t great people are still in the ocean having fun. Shot with an aperture of 10.0 and shutter speed of 1/250. To edit this picture I turned the brightness up to +55 and the saturation of the blues to +15, this was to make a clearer distinction between the sky and sea to make a more prominent horizon line.
Image 9 For this image I found some animal paw prints in the sand and use the shade in the background to create a high horizon line to bring the audiences focus to the paw prints in the foreground. I had an aperture of 10.0 to lower the depth of field, making the camera focus more on the paw prints. Paw prints can act as a Meta memory format as many people have had childhood pets, or longed for a pet and these paw prints in particular are significant to a family pet. To edit this photo I changed the clarity to +10, which brought some of the sands texture out. I also changed made the vibrance +60, which enhanced the blue door in the background to create two points of focus within the picture.
Image 10 This picture was a clear juxtaposition of the background, as the foreground reads ‘Taste the summer’ in a bright orange font, where as in the background we see the pier overcast by dark clouds. I had the aperture on 11.0 for this still as I wanted the main focus to be on the ice cream hut, but still have the pier identifiable to the audience. I edited the exposure of this picture to +0.45 and the vibrance to -15, as I wanted the colour of the hut to be slightly subtler than it originally was.
Image 11 For image 11 I chose the extension into the sea, framing it into the centre of the shot because it creates and automatic divide to the still. I also had a level horizon line, as I didn’t want to draw attention to any action. It also keeps the seagull perfectly on the horizon line, which I thought brought subtle attention to it. The shutter speed for this still was 1/400, as I wanted to capture some wave motion without distorting it. To edit it I changed the temperature of the original from 4950-5500 kelvins, this brought more warmth to the picture as I felt it was too cold previously.
Image 12 The aperture for this image was set to 4.5, I had to play around with the aperture quite a bit for this picture as various/unwanted parts of the background were too much in focus as I only really wanted to bring detail to the sign in the foreground. I chose this shot because the foreground points out that you’re in Bournemouth and the background summarises the county in the other half of the image. I left this photo as it was in the end, as I had had several previous attempts at taking the photo I was happy with the end result and didn’t want to tweak it. Image 13 For my final image I moved into the park behind the beach, just to get a different feel for my photo essay. I sat one side of the stream and focused on the elderly man, keeping an aperture of 8.0 to bring my depth of field just past the man. I liked this photo because I felt it represented solitude, even though there were many people around, this man gave a feeling of isolation, which I think was emphasised by the pigeons. To edit this picture I brought the hue of the greens up to +45, to bring some subtle colour back into the background. |
