Portfolio Presentation

For my portfolio, I would like to present this in a book form using these services:

http://diamondphoto.co.nz/category/product/category/photobooks/personalised-photobooks/premium-hard-cover/30x30cm-12x12-premium-hard-cover

I have been told that it takes up to 4 days to receive my final product according to Karen who has used these services before. Once I have done my final photoshoot (this weekend) I will be getting on to preparing my book in photoshop and when it is complete I will export it in pdf format to send off.
Below are some experimentations as to groupings on pages and possible diptychs. I did these by cutting them out from their contact sheets and placing them next to each other as a draft for me to work by as a directory. 

I have based these groupings on content and colour not necessarily compositional techniques as I place more importance on those aspects to bring a group together. The catalyst for this idea was Emil McCoy's work at the Papakura Art Gallery where the staff there explained his ideas behind each grouping.

I'm not sure if I will use all these groupings but it is merely a brainstorm and an insight in to what I'm planning for my portfolio presentation.

Term 2 - Week 3 - Dave Sanderson (Museum) Photographic Response

The artist model for this project is Dave Sanderson; he was part of the photography staff at Auckland Museum. I was given his outside-of-museum-work website which encompasses his "musings of a fellow photographer" as he put it in his email to me when asking for such work. Below are a few shots that I really like and have attempted to emulate them underneath.

I found a consistency throughout his "life" section of photographs (where I found these below) in the main construction of his work where his subject tends to be on the far side of the image. This is called the "Rule of Thirds" technique which is believed to create a more balanced and therefore more visually pleasing photograph. I like his work however, I'm not sure if there is much meaning behind each of the photographs and I feel that a few of the are lacking in warmth and some emotion. I feel this way because I don't know the message behind the images.

My images were successful the first time I shot them because I did a lot of planning and preparation for each image. I really think this pays off and has been approach to a few of my shoots before but I think the more spontaneous a shoot is, the more unknown images you will get and that can be exciting if you don't mind having the element of surprise in your end result. However, this was not the case with this shoot.

I then emulated these photographs and added my own touch to them:

I do not own a pair of sunglasses so I could not fully copy the image, but I did experiment with reflection and the Rule of Thirds technique as he does to fabricate some symmetry between our images.

When I first saw his second photo, it reminded my of one I had taken back in 2013 for my design class pollution campaign. I tried to add a hint of that image in this emulated one and add that as a sort of token to my sense of artistry whilst emulating Sandersons' image.

You can find his website here.

Contextualisation:

In Dave's latest email to me, I asked him to describe what his photographic interests were and his photography background. He replied with the following:

"I started photography in 1998, based on nothing more than my own photos from an old compact 35mm film camera being soft compared to my friend’s photos from SLRs. I basically wanted better holiday snaps. So I bought an SLR and the rest has grown from there.

Like all young guys, I got fully nerdy about it pretty quickly and taught myself a lot of the technical knowledge over a few years before starting what turned out to be 6yrs of night-school classes at what would be known here as a Polytech (called a college in the UK.) I was amongst the last years to be fully trained on film, so I spent a significant time in the darkrooms and worked on 35mm, 120, Polaroid and 5x4” film. During the last two years of those classes I also overlapped it with studying for my second degree in digital media (my first one was engineering) where I learned graphic design, animation, film editing and took my photography heavily digital.

It’s the combination of a wide photographic background (the film photography has been very valuable, if you get chance, shoot some, it’s good for you!) and engineering background that got me into designing how to run imaging and digitisation projects. The digital has helped too obviously and I’ve just grown it as much as I can.

Take every opportunity you get, work hard and remember you don’t always get to shoot exactly what you want when it comes to earning $’s. Sometimes applying your skills to work is a way to keep the bills paid, and then save the inner artist in you for your own personal work. Above all, keep shooting and retain a strong sense of what attracted you to taking photographs in the first place – that initial passion will be the core of what you grow and becomes your photographic style and identity."

Not only has Dave given me some great advice but I can really appreciate his "keeping work and personal life separated in terms of artistry" I think that is a smart idea in terms of keeping things clear in your own head.

Dave Sanderson now works at Auckland Museum specialising in Photography. Dave's official title is Project Manager, Collection Imaging.

Term 2 - Week 3 - Auckland Museum Field Trip and Guest Speaker Research

As a class, we were lucky enough to be given a tour of the Photography Archives at the Auckland Museum by Shaun Higgins. We spent a lot of time in a small closet-type room full of old photographs that the Museum keeps under close security and safe hands. We were privileged enough not only to see a multitude of the photographs, but to also spend about an hour and a half with the holography crew in their studio whilst they photographed artefacts and war souvenirs. I documented a bit of my experience at the museum on my Snapchat. Below are a few snaps from the day.

The Homefront exhibition:

Focusing on life 'at home' during the First World War, the Home Front exhibition will explore how events half a world away shaped lives at home. This is the third in a series of WWI Centenary commemorative exhibitions.

The experience of loss was almost universal for those who remained in New Zealand during WWI. Uncertainty pervaded everything. Would sons, husbands, fathers, brothers live through the ordeal, or come home seriously injured? When would the war end? Could families make ends meet until the breadwinner returned?

Patriotic and fundraising organisations channelled their energies into supporting New Zealand servicemen. But not everyone supported the war effort. While some communities pulled together, others were pulled apart by differences of opinion.

Courtesy: http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/whats-on/exhibitions/home-front

Portfolio - Third Shoot

Ashleigh Rogers: my not-so-typical, 16 year old sister.

Unfortunately my original model could not make the shoot this weekend but I will be photographing her next weekend.

Ashleigh is not the type of girl to take photos, put on makeup or even brush her teeth before bed (unlike me). She is in fact the complete opposite. Aside from her being my sister and the fact she visits only about four or five times a year, her imperfections on her skin, masculine style and give-em-hell attitude is so rare amongst the women who I hang out with that instantly, I was like "Ash, you're doing a shoot for me, don't ask any questions." Ashleigh has done photoshoots for me before, back when she was slightly more on the feminine side and before she moved to Australia. I find her to be very unique and photogenic and comfortable in front of the camera, however not as much as she was back then.

Ashleigh is extremely comfortable around me and her character really shows in a few of these shots. What I found  difficult on a level was when I lift the camera up to take her photo, she gets a little uncomfortable. None of my other models have been like this, in fact it is almost the exact opposite, so this shoot was a huge learning experience for me. I think that is because when they modelled for me, they knew it was what they were here to do, their job, not to hang out with my family and stay for a couple of days.

For these photos, we had just come back from getting Ashleigh McDonalds for breakfast because they apparently don't have BLT bagels in Australia like they do here. However, she did not only get the bagel but also hot cakes too as well as a hash brown and an orange juice; an impressive start to the day. As she sat munching away whilst being absorbed in a few episodes of Doctor Who, I snapped a few candids of her. I definitely experimented more with environmental portraits as well as candid photographs for this shoot. The results are below.

I then took a few shots of Claudia (my dad's girlfriends' youngest daughter) because of the way her eyes glinted in the light and how her freckles stood out prominently. Claudia is 12 years old and also fits in my age group. The results are below and are far more different to the ones of Ashleigh although taken in the same room. I kept in close with Claudia because I did not want to repeat the environmental portraits that I had originally done with Ashleigh. Considering this was spontaneous, unplanned and completely experimental, I am rather happy with these images just in the fact they show off the detail in her skin and freckles.

Overall, I like these images (for once) because I feel they are clearer than the other shoots I have done in terms of the final images. I also think my physical technique is improving gradually over these shoots and that is something I am excited to see future development in.