Final Shoot

Focal length 75, F number 4, Exposure 1/100

Over all I took over 200 photos but these are my favourites.

This is Laura, Despite numerous medical conditions such as type 1 diabetes, arthritis in her ribs, a heart murmur and so on, she remains the bravest girl I know. She is a Personal Trainer who has both helped me with my battle with depression and my aim to loose weight. She is the most amazing girl I know.

Focal length 155, F number 5, Exposure 1/80

Laura's Dad is in the RAF and from a young age she has constantly moved around and found it hard to make and keep friends. Laura has finally made a home here in Hampshire and it's my pleasure to say she is my Best Friend. I'm so lucky to have. I identify Laura with Both Penguins her favourite animal and khaki because of her dad.

Laura was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2011 and has been dealing with if for 5 years. She has her ups and downs but i'm so proud of her.

Focal length 220, F number 5, Exposure 1/100

My photo shoot today was based off photographer Tora Baker based in Brighton, she mostly does wedding photography but she has done travel as well. Funny enough the model Tora used was also called Laura. She used Stanmer Woods as her location. if you follow the link on Stanmer woods it will take you straight to the original shoot I based my photos off


I spent the afternoon in Chawton park woods with my Laura, it was cold and pretty muddy and dark but we still got some beautiful shots and some nice locations.

Focal length 150, F number 4.5, Exposure 1/200

Focal length 150, F number 5, Exposure 1/1000

 I love the different lighting, some darker then the others, and some warmer than the others.

I love the different depths of field in the photos. I enjoy playing with depth of field as it can really bring the subject out.

My favourite image is the very top one. It's also Laura's. I chose my favourites and then I asked Laura to pick her number one photo and she chose that one.



I'm really proud of my photos I took today. Unfortunately had I experimented with my first trial of Gjon Mili I feel that I would have been such a great success but due to the fact I didn't start the experiments earlier I had to change my ideas. I still got some beautiful photos. I will still trial the Gjon Mili photos as I can use it in later projects.

Focal length 230, F number 5, Exposure 1/50

Focal length 135, F number 4.5, Exposure 1/80

Focal length 75, F number 4, Exposure 1/80

 This is both a tribute to my amazing Best friend and how people identify you, This would work nicely as a series however I feel that the first image sums it up quite nicely.

Focal length 85, F number 4, Exposure 1/100

The reason I asked Laura to wear her penguin had is because when I think of penguins the first thing I think of is Laura, and I feel that people do they same when they think of something that reminds them of their friends and family.

I chose to experiment with different lenses but my favourite images came from the Canon 75-300 mm. My camera is the Canon EOS 1100D

I also love the close up of Laura's face as it is a genuine smile, Both the penguin hat pictures and her genuine smile all show Laura for who she truly is, a beautiful bubbly girl. The other photos do show her as in she can be a bit of a poser but that's why I love her.

I asked Laura to do what she felt was natural this way what I got was comfortable images of Laura. She is quite happy in front of the camera so it's easy to get the images I want!

Laura wanted to be in the Navy however due to the fact that she was diagnosed with diabetes she could no longer follow her dream!

Focal length 75, F number 4, Exposure 1/80

All though this really set her back, she focused on becoming better and dealing with diabetes the proper way! She is driven to do better and be better, which i feel makes her such a great personal trainer.

She is beautiful inside and out and I wanted to get this across in the my photos.

It started to rain so we had to get our umbrellas out, that's why she is holding one in some photos and not others.


It was really chucking it down with rain today so I was worried that I wouldn't get the best photos as she wouldn't be that amused to the fact we were outside and it was pouring with rain. It rain a little but not enough for us to stop,  it wasn't till we got back in the car that it really started to rain! it's like the universe knew.

Laura was a wonderful model and helped me get the best photos possible from todays shoot.

She is very easy going and was happy to stand where ever to get the different types of photos.

I used mostly natural light as the flash would just hit Laura and sometimes too much.

I have a few shots on another memory card where they are quite dull images because the lighting was really dark, so i had to use flash then.

We found a nice wooded area which had loads of colours, like browns and oranges, and they spread across the floor.

   

Focal length 135, F number 4.5, Exposure 1/60

The images were shot between 2:30 and 3:30 as this was the best time for Laura and I, it was very over cast that day so lighting wasn't as bright but we did have the sun break through the clouds every now and then.

I prefer natural light to Tungsten as I feel makes the images less posed and can get in touch with the viewers emotions better.

Overall i'm really happy with my images and proud of my final product.

Focal length 155, F number 5, Exposure 1/40

Focal length 300, F number 5.6, Exposure 1/60

Dance Edit

Two full days to edit, using premiere pro.

Music: In Love (feat. Nori) - Himitsu
Rushes by second years at UCA Farnham (DFSA)
Edited by Lorna Moseley

Really enjoyed doing this project it was a lot of fun, and lots of new things to learn and experiment with

Practise photos 17/11/16

Focusing more on my original research with Gjon Mili, I tried to see if I could re-create some of his images. To no surprise it's a lot harder than it looks, Using long exposure on the Canon 11000D and with the help of My sister and two torches, I created these.

 Using a small torch in my sisters hand and a larger torch off to the side, I asked her to do a figure of 8, I wanted the light on the side so you could see her,  however after some thought we decided to but the light behind me and face it up to the ceiling.

 Using a strobe effect on the torch and facing it behind her we created this image, I moved slightly so i could create the double effect.

Again another practise with the torch on the side this time with the smaller torch doing a circle.

 In complete darkness and the torch on the bottom of her face in a circle motion to create this sinister effect.










This image is with the strobe effect in my sisters hand facing the ceiling and a slight movement on the camera I created this

Practise photos

 My initial image is of my Phone, I was testing out the IOS. For some strange reason no matter what setting I put the IOS on or the shutter speed my camera really wanted the flash on other wise it wouldn't let any light in. This therefore made my image quite bright but detailed.

The following photos are of my sister doing her her and putting her make up on. I wanted to show the idea that women go through quite a process to go out into the world, sort of their out door face. It's almost fake and we choose how                                we want the world to see us.

I used the Canon 1100D on the settings: Focal length 55, F number 5.6, Exposure time 1/10
for the first image of my sister. The rest of the images I have put there settings under the photo it's self

Focal length 44, F number 5.6, Exposure time 1/8

Focal length 55, F number 5.6, Exposure time 1/8

 I wanted to choose different parts of my sister doing her make up, from various angles, some photos are just of part of her face such as her lips in the last photo.

This is one of my favourites it shows my sister contouring her face, this adds to my theme of unnatural beauty. It shows the different parts of her face and the natural bumps and the surface of her face itself.

Focal length 55, F number 5.6, Exposure time 1/8

Focal length 42, F number 5.6, Exposure time 1/8

Focal length 55, F number 5.6, Exposure time 1/8

The image of the mirror I find quite powerful as it shows that our selves as an individual need to be happy with the way our make up is before we let the rest of the world see.  I enjoy the angle and the lighting because it gives my sister a better profile of her face, and we can see the whole of her face without needing to be face on and distort the image. To do this I put the mirror at an angle.





I like this image because it shows my sister balancing the mascara to make sure it doesn't touch her face. The detail of her eyelashes are evident and you can see the concentration  on her face, by the way her face is composed.  I like it because you can see her concentration without needing to see her face.







I like this image because it shows all the different equipment people use to put on their outside face on. The different brands and colours.

I like this angle and the motion of my sister picking up the lipstick.  The shadows give a good depth of field and give the image a more 3D effect. The focus is mostly on the lipstick which is what the eye draws to first.




I like this photo because it shows the faces we make to get the desired look, especially with the lipstick so she can get every part of her lip.

I like the fact that her lips aren't completely painted, and you can see the start of it but its not finished which makes the image even more powerful








These are just a select few from all the images I took. I chose these because they are my favourite

Research

Some facts in to diabetes, I know more about type one than type 2 because of Laura and some facts I found on https://www.diabetes.org.uk

My mind map

Above is a mind map I created on bubble.us

I thought about the different ideas which I wanted to do and the ideas around them. My next posts will be looking further into these ideas and some test images to crystallise my ideas and so I can choose my final idea.

Laura is my best friend who suffers with type one diabetes, she always talks about her scars on her body from the injection marks, every time she wants something to eat she has to take an injection my reason for wanting to do this is so I can raise awareness for the disease.

My dad had a serious back injury 22 years ago which caused one of this legs to loose the nerves, in other words his leg is basically dead. Since loosing 5 stone one calf muscle is bigger than the other, I know he is self conscience of this, he won't be able to build the muscle up on it which frustrates him. last week dad did something truly amazing, he ran for the first time on a treadmill. He has come leaps and bounds and i'm so proud of him

I like the idea of using a mirror for my self portraits project as we constantly are looking at our selves to make sure we look right, the smudges from the mirror and the faces people make when doing there make up is telling a story of how we want the world to view us, which I think is a great way to show this project.

Thoughts

I took this photo in Chawton park woods. a mile from my house in Hampshire.

It's of a water tower which you can't see but has satellite dishes on. I liked the way it looked abandoned and lonely. With only the solitude of the woods to keep it company. I was on a walk with my dad and I found it so I just snapped a photo. I like the idea of not planning a photo, just seeing something and taking a photo, Even if it's just on my phone or with my camera. This photo was taken with an iPhone and later edited on Instagram.






This is of a photo of fairy lights outside a pub in London, I took it about two years ago when I was waiting outside for a taxi to be taken to the station, This was on my sisters wedding night. I liked how they came from one side and then went in separate directions.

I like the angle and the amount of lighting there was. the only light source is really from the fairy lights and a few lights on in the pub.

You can see the night sky. You can't tell it's late because of all the street lights but it was about half 11 at night. The night sky also shows the business of the surrounding areas, How the light disturbs the sky which allows no stars to shine.



As strange as it sounds I like taking photos of the elements (Earth, Air, Wind, and Fire) I like expressing how they natural elements have an effect on us all.

A video art installation which is on permanent display at St Paul's Cathedral in London is by Bill Viola called Martyrs. A truly beautiful piece showing how we are effected by the elements of earth.

The natural elements have an honest beauty. By that I mean, they are not manipulated to be something they are not. What you get is what you are given which I feel is important in natural photography, It not to be posed and faked but genuine looks and feelings.

This particular photo was taken at Virginia water.  The whole park is basically a massive pond and you can walk round it either for a long walk or a short one.

On the walk we found this waterfall and you can get really close. This was just taken on an iPhone. Had I had a proper camera I could of used long exposure to make the water softer. However I like the roughness of it falling and slashing on the rocks, as it's this action that makes the sound.  The reasons the photo is so dark is because there was a lot of cloud cover and a lot of tree cover as well, so not a lot of natural light but it still made for a great photo, I do have photos of myself closer to the waterfall unfortunately they can't be located.


My reasons for posting these photos is to give a small in site in to my thinking. As in why I those the photo, the angle, how much control I had over the light and movement. Placement of certain objects, or what's in the photo itself.

These are all the things I consider when taking the photo and choosing one to post on Facebook or Instagram.

I hope this will reflect in my portraits project

Harold Edgerton and Ori Gersht

Harold 'Doc' Edgerton

Photo by Yousuf Karsh
“Work like hell, tell everyone everything you know, close a deal with a handshake, and have fun.” – Harold Egerton

He used the same technique as friend and co-founder of the strobotic effect I mentioned in an earlier post 'Gjon Mili'

However his knack for inventing helped him create the electronic flash allowing even the speed of a bullet to be frozen in time.

"Making Applesauce At MIT."

His work would be difficult to recreate even with computers on hand to open and close the shutter. Edgerton took his photos in the days of analogue. Using the flash he created to intricate shapes happening so fast the human eye wouldn't be able to comprehend.

Rapatronic

After the second world war, he created his most impressive photos. For example he captured the very first stage of an atomic explosion. Cameras then couldn't open and close the shutter fast enough to create the image. Therefore he built his own, known as the Rapatronic.

Atomic Explosion. 1946–52. Gelatine silver print

                                         

I didn't know a lot about the Rapatronic so I looked online and I found an article about it. Below is a quote from it, as well as the link to the page if you wanted to have a closer look. 

'The rapatronic camera lens included two perpendicular polarizers, which prevented any light from entering. Sandwiched in between them was a Kerr cell. When the Kerr cell was energized, it affected all of the light which passed through the first polarizer by rotating its plane of polarization by 90°, realigning the light to match the second polarizer. This allowed the light to pass through both polarizers whenever the Kerr cell was provided with electricity, which is exactly what was done for 10 nanoseconds at the critical moment. This assembly provided an extremely fast non-mechanical shutter, exposing the film to the light for a minuscule fraction of time.'

Harold Edgerton with the
stroboscope

Flash in photography largely meant 'flash powder' which was a mixture of magnesium and potassium chlorate. This created an incandescent controlled explosion. 

He created a stroboscopic light that contained a bulb full of an inactive gas which was originally mercury, this was connected to a battery.  

The volt of the current would cause the gas molecules to charge, causing an instant flash of bright light. The duration of the flash was much easier to adjust, making it more flexible. The battery would recharge the flash and be shot again and again. Where as the magnesium-filled flashbulbs which could only be used once and had to be thrown away. He called it the stroboscope.

I like Harold's work. It's experimental and imaginative. Another photographer who uses a lot of explosions in his work is Ori Gersht 

Blow Up - Untitled 18, 2007

Ori Gersht is a contemporary Israeli photographer and video artist. His photographs look at the world with in site. Even in destruction you can find beauty. Especially in his series of 'Blow up' and 'On reflection'

On Reflection, Material E01, 2014

Without Harold Edgerton's invention, a lot of Gersht's work wouldn't be possible

Bibliography

• https://www.damninteresting.com/rapatronic-nuclear-photographs/
• http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140722-the-man-who-froze-the-world
• https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/compound-eye/httpblogsscientificamericancomcompound-eye20110725the-astonishing-stroboscope-of-doc-edgerton/
• http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/281785
• http://www.artnet.com/artists/ori-gersht/

Gjon Mili

Born: 1904   Died: 1984 
photo by Mike Strong

'My generation came at a time when photography was advancing by leaps and bounds, creating the impulse to experiment and seek new approaches.' - Gjon Mili

A short history
Born in now known as Albania to Vasil Mili and Viktori Cekani  he grow up in Romania and then later migrated to the US in 1923. He attended The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he met Harold Edgerton, together they established the use of stroboscopic instruments to capture a series of movement in one photograph. In 1939 he became a free lance photographer for LIFE magazine a position he held until his death in 1984

This is a link to a video of how to use stroboscopic instruments.

1947 strobe shot of Nora Kaye dancing on pointe

He is defined as a 'Self-taught photographer' who shaped the world of dance photography. He was the first photographer to use electronic flash and stroboscopic light for dance, sports and theatre. He spent more than 40 years working for LIFE magazine.

Alfred Hitchcock 1942

At the time a controlled long exposure wasn't a tool that was available on cameras and create a clear image, so to create these artistic portraits he used stroboscopic lights to create these iconic pictures.

Jascha Heifetz playing in Mili’s darkened studio. Light attached to his bow traces the bow movement, New York, 1952

He directed a short film called "Jammin' The Blues" which was made by Warner bros in 1944. He also directed another film called "Improvisation" in 1950






Though through out his 40 years of working for the well known LIFE magazine there seems to be very little, if any interviews with this famous photographer. He's worked with all sorts of people from Pablo Picasso to Marilyn Monroe, so it seems surprising that he did very little interviews, he became the pioneer for the strobe effect in photography, yet no interviews with him seem to exist. of course I picked the one photographer who's work defined the use of long exposure before it even became a tool in photography who has no interviews accessible online or in the university library.

It's slightly shocking that a man, so renown for his work with strobe lighting, working with Alfred Hitchcock and Jascha Heifetz to not have an interview about his work, and what inspired him to create his work.

There are plenty of articles about him, which more or less repeat the same thing I have learnt about him. He was unknown to me, and after finding his work in the library (Portraits author unknown) I became fascinate by his use of long exposure, though through research I have found that he basically created it but using stroboscopic lights instead.

However Mili is not the first to use light painting in photography, the first being Étienne-Jules Marey and Georges Demeny in 1889 the painting famously known as "Pathological Walk From in Front".

Demeny and Quenu (Marey's laboratory), Pathological walk from in front, made visible by incandescent bulbs fixed to the joints, circa 1889, Archives of the college de France

If Gjon Mili was alive today I would ask him what inspired him to create these pieces which thousands of people all around the world would see, What or who made him want to become a photographer?

Blackie Gjon Mili's cat

Gjon Mili takes a lot of pictures of his cat 'Blackie' this could be interpreted as a self portrait of himself portrayed by his cat. 

Blackie in LIFE magazine 1943

He never takes any photos of his self therefore I believe he uses his cat as him self.

6 Photographs I have chosen 

This photo makes me think of echoes, the residual energy we leave behind. Almost a mark we leave in the moment of movement. It's  harmless, fluid, and transcendent.

This photo is of a ballet dancer, on pointe.





This photo is known as Alfred Hitchcock walk, it shows him thinking about something, or listening to what some says, and he comes up with an idea or sees something in the distance.
Makes me think of the aspect of life, the moment we have an idea or see something beautiful and we have to share it with someone.

This is a picture of Mili's cat, I love this image because he looks so unimpressed with something which is happening outside the image, the look of being cautiously observant, waiting for something to happen, to the pry, alert to his surroundings. 

Not so much fear, but on guard for something bad to possibly happen.

This is a picture of Pablo Picasso, seeing this image it makes me think that Picasso and Mili are good friends, possibly even best friends, someone you can do silly things with, without judgement, but have a laugh with. 

A self portrait of me, in Lucy's mask

It makes me think of a photo I did with my friend, she asked me to model a mask for her for an photography project back in college. 


A lot of his photos are done in black and white and in a studio, except this photo, it's on a beach, in colour, not very serious, just a bit of fun, one of these photos was published in LIFE magazine. Mili has done photos in colour but mainly they are in a studio.







Mili does a lot of work with Pablo Picasso, this one is part of light painting photography, here is Picasso painting with light either with a lighter or a light on a paint brush. 

This photo makes me think of firework night, when you get the sparklers out and you spin the really quickly they leave a trace of light. Firework night is always special to be because it's my grandad's birthday and every year we light a firework for him, this photo brings back happy memories for me, you can't help but smile. 

I love this photo because it's completely black except the light traces and Picasso him self in light, almost like there is alway a light in the darkness, you just have to look for it.  Looking closely at the image you can't actually see his hand, on his face, part of his arm and part of his upper torso are in light giving chance to interpret the image better, questions I ask my self is why did Mili choose to do it this way? What was his trying to show with only part of Picasso's body in the light? What story is he trying to tell? 

Light is finite, as are we, I think what Mili is trying to say is that we are finite, we don't last forever but we leave traces of our selves in life, maybe in pictures, or the memories we leave behind.  So the question is, are we really finite?

This is of a modelling shoot, for synthetic rainwear. Mimi Berry in 1941 for LIFE magazine photo taken by Gjon Mili. 
I like this photograph because the rain is blurry and out of focus, her face is the only thing in focus, the shadow i don't know if this is purposely there or not. 

A lot of the photos I have seen Mili do aren't really for fashion but to show what he can do with the camera and the resource he has access to.

In Conclusion

Gjon Mili is a private man who either doesn't want to divulge his life to an interviewer or quite possibly he's never been asked to do one. He loves his cat and this is obvious through the fact he uses his cat a lot in his photos. He is an underachieved genius who brilliance is not completely recognised, for what he has achieved and the beautiful images he has created. Mili died doing what he loved, being experimental in his images.

References 

• https://monoskop.org/Gjon_Mili   15 January 2014 author unknown
• http://edgerton-digital-collections.org/  date unknown, author Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• http://www.artfuldancer.com/lessons/topics/DanceProduction/GjonMili.htm 2016 author Mike Strong
• http://search.time.com/?q=Gjon+Mili&site=time between 2016 and 2012 Author Times magazine
• http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0587388/?ref_=ttfc_fc_dr1  Date unknown author IMDB
• http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000033/ Date unknown author IMDB
• http://jaschaheifetz.com/  Date unknown Author Heifetz Estate
• http://lightpaintingphotography.com/light-painting-history/  both date and author are unknown