Final work Evaluation

I was going to have four photos, and then take the same four photos of my sister (Roman's mum) and my dad. and have one line of Roman, then my sister, then my dad. But unfortunately my sister is having some personal time and therefore I could finish what my aim was. I then planned to use my other sister (Roman's aunty) and still use my dad, but I felt that it wasn't going to follow a family line, father, daughter, grandchild. Three generations. So I decided to use six photos of Roman.

If i got to do the project again, or advance it further, i'd finish what I started, and get the same photos following the generations. I used Lightroom to correct the white balance, and to crop the image to get the image I wanted, next time i'd try different focal points to have more of a variety when chosing the image I want. Especially with the foot image as it didn't;t give me a lot of options on where to crop, especially due to the lighting. I decided to use natural lighting from the window in my living room because It gave enough light in the room and it casted some nice shadows.

I like in the image of Roman's head you can see the fine strands of his hair in detail. a lot of the images have fluff like in between his toes, and on his hands but I thought it would work with the images, because he is a baby, they always have stuff on their bodies, so it adds emphasis on him being young.

The eyebrow image could be a bit more clearer as well as the one of his fingers, and a larger focal point for the ear.

the final work came quite late, but its still come out quite well, although it does need to be improved as well as developed. Its been an interesting journey to be on, learning my strengths and weaknesses.

I'm really proud of my final work, I didn't think working in this way using macro would work so well, however it did and i'm happy with my final outcome.

Following Tutorials

Being stuck for awhile on how I aim to complete this unit, many questions go unanswered; What camera am I going to use?, Do I continue in film or DSLR?, How am I going to present this?, and What am I trying to show?

After having a tutorial with Rosie it was discussed that I use Macro to get really close up image of Roman, getting all the fine details of his skin and hair.  My series was to follow on from my first series piece of Hannah to then have photos of Roman 1 year on.... However baby photography has been done, and I run the risk of it being just another family photoshoot, which is not what i'm aiming for.

I'm going to continue learning Film but I won't use it for this project, i'm going to finish this project in DSLR so I can make sure I get the images I want.  I'm going to print the images out in A5 and put them in a line.

Fields and Frames

Ashvini Ray

Ashvini Ray, born 1990 in Sydney, Australia. In 2011, she completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts, at Sydney University, Sydney College of the Arts. She has since been involved in multiple group-exhibitions culminating in her first solo exhibition at Gallery 8 in Sydney.

She mainly works with sculptures and installations, but she has done some photography work. One series she did named 'The Untitled Series" which focuses on my chosen theme of the body. She took interesting abstract black and white photographs. 

She uses a macro lens to get these images. I want to try and do this on Roman, it will be easier when he's asleep or eating because thats the only time he's still enough to get any photos.  However, looking on the google images for examples, it seems its been mostly done on newborns and its always their feet, it's more close up than macro for all the image on google, where as I want to try more like Ashvini Ray's photography getting really close and seeing all the fine details

Roman Phoenix Ray

Following my presentation, it was discussed that I need to think more critically about my approach to fields and frames.

I was given ideas of, taking photos of Roman and Hannah and their relationship, especially because she didn't feel this sudden rush of love everyone had talked about, its been a struggle and Hannah felt she was the only one feeling this way, but after posting her feelings on Instagram saying that she does now love him completely, so many people turned to her and told her that they had felt the same way.

She also felt because she knew the sex of Roman there wasn't going to be any surprise to when he came out, other than what he looked like. Roman has had this massive impact on our family, in a way giving my mother a reason to sort her self out.

Another idea was photographing items that represent Roman and be more abstract in my approach, because photos of babies had already been done by almost everyone.

So the question is how do I intent to make it different?...

I guess that with more tutorials it will come out a bit more clear my intentions to what I intend to produce. but in any case having a go at trying 35mm film especially with the dark room workshop on Monday the 19th. But I also wanted to continue with my DSLR because of Pro Tools advanced photography.

A lot of my photos I didn't want them to be posed because I felt that 'in the moment' is obviously more real but real emotion and you can see how they felt in that moment.

Following from photographing his representations or possessions to see if that could tell more of a story, I didn't want to loose my passion in my idea, but i'm almost too close to it as well to have a critical reflection... However I know what I feel looks good and what doesn't.

Learning about Lightroom I can create both collections and catalogues to decide which ones work and which don't and also showing what I have done to Rosie in tutorials. However I am limited by this in terms of analogue film but this is easily solved by digitising them or scanning the negs in to my computer or even scanning in the processed images.

Developing idea

Following my discovery of Memories composed it got me thinking about family. Following from my portrait series of Hannah and bump 'Then there were three'













I wanted to further this and take photos of Roman in the classic family photos like this ->

I either want to take photos of Roman individually, take photos of Roman and put them in an order which almost creates Romans face, or take photos of his body like photoshoot of baby Kellen by Memories composed 

Memories Composed 

Roman

I've still got to decide how I want to lay everything out, but I wanted to follow on from my bump shoot. 

I want to try and shoot using 35mm film 

Memories Composed

Memories composed is a blog written by a women called Sarah, she has 4 children.... unfortunately her youngest passed away, his lung didn't develop correctly in the womb and he had a cleft palate.

After many tests the doctor came back with a scan of his lungs, the doctor explained that at this point he would be unable to recover from the damage done to his tiny body. His oxygen levels had been at a low level for too long and he was not going to be able to handle the rigor of the machines much longer.

Sarah and her Husband Josh knew there wasn't really any decision to make. After some discussions with the doctors they decided that they would place Silas in Sarah's arms and slowly take away the machines that were helping his lungs function. Eventually the room cleared and it was just a few of them left, Sarah doesn't write much more which happened on that sad day other than the prayer Silas' grandfather said.

Her family took some photos of those moments they had with him.

All of this made me think about how short time really is, its infinite but also too short. My sister which if you remember from a previous post when I photographer her, her partner and soon to be son when he was in the womb. Hannah was given a 5 year window to have all if any children before the medication she'd have to go on would cause her to become infertile, and also being told she might not be able to have children... but she had little Roman who turns one soon.

It also made me think about me, I also when I was in the womb my mother thought she had a miscarriage, but because it was a Sunday she wouldn't be able to find out until the Monday.... it was then discovered that there was a similar sized pocket next to me, which suggested that I had a twin... But 7 months in to pregnancy the umbilical cord clogged up and I was getting what I needed to grow, this meant i was very small, when I was delivered I was blue and wasn't breathing, before anyone could get a proper look at me I was rushed away the moment they got me to take my first breath. I then spent the next week or so in the neonatal intensive care unit as I couldn't keep myself warm. Once my doctors were confident that I could keep my self warm they let me go home, weighing a very little 4 pounds.

Its at this time that you realise how important family is and the family photos.

Pull and Push before Cohesion - The shoot days 27th and 28th November 2017

I really enjoyed doing the studio shoot, I got quite a few comments on my camera work... however I didn't think what I was doing was really that amazing... I was following direction of Joe and Savina, and added some of my own ideas as well, again quite late in to the stage.

We ended up scrapping the shot list and re wrote it as we filmed the dance. Which wasn't great put gave us a chance to do unplanned shots as well.  The set was beautifully made and with Paige going back and forth from Basingstoke to get the fabric for the curtains, which she also sewed together.

I really enjoyed being digital tech, I thought it was a great opportunity to show both myself and others what I can do, it was almost a boost of confidence and a sense of purpose.... I really struggled with ideas for what I wanted to do after university and if being a digital tech is what I want to go into, it was a good opportunity for me to have a go and see what it was like and the responsibilities behind the role.

I did however feel I was slightly taking over Savina's role, unless it was purely just giving my ideas on how we could accomplish something, then I wasn't.

Joe, Savina, Suzi, George, and Ollie, all worked super hard during meetings and behind the scenes to get the idea all together, with regular updates on a group page, scheduled meetings, and google docs was set up for all of us to have a look at, add our own research, and read what was already done and see the whole idea slowly coming together. I don't think any of us really saw it in a bigger picture in terms of filming until we actually filmed it and set up the set. I certainly didn't feel it felt real until we were there and doing it.

Alice and Suzi did a nice dance and worked together in tandem to get the dance piece flowing, After being let down by acting students (understandably because they have their own work) Alice was nice enough to step up and help us out, which was really appreciated, we had one more dancer in mind but again due to her work load, with time ticking away and getting closer to the studio shoot we needed a solution fast, so Suzi stepped in and helped us get the dance choreographed and filmed.

Paige did a great job of doing the actors make up and putting the set together! she worked really hard to get the work done.

George was superman of the studio shoots, as he was first AD for our studio shoot and sound mixer for the second group, this left him in a difficult position because he was head of departments for both groups! He pulled it out the bag though and did a fantastic job of both roles.

Ollie and Luca were on sound, although not necessary on set unfortunately not being able to be as active as originally thought, they helped out in other roles too. They both helped on clapper board, Ollie doing a fantastic job of it, he was right on the mark for all of it and spoke clearly for us to get it marked correctly.

Hollie was on lights, and she did a good job of that making sure all light were primed and ready.

Tensions were very high, with very very minor spats, mainly just a bit of bitching but nothing to be concerned about, as we all worked together to get the job done, and speaking from the camera point of view it came out beautifully.

Some equipment wasn't charged over the weekend therefore when we came to shoot day, it was a bit of a rush and slightly stressful to find batteries that were working.... After setting up the camera, and then coming back to it on shoot day, finding out the settings had been changed, although not a major problem, it wasn't the best thing to happen. This came as a moment of learning to remember next time re check the settings on the camera to make sure its all as it was before.


It was really interesting to do the studio shoot and I got quite high praise from everyone about my job role and how I did.

Dance Film

I looked on youtube to find some dance videos, these are a few of my favourites I found.

Medicine 

I really enjoyed this piece by Zack Benitez and Priscilla Villa, Directed by Charles Baldassarra, and performed by Zack Benitez and Tamara Marthe. It started off with a POV of Tamara as she is laying on the floor in a warehouse and stands up disorientated and sees Zack. It then switches to an OTS of Tamara. I liked this shift because it was subtle and fluid. It tells the Story of a man struggling with an illness ad a women trying to support him through it. However he struggles to carry on the fight.

The Dance is very connected with both Dancers being in close proximity for the first three minutes of the piece, it Then shows the woman trying not to loose him however, he fights back and pulls away. It becomes a fight with a very beautiful transition from a jump from Tamara in to an embrace and she is now wearing a patience robe. As if to show the fight for them to stay together and battle the illness has caused both of them to become ill.

The camera starts with long takes, the Dance starts off slow and then picks up more pace through out, as if to say the illness is becoming stronger. The operators and Directors chosen angles some times loose the subjects face, but it does give you the opportunity to see the whole body.

The camera is always moving, both following the Dancers and moving around them as well. The facial expressions of the Dancers also helps strengthen the story, and almost shows them in pain.

Each movement flows to the next, with strong lifts.

This helps give me a few ideas of the certain angles to choose from as they range from close ups to wide shots, which helps give me variety in the piece, The Camera is almost a third partner in the dance, it helped show me people working together as a duet, which is going to be part of my piece.

Wicked Game 

Wicked Game was choreographed and performed by Travis Wall and Amy Yakima. This piece was performed on So You Think You Can Dance S10E15

This piece is about two people fighting each other although they are in love, Although this is not specifically a dance film, it shows the strength in the movements which helps show the conflict between the two subjects. Because its a tv show the camera doesn't really move behind the Dancers. The angles are mainly two person shot, tracking, wide, low and high.

The moments flow from one to the other. They are strong and in control

I really enjoyed watching this piece as it helped give me ideas on the conflict for my piece.

It starts with Travis approaching Amy from behind and finishes with the two embraced, as if to show the audience they spent so long fighting that they finally gave in and fell in love.

The Dancers very rarely leave each other side, however they use the space around the well. The Takes are quite long for a multi cam piece, however this helps give the audience at home a real feel for the atmosphere the dancers are trying to produce.