Assignmnet 5

Applying the techniques of illustration and narrative

Welcome to St Andrews

Here is a guide to this lovely coastal town in Fife.

Weclome to St Andrews

St Andrews lies on the east coast of Fife on a plateau rising up from the Kinness Burn
to the south and dropping into the North Sea via steep cliffs on its northern side.
The earliest known settlements in the area are of the Iron Age era, which was pre
Roman and pre Christian. Cist burials of probably Iron Age settlements have been
found at Kirkhill on the eastern promontory and at Hallowhill to the west

The Old Course Club House

St Andrews is famously known around the world as the Home of Golf. Everybody has heard of the Old Course, but there are ten other courses as well!

Despite their hallowed reputation, the links here are public golf courses, open to all. An Act of Parliament in 1974 created the St Andrews Links Trust to preserve and enhance these public golfing rights. The Trust currently operates six courses on the links – the world-renowned Old Course, the New Course, the Jubilee, the Eden , the Strathtyrum  and the nine-hole Balgove. A seventh – The Castle Course – has been built in a panoramic coastal setting to the south of the town.

The Courses at St Andrews

The West Port is one of the very few examples of a medieval city gate remaining in Scotland. Built in 1589 and renovated in 1843, it stands at the bottom of St Andrews’ South Street provides an imposing welcome to the town centre – just the effect its builders wished it to have, over 400 years ago.

St Andrews Museum is housed within the striking Kinburn Castle – originally a Victorian mansion house.

A permanent “St Andrews A-Z” display relates the history of  the town, whilst the Kinburn Gallery upstairs features changing temporary exhibitions, generally related to the visual arts and crafts. There is a programme of events and activities throughout the year, and the ‘Cafe in the Park’ sells home-made food. The adjacent public park has tennis courts, a bowling green and some interesting botanical specimens.

A “must-see” for every visitor to St Andrews, the Cathedral’s ruins are truly spectacular – but they can only hint at the vast grandeur of what was once the largest church in Scotland. The thousands of medieval pilgrims who travelled on foot to St Andrews must have regarded the 11th and 12th Century structure with absolute awe. In fact, no more massive building was to be constructed in Scotland for a further 600 years!

St Andrews Castle has been by turns a fortress, palace and prison. It is largely ruined, battered from centuries of wars, sieges and high tides, but remains a fascinating visit on any trip to St Andrews. Children will love the visitor centre, with its beautifully illustrated history of those who lived – and died – in the castle. St Andrews Castle’s infamous “bottle dungeon” and the underground mine and countermine are well-preserved evidence of the castle’s medieval past, but they may not be suitable for the faint-hearted!

Exercise : A Narrative Picture Essay

Welcome to St. Andrews

36 mm 30 Sec @ f 22 ISO 100

200 mm 1/250 Sec @ f 11 ISO 200

200 mm 1/160 Sec @ f 11 ISO 200

This guide has been put together to give first time golfers & students a tour of the town.  The magnificent University Buildings look great lit up at night.  The Old Clubhouse sat at the 18^th Hole ready to serve the weary golfers.

Page 1

Accomodation

When you visit St Andrews there are loads of hotels to stay at from the rich and famous all the way to the halls of residence for first year students.

70 mm 1/160 Sec @ f 11 ISO 200

70 mm 1/400 Sec @ f 11 ISO 200

75 mm 1/50 Sec @ f 11 ISO 200

60 mm 1/400 Sec @ f 6.3 ISO 400

38 mm 1/50 Sec @ f 8 ISO 200

Page 2

Retail Therapy

When you are in town, why not do some retail therapy.  Golfers get that custom made set of clubs and some new tweeds.  Students browse through the large range of books for this semester.  Enjoy freshly cooked treats at the local stores and take a rest and watch the town slowly pass by.

28 mm 1/160 Sec @ f 7.1 ISO 200

64 mm 1/60 Sec @ f 7.1 ISO 400

28 mm 1/400 Sec @ f 5.6 ISO 200

44 mm 1/20 Sec @ f 5.0 ISO 200

70 mm 1/40 Sec @ f 6.3 ISO 200

Page 3

Dining

No need to bring your own lunch with the myriad of coffee chops and cafe’s and small restaurants, there is a food outlet for everyone’s wallet.

38 mm 1/400 Sec @ f 3.2 ISO 200

70 mm 1/250 Sec @ f 4.0 ISO 200

60 mm 1/160 Sec @ f 6.3 ISO 400

 

31 mm 1/125 Sec @ f 7.1 ISO 200

28 mm 1/40 Sec @ f 7.1 ISO 200

Page 4

 

Sight Seeing

Relax and unwind after a busy week at University or after a day on the course with a walk through the old Historic St. Andrews town.  Through the ruins of the Castle through to the magnificent Abbey ruins.

32 mm 1/100 Sec @ f 8.0 ISO 200

50 mm 1/125 Sec @ f 7.1 ISO 400

28 mm 1/200 Sec @ f 9.0 ISO 200

31 mm 1/125 Sec @ f 7.1 ISO 200

28 mm 1/250 Sec @ f 2.8 ISO 100

28 mm 1/100 Sec @ f 11 ISO 200

I Hope you have enjoyed this tour of St Andrews and Look forward to welcoming you back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exercise : A Narrative Picture Essay – Background

The idea for this narrative is to develop a guide for students and tourists wanting to visit St. Andrews in Fife.

I figured it would be a 4 page pamphlet covering the Student and Golf related topics.

Page 1 would have the University, the golf course and golfers on it.

Page 2 would go into the shopping in the town for both students and golfers.

Page 3 would deal with the food outlets for the varying students and tourists.

Page 4 would cover the old St. Andrews ruins and tourist attractions.

With this in mind I have created a shoot list and plan to go out and shoot these as soon as the weather goes from grey and lifeless to a nice sunny autumn day.

My list is:

Golfers

University Buildings

Student classrooms

University Book store

Cafe’s

restaurants

Old Ruins of the Castle and the Abbey

Golf stores

club house

cobbled streets

The old course hotel

student digs.

I will compile the narrative in word and hopefully manage to post it from word rather than paste it in.

 

Exercise : Rain

So I have to imagine a magazine cover on one subject, Rain.  Well after the weather of the UK this year it is easy to imagine why a magazine would have such an obscure topic on its cover.

Initial ideas are floods and erosion caused by the rain, however I don’t intend to wait till the next disaster to find something similar.  Then I thought of all the garden parties that have been postponed or put off due to rain.  Thoughts of my car windscreen and the wipers trying to clear the rain on the long journeys between my postings to opposite ends of the UK.  I do have a rain sleeve for my camera and lenses however I don’t think I need to get my camera wet or even shoot out in the rain for this exercise.

It would be easy to recreate a scene from a party and have it “Rained” on, or to cover my car in “Rain” and shoot the wipers clearing the deluge from the windscreen.  The trusty garden hose may come to my rescue here.

Having shot this and after editing I have just realised that I should have shot it in Portrait orientation.  All my images are landscape, so I have created an inside / outside diptych image that is better shaped for printing as a magazine cover.

Top 70 mm 1/1000 Sec @ f 4 ISO 400
Bottom 50 mm 1/1000 Sec @ f 4 ISO 800

Is it an attractive image?  Well I do like how the rainbow effect is happening on the cleared glass .  As a subject, Rain is quite difficult to make look attractive.

 

Exercise : Juxtaposition

For this exercise I have to find one image that tells a story.  An illustration for a book cover that contains a different perspective or viewpoint of a subject.

I have a few ideas that instantly spring to mind, a castle with its canons juxtaposed in the foreground.  A Golfer teeing off juxtaposed with the clubhouse in the distance. Things that would excite the viewer and could easily adorn the cover of a magazine.  That said, this image is going to have to be in portrait mode.

31 mm 1/4000 Sec @ f 2.8 ISO 200

Here the sign depicting how the castle would have looked juxtaposed against the castle ruin is what I would expect to see on a cover of a museum guide however it is in the wrong format.  Therefore I have this other image of a tombstone inside the grounds of the old Abbey, juxtaposed against the Abbey walls.

28 mm 1/800 Sec @ f 2.8 ISO 200

Makes me think if the abbey looked any different in 1858? Did this guy see anything that has since disappeared?

 

Exercise : Symbols

The idea of this project is to find symbols for a number of concepts.  Complete it by listing more than one symbol for each of the following subjects, then add a short not describing how you would use them in a photograph.  The subjects are.

1. Growth.

2. Excess.

3. Crime.

4. Silence.

5. Poverty.

There are no photographs required for this exercise however the brief does say that I am welcome to post anything that I feel enthusiastic about.

Growth

I thought of this long and hard and have come up with the image of a growth chart for 2 youngsters.  Marking off their height as they both grow up.  I can see the smaller of the 2 youngsters looking on as the taller one is measured in the background by a parent.  The younger one juxtaposed against the larger one in the background.

Excess

Having moved from the USA to the UK recently I know all about excess baggage and Immediately thought of having an image of a couple trying to stuff more and more clothes into a suitcase.  Juxtaposed against some airline tickets in the foreground displaying the 1 Piece of luggage and 25 Kg limit displayed on it.  This therefore screams Excess Baggage.  Another thought was the ever bulging waistline in the background against a large plate of food, showing excess weight or excess food.

Crime

With crime I had thought of the cliche murder scene with police tape, juxtaposed against the murder weapon.  Another line of thought was the local signs you see in shops and stores about shoplifting and having someone put something in their pocket in front of the sign.

Silence

Initially I thought of speaking and libraries, the quiet please signs you see in Libraries and then I got thinking of the umpire in a tennis  match saying quiet please as the players are about to serve.  Nut that is the spoken word and quite hard to show in an image.  Therefore I came up with a golfer ready to tee off, the stewards hold up large signs in front of the crowds saying “Quiet Please”.  Another line of thought was with Remembrance Day approaching I would like to take an image of the troops during their sombre silence and moment of reflection  that happens on the parades.  That would scream Silence, especially if juxtaposed against the memorial.

Poverty

Now thinking of poverty and having one image describe it, I could go down the homeless beggar route however I feel that in this day and age another thing that screams poverty is the amount of people who are in fuel poverty.  I would therefore take and image of 2 pensioners sat in their chairs at home wrapped in blankets, wearing finger less gloves sat in front of a 2 bar electric fire.  They are trying to warm their bones before having to switch it off.  It would be easy to juxtapose a “Final Reminder” Utility Bill on the foreground on a sideboard.

Exercise : Evidence of Action

For this exercise, I had to take a photograph that shows that something has happened.  An image that explains what has gone on without any explanation.

50 mm 1/50 Sec 2 f 1.8 ISO 400

I chose to shoot the aftermath of an evening in, the empty cans of lager and wine bottle show that the contents have been drunk, the knocked over full cans highlight the revelers may have had one too many and knocked things over.

I shot this with a bit of a post crop vignette in LR to emphasize the foggy feeling you get in the morning after such an evening, having to come in and tidy up before you can continue on your day.  The shallow depth of field just adds to the fogginess.

Assignment 4 Applying Lighting Techniques

In this Assignment I have to produce 8 images each in a different lighting scenario.  Using light from natural daylight to photographic lighting.  I need to include the following qualities into the subject one at a time by means of Lighting.

1. Shape

2. Form

3. Texture

4. Colour

Several ideas came to mind on how to do this, ultimately though I was going to find an ornament in the house that I can position on a table in the home studio that I can light from various angles and still be able to get all the way round and hopefully fulfill the brief.

I have taken a lot of photographs of mundane objects and Ornaments to date and am not happy to date with the results.

So on with the Assignment.

For the first image, I had to show off the subjects shape using light, so I set my light behind the subject and shot straight at it, a bit more than rim light but it was the silhouette I was looking for.

47 mm 1/30 Sec @ f 4.0 ISO 100

38 mm 1/5 Sec # f 4.0 ISO 100

The second image, had a little less light behind so therefore you can see more of the detail of the object.

70 mm 1/15 Sec @ f 4.0 ISO 400

40 mm 1/8 Sec @ f 4.0 ISO 100

To accentuate the form of this object I have applied some side lighting and slightly from the rear to bring out some depth in the images.  By shooting the first image slightly turned it has allowed the light to wrap round and light the image.  The second image has side lighting to show off some shadow detail and add some depth to the image.  F 4 is quite wide but I felt if I went any smaller I would be into the long exposure scenarios and would lose the effect I was trying to achieve.

200 mm 1/15 Sec @ f 4.0 ISO 400

This was shot using a tripod as the shutter speed was still too low even after bumping the ISO to 400.  I wanted the light to only wrap round half the image and put some of it into shadow whist still allowing you to see the detail on the face.

70 mm 1/80 Sec @ f 4.0 ISO 400

I really wanted this image to show off extreme shadow and the detail in the hands.  I wanted the light to show the detail on the hair and shoulder.

In the last two images I have tried to get out the best of the colour, even though the object is white, between the light colour and the ambient light on the background I think I have shown two different colours.

70 mm 1/20 Sec @ f 4.0 ISO 400

Side lighting was used to bring out the colours of the object, but I used bare light and not diffused as I wanted to achieve some shadow detail.

70 mm 1/6 Sec @ f 4.0 ISO 400

More side lighting was used, this time from the left to throw only half the object in light and the other in shadow.

You can see the difference in colour considering the object was white.

Exercise : Shiny Surfaces

For this exercise I have to find something that is reflective and shiny and place it against a black background, set the camera and light source above and take some shots.  To try and beat the reflection I will then roll some tracing paper around the object and the lens and take the same shot again.

42 mm 1/8 Sec @ f 3.5 ISO 100

42 mm 1/20 Sec @ f 3.5 ISO 100

42 mm 1/15 Sec @ f 3.5 ISO 100

42 mm 1/13 Sec @ f 3.5 ISO 100

42 mm 1/3 Sec @ f 3.5 ISO 100

42 mm 1/2 Sec @ f 3.5 ISO 100

42 mm 1/3 Sec @ f 3.5 ISO 100

It seems that for the second part of this exercise, the sunlight through the window overpowered the light shining onto the shiny object.  The tracing paper did not go al the way round the subject so there is still a small reflection but I do fully understand how the tracing paper will stop the reflection showing on the shiny surface and how the paper would act as a diffuser for the light source.

I could also see how you would have to use an object to prevent reflections, especially if you were shooting say a mirror in the distance and you did not want to get yourself and the camera in it.  Also the shooting angle has a lot to do with whether or not you appear in the image.  Had I have shot these from one of the sides, there would still be a reflection however it would not be of the photographer and camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exercise : Outdoors at Night

For this exercise, I have to take around 12 – 20 images of things outdoors at night. Try to include the following items in your shoot list.

1. Floodlit building

2. Brightly lit store front

3. A Large interior

4. A raised view of a road.

I have planned to go out around dusk so I can capture the shape of the buildings armed with my tripod and camera with a 28-70 f 2.8 lens and cable release.

Up in the North East of Scotland, Darkness falls on you fast.  The following images are part of the brief, although I never got to shoot a large interior and will plan to shoot at a local supermarket next time.

32 mm 30 Sec @ f 22 ISO 100

32 mm 15 Sec @ f 22 ISO 100

31 mm 30 Sec @ f 16 ISO 100

31 mm 15 Sec @ f 22 ISO 100

I purposely under exposed the second shot so I could see inside the store front and not have the interior lights blown out like in the first image.

28 mm 30 Sec @ f 13 ISO 100

28 mm 30 Sec @ f 22 ISO 100

I feel by varying the aperture I was able to get a more well balanced shot, I was shooting in Aperture priority mode and purposely under exposing by 1 to 2 stops to stop the street lights blowing everything out.  The smaller aperture also gives the streetlights a nice star effect instead of a blob of light.

28 mm 30 Sec @ f 22 ISO 100

28 mm 30 Sec @ f 22 ISO 100

The last 2 images were a bus and taxi going past, it is great to see the different lights and trails appear along with the star effect lights.

36 mm 30 Sec @ f 22 ISO 100

70 mm 30 Sec @ f 22 ISO 100

28 mm 30 Sec @ f 8.0 ISO 100

Due to the fog coming in, the sky was being lit by the street lights by this point so I had to reduce the Aperture so as to not get one large blob of light.

53 mm 30 Sec @ f 13 ISO 100

70 mm 30 Sec @ f 19 ISO 100

53 mm 30 Sec @ f 11 ISO 100

70 mm 30 Sec @ f 19 ISO 100

Due to the lights used to light the buildings being sodium floodlights they appear to be a bit orange against the tungsten greens.

The last 2 images show the different properties and colours of light in a town, there are sodium, tungsten and fluorescent lights aplenty.

70 mm 30 Sec @ f 8 ISO 100

70 mm 30 Sec @ f 8.0 ISO 100

The low cloud cover was beginning to prevent decent night shot photographs being captured as the sky was being artificially lit by the town.  I hope you can see the difference in light types from the 2 images above.

It was extremely difficult to focus in such darkness so I focused to infinity and shot most of these at a small aperture to get everything in focus.