1 day Breif

Knife try

Out of the cold blackness a hooded guy, kid maybe, waved a switchblade. “Gimme yer money, boy.”

“Got no money.” I dropped the newspaper bag and by dumb luck grappled the knife away. He got cut pretty good and ran off, howling. I kept the knife and never saw him again.

Today we got set a 1 day brief we all picked short stories from a hat at random, above is the short story that I pulled out. We then were set the task of taking a series of 4 images that were relevant to the story. As my story was based at night and the brief was set during the day I decided to take my images in the studio. After reading over my story a few times, I decided to take key aspects from it and capture them photographically. 

My first images shows the "hooded guy", I didn't want to have to much going on in the images I wanted them to be very dark and almost creepy, so they give of an uncomfortable manic feel, which relate to the emotions you would feel when in this situation. Then for my second image I decided to photograph loose change, as a way of showing he had no money to give. I took a literal approach when photographing the image but I carefully places the coins and positioned the hand to fit the frame nicely. I also added contrast and offset to create a duller image to once again portray night time.

My third image is of the "newspaper bag" I decided to have the bag in the background of the bokeh lights, I feel using this effect gives a feel of night time,cars and street lights.  

Within my second image I have used a longer shutter speed to capture "Grabbling of the knife", within this image I feel I have portrayed a sense of rush and confusion, which exaggerates the feel of panic.

I enjoyed the brief I found that at first I did panic slightly as I do sometime find it hard to have to process ideas quickly and when I do, I usually find i'm never happy with the final product, as I feel its rushed and that if I had more time it could of been developed further, but I feel it has helped me develop my skills of having to work to deadlines and being given a very specific topic has help me have to think fast and work around something, which will be a great help in my future career. 

Duke Studio

Duke studio is situated above the leeds gallery. It is a place for people who study within the art industry to go and use the facilities to do work. They have space that you can hire and you get a pass to use this space when ever you like, differing as to what member ship you hold. The spaces they have to hire go from a small study space, to a desk or even to a larger scale room which may be used for some independent businesses. They also have a photography studio which is available, along with great equipment such as a vinyl cutter and laser printer. Duke studio is a place where you can "Business is social, meet, work, collaborate, explore, learn, grow and succeed."  They also have a workshop facility along with an amazing unique meeting room. Duke studio is defiantly a brilliant place to be apart of not only for meeting new people, but its situated right in the city centre and isn't like any other offices, so if you were to develop your own company there, work would be something you would looked forward to. 

Leeds gallery

I recently visited Leeds gallery, where i viewed the exhibition "Sun award 24". Here they had a range of different photographs that had been taken by northern photographs that had all entered a competition to get there work exhibited. 

2 NOVEMBER – 15 DECEMBER 2012

"The Sun Awards showcase and reward the best in professional photography. It does this through an annual judged competition, the showcase Sun exhibition, with allied events and seminars highlighting photography generated in the Northern regions of the UK, within the disciplines of advertising, design, fashion and editorial.

This is the 24th Annual ‘Shot Up North’ Awards.

Exhibition catalogues are available at £10 each from the gallery.

For more information about the competition please go to shotupnnorth.co.uk."

The exhibition had 3 chosen images which were all brilliant photographs, each where completely different but made you stand and question how they had taken it and wether post production had been used. They all had create compositions and were framed very well.

This image was chosen as first place it Head in the Fridge by Dan Prince, the reasoning behind thing as it was very abstract and made the judges question, where the light was coming from and wether he head was super imposed as there isn't an obvious shadow, or even was the roof taken of the refrigerator. All these things added to how interesting the photograph was, it also is a simple image but creates different concepts within different peoples minds.

This is my personal favourite is called Jalalpa children by Tim Hetherington, I like this photograph as the colours used as very soft and dream light. It reminds me of children around christmas time, it captures the wonders of children's fantasies. I also feel that the lighting within the photograph has been captured perfectly, highlighting different aspects of the image that leads you to create almost your own storyline to the photograph.

"Leeds Gallery is an independent commercial art gallery in Leeds, West Yorkshire specialising in Photography, Illustration and Fine Art. With a focus that is both local and national the gallery’s aim is to support local arts and culture while also bringing artists and their work to the city from further afield.

Since opening in September 2011 the gallery has exhibited an eclectic mix of styles and media from both established and emerging talents; exhibitions range from photography to illustration, painting, printmaking and sculpture. The space also hosts a wide-ranging programme of events and is available to hire for functions and private exhibitions.

Situated inside Munro House in the ‘Arts Quarter’ of Leeds, Leeds Gallery is not to be confused with Leeds City Art Gallery. We are situated at the corner of York Street and Duke Street in LS9, just moments from the City Centre, around the corner from BBC Yorkshire and opposite the City Bus Station"

http://www.leedsgallery.com/

http://www.leedsgallery.com/exhibitions/sunawards24/

Gallery Visit

Recently i visited,  White Cloth Gallery is a unique photography + film gallery with events space and café bar in the heart of the inspiring cultural city of Leeds.

WCG showcases challenging, stimulating and energetic work from established and emerging artists from across the world.

 12pm – 7pm Mon – Sat

At the moment they have a exhibition on by Ewen Spencer thats called "England's Dreaming".

England’s Dreaming consists of a series of images taken in and around the country that encompass the artist’s profound interest in youth and street culture. This highly anticipated exhibition, shot over 15-years, examines what it means to be young in 21st century Britain, capturing the awkward moments of adolescence that are familiar to so many of us.

Within the gallery the images had be put up in a poster fashion, they had creases within the pictures and lots of excess glue, spencer did this purposely to give a street culture effect, so they look as if they were poster that had been rushed to put up. This was interesting and grab my attention, which then made me think a lot deeper about the photographs.This gallery also have small exhibitions where small up coming photographers may display there work within the cafe area. These exhibitions are changed monthly, but are a very good way to get your work seen and noticed.

This gallery also has to offer a very supportive network which can help you find resources and give you valuable information that may help up and coming photographers, new photographers or mature photographers looking for inspiration or exhibition space. They also have monthly group crits, where a group of photographers all come together and bring along their work you all then share thoughts and ideas about the different pieces of work, this help you develop you pieces to the highest standard and may make you step back and think twice about where you project or piece is going. Crits are very important to the practice, its just as important as taking the photograph itself. These happen on a monthly bases and more information can be given via the website. 

http://www.whiteclothgallery.com/

Interesting and inspiring

Abstract Noise

 - Freelance audio engineer and photographer based in South East London. Has a range of different pieces of work that may be inspiring or helpful to you. Take a look there are some great photographs and interesting intentions.

www.abstractnoise.co.uk

Inspiration

I have recently purchased the book "Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies" by Lee varis and Rick Sammon. Varis is a Hollywood photographer that has done shoot with celebrities, done work for movie posters and magazine articles, within all of his practices clients skin must look perfect.  This book goes in to much depth and detail about how to perfect lighting techniques, to compliment the subject you are photographing to the best of your ability. Varis also speaks about how to fix bleneshes, wrinkles and other skin concerns, through usings softwares such as Lightroom and Photoshop. This book has help my gain great skills and knowledge and I would strongly recommed it.