editing and compiling final images

Well I've finally finished compiling and editing my images for print and handing in. Some in groupings of 2 images and some in groupings of 3. I'm calling the series 'Spent' as they are all spent or dried weed seed heads and forms.

I'm really pleased with the final result. I'm not even sure which is my favourite as I feel each is strong in it's own right. They also work beautifully together as a series which is something I really wanted to achieve and visualised at the very beginning.

Overall I collected 30 plants and ended up photographing 20 of them. Some were not listed in my weeds book, but rather spent seed heads that held interesting patterns for me. Others are commonly found in gardens and perhaps most don't know they carry the label of a weed.

In the end though the concept of focusing entirely on roadside weeds was much more interesting and a well rounded choice for the series. Here is my favourite of the non-weed compositions that went on the cutting room floor.

Banksia spp. Em Horswill, 2012

Of the plants I liked I took roughly 20-40 images of each one with different lighting, compositions, framing and angle of views. Approx 650 images in total!

It has taken me around 9 hours to edit these down to the final 8 composite images and I'm completely happy with the end result. Some were easier than others as there were many choices to go with and it was hard to not use a really good shot when it didn't fit. But I'm lucky to be comfortable with being able to let go of things when they don't work.

I'm really glad that during the shoot I also focused on taking interesting images of shadows from each plant projected onto the backdrop wall. These have provided some wonderfully interesting images that I have been able to use to separate two hard edged & sharp images from each other and thus balance the final result. I also experimented with shooting some images out of focus on purpose (not just because I couldn't get the focus right!) but thinking about using these to balance out a sharper, finer image next to it. I know Ruth had reservations about me using one of them in particular but I have thought and re-thought about using it (Unidentified weed) and still feel strongly that it works well next to the sharp high detail and busy image next to it - so I hope she agrees with me!

The fantastic thing about choosing to use this subject matter and method of photographing in the studio for this assignment, was the clear ability to achieve differences with tiny adjustments of frame and the angle of the camera. A little shift to the left can reveal a balance and perfect symmetry between 3 tiny leaves and a small shift to the right can completely hide this alignment and make the shot instantly uninteresting.

I felt like a 'composition explorer' whilst shooting this - having to thoroughly move around each plant and photograph from all different angles of view to try and capture that new composition and way of seeing the plant, all the while hunting for the unseen patterns and details. Sometimes it was as simple as using a tight frame with large depth of field and then just pulling focus slowly and watching the most amazing shapes and beautifully composed images come into focus like a kaleidoscope, but if I kept going, it was just as quick to leave.

When it came down to it though - my aim for this assignment was to photograph weeds and draw the viewer in to appreciate the stunning patterns, forms and natural beauty of these lesser photographed members of the plant kingdom, that are normally despised or otherwise completely ignored. Perhaps this series can pose the question - what else do we miss by not stopping and looking closely enough? Why do we judge things based on general opinion and a label? What is a weed anyway and why are we all programmed to hate them so much?

Perhaps it may also lead to some distracted driving when a glint of sun is caught in a sculptural seed head and pulls your attention away from the centre-line, or maybe the outline of a statuesque Yarrow stalk will capture your admiration as it is perfectly framed against a clear sky.

As it does for me......

karl blossfeldt and others

I was trawling through the library the other day looking for Macro, botanical & weed photography and I came across the German photographer Karl Blossfeldt.

His story is fascinating - labelled a pioneer in botanical photography he was one of the first to devote his lifetime to photographing plants way back in the early 1900's using a home made camera.

What I find even more fascinating and relevant to me and my project is that he wasn't photographing them for a love of photography or even the love of the individual plant. He was interested purely in the patterns in nature.

It wasn't till after his death in 1932 and then far later in the mid 1970's when photography was finally accepted as a serious art form were his images were revisited and he was pronounced an true artist of his time.

Of course he had a valid and useful reason why he photographed so many plants for so long. He was compiling a catalogue for use in casting purposes for industrial designs and therefore tended to focus on only the interesting patterns each plant supplied, so they could be used as motifs for ornamental design or converted into scroll work and castings. He later went onto teach and used his extensive collection of photographs to teach his methods.

You can really see how his photographs must have influenced the scroll and ironwork of the period.

Quite a lot of his work was of weeds as well. Clearly he was someone who could recognise the beauty and pattern in all things and held no such discrimination back then which I find an interesting point. The image of his below was very exciting for me to come across as it is a Teasel leaf, which also features in my project. The square edges to the stems are very interesting and the line of thorns along the ridge of the leaves show up very well in the correct profile angle.

An interesting point to note was how I have was chosen to place my plants to photograph. I didn't spend a lot of time fussing over the placement. I preferred to almost to pick up a bunch put it in the jar and leave it how it sat. To do this is far more like nature than any type of contrived placement and manipulation by me. I don't like that kind of obvious placement in images. I instantly feel like I'm not looking a nature anymore, just a man made version of it. Although in Karl's work it was certainly a requirement to clearly access the pattern for his purposes as demonstrated below:

This next one was an interesting artist to come across. Her name is Joan Fontcuberta and she published a book called Herbarium in 1985 in Germany. She is said to be heavily influenced by Karl Blossfeldt but her contribution work focused on taking plants apart and then putting them make together in quirky and unusual combinations and photographing them as Karl has done. Front on with even lighting and functional framing.  She then came up with humorous latin names to go with her new creations (I'm lucky to have a bit of botanical latin education or I would not have picked that up!) This weedy thistle of hers below has had the addition of some rose thorns stabbed in the opposite way.

Joan Fontcuberta, Braohypoda frustrata, 1985

The next artist was one Ruth suggested I look at: Nick Knight and his book 'Flora'. He had the huge honour of spending 3 years going through the Natural History Museum Archives in London, with full access to their collections. Here is one of the weeds he captured. He took these images in 1997 but the specimen itself was collected in 1895! Incredible! He was of course limited just to the pressed dried placement of the plants and I'm pretty sure he used a scanner to capture them as many have various combined shades of colour depending on how the light came through and they overlapped. This got me thinking with respect to my lighting that I should trial back-lighting with the thinner papery plants of my specimens to try and capture the light passing through them.

Nick Knight, Eryngium foetidum, specimen collected in 1895.

And the last artist I found was Tom Baril with his beautiful book 'Botanica' published recently in 2000. The reason I was drawn to his work is the low lighting methods he has used throughout his work. Not focusing on weeds but rather the more alive and classically beautiful plants and flowers such as this Hosta below. The dark moody lighting is very dramatic thought and similiar to what I'm hoping to achieve although the framing is too wide and obvious for me. Although it does do each of his chosen plants wonderful justice to be recognised and appreciated. The detail in the film and colour of them is so stunningly beautiful.

Tom Baril, Hosta, Botanica, 2000.

photos of the day - first paid photography job!

Last weekend I was offered the job of photographing Sophie & Dale from Channel 9's "The Block" reality TV show when they visited Tasmania on a nation-wide road trip to meet the fans. I was hired to take shots of the couple with fans and these were to be printed and handed out for free as a nice gesture for the members of the local community. It was a great weekend and a fantastic opportunity for me to expand my photographic skills. I found it quite challenging to shoot in a large crowd, figure out how to manage the flash and try to capture some special moments along the way. No chance to say "stop can we do that again - I missed it!" All in all I made some classic mistakes the first day - especially with exposure and focus (as I did the whole shoot on manual) but nothing too major and I managed to learn from these and get some great shots both days. Great experience all up.

sandy fellman

When researching and preparing for this assignment I thought immediately of Sandi Fellman. Her images were the ones that struck me the most in the still life lecture with regard to botanical macro photography. The thing I love about her work so much is that she doesn't focus on photographing a plant or flower to give the viewer just an accurate representation of it. Instead she uses a lot of depth of field and focus's on one small section or shape within the plant. This is something I'm very much interested in myself. I don't find the whole plant in all its obviousness as interesting and when viewing wider framing it is much harder to pick up the smaller finer patterns and unique details hidden within each specimen.

Sandi Fellman, Rose.

I recognise in Fellman's work that same love and fascinatination for nature and the forms in nature that I am also completely obsessed by and have been interested in since a young girl following both my grandparents and avid gardening mother around their huge gardens as they tended them. Where I am different to Fellman is that I want to use less typically recognisable and pretty members of the plant kingdom as my subjects and to focus even closer in, almost to the point where the recognisable features of each plant are completely discarded and we are left with only the beautiful individual patterns unique to each plant.

Sandi Fellman, Peony, 1995

Her use of the soft bright white light is so beautiful and ethereal. The images have a gentle softness to them which highlights the beauty in the individual features of each flower. They are very plump with life and have an almost dreamlike quality. Often she seems to light them overhead from one side and have a section of the flower nodding in the direction of the light as if to emulate the relationship between the flower and the sun.

Sandi Fellman, Dogwood, 1996

I think I prefer her black and white images to the vibrant bright coloured ones. They are more elusive with the sepia tone (rather than pure black and white which is where I'm also heading with my collection of weeds), and this soft light brownish tone brings an agelessness to the images, as if they are suspended in time and will not soon die and the bright colours fade as we know they eventually do. The lack of intense and accurate colour also helps to push the viewer more towards appreciating the form and pattern rather than being distracted by the rich intoxicating colours designed with the same intention to distract bees.

Sandi Fellman, Rose.

One of the biggest things I take away from her work is to not forget to photograph the sides and backs of the plants as she does in many of her images. She also uses interesting pairing of images in the final presentation, which is one of my original thoughts for this project before I saw her work,  although I think I am going to try mine in groups of three. But more on that later.....

macro lens

Well I have had my 2nd and 3rd shoot in the studio now and after the second shoot and trialling the use of 2 extenders on the camera - I certainly had a better result than using one, but upon reviewing the images I've still decided that it wasn't quite as good as I want. The focus is so hit and miss and vitally impossible to identify on the small camera screen upon review. Shots I thought I had nailed at the time were actually soft upon review on the bigger computer screen. So disappointing! As seen below:

It's not all a waste however. With each session I am really refining my ideas for the project now and feeling quite competent with using the lighting. With each plant I am experimenting with a different set of lighting positions, but trying to make sure I use the same/similar ones for each plant to achieve a consistent appearance across the series. I'm preferring to under-light each plant which helps it to look the opposite of being outside and over lit by the sun. Much more moody and dramatic. It's quite difficult to do - as I have to balance the plant up high on a stool with access all around the base to move the low light into different positions. I then also use the combination of a lowish warm side light when I want to play with shadows on the wall or have a lighter softer overall exposure. I then move my angel of view through the whole range on either sides to see what I can capture.

I've also been playing around with the effect of positives and negatives which can be achieved by turning off the under light and creating an outline with the side light. Or the positive by turning on the under light and the side light off, creating a brighter plant and darker background. I'm hoping to use this contrast to my advantage in my groupings of the final images. So I'm making sure to shoot most angles in both lighting scenarios so I have the best choice at editing time.

Negative Lighting

Positive Lighting

After this second shoot though -  I have decided to bite the bullet and order a macro lens which I am sure to use over the rest of the degree and within my work after this. One hitch however was that the lens was not in stock, so it had to be express ordered and of course didn't turn up in time! But luckily the lovely Jen from my class lent me her 100mm macro lens (the exact one I ordered!) and I will be able to finish the project on the remaining studio day booked.

So I used it on the 3rd shoot and it is absolutely fantastic! Such a difference to have the right tools for the job. The quality of the imagery is supreme I think. And not just down to luck now but rather technique instead which I much rather prefer. I found a real rhythm too as I didn't have to stop and start taking on and off the extenders, so made for a much more harmonious and productive shoot.

Pride of Madeira

Pride of Madiera. Demonstrating the supremeness of the macro lens. 

As I'm moving through each shoot day, I am really trying to spend a lot of time reflecting on the images after each shoot and refining the concept as I go. I also decided to do a practice print of a few earlier plants to see how it translates onto the paper. It was quite interesting actually. I originally aimed to print on A3 but now I've seen it - it was underwhelming and needs to be much bigger - at least A2. I'm also going to choose a different Ilford paper with a clay based surface, hopefully giving a more earthy connection to the prints and not so much shine and reflection.

At the start of the project I had the idea to shoot each plant wide and then a mid close up and then a very close up shot for each and display them in a triptych. The idea being that you identify the plant in the wider shot, look at it's structure in the closer shot and then be wowed by a really close up view of something you could only really see with a macro lens, to draw the viewer into the hidden world of each weed and appreciate it's beauty and start to look at them in a different way.

Since getting the macro lens however I find all the wider shots quite literally boring and predictable and I'm much more interested in the close up shots which have far more intrigue and mystery to them.

Occasionally though I have taken a wider shot that I do want to use, such as the one below of Pampas grass. When I reviewed these shots it appears as though the wind was blowing through the studio and the grass was alive again. So much movement. Just love it!

So my main direction I'm heading in now is much for a much more abstract approach using the macro viewpoint to drag the viewer inwards and hopefully hold them in a study of stunning form and pattern. If I can achieve half of that I'll be really happy.

to border or not to border?.....

Ok so the time has come - I have all my final images and now I can make a bordering decision. As I mentioned in an earlier post I have printed some of the earlier work to see how it look and assess the paper and the effect of a border.

At first I started with the obvious choice of a black edge. Here are my experiments and comments:

This border I feel it too thick and overpowering, squashing the image in the frame.

This is a better size above but I now feel like the black is the
 wrong colour choice for the mainly brown sepia toned images.

I think this dark brown is much better choice than the black but as I have decided
to group my images in sets of two or three I need to try this setup....

....and this is far too much with both the images I think.
There is a real divide between the two and the border
colour adds another element to the imagery that I don't think
is necessary and is distracting instead. 

Above I have removed the borders and just use the white space
between each image to separate it.

This is much better and more of what I'm after. It's much
lighter and has less emphasis on trapping the image inwards.
I want to use the space between the images as a breath almost
to balance them out between each other. The cut off sections
of the images lead your eyes onto the next image beside it,
joining the picture up as a whole but at the same time
keeping an effective contrast between each image.

first shoot in the studio

Today I had my first day of shooting in the photography studio at Uni. I managed to loan the use of a fantastic Canon 7D camera to shoot my assignment with and wanted to have a preliminary time in the studio familiarising myself with the camera, lights and setup. I've brought in around 8 different plants to play with and experiment with different backdrop colours and lighting combinations. 

Setting up in the studio for the first shoot.

Some of the dried plant collections I've brought in to practice with.

There is a black, grey and white backdrop to choose from in the studio. I know already I'm not interested in using the black. The high contrast in the imagery like for example Robert Mapplethorpe's studio work shown below is not the effect I'm going for.

Robert Mapplethorpe, Cally Lily, 1987

I tried out the grey background and that was quite good.  When thinking about the project initially I was hoping to experiment with using low lighting to create mood and drama but enough light to clearly show the definition in the smallest of details. After trying the white background though it was definitely this one I preferred the most. Along with the use of one warm light and one white light on the lowest settings, I was able to start to get the kind of effect I'm really liking. I don't own a macro lens however but borrowed an extender to try and convert my 15-85mm lens into more macro use. This was one of my first images as shot:

Yarrow

I love the creamy warmth of the imagery. It highlights and completely accentuates the dried brown colour of the spent yarrow stalk. The side lighting hitting the tiny delicate dried flower spikes is exactly what I was hoping to achieve. I'm really excited now - I think this assignment is going to work!

The next specimen I tried though was a seed pod that has wonderful pattern and detail but I was finding it difficult to capture that in the frame. It just seemed too clunky, heavy and harsh. I think the hard edges were overpowering the balance of soft low light. I was also struggling a lot with the ability to focus so close up. Swapping between the extender and the lens was becoming tedious and slow. And finding the focus was hard at times. As demonstrated below. I think I need a macro lens or at least to try another extender.

Callistemon seed pods.

After a few more test shots and experimenting with lighting from different angles along with different combinations of warm and cool lights I think I have a few techniques sorted before my next shoot. Now to sort out the lens.