New year, new reflections

It's now 2014 and I have until May to get 'Art of Photography' finished. I am midway through part 4 on Light. My time is ever in short supply with my work at Skyhook Studios in Stroud demanding a huge amount of focus, my 4 boys and life in general. I am loving my studies and think back to my late teens and early twenties when time wasn't an issue and I would have had the freedom to do nothing but study, before family and commitments came along.
In conjunction with doing the exercises on Light I am reading around the subject more and trying to spend time looking at the work and art of other photographers. These were recommendations by my tutor after my last assignment and I have taken this on board.

My current reading is

The Photographer's Eye - Michael Freeman 2007 ILEX
Light Science and Magic - Hunter, Biver and Fuqua 2007 Focal Press
The photograph as Contemporary art - Charlotte Cotton 2009 Thames and Hudson

and I'm looking at the work of;

Alan Villiers;

I saw an exhibition of Alan Villiers work at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth last year and felt inspired to find out more about his stunning photographs and the historical documentary that his work is.

Jay Maisel

I saw  prints of his photos 'boy and inner tube' and 'Trees in Fog' and found them both inspiring particularly in relation to the light topic I'm studying at the moment so decided to research his work a little further.

I'm also including my favourite recent photo of my son Chris aged 9 taken in the Forest of Dean. I love the colour contrasts of the orange rusty winter colours of the background he is set against with the blues of his clothing and the lovely happy expression. He reminds me of Robert Redford

Assignment 3 Colour

My photo's for assignment 3 on colour relationships;

Photo's 1-4 Colour harmony through complimentary colours

1

2

3

4

Photo's 5-8 Colour harmony through similar colours

5

6

7

8

Photo's 9-12  Colour contrast through contrasting colours

9

10

11

12

Photo's 13-16  Colour accent

14

13

15

16

Reflections

I'm about to start the next module on Light and I'm really excited about this. Light has always fascinated me and I'm hoping to develop a deeper understanding about how to use it more effectively in my photos.
I've just had my feed back from assignment 3 on colour and reading through I agree with the criticisms
and comments. I am determined to approach this next section in a more artistic and individual way. I'm planning to experiment more with natural light although these grey overcast days don't feel particularly inspiring especially when I leave for work in the dark and then get home in the dark…. I'm most definitely not a winter person. I'm hoping we get some of those crisp sunny days around christmas when the sun is low in the sky as that's always interesting light.
My never ending struggle for time holds me back so much, artistic time is such a rare commodity in my existence
I'm off to read through the next section before falling asleep.
Well here goes…….

Exercise - Colours into tones in Black and White

In this exercise I have taken a photo of a group of coloured objects, in this case wooden bricks from the boys toy box. They are very solid strong colours. I have grouped them around a piece of neutral grey card. I have then processed the original colour picture 4 times. Firstly into greyscale using photoshops default settings. Then I have applied a colour filter (either red, blue, yellow or green) before applying the greyscale conversion. This has a marked effect on the resultant black and white image.

Blue filter

The blue filter in this instance has a general darkening effect on the whole frame which I could have  compensated for in the software I used (photoshop) The red appears much darker mainly blocked by the blue filter, it has a similar affect but not as strongly on the green and yellow but what is surprising for me in  this case it still affects the blue blocks too. It may be that there is a different wavelength of light coming from the blue bricks and those being allowed to pass by the blue filter, but I understand what the results should be… the blue blocks should have appeared lighter.

Green Filter

The green filter has blocked red light from the red bricks and made them appear darker, a lesser affect on the blue bricks but hasn't really affected the green and yellow bricks. These are the results I would have expected.

red filter

The red filter has made the red bricks appear lighter, and significantly darkened the green and blue bricks just as expected.

yellow filter

The yellow filter has significantly lightened the yellow bricks and the green bricks to a lesser extent but not really affected the blue and red bricks greatly.

Default B+W

I have learnt in this exercise how to darken and light lent tonal elements in  a black and white photograph using coloured filters. This is a really useful way of controlling the tones in the monochrome image.

Remembrance Sunday

As my theme at the moment is colour I felt it was appropriate to upload this amazing photo in remembrance of my Great grandfather John Reynolds who gave his life in the WW1 battle of Loos in 1915, my Great Uncle Jack Reynolds who gave his life in WW2 as a despatch rider and my Grandfather John Cooling who got left behind at Dunkirk behind enemy lines, missing in action for months but eventually made it safely home by fishing boat. Rest in peace.

(photo source - enpundit.com)

I love the deep blood red colour of this field of poppies working well in complement with the green beneath and behind and contrasting agains the blue sky. The iconic silhouette of the horse on the hillside represents to me the spirit free from worldly life standing proudly on the horizon.

Colour relationships continued....

In this second part of the last exercise I have chosen 4 photos that really appeal to me using these colour relationships


In this first photo I caught the light illuminating the partially translucent leaves and really bringing out out the autumnal colours. Against the matt drab grey background I imagined a small fire with the reddish tinges on the edges of the yellow leaf flames.

I love this picture, the blues and greens of the sea accented in a beautifully balanced way by the bright pink, red and green buoys, the diagonal balancing of the dark and light tones in the water add to this along the same diagonal.

This picture is of my favourite little town in France - Brigueuil (Charente) I love the relationship between the golden orange glow of the sunset on the stonework set against the pale grey blue of the dusk sky. The blue and orange are in the ratio of roughly 2:1 which fits in with Von Goethe's theory on colour.

The high contrast between the violet purple and green in this last photo works beautifully. I find the relationship between these to colours exciting. The flower is so defined as an accent to it's background, it has a little imbalance and tension which I find appealing.

Colour relationships

In this exercise I am experimenting with the relationships of the primary and secondary colours.

In the first part I have taken 3 photographs of the primary colours with their opposite secondary colour from the colour wheel. I have also balanced the ratio of colours in proportion as suggested by J.W.Goethe the German poet and playwright. I love these contrasts of colours, my very favourite is the yellow/purple combination in the third photo.


Red : Green  ( 1:1 )

Orange : Blue ( 1:2 )

Yellow : Purple ( 1:3 )