Beginning Assignment 4: Light

I am beginning to work through this assignment. It's all new really... Learning to be really conscious of light in a thoughtful way, in addition to the automatic responses with which we have been making photography over the years. 

It will be a challenging but rewarding journey. Along the way, I shall continue to learn more and more about the Aperture editing software, thanks to Vicki's kind gift of her manual for this programme. Also, I shall continue to be accountable to my mentor Tracey throughout this assignment.

Aperture:
I have begun experimenting with aperture in a more objective way than I ever did before. I'm still trying to become efficient in focusing on points of interest via changing the aperture, as well as just seeing what happens when the settings are changed. Here are some of the results of this work:

Assignment 3: 'Colour'

Enough of drafts - let me do this for real!

Assignment 3: Colour

“I feel that colour photographs and black-and-white photographs are  essentially two different media. I approach them differently. I see them differently, and my goals are different in each.”(Bruce Barnbaum: ‘The Art of Photography’ 2010)

“I feel that for a colour photograph to be successful, colour itself must be a central element. There must be something compelling about the colours, about the relationships among the colours, about the intensities of the colours, and about their placement within the scene that makes them essential to the photograph’. (Ibid)

I guess I have been running a long time, with camera in hand and just chasing down assignment-related images to photograph. This is the first time I have properly slowed down enough to actually select a book, open it at a relevant page and begin reading.

Speaking of books, I went on a ‘book binge’ when I first began this course. But on second glance, I find that most of them are in the ‘how to’ category, while only a very few are of the ‘why’ variety. The above-quoted volume, ‘The Art of Photography’, seems to straddle both strands of writing about this subject.But the stopping and reading must go further and deeper… The OCA student website is obviously a storehouse of highly relevant material. Add to the mix the photography forum and photography students’ blogs and the scope for learning and being informed is simply vast.

This third Assignment has really made me think about colour in a new way. I now see colour relationships that I was previously only subconsciously aware of in my pre-OCA life. Combining this heighten awareness with the elements I learned in the first two assignments has enabled me to appreciate colour harmonies in a completely new way. As Barnbaum says: “That’s an achievement, and it shows you have the eye to notice such things and bring them to the fore”(Ibid).

Even whilst writing this, I am seeing colours as if for the first time. I just went into the kitchen to fix a coffee and noticed a clematys plant basking in the crisp winter sunlight. But the new colour consciousness took me deeper and it was the relationship, the harmony, between the violet flowers and the green foliage that was really apparent.

It has been quite challenging having to think in terms of colour in such a technical way. Stopping to consider the ‘colour wheel’ and being tuned-in as to what is involved has been keenly demanding. The various exercises have helped, but I feel I need to re-visit these on a regular basis in order to really take on board what is being learned. I suppose this is one of the difficulties of distance learning: who checks whether new knowledge is being absorbed or not?

And as for reading and studying, as aside from making photographs, an avoidance of this has been a life-pattern of mine since my teenage years. With my colleague and learning mentor Tracey, I am in the process of trying to analyse and break out of this debilitating way of responding to new enthusiasms and challenges. We are currently working through a seven-step process that simply, but profoundly, asks ‘why’ to each consecutive response. The fact that I am finally writing these words is testament to her tenacity and determination in her role as mentor.

Thanks are also due to fellow photography student Vicki, who kindly and sensibly responded to my recent rages, on our OCA forum, about my lack of ability with the Apple Aperture programme. Just when I thought I had lost all my images, for the second time in a week, she very calmly and helpfully sent me her copy of the Aperture-users’ manual. Thank you Vicki – I feel more empowered already!

And finally thanks must go to the OCA for checking me out, as I had not sent in any work since 7.2.12. Yes there has been sporadic experiments with Assignment 3 and colour, but the time gap has been far to wide… I shall be taking up their offer to contact one of their advisors and exploring better ways to study.

Colour accent

Ferrari

This Ferrari, sadly not mine, was parked on our drive, whilst its owner took my wife's car away for repairs. Of course, I was quickly outside and all over it with my camera, because of being newly aware of the focus on colour of Assignment 3. as a result, there were many photographs to choose from for each of the components of this assignment. But I finally chose this one for the 'colour accent' category. Here, there is almost a recurrent theme of red contrasting with yellow, but it is the smallness of the famous icon, placed against the rain drops on the equally famous red of the car's bonnet. I feel that the moisture lends a softness to an otherwise hard-edged archetype.

Flowers

It was while I was hunting down images of all things green for the 'primary and secondary colours' section of this  assignment that I discovered the subject of this photograph. I was struck by the contrast between the strong, almost overpoweringly green foliage and the delicate 'accent' of the blue flowers. Whether the two are connected in ways other than in a picture I do not know. But I love the way in which the flowers gently steal the show.

Swinging balloon

When visiting Oxford, in the summer just gone by, to see an exhibition of the paintings of the artist Anita Klein, I came across the contents of this photograph. It was an open door, wooden in the old style with black ironwork. A balloon was swing slowly in the heat of a narrow street, advertising perhaps a party of the day before. I took several shots and chose this one. Editing - cropping only - allowed me to reduce the image to simple geometric shapes, echoing the learnings of assignment 2. I like the 'accent' of the orange sphere against the chiaroscuro of the door.

Flower

And finally this photograph. I love it because I had nothing to do with its original creation: that was nature's handiwork. All I did was get in close, look through the lens and release the shutter. I don't even know the flower's name. Once more, via cropping, the eye of the viewer is drawn inward on a fascinating journey. Indeed, if the caption 'flower' was removed, who knows what the image may mean to different viewers...? For me, the accent of yellow could be fire, or light. But whatever it may be, it beckons, it entices, it invites.

Colour harmony through contrasting colours

Red and yellow

I just love the music of the flowers in this photograph... It's bright and brassy, loud and cheerful. The colours just shout out at the world 'Here we are: look at us!' I also really like the sheer intensity of the red and yellow. What is the purpose of the strong pigments? Why the delicate white trimmings? The whole effect reminds me of Flamenco dance and song. This is how the Andalusian dancers spin in their powerful interpretations of the songs they accompany.

Red and green

This image was taken during the Bedford River festival, held this summer. Fire officers and paramedics hang out together, waiting for the parade of floats to begin. They wear their official roles lightly and with a cool nonchalance. They exude calm, but we know that in an instant they would leap into their vehicles and speed away to the next emergency, were they called to do so. Here, colour denotes professional skills and specialisms. But what ever colour they may wear, however intense the hues seem and however strong the saturation of their uniforms, we know that they, like fireworks, are always primed and ready to go.

Red, green and blue

On this off-white background, reds, greens and blues move together like some kind of animal herd. We see these colours in contrasting placements, painted by my grandson's hand under the guidance of staff at his nursery and exhibited on the fridge door in his home. So far so regular. But in fact the making of this image has an ancestor that is many, many thousands of years old. You will find these paintings in caves deep under French mountains and on rocks in ancient Africa. On the fridge, the work was created by glorified finge-painting. In the caves and on the rocks paint was blown over the outstretched hands of people. Adults and children. And still they do this. The photograph captures this river of history, this choice of warring colours, this simple message: 'We were here - remember us...!'

Red and blue

We are almost in 'accent country' here. But I have kept this photograph in the 'harmony through contrasting colours' section because of the story being told. The blue crouching figure stands out against the bright red of the vehicle. There is also a suggestion of a balance between the figure and the two wheels. And the story...? The figure is a Formula 2 racing driver, warming up for his stint on the track. The vehicle is a huge transporter that carries up to six cars or more. Who knows how it ended for this racer? All I know is that there was a tension in the air in this moment.  To quote the name of an album of Brasilian music, it was like 'A Calm in the Fire of Dances'...

Colour harmony through similar colours

Green and yellow

This photograph was taken during a late summer balloon festival in Northamptonshire. What began with one solitary balloon soon turned into a sky filled with them. There were a few of the exotically-shaped variety, but the majority were of the classic shape seen in this image. The spectacle was a riot of colour, but occasionally a balloon of 'quiet' colours floated by. Such is the one seen here. And they, of course, were really very quiet, with the only sound being that of the 'woosh!' of the burner's flame heating up the air inside. To be honest, I would prefer the green and yellow to be brighter and more saturated, but begging photographers can't be choosers...!

Yellow and orange

This photograph represents one of those moments when what we have been studying eases its way into our conscious mind and calls our attention to something we should see, look at and take notice of. And this is what we are in the business of: taking note. With our eyes and through our lenses. And further yet in the fashioning of the final image through editing and processing. Here is the dance of photography: the subject calls out to us and we, through the art we study, call out the framed image to whoever views the finished work.

Here, the colours, textures and the object are 'everyday' items. The rough and smooth brickwork, the cold metal and shiny plastic of the tap. But even in this normality, colours that are similar vibrate with one another. The pale orange of the smooth brick and the bright yellow of the plastic hose connector. Even in this 'everyday' context, someone had to make the choice of colours and textures. The photograph simply gives witness to that.

Orange and red

Here there is a clash, a struggle being fought out in the arena of the fruit bowl...! The quiet red apples, although similar to the brighter oranges, are being set upon by the flashy yellow lemon. Maybe if I had taken a second, more mindful look at this image, I would have realised that the harmony between the reds and the oranges would have been a calmer, more subtle affair without the yellow invader... As it is, the lemon brings dissonance to this otherwise tranquil kitchen scene. So for me the 'moral' of this picture is: 'Snap less - look more'...

Yellow and green

This is an almost universal image of late spring, of May, of the rising of summer's curtain, just before its grand entrance. These fields of rape seem to appear like a secret invading army that stretches as far as the horizon. The yellow burns bright like the sun and sings in tune with the electric green. In a way, these fields offer the photographer an image that has no need of a caption, but only time to gaze at and lose oneself in these immense expanses of lush colour.

Colour harmony through complementary colours

Orange and blue.

This was one of the first occasions in which I began to be aware of certain  requirements of Assignment 3, in an almost unconscious way. This shot was originally to used in the 'accent' section, but I stole it for this work on harmony through complementary colours. It was a random sighting: a leaf had fallen into  a plastic jug one day last summer, during a bar-b-q at my daughter's house. I like the way the orange glows red, adding to the sense of vibration between the leaf's colours and the surrounding blue. The circles in the base of the jug also lend something to the intensity of the image.

Orange and blue.

Another outing with orange and blue, this time courtesy of easyJet. I think I may have already included this image in one of the preparatory exercises, but I liked it so much that I couldn't resist the urge to use it again. It seems to be a photograph that shows not only the complementary colours, but also how an image based in everyday reality can be abstracted into forms of pure colour and shape.

Yellow and violet.

This is another example of being aware of what we are looking for - and seeing it before our eyes! However, a bit of me thinks this photograph is a bit of a 'cheat' as the yellow and the violet have already placed together by someone else. I'm just witnessing the work of another... But the colours are there, as is the added dimension of the green of the grass.

Red and green

I feel easier about this image. I suppose it's the fact that nature has been at work with the tomatoes and the grapes. They were near each other in our kitchen and I just experimented with placing them in the same space together. But on closer examination I can see that the tomato is out of focus and I would have preferred a brighter green to stand up to the strength of the red.

Exercise: Colours into tones in black-and-white'

Colours into tones in black-and-white created from an original digital print and using the Apple editing package 'Aperture'

The original shot: four paint containers with the three primary colours and one secondary colour.

B/W version 1: neutral / filterless

Version 2: red filter

Version 3: yellow  filter

Version 4: green filter

Version 5: blue filter

This experience was quite a challenge but also quite a discovery. The challenge was getting the original photograph set up. I seemed easy to do, but getting the 'right' image was another matter. The discovery aspect involved actually buying the Aperture edition software, as I found iPhoto to be fairly limited when it came to changing filters and so on. 

before this exercise, I thought that transforming colours into tones in black-and-white was a simple matter... How much I had to learn, however!

Exercise: 'Colour relationships'

Red : green 1:1

Orange : blue 1:2

Yellow : violet 1:3

As it says in the course book, finding specific colour relationships out and about is not easy. I resisted the urge to set up my own arrangements until I began to struggle with finding a combination of yellow and purple. I was saved by spotting a fridge magnet and my Italian niece wearing a violet scarf. The red and green shot - my grandson playing out on holiday - just jumped out at me whilst trawling through my photo stash. It was a similar event with the orange and blue: I was gazing out of an easyJet plane window, whilst flying over Italy, back in October, when the view said:'Take my photo now - you need me...!' So here we are.

Colour relationships of my choosing...

This house is on the main road through a small town near where I live and is really painted in these colours! I simple had to stop and take some photographs. When doing so, I encountered a disgruntled neighbour, who remarked: 'Damned eyesore! That house causes accidents because drivers slow down to look at it and not the road ahead...!' Ah, the power of distinctive colour relationships...

This is dawn on a summer's morn, taken, I think in July. It's just before sun-up. You can see a planet - Jupiter or Venus - providing a nice 'point'. I love the interplay between the blue and yellow. The fact that the sun has not yet risen encourages us to focus on the colours without being distracted by the attention-hungry ball of fire...

This was my grandson's - but he's too much of a 'big boy' for this sort of thing now!  But I  loved the vibrancy between the green and the violet.

And here is the man himself - posing under his bright umbrella in a hot day last summer. He's so busy cultivating a cool image that he is completely unaware of the interesting colour relationships that are going on behind him...

Exercise: 'Control the strength of a colour'

F/18

F/ 20

F/22

F/25

F/29

I am still learning this whole aperture thing. I didn't seem to make much headway with it when first encountering the process in the first assignment. It's probably one of those things I'll just have to practise, practise and practise more and more. Anyway, here we are gazing down into a hotel pool in Mallorca on a hot day this summer... It's amazing I didn't stare so much that I fell in. But that would have been an exercise too far!

Exercise: 'Primary and secondary colours'

Red

Yellow

                                                
                                                      

Blue

Orange

Violet

Green

 These were easy to take but trying to see real differences when changing 'F' numbers was another matter... Maybe because they were taken in the middle of a Mediterranean day made such changes hard to discern.