Images by me

Choosing the final images for the first assignment has been very difficult as I have so many.  These are a few images that I really like but unfortunately they did not make it into my final images.

1/200 F10 ISO 200

This is a lovely image of a lizard taken on the island of Bonaire in the Caribbean.  Unfortuneately there is a shadow across the picture which spoils it but the focus and the bluring of the background is good.

1/125 F13

Woodlands in the style of Ansel Adams.  When I first started to research Ansel Adams I found many images of trees taken in the same style as this one. I have taken many images like this one but they all had too much foreground in them and then I found the crop tool which has allowed me to crop the image.




1/1250 F 5-6

This image of a swan is very similar to one done by Robert Carter I have included the picture in my research.  I have used photoshop to zoom in slightly on this image and the crop tool to square the picture.  The large aperture has allowed great focus on the swan and tiny droplets of water can be seen.  A fast shutter speed was needed for exposure as it was a sunny day and this was taken with a large aperture.

1/800  F/8

Reflections.  This is a really nice image using the composition aspect of reflections.  The image was only there for a minute and then the sun went in.


1/320 F13

Taken on a snowy morning at Hoar Cross an interesting shaped tree and stream which guides you through the picture.  I have used a small aperture to focus on the whole image and a fast shutter speed was needed with the extreme weather conditions.

Change of Theme - Nature

For my original theme I chose Autumn as I think when the trees start to change colour in the Autumn sunshine this can create some really good colourful images.  I have however decided to change my theme to Nature.  The reason for this is that Autumn was very short lived this year we had snow at the end of November and this did not give me enough time to finalise my shots.  Although I did have some really nice shots looking at them now I am just critising them because of the further knowledge I have.

During the autumn months I was still learning how to use my camara and getting to grips with shutter speed and aperture.  I have learned so much more since autumn it would be a shame not to be able to include my more recent images as I feel that I now have control over the settings, have learned how to use the light and how to frame a shot better. 

Faye Heller

When I first looked at Faye Hellers work I did initially think how bazaar.  It was not until I looked at many of her images I started to see something I quite liked.  Faye Heller produces Montages by separating pictures of architecture and the female form like eyes, hair and legs.

Faye Heller Montages take on a 1950 film concept done mainly in black and white although sometimes adding blocks of bold colours within the image.  At first I thought that the work was put together in photoshop by chopping the images cut and paste.  The images are actually created by using her own archives and splitting the images and arranging them until she has the final picture, she then photographs the picture to create the final image.

Faye Heller's style is contemporary and she has exhibited alone and in groups in Holland Italy and London.

This first image is my favorite Faye Heller Montage.  I love the sweeping lines of the staircase which is complemented really well with the very peaceful image of the girl. She has used the composition aspect of lines and the Rule of Thirds within this image and I think it shows great shape and form with a lovely tonal range. A really lovely piece of contemporary art. This image is a good example how art can create mood and when looking at this image I think it creates a very relaxed mood.

Another brilliant montage using the lines of a staircase and female eyes.  This image uses straight lines within the staircase and focuses just on the eyes of the girl.

Julia Fullerton Batten

Julia Fullerton Batten was born in Germany in 1970 but spent most of her childhood growing up in the United States before moving to England in 1986.  She studied photography at Berkshire College of Art and Design and then went on the work as a photographers assistant.

Whilst she was still working as an assistant a series of pictures she shot during a trip to Vietnam won her awards and she was then signed by a German agent.  Julia then did a project on teenage girls which she titled Teenage Stories and within these images showed the transition of teenage girls to womenhood.  In these images she captures how teenage girls transform into womenhood.  These girls are showing no emotion within the images to show confusion of the changing world around them.

She has gone on the exhibit her work around the world and won many many awards

This image Library Girls which was taken in 2007 is done in a contemporary style and is part of a series of photographs done in the same way.  In each photographs the girls are all the same girl each having a role to play within the image.  I really like the texture of this image with the old fashioned library walls in dark wood and lined with books.  Lines plays a dominant part in this image with the shelving and the books in the background.

This image is an photograph from the work Teenage Stories and shows an oversized image of a girl within another image of the changing world around her.

Helen Sear

Helen Sear is a British Photographer born in 1955 and her photography has developed from a Fine Art background of performance and film in the 1980's.  In 1991 she exhibited some of her photographs in De Composition an exhibition that took her photography around Latin America and Eastern Europe.  In 1993 she received an Abbey Award in Rome and went on the exhibit her work in many other countries.

Helen's Photography explores the idea of vision and represents nature through lens based media and digital technologies and manipulation.  In the images below she has taken two images one of a landscape and one of a girl she has then used digital drawing which creates an image that there is a net or veil over the top of the images.

These images show that manipulation of a photograph can create wonderful pieces of art just like that of a painter.  These images show a lovely texture which is created by the artwork within the image and the flowers over the whole of the image.  I love the way you are drawn into the image through the flowers almost as you get to see what the girl in the image sees.  The way the flowers cascade down through the image is lovely starting small at the top and becoming more noticable as they fall down into the image.

I really love these images and would really like to see them exhibited to see if they have that wow factor I imagine they would have in a gallery.

I really like the texture of this image I think it is a corn field mixed together with the beautiful red and purple flowers.  I would love to see this image full size as I think it is hard to appreciate them on a computer.

Robert Carter

Robert Carter is a freelance photographer who lives in the United Kingdom,  Robert became interested in photography when he studied GCSE Photography and later went on to study A Level.  Although he was really interested in photography he change direction and studied Drama and Psychology at Roehampton University.

After finishing University Robert Carter decided to go traveling and it was while traveling through India, Thailand, Nepal, Laos and Australia that his passion for photography was reborn.

This is a beautiful image of a close up of a swan which are really lovely to photograph and quite difficult to get close ups.  This image shows focus on the head of the swan bringing out the detail of the beak and the fur.  This image has been taken with a zoom lens which captures the swan in a very relaxed tranquil mood.  I have taken images of swans but have had to use the zoom tool in photoshop to bring the image closer.  I would like a more powerful zoom lens so I too can capture some fantastic wildlife images.

Another beautiful image of two swans and their reflections in the water.  This image uses the composition aspect of the Rule of Thirds and Reflections and I also like the contrast of the swans against the dark background of the water.  The swans cause a ripple in the water which stretches right across the rule of thirds and creates a really nice effect.

This image is a really nice reflective image of trees in water which also uses the rule of thirds composition aspect and I think it has good tonal range and balance.  I love reflection images I have taken a few myself and sometimes you have to be really quick as the light can cause them to dissapear very quickly.

This is an image of a sunset just as the sun is disappearing behind the mountain.  The sun sends a reflection across the water which guides your eyes through the image.  I love shots where the sun sends a line of light through water I have taken some myself as you can see in my earlier post sunsets and landscapes.

Stephen Shore

Stephen Shore was born in 1947 and has been interested in photography since the age of six when an Uncle bought him a dark room kit as a present.  He is self taught and started presenting his work at an early age to Edward Steichen the Curator of Photography at the museum of modern art who saw his potential and bought three of his images.

When Stephen shore was 17 he met Andy Warhol and later began to photograph him in his surroundings and then went on to hold an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

By the 1970's Stephen Shore began to travel around America and Canada photographing landscapes and then on to Manhatten, Amarillo and Texas.  He then learned that colour photography could also be considered a piece of Art like any painting or Black and White photograph which was not considered possible by some of his predecessors.

This is an image taken while Stephen Shore was following around Andy Warhol and capturing him and the world that surrounded him.  This image shows Andy Warhol and Chuck Wain in the background.  This photograph like all at this time was done in black and white shows a good tonal range.  The shot has focused on the girl which is of course Andy Warhol surroundings.

I like this landscape image which I feel shows really nice texture of the water the sand and stones and then the trees and then the mountains far away in the distance.  This image shows a good balance of the rule of thirds.

This image Holden Street shows how Stephen Shore has used the vibrant colours of these buildings to bring this image alive and the road leads the eye into the distant landscape.  I like the vibrant colours of the buildings in this image and he has shot in a great position which shows how the rule of thirds can make a great proportioned and positioned image.