Work Record - Personal Shoot 2

Industry and Nature

Plans for the shoot:
Because my original plans for today's shoot fell through because I couldn't get hold of the props that I needed, I didn't want to waste my opportunity to shoot, so I thought of the idea of contrasting the industry and nature, as, over time the nature around us has been gradually taken over from by the industry being built up. I have no 'real plan' to say, for this shoot, so I have decided to take a camera out to town with me to shoot images of natural elements, and also industrial products. I am going to shoot them individually, then use overlaying techniques and multiple imagery to contrast them in my final prints.

Shoot Evaluation:
The shoot was going quite successfully until my camera ran out of battery, and I didn't have the time to get new batteries, so if I want to shoot more, I know to potentially re-shoot this another time. I also felt like I was limited to the number of 'nature' objects I could shoot, as, because of the time of the year, most of the bigger, prettier flowers are starting to die off, so all I was really left with was leaves, grass, trees etc. I also think for the 'industry' section of this shoot, I probably could have done with going to a location such as a building site, to be able to photograph more 'objects' as such, rather than just buildings. I think I could definitely develop this idea to maybe a studio shoot, where I have two people - one as a 'character' based on mother nature for example, and a character representing a typical modern society - technology, expensive clothes etc.

Unlike with most planned shoots where I will normally achieve some good-quality straight prints, I wasn't happy with anything that I shot today and I think that's because I didn't plan the shoot properly, and I also didn't get the chance to shoot enough. These two photos are both what I used for my print techniques and computer experiments, because I wanted to be able to blend two different images - one of the 'industry' and one of 'nature' into one image, which wouldn't be achieved in straight prints.

The top image is of a window blind, and then I layered an image of some flowers over the top and erased sections of it to show a pattern. I thought this looked quite effective as it gave off the impression that that is what you can see through the blinds. I also used a gradient affect to dark the colours at one side slightly more, for no other reason but for effect. Although I am pleased with the appearance with this image, I don't think it particularly reflects my theme of contrasts all that well

The second image I created using the multiple imagery technique I have learnt this year. Using a grid, I positioned all of the individual images accordingly so that they aligned with each other properly. I placed them in an order that saw the images alternating between nature and industry, and I actually think it looks quite effective even though it is not technically a straight print.