photographic fictions: initial proposal

For this project, I am aiming to communicate the product lifecycle of a disposable, takeaway coffee cup. I will explore themes of ownership and importance that is placed to the cup by the user, ultimately ending in consumption and then disposal. This can then further communicate ideas of consumer behaviour.

I want to portray how the coffee cup is adopted as part of the user when first purchased; how it acts as almost a lifeline to the user by containing a substance that can be seen as vital sustenance to some people's everyday. I will explore how getting that coffee is shaping an everyday routine, then look at how it is embraced by the user. The cup goes with the person, and is cherished. However, when the coffee cup is no longer full, the cup becomes redundant and all the importance applied to the cup is forgotten. I will shoot this narrative as a series.

From this project, I hope that I can personify the cup, making it have initial feelings of importance and "self-worth" then contrast this with the ultimate feelings of uselessness and betrayal. It would be interesting to then allude this idea to the greater consumer behaviour as to how consumers buy a product and cherish it for a limited amount of time and then dispose of it without thought. I am not one hundred percent sure as to how I will achieve this yet however.

photographic fiction: flikr inspiration

This flikr group is dedicated to showing the best 100 photographs on flickr. It interests me as it shows a wide variety of photography styles and subjects, offering a broad spectrum of inspiration.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/best100only/

Utterly Surreal exhibit some beautiful images which have a bizarre quality to them, making them very surreal (as the name suggests). This will be useful to my blog, especially with the first project, looking at these created worlds which aren't always life like.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/utterlysurreal/pool/

Arts Photography showcases photographs that are professional quality, showing meticulous use of photography techniques. This will be a great reference tool throughout my projects to see how different lighting, framing and such can be used to communicate different things within photography. It also gives me a good reference as to what works and what doesn't.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/art-photography/

light : final images

My final images are set up in a way which shows a decrease in energy through Wellington, ending with an overall outlook of the city to give a larger idea of the distribution. I believe they communicate my ideas of light acting as energy well.

 Although a couple of the images are a little bit blurry (images 3 and 5), I like the idea of it being blurry in the image 3 as it adds to the pace of the image, supported by the high concentration of the light trail. The blurriness occurred due to the raging winds which were too much of a match for me and my tripod. Ideally, I would reshoot these photographs but weather conditions limited this. I believe they were essential to my final set to show progressiveness which is why they remain.

Overall, from this project I have explored different types of light and how it can be used to communicate energy, and how a long exposure on the camera can be used todo this. I am sufficiently happy with my final outcome. Enjoy.

light : second shoot

So, another tricky night to take photos but it had to be done. The wind was so bad, it pretty much blew me and my tripod away.. I got a few photos out of it though, i'll see what I can do with them. Here are a few of my more successful ones..

 This image was taken in the middle of Courtenay Place. I like it purely because of the way the dense beam of light is coming forward.

 Taken on the motor way, these two images have really nice clean light trails which look effective.

 I decided to take images from Mt. Vic, to give an idea of how the light or energy is distributed around the city.  This image is more reflective of Leon Gurevitch's images such as "New York Energy Tourists" and "Peak Panorama" (found here , slides 82 and 86). Although Gurevitch's images perhaps showcase the light trails better, I still think my image is effective as you can clearly see more illuminated areas due to more light or energy. I think this will flow well in my final images in order to give audiences an overall perspective of my shoot.

 I like this image as it is really focused on the light trails and there are no other lights in the image to distract from them.

 This image was taken to show difference in traffic density or energy. It was taken at the round a bout in Cobham Drive, Kilbirnie. It is also the busiest street in the Eastern suburbs, and think this is a good contrast to the images taken from in the city as it shows the difference in "busy" in respective places.

I like the trails in this image, especially the fact that you can see how the car has switched lanes. However, I feel that all the other lights in the image distract too much from the trails.

Overall, I am feeling ok about my photographs, I think that I can clearly communicate my idea of difference of energy in different parts of the city with them.

light : failed shoot

It has been impossible to take my images this past week. I was holding out for the weekend as I needed my friend to drive me around to the spots to take the images - the army barracks, Duncan Terrace, Mount Vic, and Kaiwhara - however, the weather has been shit, and the trusty Wellington wind proves to be, well, trusty. It was too much of a mission trying to take the photo's in this environment as a) getting a still image for a long exposure photograph was pretty much impossible, and b) even if I could get a steady image, I couldn't see anything because of the fog and/or hail. So, pretty much, I'm screwed if the weather doesn't clear up. Yeah, that's about it.

light : precedents

image from here

 image from here

 image from here

These three images show the aesthetic I want to achieve in my project. I think the trails are really interesting, showing where people are going and how many are going there.

 image from here

I like this image as it is a bit of a different look on light trails. 

light : task two

Here is my attempt at an HDR image, it was interesting playing around with the different settings to get different looks. I tended to gravitate towards this sort of out come, which I think creates a crisp, fresh look that also however looks a bit surreal.