Assignment 2

When I initially looked at this assignment I thought it would be relatively simple as I take pictures of plants and flowers all the time but:

• I am still working on the principle of only using photos taken since I started this course, and preferably ones specifically for this assignment
• The weather has not been very helpful
• I am not good at taking photos to order. Most of my most prized images turned out to be unsuitable as they did not show the specific points asked for.

So for this learning log I have tried to cut down the possible images to only 2 (or occasionally 3) per subject, of which I will send my tutor 1. Alan advised that that a small number of the best  imagesI can manage was much better than larger numbers with potentially poor images.

A single point dominating the composition.

I have many flower and plant images with a single flower, but in most cases the flower takes up the majority of the space available, and therefore could not be described as a point, and do not demonstate the idea of the impact that a relatively small point object can have.

Tulip in the Wild.  ISO 400, 400mm efl, f/5.6, 1/100sec.

This was taken latish one evening walking along the path at the end of our street, a solitary tulip in the rough edge of the path. The light was not very good, but the sudden burst of colour caught my eye.

Daisy. ISO 250, 400mm efl, f/9, 1/250 sec.

A randomly found daisy alongside a path. This was deliberately taken for this exercise, a very small flower in a large expanse of green.

Both these show a clear single point, my preference is for the tulip, but I like both images.

Two points.

This should be simple, but in practice I discovered that either the 2 points were to close together  (or even touching) or that there were far more points evident when I examined the photo carefully.

Californian Poppies. ISO 100, 90mm efl, f/5.6, 1/60 sec.

 A flower and a bud. I originally liked this image a lot, but then the stalk of the bud appearing out of the flower started to feel awkward to me. I would have also preferred for the secondary subject  to be less central.

 Brilliance. ISO 200, 90mm efl, f/5.6, 1/60 sec

Two more yellow flowers. Here the petals are so thin that they are almost translucent, again the bud stalk grows out of the flower head, but it is less intrusive.

I prefer the second image here. This illustrates how carefully you have to look all around the main object for intrusive happenings.

Several points in a deliberate shape.

I found this part particulaly challenging partly because I initially read it slightly wrongly. I started by looking for a number of points present in an image that formed a deliberate shape such as flower buds in a circle, or the stamens in the centre of a flower.

Lily Stamens.  ISO 400, 90mm efl, f/22, 1/4 sec.

These stamens form an almost circular pattern, but it is made by nature, and not by man.

Flower Arrangement - black and white. ISO 400, 45mm efl, f/8, 0.4 sec.

I then tried various flower arrangements, but was not particularly happy about any of then. Oddly enough, those that looked best as an arrangment photographed least well in this context, I think because in an arrangement one tends to avoid a deliberate looking shape.  This was a pleasing triangle of flowers, and I found the monochrome conversion fun.

I then took a completely different approach and took a group of found natural objects, a piece of wood, several pinecones and some flowers and built an arrangement from the bottom up, gradually adding extra items.

Seadrift and Pinecones. ISO 160, 90mm efl, f/5.6, 1/60 sec.

The original version, end result of gradually building up items, removing some and readjusting.

Seadrift and Pinecones (monochrome). ISO 160, 90mm efl, f/5.6, 1/60 sec

And a monochrome version with a sepia tint.

The coloured version here is my preferred option, as I feel it fulfills the requirements of forming a deliberately arranged shape, while producing an interesting image.