I’m not very good at filtering initial feelings, and tend to have a knee jerk reaction when it comes to negative critiques of me and, by extension, my work. I feel like yesterday I possibly over reacted to the negativity of the crit and, having slept on it, I feel a lot more positive about the feedback we were given. I came round when I remembered that actually I myself had thought that the images perhaps looked a little like a selection of preset background images for an iPhone. I also need to remember that the tutors opinions are just that, and art is so subjective that I don’t need to take on everything they say as fact. Realistically these were responses were what I would get from a client in the real world, and preparation for such is key.

I must say I’m quite worried it’s going to be hard for me approaching the next project on the back of this last crit. It’s difficult because whilst I feel I am approaching this degree from a much better place personally, my confidence in my artwork has taken a severe knock. The crit for the drawing project ended up being so productive because I wasn’t proud of my work, at all, but this crit was that little bit more traumatising because I had felt so confident in our work.

The images could have definitely followed a more coherent theme. We also didn’t complete a project above and beyond the requirements of the brief in order to achieve high praise, or in our case praise at all. As for aspects of the group projects to be followed further, I think exploration of the kinetic elements of light use would be interesting. I liked the proposal of creating a light structure to photograph and create more images like the ones we put forward of our final two.

In order to throw myself into the compositional awareness project I’m going to have to temporarily draw a line under this one. I’m a little raw still and feel it would be more  productive to approach it again when I’m feeling more subjective about it.

 

Today we explored the use of the macro lenses as a group. Emily brought her collection of gemstones in again and we experimented with how the use of these over a light box combined the use of artificial light with such intricate natural minerals. The translucent areas of specific stones created shocking light leaks and a more vivid show of colours. It was interesting exploring how light flares and variation of focus created a depth in the photographs we produced.

Above there is an image of my finger that actually caused a lot of contention between me and the group. In my opinion, the photo gave the surface of the skin a really beautiful glow. I think perhaps because it was my finger I didn’t find the image particularly disgusting because of my obvious personal attachment to it. The others in my group, however, were almost disturbed by the image.

I’d like to explore how the macro lens explores the areas of the body we aren’t used to seeing in such detail in the future. For this project however, we have produced some effective photos of the gemstones that we plan on using for the final 12.

After the trip down to the pier, everyone was suitably exhausted and cold and we all felt the day was coming to a natural end. However just before we left, one of the less vocal members of our group produced from her bag her childhood collection of gemstones and some phone camera adapting lenses.

The lenses were super simple and only had to be clipped over your phone camera to alter the image being produced. They were fascinating, and I only had the opportunity to play around with them for a few minutes in the natural light to produce the photos above. The results were fantastic and I feel like further exploration is definitely necessary.

I’ve already bought a set of the lenses as for only twelve pounds they are super cheap and almost definitely a necessity for future projects. I’ve asked Emily to bring the gemstones in again so that we can explore how different light sources work on them, the images are also perfect for my personal exploration looking at texture production for the surfaces of my planets.

 

Having referred to the brief we noticed as a group that we hadn’t explored external light factors at all. On the back of this we decided to go down to the pier to take some photos. The sun was shining but it was a particularly bitter day so, after taking a few images of the way that the sun reflected off the sea, we took shelter inside the pier arcade.

The arcade proved to be a far more interesting subject for photography than the great expanse of blue that surrounds it. The colourful, tacky lights proved to very effective in producing a stark contrast with the dark environment. I am particularly proud of the photo I took at the top of this post.

We experimented with all of the techniques we’d learned the day before in the photography workshop. Testing out how the slow shutter speed drew out the movement being created by all of the different attractions. It will be brilliant to collate our photos tomorrow and see how everyone’s interpreted the same location.

     

After the brief had been set a few of us wandered down to snoopers paradise to explore its wares. We sneakily avoided the various ‘no photography’ signs and proceeded to take some preliminary photos on our phones of different ways that light refracted through the glass objects. Some of the images we got were really effective and I’m looking forward to really getting my teeth into this project as a result.

There’s an almost spacey feel to the images that I’ve used here. I’m not sure if thats my personal interpretation from my prior knowledge of light, or if it’s an association with the colour palette they are producing. The purple and orange reflections combined with the sporadic use of white really makes me think of the photos of galaxies and black holes produced by the /Hubble Space Telescope. I think it would be interesting to look into these for referencing in my solo exploration of the project.

I’ve included the photo of the neon sign of the shop sign because that in itself is really interesting. I saw a documentary a few years about the work that goes into making neon signs and the use of different gases to create the vibrant colours you see in these lights. I’m going to look into the science behind light and the light spectrum to give my project more validity.