Location Shoots

Trips

Wembury 

For this project a series of trips were set in place for us to go on in order to get a clearer understanding of location shoots and how to make the most of them. One of these trips was to Wembury beach, which is situated just outside of Plymouth. The reason for this is because Wembury is owned by the National Trust and as a part of this trip we were obligated to pick up rubbish that we found on the beach. In preparation for this trip I made sure I had a telephoto, macro and wide angle lens, as well as some ND filters in order to capture water movement. However, as you can see I got fairly carried away with coastal shots using the ND filters. Nonetheless, I did capture some other photographs of waste that was on the beach, not to mention the dead sea bird I found. Alas I may have lost all of the pictures I took on the trip to Wembury, so the ones you see here were taken when I went there outside of college. 

Personally, I quite like the images I produced, considering it was my first time using ND filters. What I did for taking the photographs was set the aperture to f22, (the smallest aperture I could get) and turned the ISO down to the lowest I could get at 200. Once I had done this I used all three filters in order to reduce the amount of light getting through, thus increasing the how long my exposures were. 

However, one thing I did not take into consideration before going back to the beach was that of the tide times. Resulting from me not taking this into account my shots were not as dramatic as I would of hoped. I wanted to go to Wembury at either the rising or setting of the sun, because of the colours and textures that are abundant at such a time of day. Unfortunately, due to me having to work in the evening I was only able to make the sun rise, which meant that the sun was rising from behind me thus creating the strong darkness to the left side of the rocks. To make sure I do not occur any of these problems again, I will thoroughly plan out my shoots and make sure I know in what direction the sun is setting or rising and what beaches will be in that direction. Not to mention, checking out the tide times so that I can get a far more dramatic effect from the water by using the ND filters for a long exposure.  

My favourite two pictures out of the whole shoot are bottom two as I feel they are nicely framed, leading the viewer from the bottom of the picture all the way along to the right hand side where the island is, yet I do still feel that had I picked a different time of day and fitted it around the tide coming in then they would have been a lot better. The reason for this is because with the sun high up in the sky there would not be a darkness on the rocks to the left side of the frame, as well as with the tide coming in the affect captured from the water would have been far more dramatic. Another problem that I found with some of my photographs was that of the sea being too bright. How I could combat this is by shooting either, on an overcast day, or at a darker time of day so I can expose it for longer/the same time without the sea or the sky bleaching out.  

I plan on photographing other beaches throughout this project so I shall take these mistakes into account and make sure that for the next shoot I will not make them.

Here are a couple of my edited pictures from this shoot.

Dartmoor

Another trip that we went on for the project was to Dartmoor to visit a couple of well known landmarks. Firstly, we went to see the stone rows at Merrivale, the significance of these stone rows is they have been around for thousands of years and bare a strong religious background. The other place we went to was Foggintor quarry, which was home to some interesting stone structures, as seen in my contact sheet of images. Like the other trip I made sure that I shot in the smallest aperture I could in order to be sure that I got as much detail as possible within my shots. For this trip I decided to keep my equipment relatively simple by only bringing a wide-angle and a fish-eye lens, as well as the standard 18-55mm lens that comes with the Nikon D90s. The reason for this is because dartmoor is a very a great expanse of landscape so by using two very wide angled lens' I was able to capture as much of the landscape I possibly could within each shot. I also used the fish-eye lens to create surreal and powerful affects to the shot. 

I quite like some of the images that I got from this trip, especially the ones I took using the fish-eye lens due to the effect created by it. Out of the ones I have chosen to show in my contact sheet, my favourites are the very last picture of the road, the middle one of  the old stone building and the shot next to that of the tree with the sun glaring through the parting in the branches. The things I like about these images are how they are framed, the cloud formations within them and, with the fisheye shots the curved effect given by the fisheye. The picture that I am most happy with is the shot of the old building/castle. The reason for this is how the use of the fisheye lens has created a really domineering effect, by curving the sides of the wall and making them fill the frame so the rest of the pathway looks a lot further away than it actually is, creating quite a surreal looking image Not to mention how it looks like the castle is spewing rocks out of its archway, as if it was it's mouth. However, I do feel that this photograph could be framed slightly better, due to the fact that the archway is not dead central making the picture look slightly misplaced. I also feel that it could have been taken a bit higher up, as it would look better if the bottom corners of the walls were perfectly at the bottom of the frame.

For my other photographs I feel that they were quite weak, due to them being poorly framed and not really capturing interesting parts of the landscape. For instance, the first two in my contact sheet of the stone rows at Merrivale, firstly do not capture all of the stone row and secondly leave a bit of negative space particularly in the first one, as on the right side of the frame there is the interesting effect on the one of the stones, given by the fisheye lens, but on the left side of the frame there is nothing to add to this. I did use a tripod for the majority of these shots, however for my favourite pictures I did not, due to the fact that they were spare of the moment photographs. With this in mind I will be sure to use a tripod and take more time to frame the scene so that it is perfect.

After the trip I went back to the stone rows at Merrivale in my own time in order to capture some better pictures. These are a few of the photographs that I took on that shoot. The main reason for me returning there was because I found the stone rows very interesting and did not feel that I used them to their greatest potential. My favourite image from this set is the one in the bottom left of the contact sheet. The reason for this is from how it is framed, as the largest stone at the beginning of the row is dominant within the photograph as the rest trail off into the distance. Which in my opinion adds to an aesthetically pleasing photo. Nonetheless, I do feel that the larger stone could have been a little closer to the left hand side of the frame, I also could have taken the shot closer in to the stone row to make it even more prominent within the picture.

In conclusion I believe I have created some reasonable images, even though they may not have been my best work I still like a few of them. Yet if I were to do this shoot again I would make sure that I tried out more than just one or two angles and ways of framing the scene, so I can have a wider choice of photographs of the same thing to choose from.

Here are a few of my final edits of the photographs. 

Aquarium

We also went to the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, as the college has a programme set up with the Aquarium in which the students work is passed on to the Aquarium and possibly used for their displays or advertisement. For this trip I knew that I would need a either a macro or telephoto lens, due to the fact that there will be a pane of glass in between me and the fish. So by using one of these lens's I would reduce the annoying reflections and the dirt on the glass appearing in the photograph. However, as I had to turn the ISO up to its highest setting there was a lot more noise capture in each image, thus making it increasingly harder to get a decent picture. Nonetheless, I did manage to get a couple of photos that I could use, even though I did not like them due to the lack of detail in all of them. 

I did want to return to the Aquarium in order to reshoot and get some better images, yet because it wasn't really based around my project I decided against it as I wanted to focus on the landscape and the impact man kind is having on it, instead of the impact on wildlife. 

Personally, I do not like the images I produced from this trip. The reason for this is because I do not feel they stand out enough. They are quite bland and boring, as the way I framed them so it was like fish were on display at a museum, side on and dead centre. In framing it like this I feel that I have detracted from the beauty and liveliness of the fish, thus making them look aesthetically unpleasing. In hindsight I believe that if I had taking pictures of the fish among the reef or in a shoal I would have been able to add more feeling to the photographs. In my opinion I think that the main reason for the poor quality of my images for this shoot was down to the fact that I rushed them and also did not have the time and room to set my shots up as everyone else from the course was also trying to do the same thing, therefore not allowing for a great deal of movement. Not to mention the fact that we only had a set amount of time at each are. If I had to pick a favourite it would be the picture on the bottom row in the middle. The reason for this is because it has some background to it, as well as possibly being one of the only photographs throughout the shoot that had a decree of detail within it. I also love the texture of the fish, which in my personal opinion, is what makes the picture stand out among the others. 

Besides all my negative comments on my images for this trip I did produce a few edited pictures.

 

Final Image Shoots

Shoreham

Shoreham was the first place that I visited on my trip down to the south east. In this shoot I was wanting to capture the state of the beach and how a once beautiful, habitable place has suffered at the hands of a series of industrial complexes situated behind the beach. When I arrived at Shoreham the beach itself was cleaner than I had anticipated and capturing the industries spewing onto the coastline was harder than I had imagined. However, I decided to focus the brunt of my attention on the storm drain as it sits on top of a 3.1km sewage pipe. The storm drain was quite the eye-sore and was stuck in the middle of the beach in-line with the sewage plant directly behind it. Like I said in my shoot plan I wanted to make sure that there was still some natural beauty within the shot by shooting just after sun rise on a sunny day. I also said that I wanted to make the photographs convey the message that these industrial complexes are in the way and having detrimental affects to the marine life and beauty of the beach. 

For this shoot I solely stuck to using a 10-20mm wide-angle lens as I felt that the more I got in each shot the better, as I wanted to show the expanse of these industrial compounds. Out of the equipment I brought I only used one lens, the neutral density graduated filters and the trigger release. The reason for this is because I had preempted that the beach would be in a disgusting state, so the use of an 18-55mm, a 180mm Macro lens would have been useful. However, due to the beach being cleaner than I had expected I stuck to using just the 10-20mm, as it was the most useful lens for what I intended on capturing. The neutral density graduated filters proved to be very useful, because it was early morning on a sunny day so the strength of the sun was resulting in the sky being too over exposed. So, from using the graduated filters I was able to have images that were exposed both for the sky and the foreground.  

Personally, I feel the images came out quite well, yet I believe I could have captured more shots of the power station that I would have been able to use for my project. Whereas, I only came out with three photographs that I want to use and they are all based around the storm drain. I think that if i had spent a bit more time on the beach and thought about other shots I could have captured more of the industries and how they are precariously overlooking the beach. Had I done this I feel that I could have had some more images that would have further backed up my point of how stretches of industries like this one are springing up on our coastlines all around the United Kingdom and are ruining something that we should treasure. 

Another thing I would have changed if I had the chance to re-shoot, is to explore more of the beach to find if there was anything else of interest to capture, that was in-keeping with my project. I also would shoot from different angles in order to have a wider range of different shots to see what works and what does not. I feel that I could have tried out the different strengths of graduated filters to see what gave the greatest effect. 

All that aside I do have a favourite and that is the one in the middle of the second page on the left. The reason for this is because I feel it illustrates my point rather well. How its does this, I feel, is from how the storm drain is positioned, with it being aligned with the horizon and framed bang in the middle of the shot extending right out into the sea. This illustrates part of the basis of my project as it shows that the natural beauty of beaches, like Shoreham, are suffering from eye-sores such as this storm drain. 

Newhaven

The second place that I visited was Newhaven which, unlike Shoreham, was very easy to capture the expanse of the industrialisation. During my time in Newhaven I was slightly spoiled for choice, with sewage plants, power stations, scrap heaps, builders merchants and many more industrial complexes. What I decided to do instead of visiting everything I focused on what was fitting for my project. For example, the sewage plant, because the sewage is discharged into the sea and the scene of the harbour and the scrap heap, as they show how closely situated all these industries are to the water.  I problem I did encour that I had not taken into consideration during my planning was that of not being allowed onto these sites. I asked a few people who were at the gates of these places whether or not I would be able to go on to the site in order to photograph it for my college project. However, my attempts came to no avail as each of them stated they could not allow me to take pictures of the site for obvious reasons. So, I tried my best to capture these places from a distance, which was not much of an issue for the sewage plant. Whereas, the scrap heap on the other hand was not as easy. The reason for this was, because I had not preempted me not being allowed on to these sites I only brought a 180mm Macro lens which has a fixed focal length. This meant that, while I was on the other side of the harbour trying to capture the scrap heap I had to keep walking back in between boats until I had the shot I wanted. Nonetheless, they were not the perfect shots as I would have liked to have caught the water in the shot as well, to add to the precariously situated mounds of scrap metal.

Another issue that I faced throughout this shoot was the rain, as I had wanted to shoot on an overcast rainy day to emphasize the bleak, grim landscape that Newhaven is. To avoid the equipment getting wet I used an umbrella to shield it from the rain. This posed to be quite difficult as I had to check to see the framing was correct while making sure the umbrella was covering the camera equipment and not in the shot. It also became very problematic when I need to change lens' as I left them in the car to ensure they were safe and had to keep running back while covering the camera with the umbrella, changing the lens in the car and then walking all the way back to get another photograph.

The equipment I used for this shoot was the same as my other shoots with the exception of filters which I did not use. I mainly shot with the 10-20mm wide-angle lens because it captured the expanse of Newhaven's industries, yet I did use both the 18-55mm and the 180mm for other shots as the 10-20mm at times had too wide a focal length.

Newhaven was one of my favourite place for shooting during this project, even though it was very stressful going all around Newhaven to find places that I could capture the scrap heap, not to mention running back and forth to change lens'. Nevertheless, I am rather pleased with the images that I produced from this shoot. I believe that Newhaven was one of the best places to go to for my project, as it is a quintessential example of the point I am trying to convey through my images. In my opinion I feel that I was able to show, to an extent, the magnitude of this industrialised landscape and how the issue of waste and pollution is getting out of control in this industrial town.

My favourite images from this shoot are between the shot of the crane in the middle of the first page and the shot on page two in the middle, of the industries along side the harbour with the incinerator in the background pumping pollution into the atmosphere. The vindication behind why these are my favourite images is because of how they depict the scale of the issue in Newhaven. Firstly, the crane shot portrays how waste is getting out of control by showing the sheer size of the heap and how a crane is moving piles of rusted metal away from the edge of the harbour. What shocked me about this scrap heap is that there was no barrier between the rusting metal and the sea so if some were to fall in there would be nothing that could be done.

Secondly, the image of the harbour I feel shows the expanse of this industrial town and how it has been broken down by the increase of these complexes. What I like most about this image is the Newhaven incinerator in the background polluting the atmosphere, as it almost looks like the dark cloud above it has been created by the polluting that it has been discarding.

Even though this was my favourite shoot I still feel that I did not make the most of it, due to lack of correct equipment and the amount of time I spent taking photographs. If I had the chance to shoot this again I would take into consideration the fact that I may not be able to get onto the sites and plan what equipment to bring according to that. For instance, had I brought a 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens I would have had a focal length that I could change according to the shot that I wanted to capture, meaning that instead of having to walk backwards to get the shot I could of zoomed in or out. I also would have been able to get both the crane, mound of scrap metal and the sea into the shot, which is what I wanted.  The other thing I would have done differently is spending more time thinking about what shot I could get and how I could get it instead of rushing it when I was outside because I was worried about the equipment getting wet. So, instead of running back and forth getting different lens' I would have a clear understand of what images I wanted and what lens would be best for this.

Bantham: Fish

This shoot at Bantham beach was my first that I did in the south west. I came across Bantham when I looked into the beaches that had failed their water inspections. What I hoped to create within this shoot is a scene depicting what waste is doing to the marine life. The preparation for this shoot took a while but was worth it in the end. Firstly, I went to Morrison's fish monger and asked for as many fish head as they could give me this worked out really well because I got a variety of different fish. Secondly, when I was at the beach I had to go around finding different bits of rubbish that I could use to cover the fish heads in. I did not want to bring my own rubbish to the beach because it would not look the same, due to waste from the sea having been decaying for some time and being covered in dirt, giving it a certain texture that adds to the grungy effect that I wanted to convey in my images. Finally, I positioned all of the fish heads in order, with the bigger fish (John Dory) at the end of either side to add a stronger presence to the fish, as they were not overly dominant in the frame due to their size.

Once I had done this I placed a picnic blanket on the floor to stop me and the camera from getting covered in wet sand and then began taking photos. I tried a variety of different shots, from landscape shots with all of the fish in the shot, to portraits of each individual fish. I only used two lens' for this shoot, a 10-20mm wide-angle and a 180mm Macro lens', which was actually a multi-functional 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens which had a 180mm Macro setting.  

Overall, I am happy with one some of the images, however I would love to do it again because I feel that I could make it a lot better than it is. The reason for this is because I do not feel that the fish play a big enough role in the photograph, as there is too much foreground, sky and background that takes over the majority of the shot, whereas it should be the fish dominating the photograph. Another thing I would do differently is use more fish to increase the impact and portray the scale of this issue. Upon looking at the Surfers Against Sewage poster with the surf boards aligned like gravestones, I feel that I could have shot it in portrait and had the fish stretching out into see. If I had done this I believe that I could have focused more on the fish and also used a tripod because I would be able to angle the shot downward at the array of fish heads surrounded in rubbish. I also felt that had I done a couple of shoots on this but at different beaches collecting as much rubbish on each and saving it up for the next shoot I would have been able to maximise the impact I create within my image.

Mothecombe

This is another shoot that I did for my final project, however I did not feel that the images I got were as hard hitting as my others, not to mention the fact that they do not properly convey my idea and concept to the scale that other images from previous shoots do. For this shoot I went to Mothecombe, which is home to beach that had failed to meet European water standards. So, what I had hoped for this shoot was too find a lot of rubbish on the beach and stuff to be floating around in the water. However, to my dismay there was hardly any waste on the beach of a great magnitude, due to the beaches being cleaned up for the summer. Nonetheless, the water there was disgusting as I could see what appeared to be sewage floating around in it. Unfortunately, despite my efforts this was not easy to photograph, due to it being under the water and slightly camouflaged with the sand. As this had not turned out the way I wanted, I tried my best to make the most of it. How I went about doing this was by finding the biggest piece of rubbish I could (a Fosters can) and focus on it floating in this disgraceful water. 

At first I just used a 180mm Macro lens to get up close shots of the can in this polluted water, but I wanted to try and capture more of this water so I changed to the standard 18-55mm lens. I also used three neutral density filters so I could capture the water movement made my the wind. Personally, I feel that the shots capturing water movement are too peaceful and look more like adverts than images attempting to portray the destruction of waste and pollution. 

If I had to pick a favourite it would be the close-up shot on the left in the middle, because I feel out of all of them it captures the least beauty and focuses on the dirt and of the can and vile texture of the water. Nevertheless, I will not be using these image for my final project as I do not feel they are in keeping with the message my other shots aim to convey. I would like to re-visit this beach to shoot this again, but I will make sure to go in the winter time when the beaches are poorly managed and waste is allowed to spill all over the beaches. I also intend to visit more than just this beach, as I want to create my own personal project around the destruction of our coastlines, which I plan to embark on during the winter of this year.