What's personal to me?

 Space, Texture, Line, Colour (left to right)

Pattern, Shape, Form, Tone (left to right)

These pictures are a duplicate project to 'Elements of a photograph', but instead of using random photos that show the different elements, I have used photos that express myself within them, for example, I used a sunflower for colour as sunflowers are my favourite flower e.t.c. Within these 8 photographs you can see a lot about myself, I had to choose from many photographs to narrow them down to 8 as I have alot of things I like. These 8 photographs include my favourite animal, objects, natural loves and memories from my past that remind me of home. As you can see I have also placed the photographs into patterns and colours of which are similar, for example, in the 'pattern, shape, form and tone' set of photographs I have kept the bronse colour throughout the photos as well as the giraffe print. I wanted to do this theme in these photos as I find that it is more pleasing to the eye than adding all different colours and themes together as you wouldn't know where to look.

Elements of a photograph

Space, Texture, Line, Colour (left to right)

Pattern, Shape, Form, Tone (left to right)

To learn all the elements of a photograph I decided to create a 'visual brainstorm' in which I took a picture of what each element represents. For example, 'form' is a photograph that shows tone around a 3D object, e.g. the swan above.

I think that this experiment went quite well as I can tell quite clearly which photograph represents each element.

Looking back at old memories

Above is a Famous artwork by Mimo Rotella. I was very much inspired by this picture as it reminded me of a narative of someones life as you have two generations within the picture.

 To create his artworks, he would go out at night armed with a penknife in which he would rip posters and billboards but also pieces of the metal framing to make that ripped feel within his art. Later on in his career he bagan gluing advertisements of magazines together and then begin ripping through the pages, this was a much smaller canvas than what he began with in his earlier career of ripping billboards.

Once looking at the picture above, I decided to create my own artwork inspired by Mimo rotella but instead I used my own picture of my memories. To create this collage I used photoshop to layer 20 photos on top of each other and then by using the 'lasso' tool I started to generate this ripped effect throughout the collage, just like Mimo Rotella would rip through billboards. This task was to experiment with using photoshop and getting used to how it works with layers, selecting, adjustments, resolution, e.t.c. I found that this experiment helped me alot, eventhough I have used photoshop before I learnt alot about it and I now feel much more comfortable when using it.

Calling out for my Grandad

This is a picture of my nan and grandad. They were only 20 at the time of the photo. They could be anyone's nan and grandad, but they symbolise happiness and joy, both of which you can see in their faces. But this picture, together with the picture below tell a big story within my life. This picture was taken just a few years after they were married, so about 48 years ago. They would just be starting their life together, full of future adventures and experiences. To me this photo is a part of my history and is very sacred to my nan as well.

Here is another picture, my nan on her own. This photo is my response to the previous photo. I wanted to express my emotion to the previous photo. Unlike other children I never got to see my grandad and he never got to see me, and so to take a this photo, I feel that I have expressed my own feelings towards this part of my history. To capture this photograph, I went back to the same place, which was my great nans house, with my nan. Here you can see that the window in the background is the same in both pictures. I have also attempted to capture my shadow within the image which connects myself to the person, of whom I don not know, was taking the photograph of my Grandad and Nan.

Competing for the Guardian

As a starter, to get me into the photography spirit, I decided to take part in the Guardian's weekly competition, of which you get given a topic and then have to send your response to the Guardian's home office. However I didn't win any of the competitions that I entered but I think that for my first experimental task, I completed it quite well as the photographs fit within each of the topics, in which show my personal style within them as well as a quirky response.

British Summer

'A close up shot of a sunflower, showing only its petals and the clouds in the sky'.

The composition of this photograph is very aesthetically pleasing, drawing your eye to the left of the photograph and then to the blue sky in the background. The brightness of the photograph makes it have that summery feeling to it.

Angles

'A spiral staircase descending from where I was standing. I thought that it was very appropriate for 'Angles'.

The photograph above is quite interesting as it draws the eyedown the stairway and is also visually appealing eventhough all of the tones are different vectors of grey.

Pairs

'I went to monkey world and thought what a great opportunity to take a 'pairs' photograph. Here is two gorillas which looks as though the picture is a mirror image.'

I like the way this photograph acts like symmetry, as though the Gorilla is looking in the mirror. The green background gives a good contrast to the blackness of the Gorilla.

Teenagers

'Two teenagers having fun at Bournemouth beach while enjoying the hot sun'.

This photograph reminds me of children and how they splash each other at the beach, but these two teenagers are just having fun and reminding themselves of their youth in the sun. I also like the compostition of the photo and how the two people within it are equally balanced. They are each the same distance from the edge of the photograph.