Assignment 1
The assignment consists of the following components:
·
Major Project Proposal
·
Critical Review Proposal
·
Project 1: “Gestalt in Composition”
Major Project
Proposal
Following research on the internet, communication with my
tutor both by email and, in December 2013, in the form of a telephone tutorial,
I prepared a Major Project proposal on the topic of “Feeding Wild Birds in
Britain: History, Current Practice and the Benefits to both Parties”. The
submitted document can be found in this blog under the “Major Project” label (link here).
Critical Review
Proposal
I decided to write my essay on the subject of why the genre
of natural history photography has become separated from other photographic
genres and totally divorced from the world of modern photographic art.
Referencing the work of the photographer Daniel Beltrá
I intended to consider what value natural history photography could bring to
the natural world, whether it could be integrated with work in other genres
and, if so, how. The submitted document for the assignment can be found in the blog under the "Critical Review Proposal" label (link here).
Project 1: “Gestalt
in Composition”
What follows is part of the submission document accompanying
Assignment 1. For further information see Blog notes under the “Project 1: Gestalt” label (link here).
Introduction
The first assignment requires me,
for Project 1, to produce three images in which I consciously make use of one
or more of the Gestalt laws, as outlined on pages 24-25 of the course notes.
Following a telephone tutorial I
was advised by my tutor to look for examples of Gestalt that were directly
related to the photographic work outlined in my major project proposal (see
above). Since my major project images will cover (mainly) the genres of natural
history photography and documentary, this additional requirement still allowed
me varied opportunities and subject matter for the production of project
images. The three images that I produced
and chose are described below: printed copies of these images, together with
Tiff and jpeg files of the images, will be available for assessment.
Image 1: Mute Swans on the Round Pond, Kensington Gardens, London
Image 1
The Round Pond in winter is a
fruitful area for wildlife photographers. Birds that might otherwise be
difficult to photograph, such as common gulls, allow a close approach as they
await food hand-outs from the many visitors to the pond. Whole families come to
feed the birds here, so this pond has been earmarked as a suitable venue for
some photography for my major project. At least 25 mute swans make the pond
their home during the winter months and are always looking out for an easy
meal. These three birds were heading in my direction because somebody nearby
had arrived with food. This was my first photograph of the day (I subsequently
took over 250). I had the camera primed for some action shots with a fast
shutter speed (1/800s) and a medium aperture (f/10). I had to react quickly and
managed to take just this one shot, which has been slightly cropped to remove
an out of focus coot at the top of the original image. I used the Nikon D90
camera, with my 70-300mm Nikon zoom lens set to 155mm at ISO 400. The Round
Pond is not particularly large, so I was lucky to be able to isolate just the
swans. I believe that the composition obeys more than one of the Gestalt
principles:
Common Fate: the swans are all moving in the same direction and
have their bills pointing to the right: they appear to be moving as a single
unit, heading slightly to my right. This is probably the strongest Gestalt
principle to emerge from the image.
Similarity: the three swans look more or less identical in posture,
shape, size, colour and movement and are therefore easily grouped.
Good Continuation: the swans are in a line going from bottom left to
top right, although they are moving at an angle to this line. The viewer may
wish to learn what it is that the swans are looking towards, out of shot on the
right.
Simplicity: this is a simple image, with just three very similar
shapes moving across the water and nothing else in sight.
I believe that this image is a
good example of the laws of Gestalt in action. However, it has a couple of
flaws. I would have liked to have had clear water between the middle and rear
swans. If I had had time (I didn’t) I would have moved slightly to the right to
accomplish this. Also, because of the long focal length of the zoom lens,
modest aperture and relative proximity of the swans, the rear and
(particularly) the front swan are not completely sharp (I focussed on the middle
swan), although I don’t believe that this detracts significantly from the
effect of the image.
Image 2: Arable Fields near Royston, Herts.
Image 2
The major project on feeding wild
birds will look at how changes in land use have affected both bird populations
and our attitudes towards wild birds. One obvious change has been the use of
increasingly large tracts of land for arable farming (to feed our increasing
population), with the resulting prairies proving to have little value for many
bird species, which used to live happily amongst the hedgerows and wild flowers
that have been lost to modern agriculture. One image from my portfolio will
exemplify these changes by focussing on an arable farm near my home in Royston.
This farm is particularly popular with landscape photographers, because the
undulating land produces a series of dips and folds in the fields when viewed
from a high vantage point nearby. I often take photographs from here, in
different weather conditions and at different times of the year, sometimes with
pleasing results. One image for my major project portfolio will almost
certainly be taken from this or a nearby viewpoint. My inclusion of this image
here is intended to refer to the following Gestalt principles:
Simplicity: with the exception of the fencing near the bottom of
the frame and a not very obvious thin hedgerow near the top of the frame, the
image is essentially a simple near abstract composition of form and colour,
with a series of “compartments” separated by horizontal or near horizontal
lines representing the folds in the fields. Tracks across the fields offer a
further series of curves and diagonal lines. The fencing near the bottom of the
image has been included to give a sense of scale and context. This is the
strongest Gestalt principle operating here.
Similarity: the different compartments of the image are similar in
shape and, in some cases, texture. The markings on the fields all move from
bottom left towards top right (although the shadows near the fencing head in a different
direction).
The photograph was taken with the
Nikon D7000 (hand-held); 1/250s, f/11, ISO 200. The 70-300mm zoom lens was set
at 180mm. I was looking in an easterly direction on a sunny November afternoon,
with the sun fairly low in the sky.
Image 3: Feeding
the Birds, Broomfield Park, North London
Image 3
Broomfield Park in London is
typical of many urban parks, with a mixture of grassland, woodland, open fields
and, in one corner, a series of ponds that are frequented by a variety of water
birds, gulls and pigeons. People regularly visit these ponds to feed the birds,
so I was also drawn to the park to do some photography for my course work. The
scene in the photograph is somewhat contrived: I waited for people to arrive to
feed the water birds then moved some distance away and put down some bird seed
of my own, which quickly attracted the attention of some of the hundreds of
feral pigeons (that make a rich living from the many food hand-outs on offer
here), as well as a single Canada goose. I then moved further away so that the
predominantly grey pigeons were in the foreground and the predominantly white
(gulls, swans) birds were further away. I took the photograph from 2-3 feet
above the wet and muddy ground, whilst resting on my knee, and took care to
include the curve of the path around the edge of the round pond as well as a
more distant flock of gulls (upper right), which was simultaneously being fed.
The photograph was taken mid-afternoon in January, with a dark shower cloud
approaching but a bright sky, so lighting conditions were tricky. I wanted to
keep the flying gulls reasonably sharp, so settled for a shutter speed of
1/250s in “shutter priority” mode. In order not to get under-exposed images it
was necessary to shoot at ISO 800: I have found that this setting does not
produce an obvious problem with graininess. I took several exposures from this
spot and tried experiments of a similar nature from other locations around the
pond. A lot of images were spoilt by birds being in the wrong positions.
Although far from ideal, Image 3 comes closest to achieving what I set out to
do. I used my Nikon D90 camera, with Sigma 17-70mm lens set to f6.3 at 26mm.
The image was designed to follow the following Gestalt principles:
Common Fate: the grey pigeons on the path in the foreground can be
considered as one group which, although directionless, is assumed to move as
one. The gulls and swans in the middle distance can be perceived as a separate
group with different behaviour: not only are many of the birds flying but they
are also predominantly white. A flock of gulls in the far distance, although
small in the frame, forms another group.
Similarity: the pigeons are all similar (although not, of course,
identical), as are the gulls. The lone Canada goose in the foreground, whilst
unwanted, does create a bit of tension by virtue of being much larger and
having more contrasting colours. Likewise, the lady with the pushchair who is
feeding the birds stands out from the gull flock.
Good Continuation: the image is designed to lead the eye from
bottom left to top right, following the curving path round the lake, firstly
through the pigeons and then through the gulls and swans to the flock of flying
gulls in the distance. It is arguable that the presence of so many birds
detracts from this principle; however, in the absence of birds I would find it
hard to justify that this image was project-related!
The image has been slightly
cropped in from all sides in order to remove unwanted objects. I then cloned
out the heads and backs of a couple of pigeons that were only partly in the
resultant image, towards the bottom. I was tempted to clone out the back of the
pigeon that is at the bottom left of the image, but decided to leave it as a
“lead in” point towards the close cluster of feeding pigeons. I would not
normally have taken a photograph of this subject matter and it is by far the
“busiest” of the three images submitted: I could certainly not claim that it
satisfies the principle of “simplicity”! However, it gets me closer to one of
the key areas of the major project portfolio.
Conclusions
Three very different images have
been chosen, each of which I believe demonstrates more than one of the
principles of Gestalt. All of the images were shot as raw files, edited and
converted into JPEG files. I believe that they are directly relevant to the
planning for my major project and the resultant portfolio.
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