17.07.2012

TAOP
ASSIGNMENT FIVE: Applying the Art of Illustration and Narrative.

Subject: Royal Marines Concert at Walmer on 15th. July 2012.

Each year at this time the Royal Marines Band plays a concert as a remembrance to the twelve bandsmen who were murdered by an IRA bomb nearby 23 years ago.

The concert is very well attended by local people and gives them an opportunity to reflect.

The sky was heavily overcast.

Equipment. Olympus E3.  14-54, (28-108 on normal 35mm camera), and 50-200, (100-400 on normal 35 mm camera), lenses.  Tight security precluded me from close access to the band or stage.  Knowing that I would not be able to get close to the stage I took along the 50-200 lens as well as my standard zoom.  I included a monopod for steadying the long lens.

My aim was to capture the feeling of the day from the excitement of the fly past of the Spitfires, the involvement of the cadets and on to the to band and its audience.

The concert was started by the concert leader introducing the band and giving a short speech about the significance of the occasion.

The conductor about to start the concert.

During a break in the concert the bandsmen themselves passed through the crowd collecting money.  (Wide aperture to narrow the D. of F.)

Passing amongst the audience throughout the concert were members of the local Cadet Force.  Here are a selection.  Not all the uniforms were a perfect fit.  (Wide aperture to isolate subject from background.  By shooting from slightly behind has magnified the appearance of the helmet covering his eyes and looking too big.)

Of all the crowd shots I took the following caught my eye.  The first is a general shot but features a man in blue who has become distracted by the sight of the boy in the preceding shot.  This single counterpoint makes it a stronger image than one where all the audience are facing the same way.  (Long lens used to both compress the crowd and isolate the man in blue.) 

The second is of a small boy who is mimicking a drum solo on his father's hand, demonstrating the excitement not shown in the adult faces around him.

The concert ended with a fly past by two Spitfires.  I captured this image of one.  It was the only one that showed the top of the plane.  

(High speed shutter and panning as it passed.)

08.07.2012

TAOP.
"The Decisive Moment".

Last Wednesday I went, with friends, to Ramsgate Harbour for an evening of photography.
The light had a warm evening glow and was nice and low.  The water was flat and harbour greasy.  I found some interesting boats and took a number of shots.  I was limited by the layout of the harbour to my position.  It was a pleasing image but there was something missing.  The trouble was that the water was too flat and was leaving an empty hole in the lower left quarter.

During the day I had read "The Mind's Eye", Henri Cartier Bresson's writings on photographs and photographers, and had been thinking about his "Decisive Moment".

While I was  framing this image I was trying to employ the various components of composition I had learnt through this course.  The lines of phi, the balance of high against low, the balance of mass against space, the use and placing of colour, implied and actual triangles, curves, and the mirroring of shapes within the frame.  When I saw the small boat manoeuvring in the harbour and leaving a curved wake I just had to wait until the missing ingredient was added.  I took shots leading up to this moment as well as some after but for me this was the decisive moment when the picture I had in my head appeared in front of me.

08.07.2012


TAOP
Part Five: Narrative and Illustration.
Project: Illustration.
Exercise: Rain.


Olympus E330. 14-54mm lens.  f5.6 @ 160th sec. ISO 200.


Third try.
I went to the Hastings Beer Festival this weekend, and like most events it was a was out.  Teeming rain, waterlogged grass, soggy burgers and lousy music just about sum it up.  I did however nail this exercise.  The rain was running off the roof of the marquee and onto the attached Union Flags.  This picture sums up this summers events.  Other than a bit of cropping and colour saturation this is as it was.  The flags had formed this pattern on their own and the wet surfaces were holding them together.