An event of significance

     An Event of Significance

Statement of Intent  

28/09/12

For the event of significance, I have an idea of what I would like to do, it just depends if I can actually carry it out.

I most definitely would like to make a time lapse, as I think this is a great way of recording something eventful. As I was on my way home, I saw a building being pulled down and immediately I wanted to do that as a time lapse, but unfortunately the building was already almost fully down.

I looked on the internet to see if I could find out where a building was being demolished, within travelling distance, but nothing!! I will just have to keep working on it.

12/10/12

Today we learned how to make a time lapse in lightroom, by taking multiple images (the amount of images will depend on the length of video you want to make) the length of time it will take to make a time lapse will depend on the time between each shot, for example; if you were doing a time lapse in a busy town hopping centre, you would take images every 2 secs, but if you were shooting a time lapse of a flower growing, you may only need to shoot every 15 mins. Therefore you must work out how many images you need for the length of time lapse required, and then you can determine how long it is going to take you to shoot the images.
e.g. shooting at every 10 secs for an hour = 14.4 secs of footage.

There is a software which can be downloaded directly into your camera on the flash card for canon, called 'Magic Lantern' this enables you to shoot time lapse straight from the camera, by setting the amount of images and how many secs/mins between each shot. There is however a possibility of damaging your camera, and for this reason I have not downloaded the software.
Note; If you are shooting a time lapse of a landscape, set the camera at f22 every 10 secs to reduce flicker in your final video.

14/10/12

I went up to castle hill to try making a time lapse today, I didn't have a remote timer for the shoot, so used my phone and timer app to calculate the spaces between shots. It was freezing and very windy, which was cause for camera shake, but for this experiment that wasn't going to be an issue, but something to remember for future shoots. I used my tripod and shot every 5 secs, for what seemed to be forever, I was so impatient to get home and put it all together I can't remember how long I was actually there for.
The finished time lapse was extremely short but effective and inspiration to do more, better.
Here is the result of my very first time lapse, the start of something big...

27/10/12

I received an email today, asking for photographers to volunteer at Wakefield Cathedral, they have a project on going called 366 Days, and for 366 days they are asking for a different photographer to attend and take photographs in the Cathedral, and/or in the knave which is at present in the process of being renovated. I was interested in attending because of the renovation work so I booked myself an appointment, and requested permission to go in the nave, contractors are working in there and they must approve a visit before anyone is allowed to go in, full PPE must be worn also; i.e. hard hat, high vis jacket, steel toe cap shoes/boots, which I have (apart from the hard hat, but one is provided on site).

8/12/12

Today I attended Wakefield Cathedral as the assigned photographer of the day on a project run by the Cathedral, which involves individual photographers volunteering to go and take shots of the Cathedral daily for 366 days while they have work carried out on their nave, to celebrate it's 125th birthday and give amateur photographers an opportunity to get involved.

My visit was much more interesting than I had anticipated, and gave me the idea of making a time lapse of the scaffolding being removed, and so I emailed Harriet, who deals with the photographers arrangements etc, and put my idea for a time-lapse to her , suggesting they could have it on the website. Unfortunately I received an email reply saying that it would not be possible to do this as most of the scaffolding had already come down.

15/12/12

 With this in mind I decided to book another visit anyway, and to my surprise there was actually still some scaffolding up in the nave but it was in the process of being taken down, so I had a good look round for the best possition to set my camera up on the tripod, I attached my time-lapse remote control at intervals of 5 seconds apart due to the speed that the contractors were working. At one point the contractors had stopped working in the area I was covering, so I moved my camera to where they now were, this happened a few times, which means that my time-lapse is not concentrating on just one spot, it moves around to show different views. Below is a link to my second attempt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK-0XuwdAZE

I sent a copy of my time-lapse to Harriet, the lady who organised the bookings for the 366 Days project at the Cathedral, and the next day I received an email from her telling me that she had posted it on both their website and Facebook page. She said that the Dean of Wakefield Cathedral responded to my time-lapse, saying that it was " splendid".




I was pleased with the result although improvements could of been made in the making, such as avoiding the different zoom adjustments that caused a jump in the video. I also wish I could have been present all of the days when the scaffold was being taken down. It would of been much more exciting to have been able to capture the whole nave being exposed for the first time as the scaffold was removed.
I wanted the video to run for longer than it did, therefore I requested another visit, to shoot more time-lapse as the last of the scaffold came down, unfortunately, by the time I could attend, it was too late and the scaffold was gone. : (
However the contractors were still on site and preparing to install the underfloor heating system, so I shot them working still in the nave and hope to be able to add this onto my first time-lapse which will extend the running time. I also intend to put some music with the video please click on the link below to view the time-lapse on you tube.

On my return visit to the cathedral I shot some more images to add on to my first time-lapse, here is a test run of them put together as a time-lapse.

 http://youtu.be/cwHTBVtdLzQ

Time Lapse- finished Version

                                         

The following links are to Wakefield Cathedrals 366 Days website where my Time Lapse was published.

http://www.366days.org.uk/

http://three66days.squarespace.com/storage/volunteer-submissions/TL.mp4

Links which I found interesting and helpful

http://youtu.be/Ps0DSihggio

http://youtu.be/Hdpf-MQM9vY

http://youtu.be/g0rCpMUxVrs

http://youtu.be/fPuQw-39CQo

 http://youtu.be/V5P1Vkzel4k

                                         

IOU Speaking Tubes- 360 Panoramic

IOU Dean Clough, Halifax

About

We are having a group lesson on 14/12/12 explaining how to shoot using a 360 degree tripod head. We are attending the   " Talking Tubes" installation which is currently on display at 'Dean Clough' Halifax.
This technique can be a very useful tool as a professional photographer, as more and more businesses ranging from hotels, restaurants, to art galleries, to name a few, are taking advantage of having these videos on their websites to draw in the consumers by letting them explore their environment in a visual tour.

I found a video on you tube showing how to shoot 360 degree video on an i-phone.

http://youtu.be/Pt_gKB9p2cI

I found this link on you tube, which shows a ball with concealed cameras and when thrown up it takes panoramic photographs of the area. It looks amazing, I must look further into this.

http://youtu.be/Th5zlUe6gOE

14/12/12


We started off by determining the correct position for the camera, i.e. height and best spot  to shoot the 360 panoramic shots, firstly by studying the area chosen for the shoot and moving any unwanted objects that may be present, such as fire extinguishers on the wall for example. In the space we were shooting there was a stair lift which was permanently fixed to the wall, therefore removing it was not an option, so we had to work out a way of shooting the 360 panoramic which would omit the stair lift totally from view, this was done when finding the right position for the camera.

We will be using a 14mm fisheye lens on a Canon 5D mk 2, and shoot in portrait so as to achieve maximum FOV ( field of view). We have worked out that we need to take 6 shots of the room, giving us a 20% overlap to create the 360 degree, each shot consisting of 3 images to make them HDR.
Now that we have moved objects and eliminated unwanted fixed articles from being in the shots, we can now prepare the camera on the panoramic head, the first thing to do is attach the sliding plate to the camera and placing it onto the panoramic head, then turning the camera downwards, facing the vertical plate find the exact center, (nodal point) through the viewfinder on the camera, by adjusting the verticle arm along the horizontal axis.
Once the nodal point has been determined we now need to find the no paralax point,which is more time consuming. To do this we need two upright posts, like tripods or light stands in view, and move the camera on the vertical slider plate. By placing them aproximately a yard appart and at least 2-3 yards from the camera in this case, however they can be any distance. We can prevent paralax by looking through the viewfinder at the two upright stands and as we move the camera 30 degrees either side and see if the stands move, if they do we adjust the camera accordingly, forward or backwards until they have no movement, this indicates the no paralax point.

Here is a video I found on you tube explaining setting up the camera to find both the nodal and no paralax points, which I found very helpful.

 http://youtu.be/zEgLgReARxs

Contemporary Exterior Building

Contemporary Exterior Architecture

Syngenta-ICI

1/11/12

I intend to take a shot of the exterior main building which used to be ICI and is now called Syngenta on Leeds rd in Huddersfield, I have emailed Jane Denton to request permission, so they can alert their security team, that there is nothing suspicious going on.

I received an email from Jane Denton, allowing me to continue with the shoot, on the proviso that I give her a call beforehand to confirm the time and date I plan to do the shoot.

23/11/12

Today, I called Jane after checking the weather with the met office and told her I am going to attend on Friday afternoon.

The Syngenta building is going to be my project for a still life shot of a number of images that will be stitched together.

I'm not entirely sure that the Syngenta building is classed as contemporary architecture, but while I had this shoot in mind I thought I would do it anyway.

Here's one of my shots, after stitching 3 images together in photoshop. I also added the sky as the one on the day was lifeless, with no clouds, as you can see in the image below.

Plan B

As I am not satisfied with this shot, I have made arrangements with the store manager Alison Burnley at Marks and Spencer in sheffield, a new simply food store which is very environment friendly, to do a shot of the outside of their store showing its living wall and sedum roof... If possible, as I haven't yet been able to attend a reccy I will not know the angle needed to get a shot which will show the roof.

As I have been unable to set a date for this shoot with bad weather conditions through nov-feb, I will just have to go when I am available and there is good weather. Due to other commitments such as work, it makes it difficult when shooting outside to be able to plan so far in advance.

14/3/13

Leaving it a bit late I know, but this is my first opportunity to attend the store for this shoot. I will be back with details of how it went later today..

M&S Sheffield info

 

M&S Sheffield Shoot

14/3/13

Before setting off to do my shoot of the environment friendly M&S in Sheffield, I firstly checked the weather with the met office, it gave out sunshine today and Saturday, I am unable to go on Saturday because of work, so today it is.
Next I phoned the store manager to check that it was alright for me to attend the site and take photographs of the outside of the building.

I had charged my battery up before leaving and told someone where I was going, as I was attending the shoot alone.
When I arrived there was parking available on site, after parking I did a quick reccy of the area and checked where the sun was going to be going down, as I left it until late afternoon purposely to capture the light as the sun sets, and where I needed to be was perfect for the sun.
I had some spare time, so set up my camera and did some test shots in case i needed to change position.
The store is directly on a main road, which I wasn't expecting, and the side where I needed to shoot was on the road side, making it more difficult to get the shot I was hoping for.

This store is renowned for having one outside wall covered with grass which is growing, it not only provides insulation for the store but helps to sustain wildlife and insects. Where this wall is there is a side road leading to the back of the store which is where their deliveries will be taken, on the other side of the side road is a take away, and their delivery driver was parked there. Since I am shooting with a 17mm wide angle lens the car is going to be in my shot unless I angle it right.
It was now 17.30 ish and the sun was ready for setting, but instead of a lovely sunset like we have had the past few days, I was enjoying cloud and a great big building behind me, where the sun decided to hide behind. It had also been raining on my way over, so I decided not to wait any longer in case it started again.

I set my tripod and camera up and checked my position, I was trying to get the store at an angle showing the grass wall and row of trees planted along the main road. I had very little room and was almost stood in the road, a couple of buses nearly took me out too. It was getting quite busy with people walking past, so I had to wait while they passed, as I was shooting for HDR and if people are in the shot then the converted image will have shadows of the same person as they were walking while the shots were being taken.
The light was nice and so I had my camera set on 100 iso, auto bracketed, on a 2 sec timer, and used a 17mm Tse lens.
The shoot went well, not according to plan but we can't control the weather, I am pleased with my final image which is shown below, and is made up of 6 HDR images stitched together in photoshop and then cropped, straightened and slight adjustments on the brightness, I didn't want this shot to look over processed, it needed to be as natural as the store is, being made from recycled materials and eco friendly.
I was looking for some ironic factor which may criticise the whole recycled material built green store but I couldn't fault it, they have no neon signs etc.. it's all very eco friendly.

17/3/13

I have been going over and over this M&S shot and I'm not completely happy with it, because it doesn't show the growing wall fully, therefore it seems un-finished because it isn't a whole building view. This was impossible to achieve due to a metal fence and gate which sealed off the access to around the rear of the store, there was also a car on the road, which I didn't want to have in my shot.

I decided to research buildings in Huddersfield which were built during the 70's, and narrowed the list down to the Magistrates court in the town centre and the block of flats at the bottom of town called Ibbotson flats, which were named after George Derek Ibbotson MBE (born June 17, 1932 in Huddersfield) was an English runner who excelled in athletics in the 1950s. His most famous achievement was setting a new world record in the mile in 1957. The Ibbotson Flats are listed for demolition in the near future, along with the Lonsbbrough Flats to make way for a new Tesco store. Whereas the Richmond block are to have  £2.18 million spent on them to be upgraded. 

After checking out the weather with the met office I set off to shoot both of the buildings and later decide which I prefer. I shot in auto bracket mode to create hdr images which I will stitch together.

The weather wasn't the best and rain was given out for sunset so I am hoping that the overcast sky will not look too bad. 

I have chosen my shot of the Magistrates Court for my final image, purely because I feel it has an edge on the Ibbotson Flats image. Both images are in HDR and post processing done in siver efex pro 2.

Ibbotson Flats

Magistrates Court

A slight contradiction on why I didn't want the M&S image as my final because I hadn't got the whole building in shot, because this shot is also missing some of the building on the right. The difference here is that I chose to crop this image, as there was an unsightly stair case and white door, extreme right which took your eye away from the main body of this shot, I thought it benefitted the shot by losing them, and I personally favourite this shot from the others.

Here are some other variations of both shoots and I have included a shot where the stairs are in view.

Six shots stitched together

Final Image in colour

My first shot, I wanted to include the grass and trees but moved closer to concentrate my shot on the building.

This shot shows the door and steps which I later cropped out of the final shot.

I really like this shot with the curve of the pavement leading your eye into the main image,but I didn't think it was good enough as my final shot, because I couldn't get the top of the flats in the shot from this angle, but I did manage to include the Richmond block undergoing renovation with scaffolding all around the building, in the background.

Statements of Intent EDM

For this module I intend to use the specified media assigned to the relevant subject as listed below.

• Pop Culture; 360 object rotation;Young boy playing on an I Pad.(For this I am going to use a turntable and have the boy sat cross legged on it playing a game on the I pad. Taking shots at each turn of the table to provide a 360 degree moving image by Jan 2013.
• An event of significance; Time lapse. I intend to make a time lapse of a building being demolished. 
• Contemporary Exterior Architecture; still life shot. Take multiple bracketed shots of a contemporary building, which has yet to be confirmed, then stitch them together, possibly panoramic. By end of feb13.
• Contemporary Interior Space; Video. I hope to make a video in Dean Clough art gallery. 
• Contemporary Cuisine; 360 degree tour. I intend to make the tour inside a restaurant, with hidden icons, explaining more about the food.



                                                        Things to do

28/7/12

Buy a hot shoe adapter for my speedlite so it can be used on a light stand as a fill light for outside shooting. This use of a speedlite will make life so much easier especially when on location, it so happens that I already have a second speedlite that I can use for this, I am going to invest in another soon. I have my own spotlights which are very heavy and hard to carry around. 

My research has lead me to Todd Owyoung an american freelance photographer who specialises in live music photography and band portraits (pop culture)

Email regarding time lapse at Wakefield Cathedral- Harriet

Ring Ash- Naawab regarding 360 panoramic VT.

Get Matthew to the studio- Pop Culture

Visit M&S in Sheffield -Reccy

Research food photographers and practice at home.

Book out equipment for 360 in plenty of time.

Make dates in diary re shoots.

EDM

21.9.12

  Exploring Digital Media

Overview

Make an action plan, this is the key to all modules this year it seems, and something I need to remember, as it is not the way I usually work, maybe things will improve if I can get this concept locked in my brain.
I have been researching many photographers and critically reflecting on their work, their names and my reflection/criticism will follow.
The Time capsule is to represent 21st century culture. consisting of 5 briefs.
1. Pop culture
2. An event of significance
3.Contemporary exterior architecture
4. Contemporary Interior space
5. Contemporary Cuisine

In this module we will create images using a range of  media, such as 360 degree virtual tours, time slices, time lapse, still life, moving image, digital projection, holograms, 360 degree object rotation,3d techniques, including the use of music and ambient sound.

Wow this all sounds amazing, and I must say I'm very excited to get on with it all, there's so much choice I don't know where to start!
at the beginning you might say... hmmm.

Well I have done nothing all day but think about how to make a capsule, which will hold all my finished work for this module, it must be dynamic and made of suitable materials to withstand time. When I come up with my design I will explain my reasons for its design in detail with illustrations.