Photo Shoots

Burton

Canon 500D
18-55mm and 70-300mm lenses
Portable Manfotto tripod

This was my first shoot for this assignment. The focus of the assignment was to capture man made light in dark environments so I headed to my local town where I knew there would be an abundance of street lights, neon lights etc.

This shoot really opened my eyes in terms of night photography. It made me realize that a tripod is always necessary, a full sized one preferably as a miniature tripod will rarely reach the angle you require; they are useful pieces of kit but for the best results a full sized tripod id best. The tripod is a night photographer greatest friend as it will steady your camera and you need a steady camera because you are doing such long exposures. You can get similar images shooting free hand but for that you will need a high ISO and this will give the beautiful image major grain. I personally hate grain so grainy images are not an option.

I also realized after this shoot that I would need to start shooting other things besides streetlights. Although they make some great images a book full of just streetlights from various angles would be rather dull so after this shoot I expanded my horizons. 

From this shoot I managed to get so good images. The first shots were of a ramp leading to the roof of a shopping complex, there was a bright light at the top illuminating the ramp. I shot it from a number of angles; my favorite image was the one with the ramp in the right hand side and the left in total darkness.

I also noticed the large neon cross outside of a church, I began shooting but as I didn’t have a full sized tripod I could only get the cross visible due to the fact I couldn’t do a long exposure. If I tried to get the rest of the church visible the image would be come blurry. This aside I am glad I only got the cross visible, it gives the image a randomness, it could be anything. This makes it more interesting that just a shot of a church at night. There is added mystery.

As I made my way back to the car I noticed the open space behind a car sales forecourt, a blueish light illuminated it and the still slightly wet tarmac reflected the light in such a perfect way. I began shooting, incorporating the parking space markings on the floor adding leading lines to the image. By playing with the camera settings I added and removed light seeing what looked best, the images with the medium amount of light worked best. They allowed enough detail to be displayed without making the images overly light.

As we were leaving we drove past the entrance to the coors brewery, I asked my friend to so and I jumped out. It had began raining again so images looking up were a no. I snapped a few shots of the entrance with a purplish light leading toward me and I jumped back in the car. These shots were slightly on the grainy side but not to much that they were wright offs. The interesting composition and lighting saved them.

This shoot overall was an important one. I gained a better understand on what I needed to shoot. What I needed to take on a shoot and how in which to do so.

Tutbury

Canon 500D

18 - 55mm // 70 – 300mm lenses
Portable Manfotto tripod

I have shot in Tutbury at night in a previous assignment and really liked the images shot so I decided to reshoot for this assignment, this time looking at a part of the village. Where as in the previous I had looked at the quitter residential area this time I would be looking at the busier business area (the high street). 

I started by shooting a shot I had wanted to get for a while, the shot was of a Chinese restaurant and a chip shop side by side separated by a dark alley. It’s a seemingly simple image and that’s why I like it.

Supported by the dark setting the neon lights from the Chinese take away really popped with a bold vividness along side the bright, light chip shop.

But then I ran into trouble. As my full sized tripod had broken I was forced to use my small portable tripod. With the right place to rest the tripod it can be very stable and useful, but in this case it wasn’t useful. The height I needed for the shot could not be reached with the tripod and there was no stable surface available so the shots are either blurry or from a low angle.

I really want to get this shot right so I will attempt to capture it on a future shoot; I think it has real potential.

I then moved to the end of the road, I noticed there was a large streetlight attached to the post office illuminating the roundabout. I set the tripod up on a near by bin and started working with long exposure. I started with 10 second then up to 20, this is when things started working. The blue glow from the streetlight created a beautiful effect when it met with the tarmac, making it almost glisten in the light.

I really like the fact the post office is lightly lit and the fact the light is wrapped around the building following the building as it bends.

As the shot was a 20 second exposure in the busiest part of the village light lines from cards are expected. I also managed to get images with out light lines, I am still unsure which I prefer.

I am not that much of a fan of light lines, I feel the normally look messy but if they are straight or show a continuous pattern they can be interesting. As there are a few shots with straight or interesting lines I need to take a closer inspection on which images I may use.

I walked further into the village to a spot where I thought I would be able to get a shot of the Nestle factory but even with a sturdy palace to set the tripod down the camera couldn’t cope with the task and the images came out poorly with a warm orange glow and image blur. I will be attempting to shoot Nestle again on a different shoot. With a full sized tripod and possibly a higher resolution camera.

I decide to finish shooting as it had gotten fully dark and my little tripod wasn’t hacking it. As I was walking I noticed the ‘Tutbury grill’ the local grill take away.  Not only did it have a bright glow inside and a neon sign illuminating its self and a nearby car they was a street light illuminating the roof and a near by set of trees all together making a beautifully rounded and well lit image. I set my camera tripod up on yet again a perfectly places bin and started shooting, working with different perspectives and light settings.

Yet again I got a few shots with light lines but in this circumstance I prefer the images with no lines.

Over all this was an all right shoot. It gave a few ideas for future shoots and more of a push to actually use a better camera and make sure I have a suitable tripod.

 

Moonsha

IPhone 4s

Standard camera app

I wouldn’t class this as a shoot it was more of an opportunity for inspiration. I was on a work night out at a restaurant called Moonsha in Derby. While at the restaurant I noticed the abundance of blue neon light inside and out. I love blue neon light, it has beautiful lifelessness to it and it is only made better if accompanied by the colour pink, which it was. This works if the pink is also in light form which it was outside but it also works if the pink is a material such as a wall or carpet which it was inside especially on the shots of the stairs.

I really liked this restaurant as a location; every element I photographed was interesting. The outdoor area with the lonesome lanterns, the beautiful blue light reflecting off the parked car and the faint pink reflection from the red brick wall. All of those elements work perfectly in conjunction.

Inside was no different, I loved the staircase. The beautifully abrupt strings of neon lights lining the stairs, the deep red tones of the carpet, the lonely faux cherry bloom tree, the stereotypical Chinese painting and the white walls that were absorbing all of these lovely tones.

My favourite shot is the last one on the contact sheet. I love the contrast of the nice sign and the lad blowing his nose. I really like images in this style, its quite similar to the ‘… is a paradise’ work that features frequently in vice magazine.

But the subject’s aren’t the only reason I like the work, I also love the colour pallet which follows the same theme as the rest of the restaurant with the lingering pink shades highlighted by the cutting neon blue lighting.

As I said this isn’t specifically as shoot its inspiration by which I meant I wont be using these images for the final book. I will be drawing inspiration form the images though. I love the colour pallet and the way in which the light interacts with each other, I will take these images into account and I will make a conscious effort to photograph these colours when I can.

If I had been prepared for this shoot the images would be of a higher quality but as I wasn’t expecting it I only had my phone and this is why the images are showing large amount of grain and in places blur. If I visit again I will be sure to bring my camera.

Second Burton Shoot

Canon 500D

18 – 55mm lens
Portable Manfotto tripod

This was my second shoot in Burton. Taking my first shoot into account I decide to start this shoot earlier so that there was still some light in the sky, this makes it easier to capture details, as the camera isn’t working as hard to differentiate between the artificial light and the dark environment. Although I set out at 4:30pm it was dark by 5:15. To be honest having a light sky works for certain images but I am happy to work with a dark environment it just makes me more conscientious with what I shoot.

I stared the shoot by walking toward the town hall so that I was exploring a different area of Burton on this shoot. I chose this area as there is a long street filled with convenience stores and fast food shops. These shops are know for there bright lights and neon signs,  I was especially interested in photographing neon signs as I had seen these used in other artists work and I really liked the sharp boldness of them.

A brilliant example of this is the image of the Pizza Plaza window. I really like this shot, the logo is so sharp but as it is surrounded by darkness it seems to be separate to the window bellow. Then there is the window into the shop with the brightly coloured menu board, the employee carrying a stack of pizza boxed, the logo on the window that seems to be perched on the employees head and its all illuminated by the beautiful blue neon glow.

The marriage between blue and red neon light is very apparent in this image, I took my trip to Moonsha into account while taking this shot.  You can also notice the blue light is reflected in the car that is parked on the road, this was also an element from the Moonsha shoot that I really wanted to replicate.

I then started walking down the street, this is when I came across the chip shop.  It was positioned perfectly on the corner of the street with the shops banner on a 90 degree angle stretching round the corner.

I spent a while trying to get the right shot, seeing if the shot worked better with just the shop or if I should incorporate the road and cars and wheather portrait or landscape looked better.

I kept hooting but at this point it had gone quite dark and as I only had my small tripod the images didn’t turn out to a high enough quality.

All together this was a good shoot, I managed to get a few strong images that I will be trying to incorporate into my final book. 

Tutbury/Nestle

Canon Mark III

25 – 125mm lens

Monfrotto Tripod

This was my second shoot in Tutbury. My first shoot gave me a good idea of what I wanted to shoot but I hadn’t used a suitable tripod and my camera wasn’t high enough quality to deal with the dark subject matter. The images had come out either blurry or grainy and in my opinion both of these are unacceptable for this collection. This collection requires bold, sharp images. 

This is the reason I decided to use the mark III and a very sturdy (and heavy) Manfrotto tripod. 

I started by shooting the Chinese and chip shop a shot I had attempted on the earlier shoot; I really love the composition of the shot with the sharp neon lights on the right, the dark alley way divide in the middle and the bright chip shop on the left. It took me a while to get both subject with the correct light but I finally got the shot I wanted.

At this point it had started snowing. I was making my way home when I stopped in a door to get one last shot. I then decided to move to get another angle as I did so I noticed the snowfall beautifully illuminated by a street light. I snapped the shot and it came out very well. The shot kind of goes against my ethos of every image needs to be perfect but I thought it was interesting enough for me to make an exception. 

At this point the snowfall had baited and almost stopped so I decide to continue the shoot. I was making my way to the Nestle factory went I noticed the round about that was lit for both sides. The moist tarmac was reflecting the streetlights perfectly. The only problem was that the streetlight produced a yellow/orange glow. Although this isn’t a huge problem normally it isn’t my preferred colour, I much prefer the blue/green light. I attempted to alter the temperature of the light in camera but there was nothing I could do I spent a long time trying to get he shot right but in the end I gave up as the subject matter didn’t overwrite the fact I didn’t like the lighting. Unlike the later shots I got from the same roundabout.

The next shots are my favourite from the whole shoot. I have always really like the Nestle factory, since its renovation it has become much more prominent on the local skyline. The lights have become much brighter, the architecture much more noticeable and I think this is just because I have noticed it more recently but the steam thicker.

The shots were taken from the bridge leading into Hatton. From the bridge you get a great view of the factory. I set up the tripod and started shooting, setting the camera to around 5 seconds shutter speed. The outcome of these images exceeded my expectations, the steam from the chimneys produced huge clouds as they moved cross the sky, the light from the many windows and neon lights seemed to project outward into the air and the sky took on a beautiful magenta tone. The final from this collection has real potential.

I them moved onto the Nestle factory car park after dipping into a pub to get a coffee as my hands felt like they were going to fall off. 

I continued to shoot around the car park. I particularly liked the large boxy white building with circular windows that shot out bright white light. I shot this on its own and then incorporated part of the car park adding perspective.

I took a few more shots in a similar style and just as I was about to leave I was approach by a security guard and asked to leave. Lucky I had gotten all the shots I needed.  

As I was walking home I stopped at the roundabout that I had been shooting at before but I shot it from a different angle. This angle worked a lot better and I was much happier with theses shots. Even though it was a similar colour to the earlier shots the subject matter was much more impressive.

Over all this was a very good and productive shoot. I got a lot of high quality shot that I will be using in my book. Using a high quality camera and tripod makes a huge difference to the images, I would never plan to go on a large night shoot with out a good quality tripod again. Game Changer.

The only down side to this shoot was that being out in the rain, wind and snow game me a vile cold!.

Velez

Canon  500D

18 – 55mm // 70 – 300mm lenses 
Portable Manfotto tripod

These images were taken while on holiday in Spain. I went on a short snowboarding vacation mid way through this assignment and while I was there I captured a few images for the book. I think a change of scenery is good for creativity, it changes up the aesthetic of the work too being somewhere with different architecture and a different landscape.

The first images were taken before we even left the airport, we were waiting outside the car hire and I noticed these empty tablet holders I thought it would make an interesting shot and as it was night there was nothing to interfere with the artificial light. I really liked these shots, there are so many little elements that build up each shot each one as important as the other such as the neon red number caller or the electrical wires crawling round the roof.

The next load of images were produced on the roof terrace of our apartment. Opposite the apartment complex there is a wasteland that has been barren for years but recently they have built a pool on it. I really love the contrast between the barren land and the brand new pool so I decide to shoot it. I got my tripod and started shooting using long exposures starting at 15 seconds but quickly moving to 30. In one shot a causght a bit of the sky and the results were amazing so I zoomed out and got as much sky in as possible, the results where a nicly lit pool accompanied by an electric blue cloudy sky. A beauitiful and unusual shot.

As this shot worked well I looked around for something else I could shoot. I turned to my right and notice the truck parked on its own, I tried to shoot it bu there wasn’t enough light so I zoomed out to fit the village into the shot. This worked perfectly as there were so many different types to capture as the camera was on such a slow shutter. I captured the light projection of a loan widow onto the dirty ground, the neon blue glow from inside a house and the florescent light peeking out of a garage. I was really happy with both of these long exposures and with a little bit of postproduction tweaking they will defiantly be featuring in the book.

I really like the images that I got while in Spain. Its interesting being able to try out the techniques I have been at home in a new environment.