Location Photography - Exterior Brief

The following is the work I have done for the exterior part of our location photography brief. The brief was simple: Choose which sort of location photography you like most and produce ten photographs. To me, the choice was very easy. Being a photographer that favours landscapes to any other sort of locations, I decided that a landscape was going to be the location in which to produce my end result.

Before setting off on my shoot, I decided to think about what photographs and photographers have really made me think about how I take landscape photographs since starting my course. Photographers like Joe Cornish, Josef Hoflehner and Ansel Adams are all up there in my top list of people that inspire me when looking at their landscapes. From Hoflehner's dark, underexposed black and white photographs to Cornish's colourful, almost unreal and dreamlike looking images. They all contain parts that I would like to use in my own work at some stage. I would like to think some aspects can already be seen in these photographs I took.

I set off towards the Yorkshire Dales in Yorkshire (England, UK), where I discovered this beautiful, almost rain forest looking waterfall which had a stream leading towards an even bigger waterfall.

Because my photographs are all taken in one location, I have tried to take a few shots of the same subject from different angles. By doing this, photographs that initially look almost the same, actually have several different aspects to them. None of the images have been edited, apart from small amounts of cropping in the final ten images to take away a branch or a leaf here and there. These are the ten images I produced.
 

Unfortunately I can't provide any test shots, simply because there aren't any. So much time was spent making sure the settings were correct for the intended photograph, that the only other photographs I have available from that day contain squirrels, birds and one drainage pipe. Being together with a friend, who is also a budding photographer, has probably helped. We were simply able to discuss what our thoughts were on the matter of settings etc. and the resulting photographs are shown above.

I'm quite happy with my work, but I possibly could've made the water smoother by choosing a longer shutter speed. I think a longer exposure would've made it silkier, which was ultimately what I intended. Another thing is the tight cropping on some of the shots, although I think it works well and I'm not sure changing it would've improved my shots. Variety is another thing that perhaps is missing. But because I intended to shoot a series of photos instead of idividual shots it isn't much of an issue for me personally.

Thomas Joshua Cooper

Thomas Joshua Cooper is an American photographer. He was born in San Francisco in 1946. Cooper is considered one of the best contemporary landscape photographers.

Thomas Joshua Cooper

Cooper studied at the Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1969. Three years later he received a master's in photography from the University of New Mexico.

Nowadays, Cooper lives in Glasgow, Scotland. He is the founding head of photography at the Glasgow School of Art.

Cooper's images can involve days, weeks or sometimes even months of preparation and research. That's why according to Cooper he doesn't "take" his photographs, but "finds" and "makes" them. Travelling all over the world, he has visited some of the most isolated places on earth. The choice of location always begins with a map. He picks a location on the map, tracks it down and achieves the photograph he wants.

Cooper uses an AGFA camera that's over a 100 years old. He also uses specially made photographic plates. With the use of a chiaroscuro technique, using the highly contrasting variations of light and shade in his photographs, combined with the silver prints layered in accentuating selenium and gold chloride, he achieves exactly what he wants from the landscapes. Whether it's the unique identity of a wave, the velvet looking flow of the water or the visceral geology of a rock formation.

Some of his work is really inspiring to me. All these black and white images with the high contrast and that velvet look of water is something I certainly will use in my own work at some point in time. I would like to think some small elements are perhaps already visible in my exterior work. There are always some images that aren't to one's taste, but overall he's definitely a photographer at the top of our profession.

Image Sources:

http://www.fadwebsite.com/2009/05/06/thomas-joshua-cooper-true-at-haunch-of-venison-review-by-hannah-hayes-walker/
http://www.northuist.org/blog/2012/02/06/thomas-joshua-cooper/
http://www.gmggallery.com/exhibition82.html

Ansel Adams

Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, famoust for his black and white photographs of the American West. He primarily used large format cameras.

Even though the large format cameras are big and heavy, take a long time to set up and the cost of film is expensive, Adams still preferred them because of their high resolution. This helped in making sure his images were as sharp as they could be.

Ansel Adams

He produced his first portfolio in 1927, which earned him nearly $3,900. A huge amount for that time. It was called Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras and it contained his famous image Monolith, The Face of Half Dome. It was at this stage that Adams felt his photographs were worthy of the world's critical examination.

Monolith, The Face of Half Dome

Adams was especially productive, as well as experimental, between 1929 and 1942. It was in 1931 that he put on his first solo exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution, which featured 60 prints taken in the High Sierra. Over his 60 year career, Adams has put on many exhibitions. He also published in magazines, co-founded a magazine, wrote a childrens book with his wife.

He also founded Group f/64, together with Imogen Cunningham, Willard van Dyke and Edward Weston after doing a group show at the M.H. de Young Museum in 1932.. This organisation was all about 'pure and straight photography', rather than pictorialism. This is quite funny really, because Adams' famous Monolith photograph would have been unacceptable by their standards, because he used a strong red filter to create a black sky.

Moonrise

Adams has always been well known for his photographs of the National Parks in the US, especially Yosemite National Park, documenting what they were like before the influx of tourism. He contracted with the Department of the Interior in 1941, to take photographs of the National Parks, Indian Reserves and other locations. They wanted mural sized photographs for their new building. Part of the deal was that he could also use some photographs for his own use. Unfortunately, Adams forgot to record the date of his famous photograph 'Moonrise', which shows the moon rising above a small Mexican village, with snowy mountains in the background. Because nobody knows the exact date, it is unclear whether this photograph belongs to the U.S. Government or Adams himself.

I really like his work. Having a big passion for landscape photography myself, looking at his images brings a smile to my face. There are many photographers out there with a similar style. Most, if not all, inspired by Adams. I've tried to use certain aspects of his work in my own work, especially of the images taken from a lower angle. This man deserves all the praise people give him, pure genius.

Image Sources:
http://www.temple.edu/photo/photographers/adams/home.htm
http://artroots.com/art/art14_index.html
http://mandatorymovieblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_01_archive.html
http://www.outoffocusphotography.in/index.php/ansel-adams-photographs/