Thoughts At The End Of The Course.

I'm not going to lie here my overwhelming  feelings right now are happiness at what I've produced with a large amount of relief that it's over and I'm finally at the finish line. This has been the longest photographic journey that I've been on so far and by far the most enjoyable. This is down in a large part to working on a subject that I truly love, to me the great outdoors and photography are two of the things I love most and I think because of this I've been able to make a real improvement in my work over the last few years. I went back the other day and looked back at where I started out in this journey and compared it to where I am right now. The difference I think is very clear but what I also noticed was that I maybe hadn't achieved something that I'd set out to do in the beginning. I've said before that I wanted to keep what I produced a very truthful straight kind of photography but on working through this course I feel I've moved away from this kind of thinking slightly, as much as I love the work of people like Ansel Adams photography has moved on to a point where his kind of work doesn't necessarily have the same impact as it once did. What I mean is that today you have to be far more creative in what you produce because so many people can just pick up a phone and produce a more then good landscape image. If you want to say something about the world we live in you have to push yourself to find new angles and mean's of saying these things today with photography so thanks in part to my tutor who has always encouraged me to push myself throughout this process I think now the end results speak for themselves. Like any good student-tutor relationship we might not have always agreed on some points but you need this to be able to move forward, so again I think she deserves a big thank you. I think when I started out I was a little naive about how easy this process was going to be, I thought I knew a lot about conservation and I just be able to take some great wildlife and landscape images and be happy with that. At the end of the day I can see I was wrong and that there's so much more to look at and understand out there in the natural world so maybe I'm not finished with this subject just yet after all but from now on it'll be something I'll keep going on the back burner while I look for new projects to begin and new inspiration to follow, who knows where photography will take me next that's the most existing part.  

My Final Submission.

This is it decision time and actually it was more straight forward then I thought it was going to be. After letting a few people have a look through my work, talking it over with my tutor and doing some real soul searching myself I'm going to go with the book below.

Change. by Photography by Shaun Johnson. | Make Your Own Book


So what are the reasons behind this decision, well most people said that they felt that this collection was by far the most focused, felt more comfortable looking through it, could form some kind of connection with what they where looking at and could quiet happy take a second or third look through it because they found it an interesting piece. After taking with my tutor she was saying pretty similar things so it was just down to my own feelings. When I really got down to it sat myself down and pushed myself to listen to my head instead of my heart I knew I couldn't disagree with what everyone else was telling me. Although I really like the work I'd done originally this is possible another step up, by that I mean there's far more scope for interpretation and consideration plus it's more beautiful to look at. Here it doesn't feel as much of a group of single photos put together in a collection but more a strong body of work where the photos work well collectively together. I'd wrote before that I thought my original collection work like this but on seeing how these images above work I can see that I maybe was a little far of the mark in that respect. So here it is my final submission. I do have have one small criticism in that as happy as I am with the way my book looks now printed a couple of the photos do seem a little darker then they should appear. Whether this is down to the printing process or just that on my screen they appear lighter then they actually were I don't really know. Its maybe a little disappointing but I don't think it effects the end results to much.

My Books.

So now it comes to how best to present my work for this final assignment, over the years I've tried a number of different ways of displaying my work (some have been more successful then other) but the best results I tend to get are from putting together a book. I like producing photo books because it lets you be very creative in the way that you can show off you're work, it allows me to have full control over the order and way that you actually see my work meaning in essence you can almost create a visual story. I don't think these collections below necessarily work in that way but that's more down to the fact that this isn't the kind of photography that I was aiming to create this time. What I've done then is create 2 books, the first is a more expanded look at a single section of this course in which I looked at conservation within National Parks and the second is a more general collection of all of what I see of the best work from the whole course.

Change. by Shaun Johnson. | Make Your Own Book



Both books I think have there merits and I feel I'd be happy submitting both for my final assessment but that's not what I want to do, I've got to select the best most focused piece that I think captures best the ideas and aims that I set out original to accomplish within this course. Its know easy chose because as I've already said in previous posts I was really happy with the original collection but then my tutor recommended an expended study on the national parks and I now see what she meant about it being more a focus on a single issue and not a multitude of different angles on one theme. Its time to bight the bullet and make a solid decision so to do this I'm going to try a little group focus work and see which one sits more comfortably with people because by myself I'm just to bias one way or another.
     

My Final Collection Based on My Expanded Assignment 4.

Taking my tutors advise I've expanded my 4th assignment and now I'm going to show you the ones I'd choose to take forward if I select to use this collection as my final body of work. When I looked at all the images I still feel they'd work under the new title of Change that I'd come up with for this course, in this case it could be construed as having multiple meanings in relation to this collection. You could have the straight forward in that what you're looking at is a change of perspective on the everyday, or maybe the changing of the viewers mind on what there position is on protecting these landscapes from the developing world and even something as simple as altering where they might consider taking there next holiday. The point is that I wanted this collection to engage the viewer, not just be something you might glance at and not want that second look. Hopefully I've achieved something like that but I leave it to you to decide, below you'll find the 14 photos that work best to achieve this.

In theory you could have these ordered in a few different ways but I've gone for this set up for now because I feel most comfortable with a kind of walk through feel to the whole thing, by this I mean you've enter this strange looking house and been greet by many strange scenes that while they may seem familiar there's something clearly out of place about them. I know its maybe a strange way to look at it but somehow this seems almost a fascinating way to consider what you're looking at. What I have here is something that's defiantly original  but whether it's going to be my final submission is still up for continued consideration.
  

Expanding On My National Park Assignment.

To expand on my National Park idea I wanted to try and bring in landscapes from my wetland and woodland work so as to take it a step further then I had originally and say look, here's these everyday scenes we're all so used to but look again and you'll see that if you'd just get out into these areas there's so much to see and be part of. The idea in the national park section was the only way you can encourage people that the parks need our backing is to get them to visit and embrace them, this could be done by showing them the beauty of the landscapes in comparison with there everyday life. The good thing is this can also work when using the landscapes that our wetland and woodland habitats provide. Below you'll see how I've put this idea into practice using Photoshop to combine two images together.

My first go at using a wetland landscape and if I don't say so myself the end results are pretty pleasing giving the affect at first glance that the room has been flooded.

Really happy with how this scene turned out with the natural rock making up the area around the sink and the view in the distance sitting well within the frame of the window, feels so real but at the same time you just know what you're looking at can't be.

Maybe a little too much going on in the background here for this to work comfortably, plus you do lose a big chunk of the landscape behind the tv. To combat this I left the view in the tv screen but it still doesn't look quiet right, if anything the trees make the view seem narrowed down reducing the feeling of space.

Much happier with this combination showing that its not just the natural beauty of our landscapes that are in need of protection but also the history (mostly the human effect on the landscape) but its as important in the scheme of conservation as it shows the true nature of our landscapes.

Used a photo of a quarry in a new wetland development here to add  texture effect to house front, I think it works on a few levels when considering the price we pay in the landscape to get the materials we need but not to sure whether I think its the best looking photo.

Used the texture of bark here to change the appears of the house frontage, liked the way it appears but also the question maybe about how we use some unsustainable forestry practices to get the wood that is used throughout our homes.

Another watery view, like the contrast here between the calming view of a summer wetland and then the chaos of a room having some major redecorating done to it.

Interesting idea in theory, I wanted to see how much was too much when combining scenes to push the boundary of reality. Here I think its far too far for the simple reason that it just doesn't look or feel right visual, to busy almost.

Not one of the most interesting photos in this set but still one that deserves its inclusion if only for the fact that the view does bring to life what would usually be seen as a very dull scene.

Like this view because it isn't quiet as straight forward to pull apart visual as some here are, what I mean is that it can take you a couple of looks to kind of separate the foreground and the background but it isn't to over loading at the same time to look at.

One thing I really like about the majority of these photos is the feeling they give you that you could just up and walk straight into them, a good example being this one above that has that kind of effect of drawing you in. This really typifies what I'm looking for in these photos because after all I want to take people away fro there normal day to day life.

There's something very calming about any photo involving water and this one is know different, its a simple view but very effective combination

What makes theses images work so well is that combination of the man made and the natural coming together, you could almost look at them as a reflection of our own influence on the landscape and the way we still need these areas of natural beauty within our urbanized life style to add a bit of calm to our chaotic life's.

Plan Moving Forward.

So the plan is now to use my National Park work as the basis and expand on this idea to create an alternative final collection. The idea behind this group of photos was that I'd use everyday scenes that we might come into contact within our life's (so you already have a natural association with them) and then combined them with views from our national parks so as to show and encourage people to embrace them and get away from the normal everyday. In terms of Conservation within our national park system this would help because with out people actual going and visiting these areas of natural beauty there wouldn't necessarily be the individuals willing to stand up and fight for there protection when needed. In art terms the photos ended up feeling natural in a strange way because you still have that reference of something normal about them, but at the same time you know that there's something very out of place about what you're looking at. They create a great juxtaposition that makes them even stronger as a tool for presenting a message on what these areas that are being conserved for you have to offer. When I've completed this alternative my plan is to consider what I originally produced and this second collection and see which to me I feel best represent my aim for this course, I'll listen to what my tutor has to say and take her view point on board but at the end of the day I've got to be happy that I take forward a collection that best captures my feelings and intentions towards conservation.

Feedback On Assignment 5.

Well how can I put this, really disappoint in reaction from tutor to what I've put together here. Some of its my own fault in that I interpreted that the point of this assignment was to pull together all that I'd done in my previous assignments and create a final collection from the photos that I felt work best. Well turns out this was way off and that in fact my tutor was expecting me to have selected one area and to have expanded on it creating my final collection. I think I'm probably more annoyed with myself than anyone else but its just so deflating as I'd put so much time and effort into getting together a collection I was really happy with and thought work well, only then to be told that actual it isn't as good and you need to go back to the drawing board. Anyway enough of the rant time to get back to work, on the upside my tutor still considers my National Park collection to be the strongest and recommends I try expanding this maybe bringing in some of the ideas from my other work so that's the plan right now. Beginning to feel a little concerned again that this course is getting more and more away from what my intentions are for it and that its turning into what my tutor want to see and less what I want to do with it somehow.