Environmental comment
When choosing environmental comment, I knew that it would be open to interpretation. This is because 'Environment' doesn't just mean the environment within nature. Environment means; the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates. This will allow me to comment on various different environmental interpretations such as the natural landscape in England or the ways in which urban landscape differs from rural. Below are 2 photographers that I feel make a comment on the environment even though it may not be there main theme I think it is definitely visible in their work. Instead of exploring the more obvious comments on the environment such as global warming, I am more intrigued in the daily environments human surround themselves in.
Todd HIDO
Todd Hido is an American landscape and portrait photographer. His work explores various different subjects and environments. His most notable work involves rural landscape photography at night. But he also makes explorations of indoor environments that often explore the beauty within the mundane. His photographs have a commonality in his exploration of light and form and the type of effect that it has on the environment and the overall atmosphere of the location. His use of light is
Don mccullin (landscapes)
Don McCullin is a photographer from England, well known for his Documentary/War Photography. The majority of his career was spent photographing major wars and conflicts but in his recent years he has resorted to landscape photography. He only shoots on black and white film and uses the darkroom process to manipulate and exaggerate some of his images. McCullin's comment on the environment feels slightly nostalgic and more concerned with his personal relationship with the English countryside rather than a bigger issue. Having said this, knowing McCullins personal reasons for producing these images we learn that he has resorted to landscape photography after a lifetime of photographing wars. Perhaps this is McCullin commenting on the peace and tranquility of these landscapes in contrast to war and conflict.
Don McCullin responses...
Below show my Black and White lightroom edits. It was important that I achieve the same effect McCullin does in his Landscapes when he works in the darkroom. His process of dodging and burning using darkroom print methods is how he gets the exaggerated contrast in his dark skies and other areas of the image. I began by filling in the sky and bring the exposure down and the contrast up. In the darkroom this would have been done by burning the sky so that the enlarger could make this part of the image more dark when printed on paper.
I then had to make the tree look better as I couldn't precisely draw around the tree above. This meant I could feather it in making it look a lot less noticeable.
Above shows the final edited image. I was very happy with the way this turned out as I successfully achieved what I was aiming for which was to try make a picture that looked very rural and empty. On top of this the aesthetics of the image were successful as I was able to edit the sky in a way that made the images very contrasty, giving off the same effect as McCullins images.
For the image below I only had to make subtle corrections as the dodging and burning was not possible because of the tree's. The result was still fairly successful as the sky was able to become more contrasty and dark when the highlights were reduced. This didn't effect the rest of the image that much.
Artist and me
When compared to McCullins work, there are some very positive parts of my image however there are a couple things to consider. Firstly, in McCullins image the tree is placed in a very good position with the background being a very big contrast to the tree. This allows it to become the sole focus of the image. When you compare that to mine, you can see the tree is centred in the image however because it is at the bottom of the hill, it doesn't allow the background to be even as the valley of trees and the height of the hill behind effects the image making the contrast less obvious. Having said this it's still a vey strong image with a very good focus point. Another aspect of McCullins work that is effective is the foreground. His very large foreground being a mud field with water coating it gives the image more texture and depth. The reflections make the image alive and more interesting, along with the extremely mesmerising and almost spiritual sky. McCullin's images are this successful as he chooses very particular times to shoot these landscapes. He does this before or after it rains so that it allows the clouds to break up and create more interesting textures. This is something I'd pay more attention to next time.
Tod HIDO RESPONSE (1st dev)
For my first response to Todd Hido I wanted to try and find locations that had very subtle light sources. I knew I'd need a tripod as it would be too dark for the camera to handle at a fast shutter speed. I found a very good location in High Barnt. The building was designed as if it was on stilts and had some very interesting light sources. It had empty car parks which I thought would make for a very effective image. The most important part was finding sources with good light, including light coming from windows or street lights. I used a very slow shutter speed of about 10-20 seconds as it was extremely dark, it also made my images a lot sharper as I was able to bring my Aperture to around f/22.
I felt that this first shoot was very successful. This was mainly because of the location. I really liked the way there were several different types of light sources. For example the stairwell had a very orange, sodium vapour type tungsten light that gave off a glowing light from the stairwell. This was in contrast to the slightly less soft fluorescent lights that were more like mercury vapour street lights. These lit up the image in an extremely effective and interesting way giving the photo a warm but also a juxtaposed unsettling feeling to the image. I was very happy with the result however I was not happy with some of the compositions. Because I had a video tripod head attachment I was unable to flip the camera into portrait mode which would have been more acceptable in some of these images. Next time I want to experiment with portrait orientation to achieve slightly more intimate photos and also include some more windows in the images, much like Hido's work.
Night shoots (2nd Dev)
For this shoot I wanted to experiment with some more empty car parks but also some more softly lit up windows. For this shoot I wanted to shoot some more portrait orientated images, however this was not possible with my tripod so I decided to bump the ISO up and shoot the lens wide open in order to go handheld. I then kept my shutter speed at around 60 as it was the lowest I could go without seeing any camera shake in the image. This was not ideal but I was able to take some good images.
Overall, I don't think this shoot was very successful at all. The lack of a tripod resulted in the images becoming too soft and not very sharp. The use of the tripod helps me shoot the images in almost any setting without compensating for the lack of light. Had I used a tripod all of these images would appear a lot sharper.
Night shoots (3rd dev)
For this shoot I wanted to make sure that I all my images appeared sharp and were properly exposed. I ended up taking out the same tripod from the first shoot however this restricted me to taking landscape orientated images. I wanted my locations to appear slightly more rural or on the edge of the city. This could be done fairly easily by finding the right locations. I chose locations near friers barnet as I knew that it could get quite rural fairly quickly. However after looking around in areas nearby I found some other locations which intrigued me.
Although these locations weren't exactly as rural as I'd liked them to be, I was still interested in photographing these locations. After seeing my photos I realised I was most drawn to larger buildings such as estates. I liked the glow of lights coming from each window in the dark, creating a pattern like effect in the images. One thing that became slightly unavoidable was the light trails in the frame. This is because I was often near a road, shooting at fairly long shutter speeds of around 3-8 seconds allowing time for cars to come past. This did not ruin the images completely as it only caused subtle light trails in the image that were actually quite appealing. I feel that these shoots are a good way of representing an environment in a more interesting way. At night, urban or social environments become visibly different and are a huge contrast from daylight. Natural light in the day provokes motivation and positivity whereas at night, light acts as a certain kind of warmth and comfort that is attractive and intriguing. I am most interested in exploring how light alters mood and environment.