Evaluation

Black and White Landscape Photography

Using the work of Lewis Baltz and Stephanie Jung for inspiration I tried to capture the space in my own urban landscapes. First concentrating on the lines within my subjects to then look at texture and then going on to pattern, shapes and abstractions to finish with me capturing the space and lines within my images. Getting influence from also Ryan Bush and Lucy Shires with my ideas and experimentation on textures, lines and patterns within landscapes helped me to take an abstract approach with some of my images and experiment with different angles and perspectives.

I feel that I haven’t done enough for this project and have in away gone back to the beginning instead of progressing and learning from my past projects on what is needed for me to archive the target grade I initially set out to accomplish. I could have improved my work massively by taking more images, researching more, developing and improving my ideas but with me not being happy with the outcome of my images and thinking that my ideas weren’t good enough at the beginning of the project I gave up which I think by doing so I only let myself down and left little time to improve on all of this. I feel that towards the end of my time at uni I didn’t put any effort in to it at all which again, doing so I’ve let myself down.

I experienced a lot of technical faults with my images which only lessened my confidence towards my images even more. I guess the solution I should have taken was to go back out and take more photographs instead of dwelling on the things that didn’t work out which could have easily been put right. I used the excuse of there not being any camera equipment or film for me to use as to why I hadn’t done the work I could have easily produced. It was only towards the end of the project I found the solutions I could have taken advantage from to help with my development, one being if I couldn’t use the large format camera I should have ask for something else to experiment with which I did in the end use a medium format camera and turned out to be successful and helped in a great way with my development. 

I received a lot of encouragement from my peers towards my work and how I could have improved it, which I think did help and encourage me to go out and shoot more images. I felt each time I went out helped me to develop my ideas and I improved a lot with not only the images I captured but also my skills in the developing process.
From this project I’ve learnt that giving up shouldn’t be an option and if something doesn’t work out then I should learn from it and try again and again and again until I’m happy with the outcome. It’s also challenged my skills in the darkroom, I feel that it is something that I’ve improved on from my experience on other projects.

If I was to do this project again id work harder. I’d manage my time better, take more photographs, spend more time researching and developing my skills in the darkroom. I’d try not to give up so easily and work on the things that need improvement and I would also just change my attitude toward everything and not use excuses as to why I can’t do something but instead work with what I have access to. 
                

Technical Faults

I had a lot of technical faults mostly with the developing process then anything else. 

Under developed negs (thin negs), this was my first time processing 5, 4, I wasn’t really too concerned with how these two images turned out. They were my first two shots I took using the field camera and I didn’t really think a lot about the subjects I was shooting, I wanted to just try out the camera and see what it was like to use.

This is a print from the third time going out shooting, I liked the composition of this image and wanted to make it one of my final five but the whole image wasn’t in focus. I was still contemplating using it because at the time my intention was to capture lines and shapes of a landscape which was all in the foreground and in focus and obviously the background wasn’t but I decided not use it.

Again these two images are from my third time out shooting, both images have chemical mark on them which was caused because I didn’t wash my negs long enough. I actually did wash them again but the marks were still evident, this could again possibly be because I didn’t wash them long enough but I’m not entirely sure.

I accidentally double exposed this image (and not a good accident) I think maybe it might have been a successful image if it was straighter and a better subject.

There wasn’t really anything wrong with this image apart from the clip mark on the neg, I actually though it was a good exposure I just didn’t think it captured what I was looking for and I notice that a lot of people had shot similar images.

Dodging and Burning

I had to do a lot of burning in on my prints but I enjoyed it, it was interesting to see the difference in each print that I experimented with.

These prints are just one example of me experimenting with burning in my images. The first image was the original print and was to light but I liked the contrast on the wall so decided to burn only the corners of the print which is shown on the second image. Which was still to light so I experimented with exposing more of my print, shown on the third image, I actually wasn’t meant to expose the amount I did but I though that it was the best print out of the three and I was happy with how it turned out and thought it improved the contrast on not only the wall but the whole print.  

Medium Format 

My fourth time going out I decided to experiment with a medium format camera just to see and experiment with the different sizes and cameras. Like the field camera it was my first time using the medium format camera, I found it easier to focus and handle then the large format camera which I probably expected considering the size difference and equipment need for the large format but I enjoyed experiment with both cameras. 

I tried to concentrate more on shapes within the landscape with these images and focused more on buildings rather than parking lots. I looked for shapes that were similar to each other and would connect each image together. I pleased with how the images turned out but, these three especially, weren’t necessarily landscapes so I had to rethink on what it was I wanted to capture.

I think for me this print was my most successful using the medium format camera, I like the composition and contrast of the print. You can’t tell on here but I burnt in the sky and you can see the faint outline of the clouds which just adds to the whole print I think. It could possibly even be my favourite out of all my prints.

Digital 

As well as experimenting with medium format and large format I thought that it would also be interesting to experiment with my digital camera. I went back to focusing on parking lots and as well as looking at lines and texture I also thought about space.

These first four images you can see I concentrated on lines and texture and also a kind of an abstract approach to my ideas. I felt freer using digital but that could just be because I didn’t have to think as much as I did when using the medium and large format cameras and the extra equipment.

These last three images I started to think more about space as well as textures and lines. These were probably more of an influence on my final five prints and helped me figure out what it was I wanted to capture.

Final Prints

Getting influence from Lewis Baltz mostly for my final five I concentrated on space and lines. Taking quite a simple approach to urban landscapes like Baltz also archived in his work. These five images were taken on my last time out shooting and considering how close it was getting for hand in I’m please with how they've turned out and that I kept going with my ideas and developed on them.