Exercise 8

Project - Looking through the viewfinder

Exercise - A sequence of composition

The aim of this exercise is to record a sequence of images which reflect a shoot - ideally the images should progress (and improve?), as you close in on the final shot. Key aspect here is not to just record the final shots, but all the lead in ones.

I chose to shoot the street which is at the end of my estate where I live.

I actually had a specific aspect of the street which I wanted to capture - it's a very pleasant street in a very pleasant historic town, but there is an aspect to the street which is perhaps more interesting to the "pleasant, historical" aspect and that's where that side of the street comes into conflict with not only the more contemporary aspect of the the living town, but also the less aesthetic and less pleasant.

Again, this interests me as typically the photographer may choose to blank out the less pleasant aspects of the scene, but here I want to show them in sharp contrast in the same shot.

I start at one end of the street (below), not surprisingly, I keep moving....

I start trying to combine the new and the old. But there is no dynamic to the shot.

As above, the 2 are in the same shot, but it's difficult to see cars as being particularly contrasty to the "the old", because they're just so omnipresent.

Potentially more interesting as in this shot the new and old are splat together - but again difficult to get offended by a single "for sale" sign - and there's still no dynamic. I keep on moving....

This one feels more compressed. Feels like there is actually a purpose to it (a small one...). Probably this is the first shot I would have bothered taking under normal circumstance. But doesn't capture the kind of dynamic I'm after.

More going on in this shot (which is what I'm after), there is a sense of competition between old and new (which is what I'm after).

So I closed in on aspect of the above scene.

And another aspect

Think I moved on down the street too quickly to be honest

Another old houses and cars shot, but this one works better - more stuff in the shot and so more dynamic, but still difficult to be offended by cars (rightly or wrongly).

There was a shot in here somewhere, the archetypal Georgian (?) arch, the privet hedges and the great fat beemer squatting in the middle of it! However, I think I should have closed in more.

Quite like this one, but not much conflict in it. I keep on moving.

Not much conflict (or interest here), though in the lower one, I happily include the for sale sign and the tail end of the car.

POtentially more interesting here - I lik the compression of the buildings (starts to emphasise new and old being squashed together). I guess the people are an awkward combination of new and old as well.....

I move in closer, with a wider angle, but interestingly the compression is gone and the more distant parts of the street are lost.

Something more interesting here which I now start to try and close in on

And from the opposite side.

Still trying to capture the new and the old. Also making use of the word Variety's here (but hopefully not in an obvious way).

Again, more compression in the above shot, and the lower one is more off kilter, think I prefer the more compressed, straight edge one.

I decide to go back to scene I worked on previously

Capture the below shot on the way

This time is just work on the bins

Observations & Learnings

Not sure if I did this right to be honest. The fact that I was shooting a street meant that I was compelled to move along the subject rather than hone in on the subject.

However, it's again made me reflect that I moved along too quickly on some occasions - I knew there was shot there, but I gave up too quickly, and moved on....

Irrespective of the exercise, I enjoyed shooting with a purpose - trying to capture the awkward combination of new and old. I wasn't particularly successful, but it felt good/right to be trying.

Appendix

I also tried putting a few of the shots into b&w. Interestingly I think this removes the new vs the old aspect and just kind of emphasises the old.

The below shot looks genuinely old now, rather than fake old.

And this could have been from the coronation rather than the jubilee!