Format and cropping.

I have written previously about having my images in square format for my exhibition as a nicer way of presenting them and making the definitive point of each image a little more prominent to the viewer. Above are a few of the images that i have taken so far that i have cropped into square format to see how they would look. Some of the images work better than others in this format but with some of these photos i wasn't thinking about having them square when i was taking them so i may not have framed the image in the right way for it to be cropped in this format. I definitely think that i am going to carry on experimenting with square format and this is the route that i want to take when it comes to the format of my final images as it is something a little different and not something i would usually do!

Photos

The other day I went on another journey where I was looking for even more new and interesting things. I want to see what different forms I could capture to the ones that I have looked at before. On this walk I managed to capture quite a few photographs, some being more successful than others. All of the images that I felt worked are shown above, within that selection there are some that aren't as successful as others. I feel that I am starting to gain a lot more of a direction by selecting the type of form that it is i want to photograph - being all natural.

These photographs are still in the development stage and I am very much working towards my final images with every photograph that I capture.

square format!

I have been thinking a lot about the size and format prints that i want for my final images, I started messing about with square format and cropping the images that I have already taken in to a 12 x 12 in format to see the different impact it could create within the images.

Obviously some of the images work better in square format where others don't work so well. I really like the square format though and it is something that I am going to experiment with. With all of the photographs that I capture from now on I will be thinking about the format and how I want them to be in - square, so I will be thinking a lot about the content and composition of the image that I am capturing because i need to leave myself enough room to crop and have all the contents that i want to have within the frame after the cropping has been done. This will mean that whilst I am trying to show the small little details of natural forms am also have to take a step back and create more space within the frame whilst still trying to get all of the little details to come through within the scene.

The Studium and myself

What I understand of the Studium -  it is about the general experience taken from a photograph, the interest and the intention of the photographer whom captured the photograph. The discovery of the camera operator, the location, the colour and the scene.

How it works alongside my photography;

My personal experiences play an important part in the meaning and reasoning behind all of the photographs that I capture, not just for this project but for all of the photography that i have done previously as well as all of the future work that I will undertake within the subject field. 

My interest with photography has always lay with nature and landscape. The is mainly due to the peace that I find within myself upon viewing these said scenes that I photograph. The majority of the time I have no idea what I am going to capture, it is just a matter of going out and seeing what it is that i come across on the journey i am taking that that particular time as an individual.

With my photography I want to get the point across to people that there is this natural beauty within the world. A beauty that is waiting there for people to discover and for them to be aware of. The small little details of the natural forms that are surrounding us on a daily basis, all of the things that are not so hard for us to pay attention to. And maybe, if people started to notice these little things they could have a better outlook on things and have a different point of view and a way of seeing the environment in which they live in.

The peace that I find upon seeing these different elements is something that I want other people to be able to be witness too. It just creates a little feeling of content when they are seeing the natural beauty of their surroundings. It is like uncovering a little hidden world that nobody really knows exists - especially when i use macro lens's so that I get all of the small details coming out of the form i am photographing.

When i think about it properly my process of taking photographs is a little bit different. I am not interested at all in creating test shots and doing test shoots to see what different things work. I never set up a scene in front of my camera, i simple work with what i have at that exact moment and capture what i can. I don't tend to take test shots, its simple a point and shoot thing for me, i don't over think what i am doing either, i sometimes come out with images and then when i look back at them i think more about what i was doing then, sometimes i come out with photographs that had no intention at the time of capture but later on they develop a full meaning and intention due to the different elements that are within the composition. But to put it simple i am not an over thinker and i just snap with the intention of creating happy, peaceful, meaningful and beautiful images that i want other people to see as beautiful in exploring the natural forms of the environment.Similar to this, and especially with this project I have been unsure about what i was going to find at the locations i chose to go to, this is both a good, and a bad thing. It is good because i have no expectation of the type of photographs that i want to come out with and i could be able to get some great shots that say exactly what i want them to say straight away. And it could be a bad thing purely because i don't know if i will be able to get successful or any photographs that go with my theme. I am practically going in blind as to what i am going to find.

I think that all of these points work towards shaping my photographs for this project. I have my own reasoning for every photograph that i capture and want to send a message along with each one, my work is about getting people to see the beauty of natural forms, allowing them to appreciate their surroundings.

A few thoughts....

Over the past few days I have been out and about going to different places and parks to take photographs that are all about the natural beauty of the world that is surrounding us.

I have been looking at all of the natural elements that are within the areas that I visit. With the photographs that I have captured up until this point and will continue to take, I am always going to base them around the natural elements.


For my photographs to make a little bit more sense and to give them a bit more depth as a series of images I need to have a reasoning and a meaning behind them. The one things that I have noticed is a recurring theme throughout all of my photographs is that I am capturing the birth and the life of different natural element - such as plants and flower formations.

I think this is my way of showing and introducing the natural beauty - in the early stages. Allowing people to see how these things come to form and grow and live within the environment. 

Thinking about print size and format...

I have recently started to think about the different ways in which i could display my work, I have been milling over a few different ideas and trying to figure out what would be best for my photographs. As my photographs are going to be close up macro shots i feel that the bigger the image the more detail will be seen so i want to go for prints that are of a decent size.

I was thinking about the size of my prints and was curious as to what my images would look like in square format rather than full frame, below are a couple of the images i have cropped to square format to see how they would work.

I actually really like the square format so it is something that i am still going to keep in mind whilst trying to figure out the right direction to go in.

I had some prints done for a feedback session in uni on Friday and the square format image is one that i have got done just to see what people think about it, i will use the feedback i get to help me decide on the right direction to go in.

I have also though about the possibility of getting metallic or peal prints done to make the colours in the images pop a little bit more and be stronger, like with deciding if i want the prints matt or glossy. These are all different things that i am actively thinking about and trying to decide upon in the next few weeks.

The other day I went out and took some more photographs. I went to a park that is very local to me but one that i have never been too before so i had no clue what to expect so i just snapped what i came across that caught my eye and though showed the beauty. 


Images

I didn't get very many images this time but there are one or two that i think work really well and i am starting to stear in a good direction with my images and they are following in the direction of showing the beauty of the world surrounding us.

In some of these images i have focused on the formation of water that has gathered on the different subject matters. I wanted to involve the element of water to give the images a little more depth and add in another element and layer to the image - water is a natural form and can help create beautiful formation by droplets forming.

I want to expand my subject matter a little bit more when i next photograph, looking for more different things to bring into this project that show the natural beauty.