Photography is the art of taking and processing images. The actual word “photography” means ‘drawing with light’. The definition shows how creative photography actually is, it also means that you can manipulate the image to make it look better.

The main elements of photography are shutter speed, ISO and aperture. Shutter speed determines whether or not a moving image is in focus, which also determines the quality of the image. ISO is the camera’s sensitivity to light, the lower the ISO, the less sensitive the film is to light.

David Campany talks about how impactful photography is on people. It allows people to look at fixed appearances and interpret them how they want. Special moments can be captured or just simply a moment in time that you would like the remember, which can help us notice things we maybe never have noticed before. It is simple to share the images with people around the world as photography is such a mobile thing. Even if a photographer takes a photo with a certain meaning, it can lose that meaning or perhaps other people can have their own meanings of it. 

“Photographs confuse as much as fascinate, conceal as much as reveal, distract as much as compel. They are unpredictable communicators.”

I agree with this statement as everyone interprets images differently and can be completely limitless. An image can affect people in different ways. ‘Distract as much as compel’ says that people can be draw to an image for different reasons to other.

My photomontage work

We all went outside to take photos in which we threw balls up in the air and tried to take pictures of them. The other sets of photos we took we were trying to avoid the camera and “punch” it.

These two images are the only ones that in some way worked, all the other images of the throwing part did not work, the balls had already gone out of frame or the shutter speed was not up high enough so they were blurry.

Here are some images in which one of us would try and avoid the camera and the other one would take the photo, using an increased shutter speed to make sure the images aren’t blurry.

Most of these have no blur so the shutter speed is at the correct number.

What is shutter speed?

The faster the shutter the better quality the image is as shutter speed controls how fast the shutter closes which determines how much light goes into the camera.

This image puts it simply.

The term still life comes from the Dutch word stilleven

Coined in the 17th century when paintings of objects enjoyed immense popularity throughout Europe. The stimulus for this term came as artists created compositions of greater complexity, bringing together a wider variety of objects to communicate allegorical meanings.

Still life featured mainly in the experiments of photography inventors Jacques-Louis-Mandé Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot, as far back as the 1830s. They did this in part, for practical reasons: the exceptionally long exposure times of their processes precluded the use of living models.

A vanitas is a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death.

‘Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’

This is where the term vanitas comes from, the opening lines of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible.

History of still life photography

In the 17th century, still life became a genre in art, most of these paintings were about religion or death.

When cameras were invented, a photographer called Adolf de Meyer, used the genre of still life for his first ever photo.

Over the years, as colour photographs emerged, photographers starting using still life more and more. As it became a more popular genre, the still life images taken got even better than they were before.

Some examples of still life photography now.

Vanitas

As stated earlier, the word vanitas comes from the opening lines of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible.

Vanitas relates to what was mentioned earlier, death and is mainly used in art, it shows how painful or beautiful life is, in its entirety.

A vanitas image:

Here you can see a skull, which is in the centre of the image, showing that it could be a key part of the image and lots of other objects like a crown and a sceptre which can symbolise the power of death however the flowers in the back could symbolise the beauty of life and the beginning of life. This image, and other vanitas images, contains both elements of life and death and can be interpreted in many different ways.

Coloured ones are correct

Q1: What is the etymology (origin & history) of the word photography?

Writing with light.

Capturing light.

Painting with light

Filming light.

Q2: What year was the first photograph made in camera?

1739 (Joseph Wright)

1839 (Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre)

1826 (Joseph Nicéphore Niépce)

1904 (Salvadore Dali)

Q3: When did the first photograph of a human appear?

1874 (Julia Margeret Cameron)

1838 (Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre)

1856 (Henry Mullins)

1939 (Ropert Capa)

Q4: Who made the first ‘selfie’

Kim Kardashian (2015)

Robert Cornelius (1839)

Cindy Sherman (1980)

Claude Cahun (1927)

Q5: When did the first colour photograph appear?

1907 (Lumière brothers)

1961 (Andy Warhol)

1935 (Kodachrome)

1861 (James Clerk Maxwell)

Q6: What do we mean by the word genre?

A study of an artwork

A depiction in art

A style or category of art

A creative process in art

Q7: What do we mean by the genre of still-life?

In image where a person is sitting still and not moving.

An arrangement of flowers.

A picture of food.

An image that shows inanimate objects from the natural or man-made world.

Q8: What was the main purpose of the Pictorialist movement?

To capture moving objects

To record reality

To affirm photography as an art form

To be scientific

Q9: How do we describe the term documentary photography?

Capture images that truthfully portray people, places and events.

Staging images for maximum effect.

Provide in-depth information about a subject over a long period time.

An interpretation of reality as witnessed by the photographer.

Q10: What is exposure in photography?

To expose hidden elements in our society.

To record fast moving objects.

To capture bright light.

The amount of light that reaches your camera’s sensor.

Q11: What controls exposure on your camera?

Depth of field, composition, distance to subject.

Aperture, focal length, ISO.

Aperture, shutter speed, ISO.

Shutter speed, distance to subject, depth of field.

Q12: What control on our camera records moving objects?

Aperture

White balance

Shutter

ISO

Q13: How do we explain depth of field?

How much of your image is in focus.

To photograph from a high vantage point.

A view across a field.

A deadpan approach to image making.

Q14: What factors affect Depth of Field?

Shutter speed, distance from camera to subject, and sensitivity to light.

Lens aperture, distance from camera to subject, and lens focal length.

Lens focal length shutter speed and lens aperture.

Sensitivity to light, shutter speed and lens focal length.

Q15: What is composition in photography?

Capturing the quality of light.

A piece of music with different instruments.

Staging a portrait with props.

The arrangement of visual elements within the frame.

Q16: What is your understanding of aesthetics in art?

Concerned with the nature of beauty and taste.

It is subjective and in the eye of the beholder.

Aesthetic qualities refer to the way and artwork looks and feels.

Making a critical judgement based on observation and understanding.

Q17: What are contextual studies in photography?

To provide historial, cultural and theoterical understanding of images.

Consider factors outside of the image, as well as inside the frame.

To give an opinion without any research.

To seek a definite answer.

Q18: How many images are captured on average every day worldwide?

1.5 billion

4.7 billion

800 million

6.9 billion

Q19: Which portrait is the most reproduced in the world?

Mona Lisa

Lady Gaga

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara

The Queen (Elizabeth II)