Contact Sheet

I’m not happy with the way this shoot turned out as the lighting wasn’t good. I spent a day going to different areas in Jersey, but the weather darkened the light, so there was no drama or intensity in the sky. I will try and re-shoot these images on a better day as I would really like to capture light behind clouds, and on the cliffs to create a less dark set of images.

Ansel Adams was an American photographer, born February 20, 1902 in California and died April 22 in 1984. He was an environmentalist, who photographed natural parks. He did this to raise awareness for preserving nature. His photos have lot of depth and shadows, creating an overwhelming feeling for the viewer. I would say some of his photos comply with the sublime.

This photo of Ansel’s has a strong foreground that’s creates a large focal point for the whole of the image. It naturally leads your eyes to that point, but then the leading lines follow to the back of the image and up to the mountains. This occurs throughout Ansel’s work , where he strategically makes the mise-en-scene lead your eyes from the foreground to the background. This photo has a large depth of field because the whole image is in focus. This means he would have used a small aperture and a long shutter so he managed to capture the light. The shadows are intense, especially in the top right third, where the clouds have depth. He would have had to wait for the right time where the sun was shining through the cloud in the centre to get this well composed image. He has used the rule of thirds, as the focal point is in the middle third and the two mountains line up perfectly with the right and left third line.

Ansel used the Pocket Kodak with a 4 x 5 view and the Zeiss Milliflex.

Ansel created a zone system so when he was taking his photos he could get a wide range of light from bright to dark, to make sue his images had high contrast between darks and lights.

Here Ansel took two different photos, one with a yellow filter (right0 and one with a red (left). He recognised that using a yellow filter wouldn’t create as much darkness and shadows. This influenced him to use a red filter which turns the blue sky darker in black and white. Overall, it creates a much deeper image.

Group f/64

Ansel was part of The Group f/64, which stood for the small aperture setting that gave a large depth of field. The group also consisted of some famous photographers at the time such as Van Dyke, Imogen Cunningham, John Paul Edwards, Sonya Noskowiak, Henry Swift and more. In 1934, they all came together and put 9 pieces of their work in the De Young Museum for 6 weeks.

Ansel Adams and Edward Weston:

What are influential images? They are images that capture a deeper significance. They hold great power, emotion and energy, and cause the viewer to feel the emotions the photograph is projecting and wanting us to experience.

Photoshoot Plan:

Equipment – tripod, DSLR camera

Where – I’m going to go to places such as L’Étacq, with rocky areas and dramatic scenes. I don’t want to just photograph straight on simple photos, but use angles such as ants view or low angles to emphasise the drama in the landscape. However if there is a dramatic sky i will include that, whilst experimenting with different depth of fields.

When -I’ll try to capture dramatic weather, possibly sunset when foggy cloud is around as there is a haze across the sky.

How – I’ll use a variety of settings, mainly using Av or shutter priority to make sure the lighting is right. I might also experiment with landscape modes to try and accomplish a variety of images.

why – To create romantacised photos with an element of the sublime as that can tie in well with the large landscapes across the island.

Romanticism occurred in the mid 18th century and was used to go against the new industrial revolution as a way to focus on the beauty in nature and idealistic world.

Paintings were created to capture the romanticized world in the 18th century. Using warm and romantic colours, artists used this new technique to create a better world, separate to the new man-made industry taking over the world.

William Wordsworth, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Samuel Taylor Coleridge were known as ‘founders’ of romanticism. They were caught up by the idea that he world could be seen as a place of peace, beauty and wisdom. It could be used as a way to escape the fast pace of the word and its evolution. The idea that there was no need to be in a rush, and you could take in the atmosphere and narratives around you, caused people to enjoy their surroundings.

The Romantic Sublime

Edmund Burke

He published ‘A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful’ in 1757

Sublime is an experience that’s good but that can possibly make us feel insignificant. E.g. the thought of being stuck in a storm, makes the simple human life seem simple and mindless.

Burke saw nature as the most sublime object, capable of generating the strongest sensations in its beholders.

The sublime and religion

The sublime can be connected with many things, and religion is one. Many beliefs follow a God, and the idea that humans are small and insignificant compared to a God-like being connects with Burke’s idea of the sublime.

John Constable

The Haywain 1821

Constable was known for his rural landscape paintings of Suffolk, in the 1820s. The Haywain creates an idealistic idea of England at the time, showing farm workers cooling down their horse on a warm day. This creates an idea for the viewer that England in the 1800s was pastoral and natural, however it hides the new movement of factory building and other man-made things starting to be introduced at the time.

The process of this project

• Began by practicing camera setting to prepare for still life photos
• Experimented with depth of field when taking still life photos from what I learnt about camera settings
• Continued to experiment with personal objects, but with different light techniques, angles and settings
• Then we moved onto grouping our objects together to get multiple object images
• After we created digital and physical edits of montages using photoshop or material such as string.
• We then used these images to print for our final piece

For the fist photos of beach objects, I think I could have created more interesting compositions and experiment with the camera settings more. I didn’t do this as I wasn’t fully aware of how to create a large or short depth of field, but I am happy with my later shoots where I did this.

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Group objects

Single objects

Physical Edits

Final Outcome

Tools I used to cut out and layer my images:

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Mary is an American artist who explores the tactile and formal elements of everyday objects, and works to create different set up with simple objects. She creates interesting photos with simplicity and shadows.

For my shoot I took her ides of using basic objects and basic backgrounds and created a smile scene.

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