Edited on the mobile app, Snapseed, these photographs taken today show a summary of daily life within Jerseys Maritime hub, St Helier Harbour. Using filters I have produced, a created a few sets of images from our second trip down to the harbour. Mainly using saturation, grain and texture setting’s this is how I created these images.
Edit set 1:
Visiting St Helier’s Rowing Club, in the former lifeboat building, we met one of the rowers who posed for our photoshoot.
Edit set 2:
Checking out the fisheries section of the harbour we came across a fisherman and his dogs.
Edit set 3:
Edit set 4:
Using the old harbour stairs, I was able to get some more close-up shots of docked ships. Moving onto the marina’s they offered some interesting angles for some photos. Also visiting parts of the harbours industrial sector this created a working atmosphere to my photographs.
Edit set 5:
Seeing a friend of mine, I asked if I could get some snap shots of him working. Removing Buoys used for the air show, this created an interesting narrative for my photographs.
Edit set 6:
Whilst in the fisheries section, I was able to get a photographic story of the process of selling fish product: from storage to selecting to selling I find that these images stand out in telling a story.
For this image, I opened photoshop and pressed new and pressed A4 portrait. Then in Lightroom I exported an image of the harbour and edited the image in black and white. Then using an image from the Jersey archive, I used the objection tool in photoshop to select the two kids in the image and then placed them on the black and white image. I then placed the two kids in the most appropriate place in the image. This was all I did for the experiment. I really liked how this image turned out so I was inspired to produce another one like this and use it for my zine.
Experimentation 2:
What i did:
For this image I did the exact same for experiment 1, I opened photoshop and pressed new and pressed A4 portrait. Then in Lightroom I exported an image of the harbour and edited the image in black and white. Then using an image from the Jersey archive, I used the objection tool in photoshop to select the two men in the image (same image used in experiment 1, just different people) and then placed them on the black and white image. I then placed the two men in the most appropriate place in the image. This was all I did for the experiment. I really liked how this image turned out and was certain that it was gonna be used in my zine.
Experimentation 3:
What i did:
For this image, I opened photoshop and imported the plain image of the three boats onto photoshop. I created another layer to this image and in this layer I focused in editing the sea. I made the sea much greener and intensified the green tones it had. I then selected the first layer and with the objection tool, I selected the boats, took the editing/ colouring that was done to them when I was editing the sea and edited them in black and white by using adjustments and and I also cropped this image so that the focus was the boast and the sea, that’s all I did to this image. I didn’t really like how this image turned out. It was quite awkward and random so this image was rejected. However I wanted to do the method I used in this image differently so I tried it again, as seen below.
Experimentation 4:
What i did:
As stated above, I did exactly what I did for experiment 3 however just slightly different. For this image, I opened Lightroom and imported the plain image of the two men fishing onto Lightroom. I applied soft sepia to the image and then exported the image to photoshop. In photoshop, I created another layer to this image and in this layer I focused in editing the men. I selected the second layer to the image that I created and with the objection tool, I selected the men and took the editing/ colouring that was done to the background and edited them in black and white by using adjustments and filters and that’s all I did to this image. This image was rejected because I didn’t like the sepia colour and the men in black and white. It looked strange.
Chosen images:
Evaluation:
Out of all of the experiments shown above, I chose these two because I thought that they were the best edited and realistic. I liked how the past people were incorporated with the present really nicely. I also thought that it would be perfect in my zine as It could fit the narrative I was going for.
In this image I increased the exposure to give it a more white washed tone to the image so that when I decreased vibrance and saturation which made the image black and white, the image would look more brighter and whiter. I increased the clarity because I wanted the details in the images, that were lost by the gloomy weather, to be exposed. However I also increased blacks because I felt like the image became a little to white when I made it black and white. Finally I decreased highlights and shadows to expose hidden details lost from the darkness in the image. I did all of this to make the image more rustic like.
Chosen picture 2:
Editing:
For this image, I only increased vibrancy so that when I decreased saturation the image wouldn’t be as pale looking. This was all I did for the image because I thought that the image itself was quite good in terms of exposure and detail so I only made the image black and white and was satisfied.
Chosen picture 3:
Editing:
Again, for this image I decreased vibrance and saturation to make the image black and white. I decreased contrast to increase the dark spots in the image but also increase the lighter parts of the image. I also decreased shadows to recover as much lost detail that was lost in the shadows of the image. Lastly I increased clarity to make the image a little brighter and for it to enhance more detail within the image. I did all of this to make the image look from the past.
Chosen picture 4:
Editing:
For this image, I really wanted to enhance the white’s and blacks in the images so I thought that decreasing vibrancy and saturation to make the image black and white would be start. Next, I increased clarity to make the image much clearer and enhance the white in the image and texture to give the image more texture but not too much because I didn’t want it to look too plain. I also slightly increased shadows to make the dark spots in the image more evident and whites to make the whites in the images more apparent. I also increased exposure to make the image slightly white washed. Lastly, I decreased contrast to enhance the blacks and whites in the image, highlights to give it a more matte look and blacks to magnify the shadows within the images.
Chosen picture 5:
Editing:
For this image I increased exposure to make the image brighter and also increased contrast to sharpen the image. I also decreased Shadows to make dark areas even more darker and whites to make the image as dark as possible. Lastly, I increased vibrancy so that when I decreased saturation the image wouldn’t be so pale. I really wanted this image to look old and rustic so I edited the image like this which meant that it came out exactly how I wanted it to.
Chosen picture 6:
Editing:
No editing was done in this image. This was because I wanted the image to show its ‘naked’ self. I wanted it to be quite raw and normal. I didn’t want to alter something that I already liked how it looked.
Chosen picture 7:
Editing:
No editing was done in this image. This was because I wanted the image to show its ‘naked’ self. I wanted it to be quite raw and normal. I didn’t want to alter something that I already liked how it looked.
Chosen picture 8:
Editing:
For this image I did the same thing I did to image 5, which is, I increased exposure to make the image brighter and also increased contrast to sharpen the image. I also decreased Shadows to make dark areas even more darker and whites to make the image as dark as possible. Lastly, I increased vibrancy so that when I decreased saturation the image wouldn’t be so pale. I really wanted this image to look old and rustic so I edited the image like this which meant that it came out exactly how I wanted it to.
Chosen picture 9:
Editing:
For this image I did the same to image 5 and 8 which is, I increased exposure to make the image brighter and also increased contrast to sharpen the image. I also decreased Shadows to make dark areas even more darker and whites to make the image as dark as possible. Lastly, I increased vibrancy so that when I decreased saturation the image wouldn’t be so pale. I really wanted this image to look old and rustic so I edited the image like this which meant that it came out exactly how I wanted it to.
Chosen pictures:
I chose these images for my final products because I thought that not only do they show the more aesthetic part of St Helier harbour, some of the images would also perfect fit in terms of the zine that I am planning to make. I also chose these images because they are high quality and just overall, really good images.
Evaluation:
Overall, I really like the images that I have produced. I’m satisfied with the end products and how I have edited the images.
In my research about taking pictures of a harbour especially taking pictures in the St Helier harbour, I realised that there are many factors that make the harbour. Things like boats, fishermen, lighthouses but most importantly the sea, The cement to the harbour. I think that when it came to capturing what the harbour is actually like and what it consists of, I believe that I did it really well. Its clear that the focus of my photoshoot was a harbour which I made very evident by researching about the compounds within a harbour and then producing images that related to it.
In terms of editing. I strongly believe that my editing really shows my skills that I have developed and improved. With the inspiration still high towards Robert Adams, I wanted to mirror the skills that I learned through Adams and portray these skills onto this project and some of my images. As seen in some of my edited images, I edited in the way that Robert would. He produced images that sometimes where white washed and sometimes really dark. He made some obstacles darker than the background and I really liked that so I applied it to these images. I think that overall, I just really like the editing I applied in each of my images even the ones I didn’t edit. I’m really happy with my edited outcomes.
One last positive about my final outcomes, is that fact that I was able to closely edit images so that they looked antique and past like. I was able to show the present harbour as the past. However, I could have added texture to the images in black and white so that it would look even more realistic
However, I do think that my images could have some improvements. For an example, I could have been more creative with colour. I could have produced more images of colour and I could have also thought more creatively when editing the images. I could have used AI in photoshop to add people or boats. I could have been more creative in many ways so its something that I will take into consideration for my next project.
The Channel Islands consist of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and some smaller islands which were all separated from mainland Europe as a result of the rising sea levels during the Neolithic period. Following this event, maritime activity commenced due to islanders wanting to earn money through trade and investing capital in maritime business. From the 15th to late 18th centuries, trading became more popular due to the technical improvements of ships and navigation, allowing people to sail for days on end. This increase in trade lasted up until the Napoleonic Wars.
The Merchant Triangle, also known as the Atlantic trade
Through trading, the Channel Islands were given concessions such as dried cod from Newfoundland and Gaspe coast, cloth, wine, wool, leather and household goods. After the opening of Grand Bank fisheries, one of the World’s richest fishing grounds (located South of Newfoundland), Jersey and Guernsey formed colonies which would catch fish and dry them. Cod was very valuable at this time and they would exchange this fish in the West Indies and later Brazil too for plantation goods such as sugar, molasses, rum, cotton, coffee and tobacco.
Map of Canada Atlantic provinces, including Newfoundland and Gaspe coast.
Charles Robin
Charles Robin, one of Jersey’s premier cod-merchants, founded the Charles Robin Company in 1766. This was a company based in Gaspe where they produced and sold cod. Robin produced 2 different types of salted cod, green and yellow. Green cod was wet salted cod which was not dry-cured and yellow had been dry cured. Robin would often sell his green cod in markets in the Caribbean or North East Brazil as it had a shorter shelf-life than yellow cod. In exchange for the green cod, Robin would receive plantation goods which he then would trade in the Mediterranean, England and Jersey. For yellow cod, Charles Robin would sell it in markets in Europe, mainly Portugal, Spain and Italy as they had Large Roman Catholic populations. At this time, Roman Catholics had a high demand for fish due to them only eating fish for the day each Friday. This cod-fish was traded for products such as wine, fruits, spirits, spices and salt (used in the curing process). They then brought these goods to Jersey and British ports before returning to Canada.
Charles Robin Company headquarters in Gaspe, now a museum
Overall, the Island benefitted from the profits made in the British Empire at this time, which were highly built on the slave trade during the Industrial Revolution. This is due to slaves being the ones who would farm the goods to be traded. Additionally, there is evidence that ships would leave St Helier Harbour with supplies to be taken to slave stations in West Africa. An example is Cape Cod Castle on the Gold Coast of Ghana. This was a fort which was highly involved in the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Since the prehistoric days to today, the sea has been Jersey’s way of connecting to the outside world. We are surrounded by water meaning people would use our maritime routes to people travel and settle making new families and communities. For the island communities, their ports and piers are symbolic and practically significant.
The islands, Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark, were separated from mainland Europe with rising sea levels in the Neolithic period, which is when maritime activity commenced.
Needing to trade, the islanders were innovative. Over time they built up skills, earning money and investing capital in maritime businesses.
Jersey merchants sold and bought cod from Canada. Many merchants were engaged in the Atlantic trade, referred to as the ‘merchant triangle’ with commodities of manufactured goods and agricultural products.
They sailed to and/or traded with the British Empire, other European colonies in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, South America and even going to Hong Kong and Australia.
Sugar, molasses, rum, cotton, coffee and tobacco were all different good which Jersey merchants exchanged for cod-fish.
Jersey cod-merchants also exported cod-fish to British colonies in the West Indies and later Brazil in exchange for plantation goods, which it brought to markets in America, Europe and the UK (including Jersey). Because of this, Jersey benefitted from the profits made in the British Empire build on a capitalist model of a slave-based economy.
Stories of the sea, about voyages, encounters and even shipwrecks holds mythological and romantic notions in the imagination of humans. For centuries, artists, writers, poets and filmmakers have been inspired by the see and the unknown secrets of it.
St Aubin used to be the main harbour for Jersey merchants. St Helier then became the central maritime hub. However, St Helier harbours were too small for the larger ships and increasing tonnages, with both drying out at low tide. So, Jersey added a few piers to its harbour, such as Victoria and Albert Piers.
This would be one of the best photos I took at the museum as not all the photos I took looked good enough to present, I turned this photo into black and white as it stopped the colours from distracting the view of all the patterns and texture. I took this photo from a slightly lower angle than a straight view point to show that all the item are above me almost as if they are looking down on me which could help represent their importance. This photo hold a lot of importance s it has historical items in one place. The reason I chose this photo being my best is because in some of my photos the angles of the photos don’t match the photo and this photo has the most important object in the centre with all historical images in the background. I do quite like the mages of the rocks with an image underneath as they would look good together to create a row of photos with meaning. They have framed a specific rock , maybe due o the fact that it is going extinct or the rocks have a great significance to jerseys history. Even thought the image is quite busy it still shows the purpose of each item being placed in that specific place, possibly each photograph links in with the submarine suit. The wall in the background is quite textured but also helps to make everything else stand out and be its own independent photo.
Going to the maritime museum helped open my eyes and get a perspective of jerseys past, there were many interesting interactive item in the museum which made it fun and entertaining to explore. There were many picture of important people with little descriptions to help identify and understand how and why they were important to jerseys history. the museum also had many boat models that we could look at and identify the main reasons they were used and what they looked like. I really enjoying exploring the museum and understanding how each of these items have a historical meaning and representation. This photoshoot helped me learn songs and stories of the sea, and investigate the island’s myths and legends. I would say that this was a really good experience even though not all of my photos are usable but they do show some historical and important pieces that represent an important factor to the museum.
links I used to help me write about the maritime museum:
