Photoshoot

Analysis

Overall I took mostly landscape pictures of St. Helier’s harbour, my reasoning for that was because a portrait shot just wouldn’t be able to capture it all. The lighting of all the photos are general daylight, on a cloudy day, but you can see the sun peeking out at certain times, allowing me to capture images in different lights. There is quite a lot of repetition within my images, because I really wanted to capture the right angle of things, such as building’s. I wanted to be able to get all three buildings with the red doors in one image. I have mainly led the eye with objects being in the foreground in most of my images, rather than having things hiding and making people really look to find an object, this is because I wanted to show the historic simplicity of the harbour, for example those buildings have been there since forever and will continue to stand, so I wanted to portray how bold they are.

Editing In Lightroom

Reasoning Why

I have edited my images with a lot of light dark contrast, the reason for this is because I wanted to portray the bold seas against the light breeze. I have used a lot of anchoring to portray my images, for example the image of the van being the main object at the front of the foreground, this helps lead the eye to the words “Channel Seaways”, to make people wonder about what was in the van, and where it was going. It also makes people realise that although the harbour seems to be very historic and out of use it is still indefinitely in use, people are spending their whole days there working 9 to 5s. I think a lot of my images have good harmony, all aspects of the image correlate with each other, for example the image of the RNLI lifeguard mural, and with the rocks around the path that state different boats and there weights and what they’re made of.

Favourite Image Analysis

This image was taken within natural daylight, it was a cloudy day which makes the sky look darker, looking like the image is taken in the evening or night when really it was the start of the day. This image has a overall dark tonal range, with a lot of blacks an browns apart from the white of the truck it is overall neutral tones. This was taken with a wider lens, zoomed out and landscape to capture the whole vehicle, the road, pavement and the buildings behind. This image is a bit over exposed, but I have done this to portray the boldness of the modern vehicle against the old brick buildings. The image is very textured, being able to see each stone used to create the buildings and the pavement. Also being able too see the clouds with a lot of texture, to create a darker feeling, like the camera has taken a photo so clear that you would’ve seen something more blurry if you were there. I have confined this image to have the truck in the main depth of field, drawing you to that straight away, and then having the poles and pavement in the foreground an the buildings in the background to create a nice harmony, using a rues of third’s, the truck, the pavement/poles and the buildings. My idea between this image was mainly contrast, I wanted to create multiple different types of contrast, for example the colour contrast and the modern vs historical contrast.

Overall Evaluation

I overall think that this photoshoot went very well and I was able to capture multiple different elements of the harbour, trade, lifeboat’s and fishing. This allowed me to edit my images in a creative way to dictate contrast and historical presence. One thing I would do next time would aim to go on a nicer day, with a clearer sky, whether that be in the evening or a day just a less foggy environment, to create better lighting.

photoshoot 1

photoshoot 2

photoshoot 3

Here is a before and after.

I made this photo have really high clarity on Lightroom.

Selections

I managed to narrow it down to 14 images that I found to be the best from this shoot.

Editing

I have cropped this image to centre the painting, the point of the roof is not centre to the photo, however, the flag pole balances it out. I have also cut our some of the negative space in order to have the focus not only on the building but on the painting.

For this one I lowered the exposure to give the image more depth.

For me, a black and white photo can create more emotion with in the viewer. The building in the middle is the jersey rowing club, it is also the old life boat station. The slip is where the first lifeboat, the Howard Davis, was launched from. By lining up the rowing club in the centre through the barrier and the boat it is like a window to the past.

favourites

This is one of my favourites from this shoot. the dolphin is in line with the breakwater and the horizon and creates a nice even line across the images that is only broken by the ?. There is a lot of negative space with the brightness of the sky which creates a nice contrast to the darker colour of the sea.

Evaluation

This photo shoot was fairly successful however I would of liked to be more creative with my photos. A lot of what I took was very straight on and a bit more classical. I would like to go back down on a less windy day.

Jersey is small island but it has a rich maritime history from ship building industries to cod fishing and Canadian connections. Many Jersey men would travel over to Canada to work and then return back to Jersey in the winter to work the farms, bringing resources back with them to benefit the island and thriving industries.

To what extend, has the island of Jersey benefitted from its connections with slavery in the past?

Jersey benefitted from the slave trade hugely, from getting wood from the plantations to help with the ship building industry to trading cod for slaves to help with the industries around the island. At the time this was very common practise with trader like Josué (Joshua) Mauger who had a ship building business as well as trading people. The industry of trading people themselves created many of the things we know today, like No 9 Pier Road – built by Philippe Nicolle in 1818. After Philippe inherited money from his great uncle Joshua Mauger. The inheritance of money generated partly from the transatlantic slave trade was part of Philippe’s wealth when he set himself up as a merchant and built No 9 Pier Road in 1818.

Cod trade and Jersey’s Connection

For many hundreds of years the Jersey economy was based on the maritime trades, encouraging many of the Jersey citizens to be involved with the Atlantic trade also known as the merchant triangle. This was a mixture of selling and trading, mostly trading products and manufactured goods like cod, spirits, salt, slaves and fibres. This was engineered by main components: the British Empire, other European colonies such as South America and the Caribbean. Barrels of dried cod, 1,000-2,000 quintals a year, each weighing roughly 50 kg, were traded each year through the trading triangle, this goes to how the large scale the merchants operated on. However by the end of the 1800s the cod trade died out as privateering increased and new job opportunities appeared.

Cod Trade Triangle

This diagram shows all the links between trading cod and then trading further goods between jersey and the rest of the world as well as the routes the goods took. For example, fish like cod would go from Jersey to Canada and Jersey would get labour or ship building material (at one point in time Jersey had the 4th largest ship building industry) and the Canada would export the fish to the West Indies market returning with sugar, rum or molasses.

Newfoundland and Gaspe fishing trade 

In the 16th century there were many Jersey men who would launch boats and crews to Newfoundland from as early as 1562 with some men staying and returning later in the year to farm in Jersey for the winter having made a better income on the Newfoundland trips. Many ended up staying in Newfoundland working opportunities not available in Jersey itself. This continued into the 18th and 19th century when the Gaspe fishing v trade started to appear, similarly the Jersey men would leave to work a season and then return or again many stayed taking opportunities not available to them at home. 

Charles Robin 

Charles Robin was one of Jersey’s main cod merchants who created his own company in 1766. His headquarters was in Gaspe. His trade specifically was two types of salted cod, a green and a yellow, the green having a shorter shelf life than the yellow but the yellow being more time consuming to produce. Robin would then complete a trip to the plantations providing the green cod for the slaves, in return he would get produce from the plantation like rum, sugar, coffee and cotton to then make the trip to Jersey and other places to begin the trading process again. 

Notes:

• Fixing the shadows
• Turing the ordinary to the extraordinary
• Reveals reality but also hides parts of it
• Transforms what it describes
• Good at taking quick photos of moments in time

How is an image produced using a Camera Obscura (Pinhole Photography)?

An image is made by using a completely dark room or box with a small hole somewhere in it so that light passes through into the box, light should only pass through that one hole, an image of the view outside the box is then projected upside-down inside the box.

The Calotype and Daguerreotype

The Calotype, was a way of fixing an image onto a surface, that was created by Henry Fox Talbot. It was a paper negative.

The Daguerreotype, was another way of fixing an image onto a surface, that was created by Louis Daguerre. The image was printed onto a mirrored metal plate that had to be polished first and once the image was printed onto the plate a torch was used on it to actually fix the image onto the slab otherwise it could be easily wiped off.

Daguerre and Talbot were both in competition with each other to make and get out the best method of fixing photographs onto a surface. However unlike the Calotype, the Daguerreotype was much more expensive to produce, this resulted in the Calotype being favoured by people.

Both methods had very tedious processes unlike our modern technology. Both were very time consuming meaning the image wasn’t produced instantly like our modern cameras.

Contact Sheet

Edited Photos

Best Photos

I think this image is one of my best images as the red doors and windows act as leading lines for the focal point which is the back wall. The way that the alley is lined up also makes this image much better because everything is lined up perfectly.

This is one of my best images because of the size decreasing in the boats, it starts of with the biggest boat and then they get smaller which gives great contrast to the image. The contrast between the dark stormy sky and the white boats also makes the image more interesting and appealing to look at.

This image is also strong but its not one of the best images. I like it because it captures every angle of the harbour but also includes the buildings in the background which adds more to the image.

I think this image is strong because of the leading lines of the white floor tiles that lead to the steam clock. The shapes and lines from the tiles also contrast against the clock and give the image more depth. The contrast between the stormy sky and the clock gives the image a dramatic appearance.

I think this is also a really strong image and it brings more presence into the image of Captain Nibbs.

Evaluation

I think the images I have taken are very strong and each one of them is different. All of the images are interesting and eye catching and the angles that I have taken the photos at make them look more intriguing.

History:

The Maritime Museum is located around the Jersey harbour and has been open since 1997. The museum holds collections which include artefacts from the island’s maritime industry as well as from piracy and the 1692 Battles of Barfleur and La Hougue. The museum is housed in a set of five linked warehouses on the New North Pier in Saint Helier. This pier was constructed during the 1880s as part of the redevelopment of the harbour by the states of Jersey. The warehouses were built in 1889, and after the liberation of the island from German occupation in 1945, they housed the harbours customs and maintenance teams. The warehouses were then empty by the 1970’s due to changes in harbour practices with the development of containerisation. The pier was then converted into a marina from 1980. By 1992 the friends of the maritime museum group occupied the warehouses where they houses the maritime museum along with the occupation tapestry, after the 50th anniversary of liberation. In 1996 a memorial took place outside of the museum buildings to Channel islanders who died after being deported the Europe by the Germans. The museum then formally opened one year later in 1997. The collections within the museum cover the islands fishing and ship-building industries, its mercantile operations and piracy.

I took both these photos of the outside area of the Maritime Museum. I then edited them into a black and white photo by reducing the saturation to -100. I also increase the texture as I wanted the small details to stand out.

What was the involvement of Jersey mariners in the Canadian cod-fisheries and the Transatlantic carrying trade?

In the 15th Centaury, Newfoundland in Canada was discovered. the waters around it contained lots of cod which was great for fishermen.

In the 16th centaury tens of thousands of fishermen were traveling across the ocean to fish for all this cod including fishermen from the Jersey and channel islands. by the late 16th Centaury The governor of jersey stated that “islanders were saved from starvation by the arrival of a cargo of fish from the colony”

Fact: One Jersey islander who obtained a licence to sail to Newfoundland from the government to fish for the people of jersey was fined 300 crowns after he sold the fish to the people of St. Malo instead.

By the 17th centaury where trade routes were being set up with the rest of Europe, America and Canada, fishermen had set up bases on the coast of Gaspé, Canada. This is where they would salt the cod so it would be preserved till they got back to their countries.

Which ports did Jersey ships sail to and trade with?

What type of goods did Jersey merchants exchange for cod-fish?

In Mediterranean countries cod was of high demand so cod was traded for: wine, brandy, dried fruit, citrus fruits and salt. There was also a demand in Brazil where the cod was traded for coffee and sugar.

To what extent, has the island of Jersey benefitted from its constitutional relationship with Britain and the legacies of colonialism based on a slave plantation economy during the first Industrial Revolution (1760-1840)?

• No 9 Pier road, is known as the ‘Merchant house’ and is a Victorian townhouse which was built by Philippe Nicolle in 1818 using money he inherited from his great uncles involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. The building is now part of the Jersey museum.

• John Frederick Gibaut was a Jersey man who owned one of the largest sugar plantations, ran by slaves, in El Salvador during the mid 1800s. It ended up going bankrupt around the time slavery was abolished.

• TW: Peter Pierre, Thomas Mallet and Parry were jersey men who sailed with the captain John Kimber, in 1797 from Gold Coast to Barbados with 409 Slaves. Sadly one of the Slaves passed away on the boat and the captain was accused of killing her because she refused to dance naked.

In summary Jersey benefited economically from the slave trade due Jersey men who had businesses involving the trade and ship masters whose boats were used to capture slaves.

Source