Photography can turn something ordinary into extraordinary, photography transforms what it describes.

Camera Obscura is when you have a blacked out room, with a tiny hole from the outside world showing the light into the room. After around 1-2 hours of patiently waiting, there will show an upside down natural photo of exactly what is on the other side of the hole in the wall. a darkened box with a convex lens or aperture for projecting the image of an external object on to a screen inside, a forerunner of the modern camera.

A Pinhole camera works because the small hole you made with your pin, paper clip, or pencil acts like a tiny camera lens. Light from the Sun enters the pinhole (or the holes in an object like a colander), it gets focused, and then it is projected out of the other side of the hole.

Photography captures live nature. Romantism is about nature too. The Camera’s were shoebox size and named mousetraps. Fix the shadows. They used the same plate in the camera that was the final plate with the image on that gets polished and cleaned.

Nicéphore Niepce & Heliography
In 1826, Niépce used his heliography process to capture the first photograph, but his pioneering work was soon to be overshadowed by the invention of the daguerreotype. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce was one of the most important figures in the invention of photography.

Before:

Editing:

Lowering the saturation and increasing the texture, clarity and dehaze, this helped add more of a dramatic effect to the image. By making the image darker it allows for more attention to be brought craftsmanship of the statue.

After:

As a result I am happy with how this turned out, with relation to the topic of harbours this image fits well due it featuring a statue dedicated to Jersey’s Fishermen, Wearing a Jersey Jumper and outside the Jersey Museum here it signifies there importance.

Before:

With these 2 images, taken in the same timeframe and location I decided to edit them in a set.

Editing:

Like in the previous image I made these images grey through removing the saturation. Using similar settings as before I made some slight differences with the use of temperature.

After:

Taken together, I find that these images work well together in there set. In relation to the theme of the harbour, the characters present, Bryan Nibs, the former captain and the tour guide tell a story within this context.

Before:

Editing:

Sticking to the aesthetic of black and white images, I continued with this image, Adding more depth through texture, clarity and dehazing, this allowed for more detail to come pop out in its greyscale appearance.

Cropping the image, this allows for more of a focus on the main focal point of the image. In my opinion this lessened the clutter in the original composition and made the 2 subjects appear closer to the camera.

After:

Overall, I am happy with the outcome, with the difference between subjects such as hair colour and posture, to me this makes for an interesting image.

Before:

Editing:

Using the tone curve I inverted each corner till I was able to create an image negative of my original photograph. By adjusting some of the settings this created an interesting effect.

After:

Through my research into the origins of photography, the appearance of negative images always gave a cool impression to me, through Lightroom I was able to recreate this effect.

Before:

Editing:

Since I found that this image was already taken well, I only used some slight editing to improve upon some parts of it. Since I found it was a little to bright I lowered that with the dehaze tool.

After:

Overall I am quite happy with the outcome of this image, to me it resembles a lot about Brian Nibs and Jerseys harbour.

Before:

Editing:

Using quite a bit of editing, I aimed to make the textures of the image and make them stand out more. By lowering the shadow and highlights and increasing the rest, this to me made the image stand out more.

After:

Overall I like this image, as the grey shadow conflicts with the lighter tones coming from below.

Before:

Editing:

Using mainly shadows, as well as the white and black, my aim was to make this image stand out with its natural colours.

After:

I like how this image came out as the framing and composition really help make the image good.

Before:

Editing:

Trying to make a vintage digital camera aesthetic, I used both tone and presence settings to make this image look older, adding grain this further added to the older look.

After:

As a result I think this came out really well, to the style I was trying to achieve.

Before:

Editing:

Highlighting the mans fluorescent coverall’s, I aimed to make them look lighter in the image.

Adding a gradient filter, this helped tone the upper part of the image and creating more of a focus on the man working.

With these editing settings, as well as a vignette this allowed me to darken the images corners some more to bring out the detail of the image.

After:

Overall, I’m happy with this outcome as I like the colours and texture of this image.

Photography was firstly invented as a scientific experiment..

The potential for photography is to turn the ordinary into extraordinary which is shown throughout Andrew Krater and his images made in Paris (which he liked so much he went back) in 1928.

Photography shows the world of appearances and it transforms what it describes because the camera is objective, you as a human taking the picture are subjective.

Photography is about framing the image and how you perceive the photograph being taken, considering the lights and the angles as well as different shapes and what makes up what in the images.

Fixing the shadow (living in the shadows)

The camera of obscura is a black box – you need darkness to see light i.e. chamber where there is a whole which allows light to enter from the outside. However light travels in a straight direction/line(law of physics) so therefore it makes the image upside and the reason you could argue that this wasn’t the origin of photography was because you couldn’t fix it and take it with you which is why the Frenchman and English man fixed this, for so many years this was the projection of real life (camera less photograph). A simple dark room with a hole in it, shining through some light is the closet way to a box which will end up reflecting the images upside down.

In 1839, Louie and henry “started photography” however this is problematic to state that the origin of photography was in this period as the camera of obscura box was happening 1000 years before henry and Louie – Frenchman and English man was able to fix it.

Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photographic process, widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. “Daguerreotype” also refers to an image created through this process.

Calotype or talbotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. Paper texture effects in calotype photography limit the ability of this early process to record low contrast details and textures

However the two processes made in 1983 which are daguerreotype and calotype have many similarities but also many differences i.e., both black and white with element’s of romanticism movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century. Henry fox Robert and Louie fixed this issue on metal and made it fixed as well as glass later on as a fixed photograph to reproduce images.

Conclusion

Photography started out as a cool science experiment, but it quickly became something way deeper. It can turn the everyday into something extraordinary

What’s awesome about photography is that it shows how things look while also changing how we see them.

At its core, photography is all about framing an image and figuring out how light, angles, and shapes come together. The camera obscura is a classic example: it’s basically a simple black box that uses darkness to let in light, creating upside-down images.

Daguerre came up with the daguerreotype in the 1840s, the first method that people could actually use to take pictures, while Talbot’s calotype, introduced in 1841, used paper coated with silver iodide to create softer images which made the images fixed.

St Helier Harbour:

Way before the 17th century, St Helier had no actual and decent harbour, although a map in 1545 says otherwise. It showed two stone piers in the area under Le Mont de la Ville, near where the South Pier is today.

The harbour was recorded to be constructed in the early 19th century where previously ships that came into town had only and small jetty at the site which is now called the English Harbour and the French harbour. The Chamber of Commerce urged the states assembly to build a new harbour however they refused so with the refusal, the Chamber took it into their own hands and paid to upgrade the harbour in 1790.

St Helier Harbour trip:

On Tuesday the 10th of September, we met at the Societe Jersiaise where we had a presentation for nearly 2 hours. In these two hours, we had a speaker talk to us about all the famous jersey photographers especially photographers who photographed the harbour and jersey harbours but specifically St Helier Harbour. The speaker showed us a variety of photos which were all produced by jersey photographers. The speaker also went on to describe how photography spawned in jersey and how jersey became an attraction to those who were in middle class who wanted to take pictures for a more cheaper price. After this we went on a walk around St Helier harbour and took a series of pictures of the harbour, making sure that recaptured different angles and perspectives. After the photography session, we had two speakers meet with us where they spoke about the St Helier harbour in more detail and how it all started.

Mood Board:

1500s:

John Cabot’s voyage of 1497 – Google

Newfoundland was discovered during the 15th century by John Cabot during his voyage in 1497, soon after in 1504 small Normal fishing boats visited the coasts of Newfoundland.

1600s:

During 1509-1547 the Spanish and French withdrew from Newfoundland after Henry VIII commenced trading there. By 1530 Jersey men had visited the coasts of Newfoundland and only 6 years later, in 1536 J Hore, and Londoner, established a colony in Newfoundland. Later on in 1562 the Channel Islands boats arrived on the Grand banks, a portion of the North American continental shelf in the Atlantic Ocean, lying southeast of Newfoundland.

During 1583, Newfoundland was taken over by Queen Elizabeth. Under 10 years later Jean Guillaume of Jersey obtained a licence to sail to Newfoundland from the Governor of Jersey. Upon Guillaume’s return he was fined 300 crowns by the Royal Court due to selling his cargo of fish at St Malo rather than Jersey. This is when the fishing industry commenced, as this was when the Governor of Jersey quoted that at the end of the sixteenth century islanders were saved from starvation by the arrival of a cargo of fish from the colony.

1700s:

Jersey’s involvement officially began in the start 17th century when Sir Ralegh obtained a ‘grant of application’ in Newfoundland, seamen from Jersey were then moved to begin a fishery in that area of the colony which Ralegh had been granted. As the Governor he not only motivated trade with Newfoundland but other locations too such as Virginia, New England states and the Caribbean Islands. These seamen battled the ocean to bring back cod fish and oil, skins, furs, sugar, tobacco, and more.

There were three families which are named as the “master traders”, d”Auvergne (St Ouen), Lemprierre (St Helier), Le Breton (Lily Langtry branch).

By 1611 St Brelade and other parishes had fishermen who sailed to Newfoundland, however by 1618, just 6 years later, the Privy Council had to order the Governor not to allow stores from the castles to be sold to the Newfoundland fishers, as the use of these stores was likely to risk the inhabitants in times of emergency. In 1625, on his way to Terre Neuve (Newfoundland), one of the master traders Captain Pierre d’Auvergne was captured by pirates and taken to Salé, where he was sold as a slave along with his shipmates.

1800s:

By the 18th century ships had been registered in Jersey after being built in North America and Newfoundland for the fishing trade. In 1740 a non-native Jerseyman, Captain David (Le Vavasseur dit), was recorded as trading between Newfoundland and Lisbon in his vessel ‘Tito’.

One year later, in 1741, the same vessel was sailed once again from Poole to Newfoundland. In 1744, he was a signatory in a petition to the Government of Newfoundland. His other vessel ‘Sally’ was recorded as sailing annually between Poole and Newfoundland as late as 1766, his fishery was located at Burnin: John Jean, Jersey Ships and Railways. In 1764 the youngest son of Philippe and Anne nee d’Auvergne, Charles Robin aged 21, of Robin Pipon and Co, sailed from Jersey in Seaflower, a 41 ton ship, as their agent. He did this to explore the possibility of establishing a fishery there.

From 1765 onwards the French and Quebec merchants moved away from the Gaspe coast which allowed Jersey firms to move the the more profitable fisheries off the Gaspe coast.

Robin Pipon and co established fishing posts as far north as Baie des Chaleurs, under the auspices of their kinsman, Charles Robin, for later on formed his own company in 1783, named ‘Charles Robin and co’. During 1790-1792 Charles Robin with eight vessels , including the largest one St Peter weighing 210 tons, this with Jerseys leading group of vessels with the Janvarins in second place.

1900s:

However by 1800, David Lee in The Robins in Gaspe, a book, stated that Robin only had four ships, which demonstrates the fluctuations in the fortune experienced in times of war, by those engaged in the fishing trade. Through the years 1766-1842 Jersey had profited by the British conquests in Canada and it almost transformed the Gaspe coast into a Jersey Colony. In the 1950s Clement and co became the last jersey company trading in Newfoundland.

Charles Robin:

Charles Robin is arguably one of the most important people in Jerseys fishing history. He was born in St Brelades during 1743 and by 1763 he was a captain of a ship working in the Newfoundland Cod Trade. In 1765 him and his two brothers and another two formed a firm which developed fishing grounds off Cape Breton Island and the Gaspe region. The company then sold dried cod to Portugal and Spain, and they sold salmon, furs, and timber to Quebec.

Coloring

The Harbour development –

Over the years, the harbour did develop a lot. From the 19th century to the 21st century, the size, technicality and involvement has changed dramatically as the roads and land grew near the harbour.

In the 19th Century the Old Harbour was constructed. The Chamber of Commerce urged the States Assembly to build a new harbour, but they refused, so the Chamber took it into their own hands and paid to upgrade the harbour in 1790. To shelter the jetty and harbour a new breakwater was constructed and in 1814 the merchants constructed the roads now known as Commercial Buildings and Le Quai des Marchand’s. They did this to connect the harbours to the town and in 1832 construction was finished on the Esplanade and its sea wall. In 1837, a rapid expansion in shipping led the States of Jersey to order the construction of two new piers: the Victoria and Albert Piers

Harbour trip –

St Helier Harbour is the main Harbour in Jersey. This harbour is used to dock Jersey citizens boats, as well as how Jersey citizens travel to and from the Island on the Condon Ferry. There are 3 marinas in St Helier Harbour, which are used for private yachts on pontoons and drying harbours for commercial shipping, with facilities including a dock for lift-on/lift-off cargo ships, roll-on/roll-off ferry berths and a tanker berth. This harbour is operated by Ports of Jersey, the operative government company.

Today, Ports of Jersey operates all entry and exit points to the island, including harbours and airport. They have plans to re-develop St Helier Harbour into a modern commercial maritime hub.

Currently this harbour is used for citizens to dock their boats and for cargo ships to leave and return with goods from other places around the world

Photoshoot 1 –

Photoshoot 2 –

Final photos chosen before editing –

Evaluation of chosen photos –

I chose to pick these photos because they all have very distinct colouring of either yellow and red. Due to some of the photos being taken around the harbour, yellow and red are the most prominent colours I saw so I thought that it would be nice for that to be the focal point of my photoshoot.

The photos used from the maritime museum I wanted to help dictate the history of the harbour so I thought that the two would work really well with each other to almost show a story of the harbour and the boats that reside in it now, and societies ago.

I thought that due to the fact that I haven’t really included colour in my previous shoots, I can make this one colour based.

Edits analysation –

For my edits, I want to group some photos together, the photos with prominent red colouring in them will be together, prominent yellow will stay together too and the photos with both red and yellow will be sperate from all others.

I want to mute all colours from photos that aren’t the prominent red or yellow colouring by making the back of the colour black and white.

Edit 1 –

To achieve this edit, I used the HUE dials, and muted all insufficient colours in the photo and with the red colour I wanted to keep, I saturated the colour to 100% making it a lot more prominent . I wanted to enhance the red in this photo due to the almost dominant power this boat clock holds. It is the focal point of St Helier harbour and is the first thing you see as you come through the tunnel on the way into town.

Edit 2 –

For this edit I did the exact same thing as edit 1, changed the hue and saturations and heightened any saturation I needed more prominent. The importance of the red in this photo is to show the danger and things that the island had to earn to have what it does. Since the harbour played a fair part in the occupation, and boating life of jersey, the red shows the hurt and the history of the harbour and the areas surrounding it making it a focal part of the liberation area and the surrounding harbours.

Edit 3 –

In this edit, I initially muted all colours apart from yellow to emphasize it, however I started to play around with the luminance of the colour and thought that if I enhance it, the colour will make the photo more eye-catching and intriguing for people who view it.

Edit 4 –

With this photo, I wanted to focus on the colour. Instead of muting them, I wanted to enhance them, the pictures in this photo show a history to out island and what was not only worked for but important to the society who live here. The colour brings the photo to life and helps show a story through them, even with minimal information to grasp.

Edit 5 –

For this edit, The colour editing proved quite difficult due to the orange and yellow hues on the floor and the boeys. I stuck with keeping the yellow hues in even through the floor seemed to interrupt the black and white overall vibe of the photo so more editing may be needed on this one. The boeys seem to be a very big part of seaman life throughout the years so I thought keeping them as the main colour could emphasize their importance.

Edit 6 –

This edit initially had a lot of yellow, green and red, but due to the hues in the background I decided to focus on the red and the view of the harbour. The view included some yellow, blue and green hues, which would have made it substantially more difficult to cancel out from the background. So, I stuck to red. Also increasing the clarity and texture, and tone of the picture.

Edit 7 –

This photo almost gave me eerie feel to it due to the well shown rule of thirds so I thought while still keeping the red colour in the photo, I made the texture and shadows quite prominent to keep the eerie feeling about it.

Edit 8 –

This photo, like the other, it has a scary eerie kind of feeling to it. I wanted the shadows to really be dramatic as well as the colour red to pop out a lot. The use of muting all the colours apart from red really helps to do this because that alone enhances the shadows and whites in the photo making the red really pop.

Edit 9 –

With this edit, I wanted to include some of the wildlife that you find in the harbour and around the fisheries that we saw. I wanted to still stick to the idea of muting all colours apart from one in particular, but with this one it seemed quite difficult. Because the colours in the original photo aren’t man made, like paint it was difficult to segregate the different hues of orange and red and yellow. I played around with each colour and decided to stick with red and see how it played out.

I also did focus on the shadows and brightness and leant towards having this photo more bright. I levelled out the shadows and highlights as much as I could, while still keeping the natural lights as well as natural shadows.

Edit 10 –

I loved the use of the border light in this photo and thought that enhancing that would make a really great focal point. I also muted all other colours apart from yellow due to the border light being a yellowy tinge. The colour yellow also depicts an aging feel to the photo and due to this photo showing a ancient boat which resided in the harbour years ago.

I enhanced shadows and highlights in this photo, and due to this photo being taken not at a front facing angle I decided to crop and move the photo slightly to give more of a face forward look.

Edit 11 –

These photos from the museum really all show the history of the boats and harbours but due to the ominous and spooky feeling of this photo, I decided to really focus on the shadows and the darkness of the photo, while still looking at segregating the colour yellow to give the photo a focal point. This could also show that the history of the harbour is not all good and positive, there were dark times and things that weren’t good that circled the harbour too.

I made the photo more clear and enhanced the texture to give the photo more of a realistic feel rather then a photo as well, this is to show that the history of the harbour did happen and should be taught and spoken about due to the importance it has on Jersey and it’s society.

Edit 12 –

This photo really looked at the spooky side too, the segregated red really shows a lot and the use of the enhanced shadows and almost deathly mood this photo sets, shows the amount of deaths that surrounds the fishing and boating society even up to this day and age, its a way of remembering and understanding.

Edit 13 –

This photo has the same editing idea of edit 10. The use of using yellow as the depicted colour works so well due to the gold/yellow tinge that the lights let off. I thought the use of shadows and highlights being extenuated worked so well for the eerie ominous feel this photo lets off.

I took a total of 468 photos from the St Helier Harbour Trip we went one, I took a lot of photos slowly angling from left to right, or from one side to the other, so after when I open Lightroom, because they are so similar just slightly adjusted I can merge them together and it will work perfectly like this photo for example.

I used these photos to create this panorama, the easiest way to create a panorama is to start on one side of the subject, and whilst trying to keep the height the same, slowly glide the camera to the opposite side, taking multiple photos.

St Helier Harbour

St Helier Harbour is the main Harbour in Jersey. This harbour is used to dock Jersey citizens boats, as well as how Jersey citizens travel to and from the Island on the Condon Ferry. There are 3 marinas in St Helier Harbour, which are used for private yachts on pontoons and drying harbours for commercial shipping, with facilities including a dock for lift-on/lift-off cargo ships, roll-on/roll-off ferry berths and a tanker berth. This harbour is operated by Ports of Jersey, the operative government company.

A Berth- A designated area where a vessel may be moored, typically for unloading and loading, assigned by an authority – in this example, Ports of Jersey.

The harbour gains its name from the 6th-century ascetic hermit from Belgium, Helier (Helierius).

The Old Harbour

This area is known as the Old Harbour, because it was the English and French Harbour with berths for over 500 motorboats and sailing yachts used for leisurely purposes. This resulted in the boats being able to dry out on the mud below, when it was low tide. Down here is where South pier and, the abandoned pub, La Folie Inn, are and have become an area in which marine engineers are working for South Pier Marina and St Helier Yacht club. Back in 1790, this was only a small jetty at the side of the island where ships coming into the island could go.

Construction

In the 19th Century the Old Harbour was constructed. The Chamber of Commerce urged the States Assembly to build a new harbour, but they refused, so the Chamber took it into their own hands and paid to upgrade the harbour in 1790. To shelter the jetty and harbour a new breakwater was constructed and in 1814 the merchants constructed the roads now known as Commercial Buildings and Le Quai des Marchands. They did this to connect the harbours to the town and in 1832 construction was finished on the Esplanade and its sea wall. In 1837, a rapid expansion in shipping led the States of Jersey to order the construction of two new piers: the Victoria and Albert Piers.

The Main Harbour

The main harbour provides deep water berths for commercial vessels alongside the Victoria Quay and New North Quay.

Today, Ports of Jersey operates all entry and exit points to the island, including harbours and airport. They have plans to re-develop St Helier Harbour into a modern commercial maritime hub.

Currently this harbour is used for citizens to dock their boats and for cargo ships to leave and return with goods from other places around the world.

Elizabeth Harbour

The Elizabeth Harbour consists of a ferry terminal, two roll-on/roll-off ferry berths and a trailer park for shipping containers. This Harbour is also used to travel to Poole, Guernsey, and St Malo, traditional ferries to Saint-Malo, Guernsey and Portsmouth and foot passenger ferries to Granville, Barneville-Carteret and Sark.

Involved within this are three marinas known as:

• The La Collette Yacht Basin,
• The Saint Helier Marina (built in 1980),
• The Elizabeth Marina,

Out of all of these, The La Collette Yacht Basin is the only one which provides non-tidal, 24-hour access to the sea, leading it to be home to Jersey’s commercial fishing community.

Development of the Harbour