Our school did a trip around the St Helier harbours. A tour guide that explained some of the things I talked about in previous blog posts in more detail, which I added later on to those blog posts. My goal for this photoshoot was to capture the present harbours and compare them to what the harbours use to look like. We got handed photos on our tour at certain locations, showing how the area use to look like which was very interesting. I also learned about this photographer from France who takes photos of boat textures, which looks like abstract art on a canvas.
Here is some edited photos from my photoshoot:
For the first image I increased the saturation and contrast slightly, and aligned the subject to the middle. For the second Image I cropped towards his face more since it looks very sailor like, as well as creating a B&W image that I like.
For this photo I noticed that the background noise distracts from the subjects, so to combat this I used a radial filter around the subjects on Lightroom, then decreased the sharpening around the filter, as well as decreasing the exposure.
Here I just increased the saturation and changed some of the highlight settings, I cropped it so the boat is on the rule of thirds, so the eyes naturally go towards the people in the boat.
The left is my photo, and the right is a comparison from the mid 20th century, after the pier was built. As you can see nothing much has changed. One thing I did notice was how there are just less people around, this may be because we where doing shots while people where at work, however this contrast of people to no people does make our current time seem less exciting.
Above is a some more abstract photos towards the end of the pier.
Above I took a photo of the steam clock around new north quarry. I took 8 photos each at different angles giving this topology.
These photos are some inspiration for photos to take when we go on our trip to St Helier Harbour. I would like to incorporate a lot of industrial components into this first photoshoot, and take more photos of historical elements in my next photoshoot.
The Three Main Harbours of Jersey:
–La Collette Yacht Basin.
–Saint Helier Marina.
–Elizabeth Marina.
Harbour History.
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.
Edited Photos.
Edits.
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Whilst visiting Elizabeth Marina, La Collette Yacht Basin and Saint Helier Marina I attempted to get many pictures from different angles in order to replicate images when editing. I decided to go on a bright sunny day in order to capture the blue sky and shimmering water.
I decided to select these 4 images and convert them to both edited to be bright and colourful and also in black and white. I have also displayed a side by side comparison of both to decide which edit is more effective per image.
Edits and Experimentation.
Digital camera style editing inspiration.
For these images, I focused on editing these photos to look like they are taken in different eras such as the 40s- the 80s with a variety of cameras. Some have an older look by being more low quality and discoloured, some have a brown tint to them to look older and some have a more greenish tint to them to create a 90s style vibe to them. I particularly enjoyed editing these photos to give a 90s/ digital camera style as I am new to interpreting an older picture using Adobe Lightroom however I enjoyed experimenting with different filters etc.
My attempt.
Here is an example of the camera settings I used to create a digital camera interpretation.
Comparisons:
St Helier Harbour at night Jersey Victorian period.
My Edited Image.
This image I have attempted to replicate an old photograph of St Helier Harbour. I chose a photo which is similar which includes a combination of boats and buildings. However, I struggled to give my image a low quality, old feel to it. Although the brownish tint is similar I could not make the objects as defined and low quality than I would’ve liked.
Google Image.
My Image.
I particularly like this comparison as I tried to add a very very small blueish tint to this black and white photograph to make it slightly different than plain black and white.
At first glance, I was disappointed at a mark on my lens creating a few black dots on my photograph, but after editing my image I feel it adds an older, authentic and low quality feel to my photograph and has make it look more effective.
My Image.
Google Image.
For this image, I decided to recreate an up-to-date image from the present time. This photo was the easiest to edit and interpret as I only increased the vibrance and made the image sharper as the photo is used for promoting Jersey so the colours are sharper and brighter.
Overall, this first photoshoot was successful to photograph and edit photos. Although for my 2nd photoshoot of St Helier Harbours, I hope to incorporate more photos capturing beaches, people and the production of seafood.
For this second photoshoot, I explored both the museum and around the industrial sector which was largely different to the old pier. I took 700+ images this time as I found it more interesting.
I split these into 3 sections: People, industrial and the museum.
In the museum I learned about many of the myths and urban legends such as:
Lé Tchian du Bouôlay. This is a man wolf which resembles a massive black dog with large eyes. He was known to follow pedestrians before a storm and so acted a warning to fishermen.
Contact Sheet and Selection
Edits
1
2
Combining all of my images in total, I decided that these were my best:
“Photography can turn something ordinary into the extraordinary”. Meudon, a famous photographer from the early 20th centry, has some very good examples to explain this quote. He would find a place witha nice composition (the ordinary), then wait for a story to be performed, so he can capture that moment (the decisive moment). By waiting for an interesting moment to be captured, he has turned the ordinary to the extraordinary. Below is an example:
The beginning – camera obscura
Photography in a certain sense has been around for almost 1000 years through a process called camera obscura (simply means dark room). It is the natural phenomenon in which the rays of light passing through a small hole (also known as the aperture) into a dark space form an image where they strike a surface, resulting in an inverted (upside down) and reversed (left to right) projection of the view outside.
It was often used as a drawing aid, used by the likes of leonardo davinci for example.
it allowed tracing the projected image to produce a highly accurate representation, and was especially appreciated as an easy way to achieve proper graphical perspective.
capturing the light
In the early 18th century, scientists found a certain silver salt that becomes darker from light exposure. However, they could not keep it from turning all black after they took it out the camera obscura.
The first ever photo was taken in the 1820s using a discovery made by Joseph Nicephore Niepce using asphalt and different solvents. Its a simple view from a window:
Nyep’s experiments further was an advanced version of Nicephore experiments and his camera design was used to create the first ever camera. This kick started the photography and allowed it to become what it is today.
first ever camera
Talbot further advanced the camera. He was not very good artist but needed to be for many of his hobbies. he switched photo drawing process from silver chloride to silver iodide. He then experimented with different solutions allowing him to create a photographic negative. With this photographic negative photo the same photo can now be produced many times after some exposure to light with the negative image underneath. This is called the positive negative process. This is what a negative image looks like:
Photography shaped the way we remember things, making it a very important cultural change. Early photography showed the truth in photos.
This photoshoot started at the Maritime Museum and then proceeded towards the fisheries and harbour around La Collette.
Analysis
Overall, I think I had a successful photoshoot. I’ve decided to analyse this image because it links well with the story I want to tell.
I really like the outcome of this image because of it’s general composition and low angled shot making the image look more dynamic and much more interesting. I also really like how dramatic and somewhat angelic it looks because of the natural lighting which helps intensify the various textures and forms within the item rack.
Although I believe it was a good photoshoot I think I could have further explored more areas in the harbour, such as Elizabeth harbour, in order to properly show how the whole harbour has changed. I could have also tried to build up more courage to take photos of more people at work.
Just like the first photoshoot, I have carried on relating back to my inspiration Ansel Adams because I believe his work is very good at creating or telling a story, which is what I am trying to achieve, as well as having a really powerful style of creating images that create a sense of drama. I had also attempted to capture decisive moments like Henri Cartier-Bresson through people who work within the marinas to also tell a story.
I plan to create a zine with my best images from both of my photoshoots and present them in a way that tells a story or shows a linear series of going further into the marina and how much change it has gone through. I will first create some layout designs on InDesign and then start printing out my images in order to make a physical copy of it.
these photos are rated 1-2 stars because they didn’t meet the criteria of what I needed to accomplish inn terms of the quality of the photo itself or what the image its self consisted of.
photos rated 3-4 stars
these photos I believe are rated 3-4 stars because it has some of the criteria that is needed for project but is missing somethings that I would consider for the photos to be 5 stars. for the most part I would say the photos are missing the quality of the image or it doesn’t project the idea of the difference between the modern day harbour and the original harbour.
photos rated 5 stars
these eight photos are what I believe to be the best photos I took on this trip to the harbour as I think it captured what the harbours about as it shows how the modern day harbour works in comparison to the 1800s
Edited images
evaluation
overall I believe that I got a good set of images on the trip to the harbour as they capture the history of the harbour but also capture the changes and how its changed over the years of the harbour. However for next time I would prioritise getting more images of higher quality as I think I missed out on some images that could have been better due to the quality of the image.
We went to the maritime museum, taking photos of all of the history and facts from the boats and ships from the past and a lot of photos from the St Helier Harbour, showcasing fish such as crabs, lobsters and even a special lobster the fisherman brought out for us.
Here are some photos that are my favourite that I have taken and started to edit.
These photos are based around the harbour and the lobsters the fisherman caught. The man then let us take photos of him in his working environment with firstly his cafeteria with his dogs and work colleges, and then him lifting out a big lobster from the back-top to show to all of us and put it on the floor.
I took these photos of these old-fashioned, (some new) boats either being stored just waiting to enter the sea. Or, some boats being worked on as you see in the last photo, with a man sanding/drilling the bottom of it, potentially drilling holes or drilling something off of it.
These are some photos I really like with the B/W filter on top of it to create a dark/old style to them.
I like how the 3 faces are looking into the camera with a little grin/smile with the dog eyes peeking at the camera too. The men were in the back of the harbour which made it feel very sketchy with two blokes sat talking to each other with one on a bike with a dog on a seat.
These are some photos I have brought the saturation down and only shown the main colours of the photos, for example, the boots on the door, the door and window frames are all this orange/red colour, so I made everything else Black and white and brought out that colour a little more than standard.
The man moving the fish from the boxes into little plastic clear bags, I made the 3 bright lime green boxes stand out, but, I also wanted the mans boots and glove to be brought out as the lime green/orange is a nice opposite blend of colours that pops.
I felt that the mans apron was the main part of this photo for me, as the fish weren’t very colourful/bright, and that is the centre stage object/clothing. So, as I brought out the darkish-blue, I also saw that the air-con behind him was the same colour so I left that still blue to give the photo some front colour and back colour.
For the next photo, I saw the big pillar on the left side of the photo and knew, that this had to be the main coloured-part of the photo. So, I made everything else B/W but I saw this little barrel next to it and had to keep that with the navy blue to add a little clash of the colours.
Texts > Write a short introduction or statement about your picture story, image captions
Typography > creative uses of words, letters, font-types, sizes
Camera Obscura & Pinhole photography:
Photography captures a moment from time and fixes it in place. Photography did not just appear one day, it took years for photography to become a known art. It emerged experimentally through Camera Obscura. The earliest known written account of a camera obscura was provided by a Chinese philosopher called Mo-tzu (or Mozi) in 400BC. He noted that light from an illuminated object that passed through a pinhole into a dark room created an inverted image of the original object. Several other scientists experimented with light passing through a small hole, but it wasn’t until the 11th century that a viewing screen was used to see the inverted image. Alhazen (or Ibn al-Haytham) is said to have actually invented the camera obscura, as well as the pinhole camera which is based on the same idea. He carried out experiments with candles and described how the image is formed by rays of light travelling in straight lines.
What is Camera Obscura?
Camera Obscura is a natural and visual optical phenomenon, where the rays of light passing through a small hole into a dark space form an image where they strike a surface, resulting in an inverted and reversed projection of the view from outside.
People believe that photography was invented in 1839, but camera obscura was used before this time.
Photo example of Camera Obscura:
Nicephore Niepce & Heliography
What is Heliography?
Heliography is an early photographic process producing a photoengraving on a metal plate coated with certain chemicals to achieve the positive and negative tones. It was invented by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce around 1822.
Nicéphore Niépce began experiments with the aim of achieving a photo-etched printmaking technique in 1811. By 1822, he had made the very first light-resistant heliographic copy of an engraving, made without a lens by placing the print in contact with the light-sensitive plate. In 1826, he increasingly used pewter plates because their reflective surface made the image more clearly visible. In 1827, he then produced the very first photograph.
Experimentation:
Niépce knew that the acid-resistant Bitumen of Judea used in etching hardened with exposure to light. In experiments he coated it on plates of glass, zinc, copper and silver-surfaced copper, pewter and limestone, and found the surface exposed to the most light resisted dissolution in oil of lavender and petroleum, so that the uncoated shadow areas might be traditionally treated through acid etching and aquatint to print black ink.
Photo example of Heliography:
Louis Daguerre & Daguerreotype
What is a Daguerreotype?
Daguerreotype is said to be the first commercially successful photographic process (1839-1860) in the history of photography, created by the inventor Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. The daguerreotype is accurate, detailed and sharp. It is very delicate because it has a mirror-like surface. Each Daguerreotype is a unique image on a silver coppered plate. This photographic process was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s.
Experimentation:
To make the image, the base is a sheet of silver-plated copper polished to a mirror finish. Then it was treated with fumes that made its surface light-sensitive, exposed it in a camera for as long as was judged to be necessary; which could be as little as a few seconds for brightly sunlit subjects or much longer with less intense lighting. The resulting image on it was made visible by fuming it with iodine vapours which formed a silver-iodine surface to the plate. The plate is then exposed to light transmitted through a lens, once exposed the plate was removed and exposed to vapours from heated mercury, only then would the image form. Then it’s sealed behind glass in a protective enclosure as the Daguerreotype is very fragile. The image will appear either positive or negative, depending on the angle at which it is viewed, how it is lit and whether a light or dark background is being reflected in the metal.
Photo example:
Henry Fox Talbot & Calotype
Henry Fox Talbot and Louis Daguerre fixed shadows
William Henry Fox Talbot was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries. Talbot was best known as the British inventor of photography and in 1834 he discovered how to make and fix images through the action of light and chemistry on paper.
What is a Calotype?
Calotype is a photographic process introduced in 1841 where negatives were made using paper coated with silver iodide. It produces a monochrome, blue coloured print on a range of supports, often used for art, and for reprography in the form of blueprints.
Photo example:
Robert Cornelius & self-portraiture
Robert Cornelius, an American photographer and pioneer in the history of photography, was said to be the first person to produce a self-portrait.
Around October 1839, Cornelius improvised a camera obscura and made his first daguerreotype, a self-portrait outside of his family store. The image required him to pose still for 10 to 15 minutes and has survived. Other early images of his family made by Cornelius have not been preserved. His self-portrait is generally accepted as the first known photographic portrait of a person taken in the United States.
Photo example:
Julia Margaret Cameron & Pictorialism
Julia Margaret Cameron is regarded as one of Britain’s foremost photographers and one of the leading portraitists of the 19th century. She is known for her soft-focus close-ups of famous Victorians and for illustrative images depicting characters from mythology, Christianity, and literature.
Julia Margaret Cameron was born in 1815 into a wealthy, highly cultured, and well-educated family. Cameron went to school mostly in France, and her education was well rounded, but not focused on fine art.
In 1841, one of Cameron’s most important friend sent her some “Talbotypes”, early examples of photographs by Henry Fox Talbot. This influenced Cameron into starting photography. Cameron was given her first sliding box camera as a Christmas present from her daughter, Julia, in 1863. Cameron quickly devoted herself to photography and within a month of receiving her first camera, she made the photograph that she called her ‘first success’. The photograph is a portrait of Annie Philpot, the daughter of a family staying in the Isle of Wight where Cameron lived.
From this, she quickly moved on to photographing family and friends for experimentation. Cameron worked quickly and diligently preparing photographs with new equipment. These early portraits reveal how she experimented with soft focus, dramatic lighting and close-up compositions, features that would become her signature style. Cameron embraced the ambiguity around her portraits and cultivated it intentionally, making her a forerunner to the Pictorialist photographers
Pictorialism:
Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Typically, a pictorial photograph appears to lack a sharp focus, is printed in one or more colors other than black-and-white and may have visible brush strokes or other manipulation of the surface.
Henry Mullins & Carte-de-Visit
Henry Mullins was a highly successful photographer, and was by far the most prolific of the first generation of Jersey photographers in the mid-nineteenth century. He moved to Jersey in July 1848 and set up a studio known as the Royal Saloon, at 7 Royal Square.
Henry Mullins was by far the most prolific of the first generation of Jersey photographers in the mid-nineteenth century. He produced thousands of portraits of islanders between 1848 and 1873. While numerous photographic studios opened across the town of St Helier in the 1850s and 1860s Henry Mullins continued to be the photographer of choice for leading members of Jersey society and successful local and immigrant families.
Mullins started to create ‘Cartes de visite’ (visiting cards). They consist of a print stuck to a card mount of about 4 ⅛” x 2 ½” in size. Carte de Visites were traded among Victorians and were so small that they could fit in your pocket.
St Helier Harbour is the main Harbour of Jersey and it is located on the south coast. Here are some maps of St Helier Harbour showing how it has developed over time:
St Helier Harbour in 1790, consisting of one small pier, also known as the Old English and French Harbour.
1834 map, including New North Quay Pier.
1898, Albert Pier and Victoria Pier were built.
Current Map
Development of St Helier Harbour
The Old English and French Harbours were the first parts of St Helier Harbour. The Old Harbour originally consisted of just a jetty until it was upgraded with a new breakwater in 1790, New North Quay.
Coal Delivery on New North Quay
In 1814, the merchants constructed roads to connect the harbour to town. These roads are now known as Commercial Buildings and Le Quai des Marchands. The Old Harbour also includes South Pier and the abandoned pub, La Folie Inn.
La Folie Inn
Due to the growth in Jersey’s fishing fleet, work commenced on the new South Pier in 1841, which was later named Victoria Pier, following Queen Victoria’s visit to the Island. This pier was completed in 1846 and it now is home to fish wholesalers such as Fresh Fish Company and Aquamarine Fisheries.
The following year, they had began work on Albert Pier.
Albert Pier
Albert Pier was originally a ferry terminal due to its deep water berths, however, it has now been re-developed to berths for large vessels and yachts and the ferry terminal is now located at Elizabeth Harbour. This Harbour was constructed in the late 1980s on reclaimed land and the terminal was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on the 25th of May 1989.
Elizabeth Harbour Terminal and trailer park
There are now three main Marinas at St Helier Harbour:
La Colette Yacht Basin
La Colette Marina
This Marina is home to Jersey’s commercial fishing fleet and it is the only one of the three marinas to provide non-tidal, 24-hour access to the sea.
St Helier Marina
St Helier Marina in 2012
St Helier Marina, constructed in 1980, is mostly used for berthing private yachts. To the west of this Marina is Albert Pier and to the East is New North Way, home to Jersey’s Maritime Museum.
Jersey’s Maritime Museum and St Helier Marina.
This Marina has been the venue for the annual Jersey Boat Show since 2008.
Elizabeth Marina
Elizabeth Marina
Elizabeth Marina is the newest of Jersey’s Marinas. Work began to construct this Marina in 1996 and it was completed 2 years later. This Marina has 600 berths and was constructed on reclaimed land. This area also includes Jardins de la Mer, La Frigate Cafe, the Waterfront Car Park, the Radisson Blu Hotel, Castle Quay and a Leisure and Pool complex.
