Journal
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Landscape Photography
Landscape Photography is where someone captures spaces in the world. These photos can range from capturing a vast area to a microscopic part of an area, typically capturing nature, as well as also possibly focusing on human-made features within a landscape.
In this project I intend to document my family holiday. I don't want my photos to looks like typical tourist photographs, I want to explore certain aspects of that place in a way a regular tourist wouldn't.
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Research
Valda Bailey
Valda Bailey uses a variety of techniques to create blurs and abstract details on top of her photographs. She uses her camera to build layers, rambling through shape and colour, light and shad, and rhythm and flow. Her influences come from the worlds of Abstract Expressionism and Surrealism, as well as being interested in contrasting manners and how they play in the world around her. I especially like how she layers several images together, creating chaotically interesting pieces of work. I also really like how she uses contrasting colours within the images used to layer, which I think make features of the photograph stand out which wouldn't necessarily on its own.
When I edit my own images, I want to experiment with similar techniques she uses, layering a bright photograph on top of a more subtle images, hopefully creating the same double exposure images she creates. As well as this, I also want to try experimenting with layering different colours to make certain aspects of my edits stand out.
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Peter Eastway
Peter Eastway is an Australian photographer who is best known for his landscape photography and use of post-production. His early landscape work was shot in black and white where he converted to digital photography, taking a leading role in creating high quality images. I really like how his most recent pieces of work have a sharp finish to them, I feel like this makes certain aspects of the scenery he photographs stand out more. As well as this, I also like how he photographs quite dramatic landscapes, I think it pairs nicely with the sharpness of each photograph.
When I create my own photographs, I also want to aim to capture dramatic landscapes and scenes, bringing them into photoshop to sharpen the photographs to hopefully highlight the dramatic aspect of that image.
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Photoshoot
I took these photos whilst I was on holiday in the Maldives, where I aimed to capture certain parts of the landscape a regular tourist possibly wouldn't capture. As well as capturing areas of the island, including the beach, ocean and palm trees, I also attempted to capture the islands in the distance and the waves crashing against the rocks on one part of the island. I tried to capture two different times in the day, midday and the evening so I could show how the landscape differed at those two times. I really enjoyed taking these images because I was able to experience a dramatically different landscape that I was used to, as well as encountering different animals I had never seen in the wild before, like fruit bats, sharks, hermit crabs etc...
I brought 3 different lenses with me on this trip, my 118mm-300mm lens, 18mm-55mm lens and my fixed 50mm lens, where I only used my fixed lens and 18mm-55mm lens. I decided to only use those two because I didn't want to primarily focus on small bits of the landscape, rather I want to capture the landscape as a whole, only zooming into animals that lived in the landscape. As well as this, I also experimented with changing my shutter speed and aperture value to achieve different exposures.
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Edits
I created this edit inspired by Valda Bailey's work and how she uses double exposure to make her photographs have more layers and look more visually interesting. I attempted to do something similar with my edit where I layered 2 of my photographs together, editing both layers to have a sort of hazy colour to them. I quite like how my edit has interesting colours going on it in, likewise with Baileys work, however I don't like how the sun sits on top of the second layer, it seems messy and out of place. Despite this, I do really like the variety of colours within the edit, but if I were to make any changes I would've made the sun's layers more subtle so it would hopefully not look as out of place.
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I created these edits inspired by Peter Eastways work, I really like how his photographs were defined and sharp. To achieve a similar result I used the 'curves' tool to define the dark and light areas, making the contrasts sharper. Next, I used the colour balance tool to enhance the existing colours, making the blues stand out to create a beachy feel. I really like how these edits turned out because I feel as if they reflect my trip to the Maldives the best, as well as showing different aspects of where I stayed without it feeling too 'touristy'.
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Evaluation
During this project, I researched two photographers prior to leaving for my trip, where I attempted to take photos inspired by both of them. Despite only doing one photoshoot, I attempted to take as many photographs as possible, capturing many aspects of the island I stayed at without it feeling too 'touristy'. When editing the images, I took inspiration from Valda Baileys work to layer two of my photos together to create a double exposure edit. Even though I'm not happy with how the edit turned out, I am happy that I did it because it allowed me to experiment with how else I can use my photographs. Next, I created several edits inspired by Peter Eastways work, where I only used 'curves' and 'colour balance' to enhance and sharpen my photos. By exploring two different photographers, I was able to experiment with the same images in two different ways.
Overall, I am very happy with how Landscape Photography turned out because I was able to experiment with those images in different ways, as well as capturing a place in a slightly different way to how other possible capture that landscape. If I were to have more time with this project, I would research more photographers so I could experiment with those images in different ways, as well as possibly capturing a landscape that is closer to my home.
