I have written in full about both of these under my exhibitions tab on this blog.
I have purchased a book called ... Jean Howard's Hollywood - A photo Memoir. It was recommended on the TV, the pictures look great but I have only flicked through - I shall be looking at this in great depth soon. (hopefully)..
Crufts Link..... Crufts Pro shots
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PEOPLE AND PLACE, ON ASSIGNMENT
Professional photography is performed to order, to deliver results for a client. Here we have to take our photographs with a client in mind, to produce a body of work that is required.
Subject - People and / or the places they inhabit.
Client - Newspaper
Magazine
Text Book
Publisher
Advertising
TV Graphcs
Purpose of Assignment - Educational
Informative
Promotional
How will these images be used : to illustrate a story, or to sell a product.
Basic Brief : What your client might want.
Write a brief to refer back to ... then produce 8 - 12 photos with a short written assessment.
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When I was looking ahead at this project I had in mind the Butterfly Park at St Albans. I thought it would be colourful, butterflies, flowers, children etc.. It could have been educational or Advertising.
However, its winter, and its shut !
Along with the Henry Moore foundation in Much Hadham, open again in April, so my plans we scuppered, these will be put on hold for another occasion.
My winter possibilities are ..
Colchester/Whipsnade/ London Zoo
Crufts
Olympic Walks 2012
The weather is driving me mad, on the days I have been able to go the weather has gone against me. The Zoo was one option but I wasn't sure how busy it would be in the winter and in school time, but they are always open so there must be a certain level of activity, enough to produce some photos.
Crufts - well this still is an option as I am going on Sunday and will take enough photos as if I were doing the project as see what comes of it. The only problem is that there is no going back for retakes, but this is the case for a lot of events. It doesn't mean you don't take the photos. I suppose I will just take more to over compensate. And as a professional photographer you too would only have this one chance to get the require pictures. I will take them as a promotional / advertising as see what I produce.
My main choice is of the Olympic Walks. I was going today but got completely rained off,.. I shall try and stay calm.
I wanted to make a promotional / advertising brochure for the tours/ walks/talks. At this stage though I'm not sure what I will find. Obviously, I know it is of the various olympic sites but I don't know how far away from the sites we will be and if we will be behind chicken wire etc.. In my mind I know what I will be looking for. I want fairly close shops of the buildings, showing the architecture and shapes.
The assignment is for people and place, so I need 'people' and I'm not sure yet how they will fit into my photos. Again I have ideas of what I would like but it will be a case of taking pictures of what is available on the day.
Things are never as you anticipate so I will have to test the water and see.
There are a number of walks so it might be a matter of going on a few until I find what I am looking for. Then revisiting on my own, if thats possible. Im not sure what, if any, access problems there might be. It does say on the web site that some pathways may close due to unexpected building changes.
Also, I need some literature to go with my photos, so Im hoping that they have some printed info so I don't have to take notes... have enough trouble trying to manage the camera.
Im looking forward to taking photos of something different, and hope I'm not disappointed - I'm hoping and expecting, to have lots of opportunities. I hope they are there for me...
Client - Olympic Walks 2012
Advertising
Brochure to accompany the walk
Purpose - Promotional / maybe educational
The client will want a range of shots to show the extent of the walks, encouraging others to attend.
Ideas : Start points
End points
Various Stadium / buildings
Blue Badge Tourist Guides
Construction sites
Security ?
I will want to put a set of photos together that will firstly grab your interest, ... then lead you to wanting more, and making you want to visit the site for yourselves.
Weather forecast better tomorrow.... it better be..................
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WELCOME TO OLYMPIC WALKS
You will be welcomed by one of our Blue badge Guides who will take your money at the meeting point, unless you have already paid online.
This is the victorian sewage works, a beautiful building, Abbey Mills Pumping Station, built in 1865. Obviously an important part of the olympic project, the new sewage pipes, two kilometres, will be under the green walk, which is the final part of the walk but the will lead to this building. There is now a new Pumping station but this building remains.
ISO 400 55mm f16 1/500
Here we have a memorial of two clasping hands. It has replaced a cross which was vandalised. The story it signifies is of four men who were working on the sewer. The first man went down and was over come by fumes, and died.. the second man worried for his co worker went down to find him. The same thing happened, he was over come with fumes, and died. This happened four times before they realised what was going on. It was a tragedy. This symbolises the men trying to help each other from the sewer.
lets hope this survives vandalism.
ISO 400 31mm f18 1/500
The whole area has been completely revamped and the parkland areas have transformed Stratford. Here we have granite table tennis tables, which are vandal proof - possibly !!! What a great idea, table tennis is a simple sport but great fun and anyone can play. Hopefully these table are used for their intended use, Maybe produce a future champion, which is what it is all about.
A riverside London 2012 Garden stretches for half a mile between the Aquatics Centre and the olympic stadium, featuring 120,000 plants from 250 species across the world. The parklands will be a haven for wildlife. 4,000 newts are going to be relocated from the olympic park to the waterworks nature reserve.
ISO 400 34mm f 16 1/400
ISO 400 28mm f 14 1/320
The waterways have been dramatically cleaned - with ongoing works - to get the rivers back to a safe and desirable standard. Already wildlife is returning to the waterways. The rivers are now a more pleasurable place to be - above are the houseboats that people live on. All of the area is being regenerated, Tesco and Ikea are both involved in developing housing in the area, which is still in the very early stages, and will continue on long after the Olympics is over.
ISO 400 55mm f11 1/250
The area is of interest to all, especially children from local schools who are lucky enough to see the ongoing development, making the Olympics more exciting for them. Hopefully they will be able to use the facilities when they are older to become our future athletes - lets hope it inspires them.
ISO 400 49mm f 14 1/320
Development is ongoing ..... lets hope its finished in time ...... not long to go now !!!
ISO 400 55mm f 14 1/400
Here is the impressive Olympic Stadium, with a plan / map of the area in the foreground. The whole of the top of this building is removable, if we hadn't found a use for this stadium then it could have been taken to pieces and used for another venue or the next olympics. The centre piece of the games, the 53m high olympic stadium, has an 80,000 seat capacity, which will be reduced to 25,000 afterwards. The building you can see here doesn't have any toilets !! The only one toilet is for the Queen.. all facilities and refreshments will be at the base
otherwise the building would have had to have been a lot bigger allowing for toilets / refreshments / people queueing etc.. Also the tickets are sold in two hour slots so go beforehand. The main food contractor is McDonalds.
ISO 400 18mm f 14 1/500
This red steel construction is not a roller coaster but a viewing platform, The Orbit. It was designed by Ariah Kapoor and structural designer Cecil Balmond. The tangled steel lattice incorporates the olympic rings, it has been built with 1,500 tonnes of steel. During the games it will be used for VIPs and corporate functions. After the games the public will be able to go up the tower to view the Olympic park, it is expected to attract a million visitors a year. However, there is a lift up, but you have to walk down the spiral staircase, about 700 people an hour will be able to go up it.
This is as tall as the Statue of Liberty, USA !!!, 22.7m.
ISO 400 47mm f 20 1/500
There are various stadia some of which are temporary, like the waterpolo. The swimming is permanent but has extra seating which will be removed after the games. There is a media centre which has no windows so that broadcasting can happen to various countries and the presenters stay in their countries time zone, it is 29,000 sq feet. Also there is housing for all the athletes and restaurants producing 15,000 meals three times a day, the dining room is the size of three football pitches and seats 5,000. The Velodrome is permanent and in the 35m high Basketball Arena all the doorways are over 8 feet high.
ISO 400 24mm f 14 1/500
Finally just one stop on the DLR from Pudding Mill Lane back to Stratford International you will find yourself at Westfield Shopping Centre. This is going to be the entrance to the Games. If you go to the Olympic gift shop on the third floor of John Lewis, there is a viewing window where you can see the olympic site from another angle.
ISO 400 22mm f 11 1/320
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I was happy with my final choices and I think explains the walk well or should I say compliments the walk as an informative brochure.
I didn't come across too many problems. There isn't any one taking any notice of you as everyone has a camera and want to take pictures. There wasn't any security issues and I suppose the only problem if any was that you couldn't get really close, to maybe get a more exciting view, or different aspect to the norm. The weather was on my side and buildings always look better against a glorious blue sky.
Because I knew the area I didn't have too many surprises, it was mainly what I had planned in my mind. Some of the shots didn't come off, but that always seems to happen.
I did also go to crufts and took a variety of pictures, although they were not as good as I had planned. Some of them I may use at a later date, but not for this exercise. I have written below my experience.
MY CRUFTS EXPERIENCE
I have taken a set of photographs from Crufts yesterday but decided against using them on this occasion.
Here I found it difficult to concentrate on the task in hand. As always these shows are very busy but I found myself getting distracted, taking pictures of things I liked instead of what was required. I could have taken just pictures of all the lovely dogs and nothing else. I felt myself competing for space with some professional photographers - who had a challenge to perform - but mainly with children and adults who all want the same cute shot as I do. You have to hustle for space and then line up your shot for someone to block your view. The whole pace of the environment is very quick and lots of bustle. A little frustrating if you have an idea of what you would like to take, your planning seems to go up in smoke. I then had a lot of dog pictures - which although was the main subject - would need a bit more variety for a publication.
I have just looked on the internet and the crufts images there are exactly what I had in mind but didn't produce. ( See CRUFTS link above ).... some of mine were similar but just not as good. I noticed they have used a telephoto lens. I had not taken mine as I thought it might be too busy with people getting in the way of the shot, but I should have taken it with me, my error.
The good thing about Crufts is that you are expected to take photos - everyone is - and people do not get annoyed with you, many are proud of their animals and want you to take pictures.
Another difficulty is it is all flash and you have interior lighting to consider and reflections. The flash itself caused me a couple of focus problems - so I should have gone armed with long lens and flash gun. Also I noticed the light has caught the dogs eyes in a number of pictures.
Even though I haven't used this set of photographs I have learnt a lot, with light, distractions, fidgeting dogs and children, how my emotions were affected taking you off your intended track. I needed to stay focused as these were not my best photos which was disappointing but I learnt a lot from my errors.
