Documentary Photography

Documentary photography is a form of photographing significant or historical events. It can also be known as photojournalism.
The photographer attempts to capture an objective view and a fresh perspective on events happening, usually relating to people and society that surrounds them.

Here is a significantly useful website, its a journey of a photographer who presents his work with detail, analysing his work and revealing interesting statements into his concepts and reasoning behind the photographs. It gives examples of how documentary photography is pieced together and other useful influences which could link to this type of photography. 

http://www.urban-exposure.com/index.html

Artist Photographers

Here are some further links to expand on the artists Francesca Woodman and Elisa Sighcelli. The links contain information and articles which explain in depth about the artists work, context and techniques.


Francesca Woodman:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/nov/21/francesca-woodman-photographs-miro-review - study of Woodman's work, style and her ultimate impact upon photography of the modern times. 

http://www.tate.org.uk/collection/artistrooms/artist.do?id=10512- an exhibition which Woodman took part in, along with other artists and contemporary photographers to display their work.


Elisa Sighcelli:
 

http://www.elisasighicelli.com/ - This is the main website where most of Sighcelli's photography is displayed. Focusing on depth of field, she plays and experiments with the idea of interior space and close up focus.

Here are two gallery websites where Sighicelli has displayed her work, describing some techniques and process which she has used:

http://www.gagosian.com/artists/elisa-sighicelli/

http://www.galeriezurcher.com/artists/sighicelli-16/

Craig Dunn

Photos by: Craig Dunn St Ives Photo Gallery

Craig Dunn is a photographer based in St Ives Cornwall. His photography consists on mainly water, beaches and landscapes across Cornwall. His techniques creates a soft and almost mystical look to the images, blending and blurring the water using a slow shutter speed and an open aperture to capture the saturation of the colours in the landscape.

Activity:

Take a look at the website to see other artists and photographers who also use depth of field, exposure and shutter speed to capture interesting subject matter.

How would you apply the technical skills learned from the photography programme and apply them to water?

How long would you leave your shutter speed and aperture open for to capture this soft movement effect  in a photograph?

http://www.stivesphotogallery.co.uk/ 

Another Stop Motion!

Quick Activity:
Question: How could you capture motion in the air using water droplets? 
Materials: Use a brightly lit area, plain coloured backdrop, large clear glass of water and some cloths to clear up water which has dripped over the edges with a tripod for your camera so the camera doesn't shake, creating a blurry image when task is completed.

What aperture would you use? Large or small?
What shutter speed would you use? Faster or slow?

Here is an great example in how to execute this activity successfully, using a fast shutter speed of 1/125 to keep the smooth texture to the water, yet freeze motion in the air along with a aperture of f/8 to capture the depth of the screen and glass. (Photo taken by Mark Dando):

National Media Museum of Photography

The media museum of photography is a fantastic archive for information, artists and knowledge on media and photography. The museum has some informative exhibitions and shows about photography, film, techniques and talks about the history and contemporary areas of media and photography. 

The website has a blog which is updated regularly informing about different discussion issues in the news, information which has been happening within the museum and knowledge to support the publics' interest in media and photography. 

This website is definitely worth a visit, and so is the place, containing much information about new and exciting areas of photography. 

http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/

Motion

Here I have tried to experiment with capturing motion with water. Here I used a large aperture and a fast shutter speed to catch the pouring water out of the hose pipe. However, the focal point of the photograph was in the centre, and lost the focus in the forefront blurring the water; this was not the aim of the photograph as the idea was to freeze the motion of the water pouring out the hose.

I used an aperture of f5 and a fast shutter speed of 1/250. To improve this photo further i would used a  bigger aperture and even faster shutter speed of 1/500 to see what difference this would have.

Have a go at capturing motion with water and see what effects you can create when changing the aperture and shutter speed slightly. Does it make a difference when capturing motion?

Shutter Speed: The Stars

Following on from the moon, I experimented with the use of bulb when following the stars.

I set my camera up with an aperture of f14 and shutter speed on bulb. I left the camera for 29 minutes facing toward the stars on a clear night. This is the result:

I wondered why the photograph turned out a red/purple colour. I researched this online and the reason why this occurred was there was a huge amount of light pollution in the sky, i have taken this photograph in my back garden. If you were to try this technique and to enhance this photograph I would recommend going out into a field or open space away from a town or well lit area. This was cut out any extra light that the lens is absorbing from the air. Overall, I think this photograph is impressive as it captures the movement in the sky.