On the 25th of September, I went to meet Lukas to help him take some photos as he had had some ideas he wanted to test out using my camera and also needed me to press the shutter button.
At the beginning of our voyage, I found a skip that I had never really looked in before and saw it was filled with mattresses. A kind of dystopian image formed in my head where I thought of somebody sprawled across these mattresses, like a giant cloud bed, however in a urban skip. I then turned to Lukas and said:
"Lukas, get in the skip"
So Lukas got in the skip and I sat on one of the higher edges and captured these:
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| 18mm | f/5 | 1/60 | ISO-100 |
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| 18mm | f/5.6 | 1/100 | ISO-100 |
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| 18mm | f/5 | 1/60 | ISO-100 |
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| 33mm | f/5.6 | 1/100 | ISO-100 |
The images look kind of blue and I think this is from the mattresses, but i cant decide if I like that. However, I really love these photos and they came out well. I think the spontaneity shines through and they have an urban and rebellious atmosphere to them with the stray carpet and tickets scattered around Lukas. The almost bird's eye angle really adds to this affect as it looks secretive, almost scandalous in a sense, i think. The long shots were done with a shorter focal length and the last with a longer - I had to compromise with this as to get the right angle, but I do like the deeper depth of field in the last one.
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| 55mm | f/8 | 1/200 | ISO-100 |
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| 28mm | f/7.1 | 1/125 | ISO-100 |
More photos in the car park. I like the soft and warm blue tone in these with the open sky.
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| 18mm | f/5.6 | 1/80 | ISO-100 |
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| 18mm | f/5 | 1/60 | ISO 100 |
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| 18mm | f/5 | 1/80 | ISO-100 |
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| 27mm | f/5 | 1/60 | ISO-100 |
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| 27mm | f/5 | 1/60 | ISO-100 |
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| 27mm | f/5.6 | 1/80 | ISO-100 |
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| 27mm | f/4.5 | 1/50 | ISO-100 |
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| 24mm | f/5.6 | 1/125 | ISO-100 |
In the above portraits, I used a longer focal length to get the depth of field to blur the leaves which were what inspired me to take them in the first place.
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36mm | f/6.3 | 1/100 | ISO-100
When I took this, I wanted to
get Lukas parallel to the left side
of the frame. |
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| 55mm | f/5.6 | 1/80 | ISO-100 |
I love the shots on the right, which AGAIN were taken in the moment (hence the post title). I took the bottom one first and then just took the other two after, and all with the same camera settigns. I love that the 55mm focal length distorts the background and draws you in on the face and the details and how the hands are out of focus but the face and finger nails are in focus.
It was very observant of you Avery to look into the skip - I always believe that the world is divided into two groups of people; those who look into skips and those who pass by. We belong to the same group evidently. I would like to have seen some more experimentation whilst you were there such a good location - perhaps you could have directed Lukas a bit - a curled up ball would have been good - like a foetal position perhaps. The mattresses are very blue but Lukas's skin is a little cold I wonder what the colour temperature was - it looks a bit too cool to me as if it was set up for interior light. The big close ups I really, really like especially the first one with the trail of smoke - very nice. Technically I would like to have seen some variations on the exact plane of focus as it feels like the focus is is set a little bit back nearer the ears. It would be interesting to explore this further perhaps focusing on the burning stub of the cigarette or very sharp on the eyes. The natural light is coming from a three quarters back position which means the eyes are in shadow which makes them not look as sharp as one might want. This is an interesting set up that could be developed with further consideration to the angle of the light and the exact point of focus when working in such a shallow depth of field. Good work though.
ReplyDeleteSKIPS ARE COOL!
ReplyDeleteNice shots, almost looks like a modelling portfolio for an urban clothing brand - nice to see the variation in settings and what they do to the images!
I KNOW RIGGGGHT it reminded me of that mattress world advert with that hippo in blue stripy pjs, and thats true haha
DeleteAlways a pleasure working with you Avery, I like the level of trust we have on shoots, and like the way you always get a good shot. Like the way you record the camera settings as you go along as well. Very useful.
ReplyDeletethese are so cool and i love how spur of the moment they seem. also the way lukas' green hair contrasts with the red skip looks visually interesting and rad.
ReplyDeleteI like that you found opportunities to take photo's in the place you were by using the environment around you. The images are really interesting and I like the boldness of colour.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the area and the background of these images
ReplyDeleteNever thought to look in a skip for photo opportunities haha, really interesting results, Lukas is also a great model :)
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of taking photos of what's around. To celebrate something that people overlook is bold and I think that you've done it really successfully. It reminds me of a photographer called Keith Arnatt. He takes pictures of rubbish and mouldy food but makes it look beautiful.
ReplyDeletereally like the last photograph in the skip as you're further in, it removes the real context and leaves it up to interpretation
ReplyDeleteI can tell that you've really thought about using the space creatively
ReplyDeletereally good use of close up to provide a mood to the photos
ReplyDeleteVery nice pictures!
ReplyDelete