Theme: Travel and Reportage
Candidate name: Fran Martínez
Title of the theme: London Walk
Intentions/purpose
of the photography to be undertaken
My intention with this work is going around a big town
like London, and photographing things that show both the human and the architectural
aspects of the city. This pictures will be included in my location Photography
course blog. I will prepare a digital presentation with them, with ambient
music.
Reasons for
selection of theme (including inspiration from the work of others)
I decided to show a different London view, because i have
been there a few times but on this occasion is the first one that i go there
all the time with my camera ready, and I can concentrate on all I can see
around. A possible title for this could be something like “walk around London”
because is that, a two days walking in the capital.
This is a total different work than the first one I
made for this course, based on portraits of people. I would like to show other
side of my photography, like it is travel photos.
There are a lot of photographers that inspired me,
making great essays about big cities, One of them was Eugene Atget, with his work about Paris. My work is completely different
than his one, but I love the way he tried to show that city, I have one of his
books.
Another great spanish photographer that made a nice
work around Barcelona and inspired me was Francesc
Catalá- Roca, that lived there in the fifties. I love the way he used the
light in this long work.
The photo
imaging equipment and medium that will be used and why
I will use my Olympus EP L1 “mirrorless” digital
camera. This a very versatile camera, because is quite small and very useful
for street shoots. People can’t see you with this one, it is not like a reflex
camera that make people see you by its size…
I feel invisible with this tool, I move around and
nobody see me (joking, but close to reality).Unlike the other project, I don’t
use the tripod in any picture, but sometimes I have put the camera on the
ground, over a bin, or in any other places for having stability.
I use two lenses, 19mm 2.8 (38mm equivalent) for most
of the shoots, and a 50mm 1.7 for close ups (100mm equivalent).
Techniques
that will be used and how they will help convey the visual message
I will use many different techniques in this series.
From f11 apertures for some city scapes, to wide open for some pictures inside
the museums. In some shoots I use slow speed for having ths movement sensation
(arriving to 8 seconds), and in others, very high speed.
How light
quality can be used to help convey the visual message
Like all the modern towns, London has a really big mix
of lights that you can show (or not). I shall be using from natural lighting
(available on the day) to the artificial ones when the sun goes down, that the
city offers to me in the different places. This is a very general point of view
of the town, then I have to show all types of lights.
Perhaps it will be necessary to use high ISO (400 or
800) for some images to compensate low lighting conditions, we will see.
Safety
considerations
I have to wear coat and good boots for walking,
because I am going to be around for many kilometers (hours) and the weather in
London is not really predictable weather so taking an umbrella is a good idea.
Legal aspects,
ethical considerations, copyright, permissions, release forms.
I have not think about this point but the main is
beware with the photos of the people, I don’t use to shoot anybody without
permission, this is a basic for me. The town invites you to do this type of
pictures but normally they are not very interesting (almost for me). Of course this
is more committed if you take pictures of kids.