petras blog 7 :)

Today has been quite a rush as it was the last lesson we had to finish our projects!

I began making the actual xfactor stage, which i made from a large shoe box. I stuck the lid on the side of the box so when the shoe box was on its side the lid was on the bottom. I wanted to make it personal to me, so i painted it pink all over, then stuck a sheet of shiny tin foil at the back of the box so it stood out more and made it more sparkly and xfactor-y. I then cut out an X shape and bent it so it fit in the box in a 3D way.

i decided to make this red so it clashes with the pink paint and makes it more eye catching, i also wanted to keep the theme of the xfactor colours slightly so people will recognize it. I wanted to make it different from other peoples artwork, so i decided to make a spinning stage platform typed thing, so when you turn it round you can see the pictures.

After break i was in quite a rush to take and develop my photo's. First we went to the hall, as the drama studio was being used. I got Jayne to stand on stage and do dance moves and pretend to sing. I decided to photograph her so the camera was pointing up,

as i thought it showed confidence and power over more. We then went to the music block and i took verious photo's of Jayne using the instruments etc. I was a little worried that the pictures would come out a bit funny though as i found it hard to keep the little green light on, and it flashed to red as i took the photo's sometimes.

Luckily when i developed the film, the film was fine and most of the pictures came out perfect!

I then went in the darkroom, although as i hadn't been in there pretty much since we started this unit, i had to do a few tests to make sure i got the pictures the right explosure. To make sure i found the right explosure, i put the timer on to flash for 6 seconds, and each second i uncovered a little more of of the photographic paper. I then put the photographic paper in the developer for about a minute, then in the water for about 30 seconds, then in the fix for 4 minutes, then put it in the water while i was doing my other pictures. After i did this i realised that the explosure was about right after 2 seconds. I then made the rest of my photo's and chose the best ones for my final peice of artwork. I then stuck 5 of my best photos on the spinning stage, and sprinkled a few sequins on it to make it prettier :).

Im quite proud that i finished my final peice in just one day, and i think it looks quite good in the end! Having said that, i wish i made the photo's slightly larger as i think they were perhaps a bit small once i stuck them on my large stage!

As a finishing touch to my artwork i cut out a picture of the Xfactor judges and glued it onto the tin foil!

petras blog 6 :)

Today has been quite stressful and confusing!

i began it finishing work in my folder, and thought of more pro's and con's each of my idea. For my fairytale book idea the good things i added were that it would be fun to photograph as id be able to use dressing up clothes, and i would also be able to show my creative side by the actual making of the book. Some of the bad thing i added was that i thought it would be difficult to find places to photograph in as it cant be anywhere too modern or it would mess up the traditionalness of the idea.

I finally decided which idea i was going to use for the final peice and thought it would be a good idea to write up how exactly i was going to do it, what it was going to look at etc.

My final idea was to make an xfactor stage, with a turning platform typed thing which i would put the photographs all around so that when you turn it you can see all the pictures. I wasnt sure what i should make it out of but in the end i thought it would be all together quicker and easier (and would probably look better) to just use a cardboard box, coloured card and paints. I thought it was a good idea to use a similar colour scheme to the actual xfactor ones, which are red, black, white, and blue, although i think i might make it a bit more personal and use some pinks aswell to make it more me.

Unfortunately i wasnt able to take the photo's for my final peice as the room i needed to do it wasnt available, but in the time i would of used to take pictures i wrote a shooting plan for hopefully next week when i will be able to do it. I thought it was a good idea to use a range of shots in my photo's to make them more interestng. I decided i wanted to use closeups to show the singing pictures, medium shots for the dance pictures and some of the instrument playing pictures.

In the afternoon i was asked to help Jayne with her photo's, which meant me and Zaigham had to be her models! we were asked to lye on the chairs and cuddle up (which was slightly awkward but quite fun at the same time).

I've enjoyed today as not only did i get to work on my own project, but i got to work with my friends to do theres. Im dissapointed that the room i wanted to take my pictures in was being used, which ment im going to have to wait til next lesson to get going on my final photo's.

As next lesson is our last lesson i have ALOT to do. my plan for next lesson is to start making my xfactor stage in the morning, and paint the background colour so it can dry over break. I think its a good idea to then do the photography bit after break, and hopefully be able to process the film aswell before lunch. I would then be able to spend the afternoon in the dark room diary and finishing other little things. Hopefully it wont be too much of a rush, as il make sure im prepared by bringing everything i need next week!

petras blog 5 :)

My plan for today was to finish taking test pictures for my 3 ideas then to hopefully choose which idea i am deffinitely going to use.

I thought it would be a good idea to write some pro's and con's on each idea as i thought it might make it easier to choose between them. For example a pro about my xfactor stage (self belief) idea was that it was personal to me, although a con was that it will be difficult to photograph images of dance. An example of a pro about my luck and superstition idea was that id be able to use modrock which could show my artistic skills, although a con is that theres limited things to photograph. An example of a pro for my fairytale book idea is that i would get to use my imagionation, although a con is that theres limited things to photograph.

I then continued to take test pictures, which was probably the most enjoyable part of the day. I decided to go to the music block, as it ment i would be able to use instruments in my photography which i thought was a great way to show self belief. i was quite lucky as there was a teacher practising his saxophone, and we kindly asked if he could pose for us with his saxophone, which he agreed to! i took a selcection of photo's, but made sure i got the lighting right or the pictures wouldnt turn out as well. i also took some photo's of Jayne and Zaigham playing some of the instruments. Some of the ideas i had were Jayne playing the guitar and looking down at what she was doing with lots of emotion on her face, and also taking an image of Zaigams fingers on the piano from the side, which was actually quite a cool picture in the end as the light was shining off it really well.

We then went to the drama room as i thought it would have good lighting to show dance. I experimented with the lights and managed to get a spotlight in the middle of the room, which i managed to get some great photo's because of! i tried to get some photo's in a selection of different shots, and got some with long shots and some medium. Although i think the best shots were medium ones.

Once i got back to class i stuck my pictures in my book and described what had improved from the first photo's i had done. the main improvement was the lighting.

Im quite pleased with my work today and really glad i managed to find the spotlight in the drama room, i think i might use it to take the photo's for my final peice of artwork!

petras artifact blog 3:)

Today has been slightly annoying as things havnt been working aswell as i would of liked!

I began the day with taking a few test shots of things to do with "believe". i used one of the images i found of a hand with words to do with love on to develop and make a similar verson, although instead i put a split down the middle and wrote words to do with hate on the other side. I also liked the idea of superstition and luck, so i photographed a a clover (i pulled a leaf off another one and put it on it so it looked like it was a four leaf clover!) in the palm of a hand (which could also follow the idea of palm reading).
After break i began writing up some of my ideas. I wrote a quick brainstorm of a few of my ideas, which included a magic treasure chest with photo's and objects to do with magic inside, and a fairy tale book showing images of things such as princesses, fairies, evil witches etc. I picked out my favourite ideas and began to write them up in a lot of detail, and starting with a quick idea i developed them.
For my first idea i began writing about how self belief is personal to me, and said how it gave me the idea of an xfactor stage with images and lrics of things to do with self belief. I then made a few mind maps of things i thought of when i thought about the xfactor, so i had a brainstorm on singing (which i had words such as lyrics, music notes and microphones), a brain storm on dance (which i had words such as posture, types of dance like ballet, tap and street, and culture as there are lots of different types of dances for different cultures, such as irish dancing), and a brainstorm about general xfactory thiongs (such as judges, audience, talent, and tears). I then found found images from the internet showing some of these words. A few examples of images i had for singing were of a couple singing together happily, which also showed love and how if you have self belief you can make yourself happy, and a picture of a microphone. I found some interesting dance photographs aswell, which included some artistic shots of ballet dancers, modern dancers and african cultural dances.
I thought it might be usefull to research a dance photographer as it could help me to do mine when i begin making my artwork. I discovered Lois Greenfield, who focuses to photographing the movement and posture of dancers, and likes to create images that show a highrisk moments and probably movements that could not be re-photographed quite the same. Reading about her photography inspired me to take artistic and unique photo's if i was going to follow this idea.

I think i have done well at concentrating and being on task today, as i have done alot of research and writing work. However, i think i could have got a bit more done in the morning, and after speaking to the teacher i realised i could have used my imagionation alot more while taking the test shots first thing in the morning.

Next week we are going to be continueing to write up and develop our three ideas, and i will of hopefully made my mind up to which idea im going to follow!

Hi Petra

Your second post is very good, you start to discuss your progress and reflect on your work. It is also good to include images. try to rely less on narrative as you did in your first post.

Petra's Artifact blog 2:)

Today has been very busy! First of all i got started on my research report, which i found quite difficult as i find it quite difficult to find relevant information on the internet about "Fine art photography" which this unit is based on. Once i had got started though i found it easier to find good examples of percific photographers, such as landscape, fashion and installation art.
These were some of the photo's i percifically liked which i used in my research report:

This is an example of fashion photography

This is an example of landscape photography

We got some time in the mornign also, to create out title page which i made quite bright and colourful, and to write up our dark room diarys, which we made to stick in our pictures and explain about which explosures were right and how to do that, which i showed by having one with a very dark explosure, and one that was just right, and wrote about how the longer you let the light hit the photographic paper the darker the picture will be.

We found out our breif in the afternoon, and as we were being told we wrote notes on it then wrote it up afterwards. Our breif is to create a peice of artwork which includes both black and white wet photography pictures, and includes a form on installation or 3D art. Our peice of artwork has to interpret the word "believe".

We then began brainstorming ideas about the word "Believe". I found this quite easy as i think i am good at thinking up ideas and sharing them. Some of the ideas i thought of were racism, as some people believe it is right and some wrong. I also thought of religion, which made me think of christianity and crosses, and also muslims which gave me the idea of reincarnation and the afterlife as different people have different beliefs about the afterlife. I thought of fear aswell, which gave me the idea of superstition as some people believe in things like luck, horoscopes, and karma.

We then found images on the internet representing some of the ideas. I found quite a lot of pictures representing religion, such as a cross, a picture of a stature of jesus on the cross, and some logo's of different religions. I also liked the idea of "self belief" which for some reason gave me the idea of the Xfactor, as people have enough self confidence and belief to try and make their dreams come true. So i found a picture of the Xfactor logo to show this.

After doing this lots of ideas came to my mind of things i might do my peice of artwork on. I have the idea of having a large open box with a massive four leaf clover inside, and pictures of things like black cats, ladders, cracks in the pavement etc. around the side. One of my other ideas is to make a sort of big Xfactor stage, and put lyrics like "dont stop believing" and "i believe i can fly".

I have enjoyed today and i am very much looking forward to continuing with this project! I think i worked very hard on brainstorming ideas about belief and im pleased i havnt let anything distract me today!

artifact blog 1 :)

We began the new unit with being asked to take some pictures. Mr Hind showed us how to work the cameras, which i found quite difficult as we had to put our fingers lightly on this tiny silver screw-like button until the green light pops up to be able to take our pictures, and it was hard to remember to wind back the tape after taking each picture. We tried to take a few proffesional pictures aswell as fun ones, so i took a few pictures of tree's etc, and some of us having a laugh. We were told it wasnt important what the pictures were of because the aim of today was to practise working the camera's, making the film, and printing the pictures out onto photographic paper in the dark room.

Once we got back into class, we were showed how to make the film, which was probably the most difficult part of the day, especially as we had to make sure no light hit the tape otherwise it would be ruined. We had to get this light proof bag and inside put the tape onto this reel then put it into this pot. I then took the pot out and had to put 270ml of water into the pot and this powder, although the water had to be roughly 20 degrees so it took a little while to get it to the right temperature. I then had to leave it for 7 minutes, and each minute tapping the pot on the table to refresh the mixture (we were told not to shake it as it sometimes leaves bubbles on the film!). After 7 minutes we poored the mixture out, and had to put the fix in, which we had to leave in the pot for 5 minutes, and tapping it on the table each minute. We then had to poor the fix back into the bottle and then leave the pot under the tap for roughly 10 mins. I then took the film out and carefully unravelled it off the reel. I had to be careful doing this to make sure the film didnt took any surfaces or my clothes as it would get dust on it.

After the film had dried we were shown how to print the pictures we took in the dark room. We had to shine a light of the projected films onto photographic paper for between 2-5 seconds, the longer the lights shined on it the darker the picture will turn out. We then had to put the paper into the developer for one minute, which you can see the picture beginning to develop, you then put the paper into water for 30 seconds, and then into the fix for four minutes. When i looked at my first picture i thought it looked quite dark, then we learned that the longer we let the photographic paper hit the light the darker it will get. This meant i got to experiment with the timings each time i made a photo, so for the second time i left it under the light for a second or two less, and it came out perfect.

I am quite pleased with what i acheived today, as i learned how to use the film camera's, how to develop the film, and the pictures. Im pleased i managed to create an almost perfect picture!

Im looking forward to next week as we are going to find out the breif, and hopefulyl get started on this unit!