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!