The Syngenta Photography Award 2015

Thought provoking and cleverly curated pieces of photography have expressed world issues of today from air pollution to waste to increasing demand on natural resources in a truly amazing exhibition. It seems that we are often presented with current problems of rising CO2 levels and growing population but it is very different when we are confronted with visual evidence that isn't an advert or campaign. And don't get me wrong, we need these broadcasted messages to reach out to people all over the globe whether this is through social media or the TV, but when we do witness them we are shown the negative impact of what is happening but they are often shadowed with presenting the temporary 'solutions' they have found. What we see make us perceive the issue as solved but the Scarcity-Waste exhibition does not glorify the minor positive changes and that's what makes it so eye-opening and inspiring.

The exhibition flows incredibly well, starting with the first place of the professional commission then working through to third which each room leading onto the next. The collection of work that did not win are still presented clearly, with thought and precision into where they would be placed just as much as it was with the winners.

Mustafah Abdulaziz - photo by me

Mustafah Abdulaziz - photo by me

Richard Allenby-Pratt - photo by me

Photo by me

I think what I found most inspiring throughout the exhibition is not only the depiction of the suffering and struggle of many countries but the collection of facts written over the walls. Information about the destruction of our planet clung to the top of the walls, emphasising the impact it was having in the photographs below. The curator of this exhibition has got it just right - a visually compelling and intriguing set of rooms that work very well together.

I thought to finish off this post I would include the collection of photos from the winners all of which are viewable at the exhibition.

1st Prize - Professional Commission - Mustafah Abdulaziz

2nd Prize - Professional Commission - Rasel Chowdhury

3rd Prize - Professional Commission - Richard Allenby-Pratt

1st Prize - Open Competition - Benedikt Partenheimer

2nd Prize - Open Competition - Camille Michel

3rd Prize - Open Competition - Stefano De Luigi

First Set of Developed Film

   After getting a bunch of film rolls developed I thought I would do a blog post on how some turned out. Overall, the outcomes were a bit hit and miss - partly my own fault for using old film from 2008 but other than that some aren't too bad for my first attempts. The film cameras I have used are my Canon EOS 5000 and my Canon AE-1 (which I will do a more detailed review of later when I have got better at using them).

Canon AE-1

Canon EOS 5000 

 

London - Canon EOS 5000

Starting chronologically, these are some of the very first photos I took using the Canon. I took these on a trip to London and considering this was the first time I had used the camera, I am pleased with the outcomes. I had the camera on the automatic setting, just so I could get used to how it worked and it is definitely just as easy as using a digital camera. I think people are very cautious when taking film photographs - you have limited photos, fear of taking something wrong and wasting the film - but this is all part of the experiment. Eight out of ten times you are going to get a good shot so recently I have been taking more and more photos without fearing the worst.

Sunrise - Canon EOS 5000

Again using the Canon here and I really like these photos! The sunset ones have come out extraordinary with all the colours coming through very strong - not something I thought the camera would be able to pick up on. My only regret is that I didn't make the most of this sunset and take more! I had actually forgot I had taken the photo of the blinds - another benefit to film photography, there's always a surprise in the developed film - and surprisingly, I think it works very well. The photo is so sharp and focused and the light filters in perfectly through the blinds. I have no idea what I will ever use this photo for, but for some weird reason, I think I want to take some more similar to it.

Fashion Photography - Canon EOS 5000

And this is where it starts to go downhill... For some reason I decided that film was too expensive so I wanted to use up everything I had before I bought new film, so used a roll that expired in 2008. Now this was a bad idea as all my photos came out with an orange/brown vintage colouring on them. Thankfully I also took pictures on my digital camera that day or else this is all I would be left with. Although I am strangely drawn to this unnatural effect on the photos, and actually quite like how they have come out, sometimes its always nice to have a photo of what the real colours look like. Because these photos were nothing serious and not for a school project, I'm not fused that I wasted a roll of film but if this was something that was important to me, two important life lessons have been learnt. 1. Never rely solely on a film camera and 2. Don't use expired film.

London - Canon EOS 5000

London - Canon AE-1

Above are the same photos but taken on two different cameras. To the left are the ones I took on my Canon AE-1 and the others were taken on the Canon EOS 5000. Using the Canon AE-1 for the first time was a lot easier than I had thought. You simply look into the viewfinder, hold the shutter half way and see if the dial inside moves, if not you need to reduce or increase the shutter speed (I feel this would be better explained in a video or using images - which I could do later...maybe...maybe not). This is a lot simpler than it sounds and it's very easy to pick up. These photos I have taken didn't turn out over-exposed or under which I thought would happen, now I just wish the weather wasn't so miserable this day. The photos to the right were taken when I had the expired film in so again they came out with a yellow tinge to the photos but I wasn't too disappointed as I had the photos from the other camera.

Snow day - both the Canons

I thought I would throw in these photos that I took in the morning when we had snow for about 5 hours. Sadly, I rushed these photos (as I was running late to school and - correctly - feared that all the snow would be gone when I get home that afternoon) so some turned out blurry and others weren't composed very well. Also this was the first time I was shooting film in the snow and often its hard enough to photograph white weather without over compensating for the white balance, let alone trying it with film. The majority of them were taken on my Canon EOS 5000 (only the two on the far right were taken on the AE-1 and one of them came out blurry) purely because it was easier. Not much to comment on these photos - apart from I need to get better at focusing the camera.

Landscapes - Canon AE-1

And lastly I present my most failed photographs so far. Not entirely sure what happened here but I promise the sky was blue and the fields were green in real life. I assume that because the sun was shining into the camera, the film was overexposed so I get a brown tinge on the photo. However these are still usable due to the powers of photoshop enabling me to add my own colours to bring them back to life, and I think this emphasises my point of not relying on film alone (or pointing a film camera into the sun).

Thank you for reading and hopefully expect more film (fails) to come soon!

P.S. I just wanted to include information about where I get my film developed and where I have bought it from.

Recently I bought from a film distributor (link is here) and I purchased 36 EXP 400 and 200 ISO film in Black and White and colour for very good prices. The company sells a lot of different film from Kodak to Kenmore (which is the film that I purchased - purely because its the cheapest) and depending on how good the quality is/amount of photos available to take varies the price. So far so good with this film and can't wait to try out the Black and White film!

I get my film developed at my local Snappy Snaps store and for the quality the price isn't too bad. However, it is expensive, but then again developing film anywhere is expensive. At Snappy Snaps I pay around £10 to get a roll of film developed in 1 hour, £9 for 3 hours or £8 for 24 hours. Although the differences in price aren't that big, if you start developing a lot it adds up very fast but you do get a very good service.

   I am yet to try out another developer that I quite like the sound of (especially as it comes at a cheaper price and you get more for it) called The Photo Hippo (link to website is here). However to get the film developed, you have to send it off in the post to their developers which to me sounds a bit risky. You are putting your one and only roll of those particular photos (that will be impossible to recreate) in the post with a cheque paying for the service to a company far away. I am apprehensive to try this out until I find some stable and trustworthy reviews telling me it will all be ok or I become broke from spending all my money getting film developed at Snappy Snaps - I'll keep you updated as to what happens first.

TAYLOR WESSING: PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PRIZE

   Hosted at the National Portrait Gallery, the annual portrait photography competition comes around again. One of my favourite yearly exhibitions in London, it displays the widest range of portraits from David Cameron's family christmas card photo to a young girl from Kabul with her skateboard. Having attended this exhibition for the past several years, the talent just keeps on growing and growing with something more inspirational each year. This year the competition had over 4000 entries which is not a surprise considering the prestige of the competition - not to mention the heavy £12,000 prize for the winner. Most of the photos are not 'strategic' - they don't impose a great deal of forcefulness such as studio lit and costumed models, but very natural and spontaneous photographs.

   My favourite would have been between the portraits taken by Chris Frazer Smith of the girls wrapped up in their towels or of the photo taken by Birgit Püve of the twin boys.

Drying Off by Chris Frazer Smith

I think what draws me to this photo is the maturity and posture of these young girls. The photographer says that his daughter and her friends were playing in the garden with the paddling pool and he felt that it was a moment he just had to capture. After reading this I presumed it would be a very 'natural' shot of them, relaxed and acting carefree, but instead I was presented with quite a serious photograph. This juxtaposition is formed because the young age of the children contrasts with the sophistication of their faces and poses. Like I mentioned earlier, many of the photographs in the exhibition didn't seem strategic and this is a perfect example as it has been taken purely by chance when the photographer believed he could capture a moment.

Braian and Ryan by Birgit Püve

I love this photo of the twins, partly because of the genius of the photography and partially because of the series it is part of. The series is called Double Matters and the message behind what the photographer is trying to portray is quite incredible and mesmerising. In her book she photograph twins and triplets to explore the meaning of similarity and identity in a world that celebrates uniqueness. The photos show two or three people who look alike but differ greatly in personality and the photographer found that many of the growing number of twins, instead of trying to be differ, want to be similar, to be different to us all. I found this particularly beautiful and says something quite powerful at how we view uniqueness and individuality, that we all try so hard to be different that we just end up the same.

Below I have included a selection of other work that I also enjoyed at the exhibition as they all displayed some sort of meaning or story behind them. Each says something different, the story of religion connecting cultural heritage, or how young girls find enjoyment in their days from skateboarding immaculately dressed down dusty hallways. Or even the blind boy living in a small village with his five blind brothers and father and dreams of going to school. The tribute to an old model or a photo of a young women dressed in her mothers clothes. This is pays tribute to the old saying: 'a photo is worth a thousand words' and I think in this case, these photos say a lot more than a thousand.

Chayla in Shul by Laura Pannack (won the John Kobal New Word Award)

Skate Girl by Jessica Fulford-Dobson

Blind Boy in a  Village Hut by Graeme Robertson

Ricardo Martinez Paz by Catherine Balet

Jamila As Her Mum, Olivia by Hayley Benoit

   It is fair to say that the winning shot was definitely worthy of its position and it captures an amazing moment in life and as the lighting falls so perfectly it looks like a painting.

Konrad Lars Hastings Titlow by David Titlow

   Sadly I have not included all the photos selected to be hung in the National Portrait Gallery, but hopefully this will have enticed you to see it for yourself as there are a many more incredible photos that definitely deserve a viewing.  I think this particular year of the national portrait prize has started something new; possibly a new era of what we will call 'portraiture'. It no longer seems that well lit, forced and precisely planned photoshoots obtain the best portrait shots and I think that this is a good thing as it allows the photographer to be more 'free' and no longer constrained but what is traditional portraiture and what isn't.

Gallery location: National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

Closest station: Embankment or Charing Cross

Cost: £3

Finishes: 22 February 2015

School Project

As part of my Photography AS course, we have a 5 hour experimental day to take of photographs of anything we choose within a chosen path to do with what we like and have been doing. I chose to do a photoshoot and below I have included a selection of my final outcomes.

All photos were taken on a Nikon D3200 using an 18-35mm lens. The photoshoot was set up with two studio lights - one with a translucent umbrella one without, facing towards the model. However part of the day was to experiment, so I tried moving around the lighting and putting it behind the model to minimise a shadow created on the wall.



I love the side profile shot and it reminds me of the work by Lee Miller - classic black and white photos from a side profile. This was created by positioning one light behind the model and the other coming in from the left hand side with a translucent umbrella to soften the light.

Overall, the outcomes have been successful as they show an exploration of the lights and each one is unique because of the variation of props, lights and poses. I hope that I can continue to create photos like this in the future!

Cameras and Equipment

   Over the 2 years since I began studying photography, my passion for taking photos has grown, and, in turn my camera collection has grown too. In this post I thought I would share all the cameras, and equipment, that I have used for taking photos and videos on over the years.

Camera collection

Nikon D3100 and 55-200mm lens

I've started with my very first camera which was the Nikon D3100. I purchased this because it had all the qualities I was looking for - instructed by my teachers I needed a DSLR and this camera had 14.2 megapixels and HD 1080p video capacity. This ticked every box and the camera came at a discounted price with the extra lens which made the deal even better. The extra lens is something I doubt I would have been able to live without and I recommend that if you are looking for a camera, you should definitely look into buying two lenses; the standard 'everyday' 18-55mm lens and the 55-200mm. This lens is great for wildlife shots as I've been able to stand at a distance and still get a good quality close up shot of animals or plants. I've found the Nikon very easy to use get to learn how it works and I find it a very 'safe' camera to use as very rarely the pictures don't come out how you want them to. I've noticed that the D3000 does not have a film option to the camera which is quite disappointing for those who have bought it and are now incapable of shooting videos. I admit that I don't often use the filming option on my camera - purely because I have no reason to film - but recently for a project at school, I had to make a short 2 minute film filming someone but without showing a physical face. This is the first film I have made and it finally put the video option on my camera to good use. The way to film on the D3100 is to flick a switch down then press the red record button. I find this incredibly easy to use and ergonomically fits to the hand which makes it all the better. This camera has been incredibly useful for me and only recently have I been starting to explore the use of other cameras as I want to broaden my skills and learn how to use different cameras.

Canon EOS 5000 and 80-200mm lens

Part of experimenting with my photography led me to film cameras which I have had great fun using. This particular Canon used to be my Dad's and is probably not manufactured anymore - purely because digital cameras have made photography easier, quicker and better. However I have found a strange love for these old film cameras, I think there's something special about not being able to see the photo you've taken until its developed and printed. This could also be a disadvantage as you can't tell if the settings are right or how the photos have come out which makes taking good photos very hard - especially if you are a beginner like me. The cost of film and getting them developed is very dear as it is a specialty and not a very common practice. I hope that as I get to know how photos come out on different settings and learn more about the cameras, I can develop my own film - although this idea is very far in the future. The actual camera is in great condition and you can easily purchase film cameras on eBay or even at car boot sales. There are a great many options considering this is only a film camera and back in its day it would have been a very premium item. Out of the 38-76mm lens and the 80-200mm, I've found the later is the better because it has allowed me to zoom in at great distances and because it has a small f-number, it blurs out the background leaving the main feature in focus. I can't wait to continue using this camera (I just need to find a decent priced shop that can develop the film for me before I can continue using it again).

Kodak Brownie 127

Now this is a real vintage film camera. It has no electric mechanics, a very simple point and shoot structure and made of a cheap plastic. This is because it was produced in 1952 and discontinued in 1959 and in this short space millions were made and priced at $4.75. The lens is meniscus with f14 and 65mm and shutter speed of 1/50 sec. I purchased this on eBay for 99p and have to say I am very impressed. After reading many reviews I worked out how I would begin using it and it was rather difficult at first. Back in its time, it would have used the 127 film but this is no longer manufactured. However the 35mm film apparently works just as well which is what I am currently using. I haven't had the film developed yet, so I am unsure about successful I have been as it is a guessing game using this camera as you don't know how far to wind on the film, how much you have left or if the film is positioned right. The thing about using 35mm film means that you have to tape over a small pea sized hole over the back - I covered the inside and outside with black card and sellotaped over concealing the hole and hopefully stopping the light from getting through. Obviously the camera is very old so I'm not betting my hopes on the first set of film coming out perfect, which in my eyes makes it more fun as I'm going to keep having to experiment and trying this out until I finally find out how it works best. 

SD card, SD card reader, film, fisheye lens and lens hood

Here I've included a few of my staple items I need for my cameras. Firstly, I need my SD card and this one has a 4GB storage space which is honestly vital - especially if you are shooting fashion shoots (there are many outtakes). I can store over 1000 photos and videos on this SD card which makes it great for when I don't have time to take photos off and need my card the next day. Below is an SD card reader that plugs into the iPad (or iPhone however when trying to use it with my iPhone 4s, I had compatibility issues) and allows you to transfer your photos from the card onto your iPad. For me this is so useful because it means that when I'm away from my laptop and want to make some room on my SD card, this comes in great use. I've found it doesn't reduce the quality of the photos either and you can also download great editing software for the iPad too. Next is two rolls of 35mm 24 exp film which is vital when shooting in film: if you run out when on the go, thats all you have as each film only allows a certain amount of photos to be taken, unlike the 1000 I can take on the SD card. The lens is a super wide fisheye lens from Opteka that I bought for my Nikon after having it for a few months. It came in great use when I went to Venice and wanted long sweeping shots of the city from a high vantage point as I could get masses of land in one shot, but other than that I have rarely used it as I often forget I have it. It isn't a premium fisheye lens so if that's something you're looking for then this probably isn't the best option, but if you're just practising and wanting to try something new but aren't quite yet a camera whiz, then this lens is probably just right. It does the job for an affordable cost. The last item is a lens hood - a simple piece of plastic that fits onto the end of your lens to reduce the glare. It's ideal for when you are on the beach and having the sun coming directly towards the camera as it blocks out that glare reducing the lines of light you often get in the middle of a photo. It should often come with the camera when you buy it. 

Nikon batteries, remote shutter release and tripod

These items are handy for certain situations (apart from the batteries: you need them always). I purchased the remote shutter release  from Amazon - there are hundreds to choose from - when I wanted to take some star trail photos. This is because for a short christmas break, my family and I went to a very small village in Alton and there were very low levels of light pollution and I was able to see the stars very clearly. The shutter release is vital for star trail photos as it means you don't get any camera shake and it allows you to keep the shutter open for as long as you like, so I did hour long exposures at times which would create amazing affects. The tripod is from Joby and you can buy these at several stores such as John Lewis. It has many beneficial features but the main one being the fact that it can transform into any position (e.g. hugged around a tree) so that you can get that clear, unshaken photo you want.

I hope you have enjoyed this rather long post about the cameras and equipment I use and have collected over the years since I've taken up photography. It will continue to grow because I have recently purchased a Canon AE-1 SLR 35mm camera, a Yashika 200mm telephoto lens, a Vivitar MC Macro focusing lens and a Prinz jupiter 277C flash all of which I am incredibly excited to use and potentially blog about depending on much of a success (or failure) they have been.

Photography

   Casting my mind back to 2012 when I first began my Photography GCSE, I wouldn't have been able to anticipate how much of a passion it has become for me. I bought my first "real" camera (DSLR) in the summer of 2012 before the course had started so I could get a feel of the camera and how it began to work. Realising now, this was a huge leap for my parents as they invested £500+ into something I hadn't begun yet and had no idea how to use - looking back, what if I hadn't enjoyed the course and dropped it? Would the camera have been a waste? So in some sense, this camera is what tied me to the course as I would have had a lot to loose had I not stuck it out. However if I'm honest, the thought of abandoning the course very rarely crossed my mind - I loved it from day one - which in comparison to my peers must have been unusual as the 12 or so of us who started out together ended with only 6 of us finishing the exam.

   I then had the difficulty of finding a school that would provide me with the opportunity of taking Photography at A Level as the course was very new to my 'academically-driven' grammar school. I looked at other schools local to me and found that only 2 provided Photography at the level I wanted to pursue it to, so I visited their open days and applied immediately. After having interviews, I was accepted into both schools but neither really drew me in as I loved the students, the teachers and the lessons at my current school. It was a tough decision to make but I wanted to stay at my school so comprised by giving up Photography. However there was a light at the end of the tunnel - my teacher had pulled several (or maybe hundreds) of strings with the senior staff and persuaded them to run a Photography course. She had previously taught Photography at other schools, so let they let the course run and I could stay. I have to admit, I was incredibly fortunate and have to applaud my school for getting this right.

   Myself and two others are now on the course and although we have very few lessons with teachers (it would only fit into the timetable this way) we knew it would be like this and instead work with each other very well. The equipment the school has provided me with has helped me so much over the past few months of starting the A Level - something I never took advantage of at GCSE. I have refined many of my skills and have been able to take more mature and developed photos which I hope to regularly share on this blog along with my thoughts on recent photographers work and exhibitions that I visit.