Exploring ideas for my final piece

For my final piece, I had initially thought about doing different ideas like media: video/film, or an installation linking to cross/creation etc. But I had no inspiration for these ideas although they may have turned out well. Instead, I had an idea of creating a 3D cross, of which I would use to place things in it and so on. Originally I had ideas like:

• Getting twigs and attaching my photos to the twigs by string and then having the twigs/sticks in the cross.

(This idea was one that I thought of twice but I felt it was too boring and needed more to it.)

• Having my images placed on another cross shape inside the 3D cross with lights behind it to shine through.

(The light idea I loved, and it probably would have looked effective but the technical side caused problems with being able to plug it in, fitting it in, etc)

• Having sand in the cross and placing images inside the cross with the sand/ stones/ shells etc.

(This was the idea I was very close to doing, but after deliberation it felt too easy and simple.)

• Hang my images like on a 'washing line' but along the middle of the cross with layers of nature along the bottom.

(Again this was one that I could have done, but I then decided to scrap the idea of having any forms of nature in it. It seemed interesting to do, but had no inspiration in what to do with it)

There were so many different ideas that I had but some of them seemed either to be really simple and slightly boring and others really difficult and too complex to make.

This image shows sketches I drew to help figure out which idea I was doing and what I had decided wasn't good to do.

Starting from the top going left right left right... is the order I had thought of them. The bottom right, is the idea I am now doing. I fortunately had an outline of an idea from near enough the beginning of what I wanted to do; although I had many changes of heart, it seemed at least to get me somewhere better. I was certain that I was going to create a 3D cross and use my images in there some where as soon as I had them printed. I have 36 photos which are 6 by 4 (the smallest I could get), that are of beach, sunsets/rises, animals, harbour, worship, cross, and church. Mainly images I have used in my previous posts to continue suggesting the aspects of God.

Uta Barth

When researching Uta Barth's images I really liked a few of her images: So below are my interpretations of her way and style of photographing:

I like this one, as it shows the depth and height of the tree from underneath the flower, the idea of this was to show the focused flower and the blurred background like her image below, but i adapted her idea and changed it according to my image; for example this one has obviously got the focused section along the bottom and has a smaller proportion of the blurred background.

This one is slightly different, although the whole image is mainly unfocused, there is still the corner of focused detail which she used in her image. The only main difference is that the focused section is in a different corner and the image as a whole tells a different story.

This pink petal image is near enough identical to her own image, but has a slightly smaller focused corner and is much more zoomed in so there is more blur to the image.

All these three images above are inspired from this image of Uta's below:

This was because I really liked the idea of having mainly the whole image unfocused and blurred with a small corner of focused and detailed imagery. So I used this idea and developed it according to my own photos.

I was inspired by this image:

I liked the idea of showing the whole image; then selecting different angles or close ups of the same image. So that is what I did for my image above.

Lastly, this image was inspired by:

I really liked this idea of using the same image but just manipulating it each time, I like the change in patterns and colours from both mine and Uta's image.

While creating my own images inspired by Uta's I print screened to show my process when using Photo shop:

Here was the first initial step of uploading the image and selecting the area for cropping. Here I had selected the area I had chosen to crop. This shows my final image once cropped.

Once my image was inserted into photo shop, I started to select which manipulation I was to use (Hue & saturation, Shadows/highlights, black and white etc)

Here for my second image manipulation I chose black and white: so this simply shows my process of doing so.

I then chose shadows and highlights for my second image manipulation. This was my last manipulated image for this certain one; I chose hue and saturation.

I chose all these different adjustments as they all brought different colours and textures to each image which is what I was expecting when putting together this specific image. Like Uta's image she has the same image repeated and manipulated differently; which is what I aimed for.

This image only has two steps: this first one was just selecting which area I was aiming to crop.

Then this was the final out come once cropped.

Church

Church is a good example of another aspect of God as its a place of worship; a place to pray; or a place to read his word. Why did people many centuries back take years to built holy temples like churches; when there is no God even to worship? They had no scientific debatable evidence against God and yet they still believe, surely there is no mystery to this....

There are so many churches around the UK and the world, which all do the same thing, that is to glorify God, but they all do it in different ways and serve God differently but all for the same reason. So below are images of the Priory:

I still plan to go back to the Priory in Christchurch and photograph in the church, if possible, so I can experiment with light through the stained glass windows.

Here below are more images of the priory on a different day, with the sun shining through the stain glass windows. This is what I was hoping for when visiting again, to show the colours and light through the windows of this church.

These two images show the many colours reflecting from the stained glass windows; this is what I was hoping for when visiting the priory especially. I like them because of the blurred colours reflected on the walls. This one shows the slight light through the right side, gives a contrast of darkness and light. Also with the wonderful architectural ceiling of the church. This image has a very clear reflection from the sun shining through the window; I like this because of that reason. I feel it gives the sense of happiness and warmth, because it shows the colours and light from the reflection.

This one has a bit of everything; the light reflected through the window, crosses on the wall and table, and that it is situated in a church.

Again for the two images above: blurred colour in the background and through the stained glass windows. I like these two especially as they both show the church from the structure view; it shows aspects of which were built along with the construction many years ago as well as the colourful windows and reflections from the light.

All the images show light through windows; I thought this was a perfect example of God's mystery, as He created light and darkness, and with it shining through his kingdom, links perfectly.

A good example of another church is Rouen Cathedral; it has wonderful architectural structures and these photos below show this (These are not my images)

These images just show a good example of the link between the structure and layouts of churches and how similar they all are.

Worshipping

Another aspect of God is to do with worshipping: to worship and praise God for all he has done and is still to do. But if God is such a supernatural being that is a fragment of our imagination, then why do so many of us, take so much time worshipping and praising him? I went out to Springbourne Christian Centre and photographed an evening of praise.

I like this image as the smoke from underneath the stage and the bright lighting on the right gives an eerie but yet exciting effect to the image. The colours and darkness of the photo enhance the tension and mystery.

The different colours and smoke in this image adds warmth and joy.

Here with the change in colour to blue and the angle of the image shows the reaction on the singers and musicians faces which add interest and mystery to their emotions and thoughts.

These images below are ones that I took at my own church in Boscombe: it shows how different they worship but all for the same reason.

I showed it from birds eye view to show a different perspective of it, but still showing how they worship and different ages reactions as well. The images above show youth worship which would be completely different to a more traditional churches worship with a more elderly population. Its fantastic though as its so different but nice, as they all are there for the same reason and that's to worship and glorify God.

This one shows a different aspect of worship: a way that's different in a different community.

I like this one as the quirkiness of the girl dancing in the aisle for me brings a smile to my face: it adds happiness to the image: it also shows a difference in age in community.

I purposefully took this because of the light reflecting through the church windows, as well as the different Bible's opened at the same pages for a reading: this also shows worship through reading his word.

This one is simply just an image of the congregation; but I like how it shows the characteristics of the church through the different people (age, culture...), layout and appearance.

The women in white stands out for me: as she is worshipping in her own way, with her hand lifted and 'surrendering herself', she is proud and brave to do so. This shows that at any age you can still worship and feel the love of God. Also with the worship group praising in the back ground too.

Another way of worshipping God; is to take communion; its not compulsory, but from following Jesus' words 'Take this in remembrance of me' its shows commitment and love to God.

Landscapes

With creation came land, sun, sea....and so I have photographed lots of images that for me show his creation more than ever. How can such something so beautiful not be intricately made by the hands of a creator? To begin with... Sunsets/ rises

I like all these images of sun rises/sets as personally I find them the most exhilarating to photograph, the colours from both can change every morning and night. I feel its the thing I love to photograph the most, so for me these images show creation the best.

.....harbour/ water These images show a lovely reflection of the sun down on to the harbour water; they're very picturesque.

.....long distance views Long distance views show a look out over all of the creation; of which God 'created'. I like them as they show different colours from the very close trees or bushes but also from the distance with the sea and land.

..... beach

These images especially but the beach has so many different colours and textures; with these images the sunset accentuates the different colours from the beach as the reflection shines perfectly.

An artist which links to landscape photography is Ansel Adams. He was a photographer and an enviromentalist, best known for his black and white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park.

Adams developed the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterised his photographs and the work of those to who he taught the system. Adams primarily used large-format cameras despite their size, weight, setup time, and film cost, because their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his images.

Here are some of his own images:

These images just like mine from above, simply show creation. Creation which could have been created by a God or out of nothing. But with many people like Adams taking images of such creation, it must mean for something.