When I was
thinking of my topic I was considering what I might have an understanding of,
and what I might be able to get a quality photograph without being cliché, for
example if I did the topic ‘’love’’ I would have done something else than a
picture of two people kissing. My chosen topic was “Power” and I feel like I
chose the right place to take pictures for that topic. My image interprets
power in that everything powerful at one point breaks down. Everything fails
and everything collapses. I took my pictures in an abandoned military training
site that was closed down in 2006, ever since then it’s a shadow of its former
self with the whole place falling apart and with a lot of exposed electrical
appliances and various destroyed power sources. I think that burnt out and
destroyed power sources, in an abandoned military training site would be the
perfect subject for my interpretation of power.
When I was taking
the pictures I tried going for a very raw and dark feeling that would fit in
with the whole burnt out and abandoned vibe. The only light that was used was
the camera flash that was necessary to actually be able to see anything in the
buildings, as there aren’t any working lights there. The place I finally chose
for these pictures was, as I said earlier a abandoned military training site
that was closed down in 2006 after most of the crew working there was
transferred somewhere else and the site was of little strategic importance.
Before I went to
the site I had to prepare some gear, a tripod and some lights (which I didn’t
end up using) to be specific. I researched the site to see which buildings
would be the most interesting such as the administrative building and the
multiple boiler rooms and some sort of power management rooms. Unfortunately
one of the more interesting places, the radio control room was blocked off and
I wasn’t able to get there.
The only edits I
did to photos was using the dodge tool on some of the darker areas in order to
bring in some details. Other editing was not required as I wanted to keep a
very raw and fresh look to the images and wanted to use minimum editing.
I am very happy
with the photos I have taken and how they came out when they were printed. The
only response I got from others was that the photos were too dark, and because
of those responses I decided to use the dodge tool to lighten the darker areas
of the images.
I think that thank
to this assignment I improved my skills of preparation, I came prepared with
all my gear, some which I didn’t even use but it was still there nevertheless.
Another skill I think I might have improved was setting up the camera to take
high quality photos in low light with no tripod, the terrain was really so
rough inside one of the buildings that there was no room to set the tripod up to
have it stable and to take a high quality image.
The low light in
most of the buildings might have actually helped me because they helped me to
get that raw and natural vibe with little effect on the quality of the photo
and it’s still what I wanted to achieve as a final goal.
For most of the
photos that were taken inside, the floor was almost gone and was replaced by
pebbles and rubble, there was no way to set the tripod up properly, or any of
the lights, to combat that I need to lower the aperture and turn on the
automatic flash so that the image can actually be seen. After telling my friend
about the horrible conditions in most of the buildings he told me that I could
have buried the legs of the tripod in all the rock and rubble and that it
should keep the camera and the tripod steady, that might be an area of self
management.
At the time when I
took those pictures my technical ability was quite limited as I was used to
going out with my brother who is an actual photographer who normally helps me
with setting up the camera and everything else, because of that I began to set
up the camera myself and think of how I was going to take a specific picture
myself without the need of his guidance. Because of that one session I am now
better at setting up my own camera and I understand things such as aperture,
shutter speed and depth of field much better.
Overall I am very
happy with how my pictures came out and I am glad with the topic I chose and
with what objects I decided to photograph.
