Cyanotype processing

The cyanotype process was one of the first non-silver technologies used to create photographic images. Originated in the 1840's, it was not utilized in mainstream photography and was adopted as a copying technique, becoming known by the term "blueprint", with its blue background reproductions of large architectural and mechanical drawings.

http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/processes/cyanotype/cyanotype-classic-process

Salt printing

Morning all! I watched a tutorial this morning on how to make your own photosensitve paper using natural salt, silver nitrate. See this link to view video

My 35mm film STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Today I hit the streets of St Helens....oh whats sights!

I loaded my old Canon EOS 500 with a black and white 400iso film and mooched around inconspicuously.

Most of the images captured were taken at the hip so I could catch the people of St Helens off guard. My camera setting was on a 1/125 TV (time value) and the aperture (f stop) was either set at 4.5 or 5.6 with the lens wide open, set at 35mm.

It only took me half an hour to use the film up so I headied straight back to the darkroom to follow the below process 
loading a 35mm film into a developing tank

I then processed my negs click on this to see a similar process
My chemicals were ready mixed so I needed 300ml for each spool. In my tank was 2 so obviously I need 600ml of each chemical.
Dev process was 20 min, Stop process was 1 min and Fix was for 6 mins. I then rinsed for twenty minutes in water at a temp of 22c,
Last but not least I hung and dried out in the neg dryer for 20 mins.

I was so pleased with the results, I have attached below a contact sheet of my negatives for you to assess!

My contact sheet was made via photoshop cs4 using the app contactsheetII

I loaded my negs onto the comp via neg scanner

Garry Winogrand 35mm Film Photography

Garry Winogrand

 (14 January 1928, New York City – 19 March 1984, Tijuana, Mexico) 

Im in LOVE with his work!

Garry Winogrand shot with a 28mm lens for most of his life, which meant that for the majority of his shots he had to be quite close to his subjects (and in front of them). Therefore Winogrand wasn’t Henri Cartier-Bresson (trying to be invisible) but was actively a part of the action and immersed in the crowds. He would be very obviously taking photographs in the streets and would stick out like a sore thumb.

Here are a few of my favourite images 

Street Photography: NYC Above and Below

Our group presentation

Our group presentation

As promised, here is the link for the presentation I did with a few other students, as quoted in my earlier blog, we discussed the composition of each chosen photograph, including juxtaposition, ambiguity, leading lines and angles.

Take a look x

Composition presentation

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByO-swIa1GhEcjRxbmpFY19XRVE

Uploaded images

Managed to find the time to upload some images I captured over the weekend tonight. Was quite pleased with the outcome considering I was mainly on the move and rarely had time to sit in one spot!!
I will be uploading some more tomorrow.

I am finding its easier to talk about and understand the composition of my images after doing lots of research for eg Composition Tips  I visit this site quite often and have found this particular article very useful as it covers a variety of key factors for composition in photography

TTFN

Tick Tock

Manual, ISO 400, F/7.1, SS 1/125, 70mm

I love this photograph, home is where the heart is!

The composition is well balanced and almost perfectly symmetrical. It ambiguitive as you very rarely look at the liver buildings from this point of view.

Great juxtaposition due to the angle of the photo, making the two clock faces side by side.

Dew drops

ISO 3200, F/5.6, SS 1/30. 55mm

Behind the lens

Behind the lens

ISO400. F/7.1, shutter speed 1/320 70mm

One of my best shots, this image has great shallow depth of field. It also has no negative space, the composition is very dynamic. The viewers eyes start at the main focus point, the ladies sunglasses, onto the looking space in front of her ( the fountains) which is where her companion appears to be looking, then, back to her.

Although their heads are at different angles I think there is quite a strong juxtapose as their bodies positioning is almost identical. The ladies expression is very distant, I cant quite figure out if she is happy in the NOW or appears to be happy thinking of pastimes?

Depth of field

I have attached a few pics of mine I did back.in Australia that demonstrate narrow and wide depth of field. Take a look x

Should be in ALL street photographers pockets!

Whilst researching the internet on street photography I came across this handy little doc. It gives you advice on all the sticky situations you may find yourself in when engaging in street photography. Im gonna print it off and keep it with my cam at all times

The photographers right

Go take a look

Street is the word!

I went to Liverpool and nature walk with my family this weekend armed with my camera to experiment with street photography and my settings on my dslr camera. I played about with aperture priority and a shutter speed of 1/125 and went hardcore and opted mostly for completely manual, yes u read right MANUAL! Was very difficult at times asbo was constantlt moving through shadows and in the shade then into bright Sunlight etc so I had to change my settings almost everytime I went to snap. Was real fun though and getting a bit.more confident about photographing in public.
I will be uploading a few images tomorrow after finding some spare time to go thru them, I'm sure there are some keepers, or at least I hope so!
Ttfn x