During the summer term holiday going on to the next school year we were encouraged to go out and take as many photos as we could during our time off. This excited me because I thought it would be a really good opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and try experimenting with taking photographs in areas and scenarios that I wouldn't really be ideal for if I were continuing on with taking the images I am used to taking because I was going on holiday to Sri Lanka. I really wanted to try a sort of documentary photography style on the trip and document my whole journey to capture the culture of the country in my images. This is different to anything I've ever really done before because I've only tried to document places in London or around England which I am already fairly familiar with which is why Sri Lanka will be so different and unique for me.
Images from my journey can be found here- https://www.flickr.com/photos/158955705@N05/?
Over all I really enjoyed taking images in Sri Lanka. With the weather always being hot and sunny I found it really nice to always have such nice light to photograph in so found that all the images came out in really nice quality, with lovely vibrant colours. I also found the subjects of my photography extremely fun and fascinating to photograph because it was all so new to me, all of the culture, clothing, architecture and people were all so alien to what i was used to so it was really nice to try and document all of this it an artistic way with my camera. I also really enjoyed the notion that the images I was taking would end up telling a story of my holiday and the places i went, which I thought was exciting. I also really enjoyed the way that I would never run out of different things to photograph even though I spent a lot of the time in the same places. However there were some things about the images i was taking that i was not so happy with. Because the country I was in (Sri Lanka) has such nice weather, wild life and blue seas I did think that some of my images came out looking a bit like images from a holiday advertisement, or images from a nature and wildlife magazine because of things like palm trees, white beaches, clear blue sea etc. I thought that this was okay, however not exactly what i was trying to capture in my images.
Here are just some of my favourite images from my holiday.
These are some of my favourite images from my holiday that I have picked out from around 3000 images that I took in total, there are many more that I would have liked to pick out however there were many images. they are all different sorts of styles of photography but I still like all of them and I think that they work well for many reasons.
Some of the images whilst I was taking them I was thinking in a similar style and taking inspiration from Peter Fraser. I was looking at still life objects, composing and taking the image with the cameras built in flash. Flash on the camera is something I already enjoy using however looking at these images makes me notice how it makes the colour really vibrant and strong. For example the image of the deer head, and light hanging from the wooden ceiling was taken with flash and I really like how strong the colour of the wood is, and how to light falls flat on the deer head and light leaving only a hint of shadow hiding behind the objects giving the image an unnatural and almost uncomfortable feel as it wouldn't look exactly like this in real life. The one of the two door handles with the blue and yellow string I really like because of how uncomfortable it feels, the overuse of flash makes the whole image feel over exposed and the colours of brown, and the blue and yellow string are so vibrant and strong that they do seem very sickly., and the image of the brown plastic chair outside.
I was also trying to get some portraiture shots of my family which can be hard because they can often come out looking like family photos instead of having a more artistic purpose however I did manage to get a few. I like the image of my brother with his head in his arms at the table with his girlfriend. I took this image at night with the flash on and I like how the background fades in to darkness making the foreground really stand out. I think that the composition is also interesting as you cannot see either of their faces, and I think that the position my brother is in with his head in his arms also makes the image interesting. I also like the portrait that I took a Buddhist temple of the three really young monks however I like this image for different reasons than the one of my brother. I find this image interesting more because I am intrigued by the culture and their lifestyle being monk and dedicating their lives at such a young age. The composition is also really nice I think that the three kids in the really bright orange looks really nice because of the rule of three,they are also composed in the area of the image where the rule of thirds comes in to play.
I also took some landscape images of landscapes, which is something that I have never really enjoyed all that much however there was some really interesting scenery in Sri Lanka. One of my favourites is the one of all the trees in the middle of no where. This image was taken whilst I was out on safari looking at lions, tigers and bears "Oh my!". And it stands out to me because I love the all the different shapes and patterns that all of the dead tree branches make. The image feels so massive because of all the space inside it. The blue sky and shapes of all the clouds I also think is very interesting and visually pleasing. I like the image of the dock, and all the freight ship loaders for many similar reasons, I love the composition of the two birds siting off to the side of the image so that the negative space of the sky does not feel so empty. The other landscape images that I took were at night and I was playing with light a lot as you can see with the image with the pool at the bottom and all the colourful light trails of the town below that have smudged across the photo which I think is a nice experimental piece. I achieved this by purposefully moving the camera whilst holding the shutter down on a really high iso to create the light trails. The image next to this one of the sea I also think looks nice because of the almost abstract lighting.
Thes are the main types of photography that I was experimenting with whilst away, and the ones with I really like are the Peter Fraser inspired images, (because of the really nice way that flash can make thinks look and the colour from them), The portrait of my brother because of the abstract feel that the flash gives and its composition, and the landscape images where I was playing with light because of the way that they feel different from normal photography styles because Im not usually a fan of landscape.
What I have gathered from this is that I think it could be really interesting to start experimenting with using the flash, and taking more images at night with non-natural light to create that unnatural. For me I think that I only scraped the surface of the different sorts of things I could do playing around with the flash. Throughout my experimentation with Portraiture, Landscape and the Peter Fraser images the use of flash/ unnatural light to create abstraction was the one thing that stood out a lot throughout all my images not only the ones that I have selected for this page. I think that I could really enjoy experimenting more with this, and using it to influence my personal investigation.
Some of the images whilst I was taking them I was thinking in a similar style and taking inspiration from Peter Fraser. I was looking at still life objects, composing and taking the image with the cameras built in flash. Flash on the camera is something I already enjoy using however looking at these images makes me notice how it makes the colour really vibrant and strong. For example the image of the deer head, and light hanging from the wooden ceiling was taken with flash and I really like how strong the colour of the wood is, and how to light falls flat on the deer head and light leaving only a hint of shadow hiding behind the objects giving the image an unnatural and almost uncomfortable feel as it wouldn't look exactly like this in real life. The one of the two door handles with the blue and yellow string I really like because of how uncomfortable it feels, the overuse of flash makes the whole image feel over exposed and the colours of brown, and the blue and yellow string are so vibrant and strong that they do seem very sickly., and the image of the brown plastic chair outside.
I was also trying to get some portraiture shots of my family which can be hard because they can often come out looking like family photos instead of having a more artistic purpose however I did manage to get a few. I like the image of my brother with his head in his arms at the table with his girlfriend. I took this image at night with the flash on and I like how the background fades in to darkness making the foreground really stand out. I think that the composition is also interesting as you cannot see either of their faces, and I think that the position my brother is in with his head in his arms also makes the image interesting. I also like the portrait that I took a Buddhist temple of the three really young monks however I like this image for different reasons than the one of my brother. I find this image interesting more because I am intrigued by the culture and their lifestyle being monk and dedicating their lives at such a young age. The composition is also really nice I think that the three kids in the really bright orange looks really nice because of the rule of three,they are also composed in the area of the image where the rule of thirds comes in to play.
I also took some landscape images of landscapes, which is something that I have never really enjoyed all that much however there was some really interesting scenery in Sri Lanka. One of my favourites is the one of all the trees in the middle of no where. This image was taken whilst I was out on safari looking at lions, tigers and bears "Oh my!". And it stands out to me because I love the all the different shapes and patterns that all of the dead tree branches make. The image feels so massive because of all the space inside it. The blue sky and shapes of all the clouds I also think is very interesting and visually pleasing. I like the image of the dock, and all the freight ship loaders for many similar reasons, I love the composition of the two birds siting off to the side of the image so that the negative space of the sky does not feel so empty. The other landscape images that I took were at night and I was playing with light a lot as you can see with the image with the pool at the bottom and all the colourful light trails of the town below that have smudged across the photo which I think is a nice experimental piece. I achieved this by purposefully moving the camera whilst holding the shutter down on a really high iso to create the light trails. The image next to this one of the sea I also think looks nice because of the almost abstract lighting.
Thes are the main types of photography that I was experimenting with whilst away, and the ones with I really like are the Peter Fraser inspired images, (because of the really nice way that flash can make thinks look and the colour from them), The portrait of my brother because of the abstract feel that the flash gives and its composition, and the landscape images where I was playing with light because of the way that they feel different from normal photography styles because Im not usually a fan of landscape.
What I have gathered from this is that I think it could be really interesting to start experimenting with using the flash, and taking more images at night with non-natural light to create that unnatural. For me I think that I only scraped the surface of the different sorts of things I could do playing around with the flash. Throughout my experimentation with Portraiture, Landscape and the Peter Fraser images the use of flash/ unnatural light to create abstraction was the one thing that stood out a lot throughout all my images not only the ones that I have selected for this page. I think that I could really enjoy experimenting more with this, and using it to influence my personal investigation.