Part five of the course of The Art of Photography is the final part of the course and is based on learning how to tell a story in a set of pictures and within a single picture. This includes learning the techniques of visual analogy, juxtaposition, and certain special effects. There are some challenges here with these word that are new to me such as the ones above and symbolism and semiontics, first studied by Roland Barthes. The research and reflection I will be doing as part of the exercises and the assignment in this last section of the course will be positioned in this section. I will also use the Research & Reflection section of this learning log for more illustrative and reflective work.
The first exercise is to undertake a narrative picture essay of between 5 and 15 photographs, based on what has been learnt so far and which tell a story. It has to be interesting, attractive and varied using images, when seen together, work as a set - like an RPS panel I guess. There has to be a short caption under each photograph describing what it shows.
It was decided, after consideration that my assignment would be about food. So where do we begin? In an earlier exercise "Elements of Design" we did some food photography and 'the raw materials of food' was selected as the theme. At that time the early work in this field that I researched seemed to have been more in the style of the old masters paintings and I came across one of Fox Talbot's works, "Pencils of Nature" which had a triangular composition. Today, contemporary food photographers seem to be taking more of a fashion approach. Who are the current food photographers making the colour supplements? I picked up the weekend's "The Times Magazine" which was a recipe special and came across David Loftus, Jamie Oliver's food photographer and James Murphy who works with Rick Stein. Their pictures were amazing - artistic and mouth watering. Both had one thing in common - they both present their final food images pictured on a plate (or dish). I decided that this was how I would present my final image - and it would be the first image in the panel version of the shoot to 'appetise' the reader to look at the other images and read the process. I have decided to shoot each image in the narrative process on a black studio background to focus attention on the food, rather than my kitchen.
Are these photographers mentioned above 'untouchable' like Jamie and Rick? I decided to contact both to see if either would enable me to spend a day's unpaid work experience with them of an assignment. More information on this research and reflection are in the Research & Reflection part of this learning log.
I decided that this exercise would focus on making a Welsh Leek Omelette (Crempog Las) with all Welsh ingredients - butter, leek, cheese and a slice of tomato. I designed a recipe and sketched out a shoot schedule in my Sketchbook as illustrated below. I have never cooked and taken photographs at the same time!
The first exercise is to undertake a narrative picture essay of between 5 and 15 photographs, based on what has been learnt so far and which tell a story. It has to be interesting, attractive and varied using images, when seen together, work as a set - like an RPS panel I guess. There has to be a short caption under each photograph describing what it shows.
It was decided, after consideration that my assignment would be about food. So where do we begin? In an earlier exercise "Elements of Design" we did some food photography and 'the raw materials of food' was selected as the theme. At that time the early work in this field that I researched seemed to have been more in the style of the old masters paintings and I came across one of Fox Talbot's works, "Pencils of Nature" which had a triangular composition. Today, contemporary food photographers seem to be taking more of a fashion approach. Who are the current food photographers making the colour supplements? I picked up the weekend's "The Times Magazine" which was a recipe special and came across David Loftus, Jamie Oliver's food photographer and James Murphy who works with Rick Stein. Their pictures were amazing - artistic and mouth watering. Both had one thing in common - they both present their final food images pictured on a plate (or dish). I decided that this was how I would present my final image - and it would be the first image in the panel version of the shoot to 'appetise' the reader to look at the other images and read the process. I have decided to shoot each image in the narrative process on a black studio background to focus attention on the food, rather than my kitchen.
Are these photographers mentioned above 'untouchable' like Jamie and Rick? I decided to contact both to see if either would enable me to spend a day's unpaid work experience with them of an assignment. More information on this research and reflection are in the Research & Reflection part of this learning log.
I decided that this exercise would focus on making a Welsh Leek Omelette (Crempog Las) with all Welsh ingredients - butter, leek, cheese and a slice of tomato. I designed a recipe and sketched out a shoot schedule in my Sketchbook as illustrated below. I have never cooked and taken photographs at the same time!
Making an omelette is like any other form of cooking - a process. In short, we secure the ingredients, follow the recipe instructions, and serve the dish. This is how we photographed this assignment - in this order. We have decided to create a consistent set of pictures illustrating this process taking pictures whilst we prepare, cook and serve the dish. As with the food, the photography also needs planning and process. We have decided to set up a black background set, shoot a mixture of horizontal and vertical format shots and where we are cropping, keeping to the photo ratio. We are using a Nikon D7100 on a tripod with 18 - 50mm lens with most shots being taken at 50mm. We are using a manual flash gun at 1/16 power and setting the camera to manual exposure. Using the Sekonic light meter we are exposing at f11 @1/125 but we are bracketing exposures to ensure the background and objects are correctly exposed and reducing the need for tweaking the exposure when editing in camera Raw. A picture of the set is below.
The first picture is of the ingredients and this is my own receipe. I have never used leek in an omlette before! There is a short narrative with each photograph. There is a montage at the end to show how the nine images might appear as a panel or in a magazine layout or printed handout.
We are making a Welsh Leek Omelette (Crempog Las) - with Leek & Cheese, using all Welsh ingredients - Welsh butter, Welsh baby leek, and Welsh cheese. We are using two eggs, part of one baby leek, and some grated Lancych mature cheese, and following the recipe and shoot notes written in the sketchbook.
The first step is to carefully break open the two eggs into a jug and whisk them.
Next dice the baby leek into small pieces.
Next heat the frying pan introduce a knob of butter and and prepare to place the diced leek into the pan on this high heat .
Place the diced leek into the pan and cook for several minutes.
Whilst the leek is cooking, grate the cheese.
Next add the beaten eggs to the pan and then add the grated chees.
Fold the omlette for the final stage of cooking and prepare to serve on a heated plate.
Serve and enjoy Welsh leek and cheese omlette with a slice of tomato and some lettuce.
Finally, I envisaged how these nine photographs might look in a printed form. Maybe in a magazine, or as a handout on a cookery demonstration. I have keep the process similar but now we are putting the end result - the served dish - first and as the major part of the presentation as it's the eating experience we want to emphasise, not the process.