Part A - Take Part

For Part A of my Arts Award: Photography and image editing (photoshop).

This has been useful for my Part D, in which I have used and selected a lot of photography. One of the things I have learnt was about the rule of thirds, which is basically about splitting an image into thirds and making sure that one thing isn't in the centre as it draws the eye to that point and not the rest of the picture. We read images from left to right and around so it's good if points of interest in an image help the eye travel. Another thing I have learnt is how to frame a picture by using things which are around it, as it makes the picture look better.

I have tried to use these ideas in some of the photos I have taken, and have enjoyed experimenting with different shots. I took a lot of photos during my time as a young apprentice at the Site Gallery. The second we started using the studio to do close up portraits. It's most important to focus on eyes in a portrait. If the eye's are out of focus, the image won't look right as we naturally focus on people's eye's when we are looking at them. I enjoyed moving the light around and zooming in the studio to create different compositions. The features of a face became the points of interest to consider in the rule of thirds. It was fun being able to really focus on what I was doing in the studio and I think this gave me confidence to carry on like that outside or 'on location'.

I also took a lot of photos around town. Some were for the photo competition that vicky set and some were documenting what we were doing. This is known as documentary photography. I also took some photos in the studio.

My final project involve myself, my group and friends and family taking a set of 5 photos that I gave instructions on. I then had the task of deciding which photos to use in my final part d project. I tried to think about the ideal shots and the composition but I had to make do sometimes. This is good though as I know I can make better decisions now about photos and I know what looks good or how something can look better.

Photoshop is really useful software I discussed. I got to use it several times over the two weeks and by the time I used it to finalise the images I chose for my final project at the end, I knew how I wanted to improve them. I learnt about general stuff like changing the brightness and contrast to make the image clearer and brighter. Also cropping, (which is good for improving a composition that's not quite right) and things like mirroring an image and putting effects on which I really enjoy. I also like just little changes to images as I like the power of photos for us to believe them. Now I know that all photos are kind of 'framed' as vicky says to suggest what they should mean.

I feel more confident now with a camera and with photoshop!

Day Six - Monday 19th

At last, Sun! I've missed it with all this rain and thunder and lightning and dreariness. But I still managed to take in my mount everest tent of a coat because the stupid weather forecast said it would rain. Sod's law really. And it was in this lovely sun that we went to visit the Yorkshire Art Space. We looked at some interesting ceramics by Emilie Taylor which were these pots with drawings and patterns on them and had messages, like one which was called Suburbia that had a drawing of semi-detached houses and stags in front of them. She later explained this was about how suburban people are always so precious and stuck up about their houses and treat them as if they were stately homes. I quite liked her work because they had messages and yet were nice to look at. Sometimes, although it gets a statement across, I think some people who do this kind of thing do it a bit bluntly, but in this case it was quite subtle and I liked that. We also got taken around the studios by Rachel Dodd who gave us a debrief about this line of work as well, and we had a little look in on a silversmith called Charlotte. As well as all this Emily Foster who is at Sheffield Hallam showed us some us her photographs.

What a revelation I had at lunch today though. I mean, who knew Boots did food and meal deals? Apparently a lot of people according to Bethan, but not me. So that was basically my lunchtime, trying not to look too bemused and shocked.

Later on I helped Bethan and Bryony in their projects as they had so kindly helped me in mine, which is the thing with the map of the city. I'm trying to get more of my friends to take pictures of their favourite places, but at the weekend not many of them had any time (or in other words couldn't be bothered which I can understand at the weekend). Some of them have said that although they haven't this weekend, they could help me tonight, tuesday or wednesday, so hopefully I will have more in the next couple of days.

When we were helping Bethan, well, let's just say, we got a lot of funny looks. She is doing this motionless society thing with apparently dead or asleep people lying around random places in town, and I had to pose in a few of them. Today was down at the station again and it was fairly busy, with people coming and going about their business, the few occasional loiterers and waiters, or those with a bit of time and a cup of coffee in their hands. One of the first we did was on a bench type thing outside where their was one such previously described individual, sitting their with his drink. Poor Bryony, she had to go up to this bench, stretch out on it, and pretend she was dead, like a glorified game of dead fishes. As she was lying there and we were taking pictures on a blindingly noticable tripod, this man turns around and says to her "tired?". Or later, when I had to pose, there was another conveniently placed bench with a man on the left, smoking a cigarette, a woman on the right reading a magazine and an ominous space in the middle. You can guess where I had to play dead. It wasn't like they didn't notice or anything, they did, but when I resurrected myself, they immediately turned away and went back to smoking and reading.

Day Five - Friday 16th

Today Mr. Cawthorne, - or Sammy C as Bethan calls him - an art teacher from school came in to review how work experience was going with me and Bethan, except she wasn't here first off, so it was just me. I really didn't know what to say because, well, first thing in the morning I'm not always entirely with it. In the end I just ended up showing him this blog and some photoshop stuff and said I'd learnt more about contemporary art, which is true, but I felt I should have been more descriptive.

I have also decided what exactly I want to do for this art award! Seriously, this is a big achievement for me as I am completely and utterly useless at deciding. I'm going to go with the map of the city thing, but with people's memories and favourite places. I hope it will go alright, although I fear it may go somewhat pear-shaped. Oh well, you know what they say - if the going gets tough, pretend to have avian flu and go home - no, no, they don't say that and of course I wouldn't pull a sickie, but I guess I'm just paranoid about things. Actually, this sounds a bit like I'm not enjoying the placement, but I am, I really am, its just that its sometimes a bit challenging. I mean thats good as well, because it makes things more interesting, not like a boring office job or being attacked by small children like my friends.

Day Four - Thursday 15th

I've seen it all now, I really have. Another scary film, oh yes, but this time much worse. Much, much worse. I now may turn insomniac, but at least I will do so with the happy knowledge that Sheffield filmmakers are very good at what they do. It was terrifying and was called something like Aphex Twin. But hey, I also saw a flying lawnmower, LED shepherding and a death metal rooster on Youtube which was entertaining. Oh, and I got a badge as well, you know, just thought I'd throw that in there. Quite a random morning.

It wasn't all watching random youtube clips though. Later we did some film editing with the stuff we had shot yesterday, and for once, I seem to be able to understand how to do something on the mac! At last! (took me long enough:)

Also, I had a little chat with Vicky and now have a bit of an idea of what I want to do, but it's a little sketchy at the moment. I'm thinking that I might want to do a kind of Map of the City with people's favourite pictures around the city. Hopefully no tourists will use it, because they could - no will  - get severely lost. At least I have an idea now, we'll see where that goes.

Day Three - Wednesday 14th

Now its the third day of work experience and I'm kinda getting used to everything. Today we did a bit of photoshop with the pictures we took the other day. I don't think I mentioned them, so if I didn't, basically we paired off and took pictures of each other in a studio-type room with various poses and stuff. I remember one of the ones I did made me laugh; I was pointing and laughing quite like a mad scientist in a film. What exactly I was laughing at I'm not sure, but I really did look deranged. I made sure that one didn't make it to the internet, believe me, no amount of photoshop would help make it look sane.

Later on, after lunch, we started trying to think of ideas for for projects for this arts award thing that we're doing. You know when people visit therapists and yoga teachers and that kind of thing and they are told "Clear your mind...", well I would have had no trouble doing that, the only problem was, I needed to think. Eventually, after much pondering and frustration I remembered that Vicky had told me in the interview about flash mobs, where people do things in crowds like apparently spontaneous dancing, like in the T-mobile ad. I thought maybe we could organise this big flash mob in town dancing to, I don't know, Lionel Richie or whatever, but it would have been too much to do in simply 2 weeks. Ho hum, we'll see what happens. Maybe I'll think of something. Hopefully:)...

Day Two - Tuesday 13th

As I hoped yesterday, I did arrive earlier. A bit too early in fact and so, as I didn't want to be he first one in, I took a little saunter around the block, and didn't get lost this time, which was a nice change.

I caught up with Bethan on the way, and we both entered the gallery to begin our second day.

It started fairly quietly, just doing blogs and computery things, (and at last the macs seem to be working with me!). Then, after a while, we all headed downstairs to view the current exhibition by Haris Epaminonda, which was a series of films all playing at different times and for different lengths. It wasn't something I would usually go and see, and although it wasn't really my kind of thing, I thought the idea behind it all was quite interesting. I suppose I wouldn't have really got it if it wasn't for the fact that the curator, Jeanine, came and told us all about it. Basically, the films were all playing at different times and lengths because then the viewers can see the exhibition as a whole thing and not just as individual pieces, and I think it made it have a nice feel to the whole thing this way. 

Also, Richard Bolam came and showed some films of his. Like the exhibition we had seen before, they were time lapse fims, but this time based in Sheffield. One of them he is hoping to use to back Sheffield in the bid for the 2013 city if culture. Also Rob Speranza, a producer from South Yorkshire Film Network came and talked to us for a while about filming and that kind of career, and like Richard Bolam, he showed us a short film he had recently worked on. Well...how to put it? I think I will not sleep again. Ever. It was well made and certainly thrilling for a thriller, but seriously, it spooked me. 

And then we did some filming ourselves, which was fun. Bethan and I went around the station hoping to catch her boyfriend Tom on camera in suit. Sadly we did not find him, but something that did make us smile was when a little boy, wandering around the fountains suddenly declared that the water came from nowhere.

Day one - Monday 12th

Today was the first day of work experience at Site Gallery, and I'm still trying to get my head round it all. Maybe macs just confuse me I guess (I don't think technology likes me!) but I am glad that we've done so much. I feel quite pleased as it seems I'm probably doing something much more interesting than some of my friends. Like one, for instance, she's working at a doctors surgery, which may well be very interesting, but when we met up at lunch, I seemed to get the impression that copying addresses wasn't something she found particularly fun.

Looking back on the day, I think I have learnt more than I expected on the first day, but that's good as I think it will make the next two weeks easier, (like with macs - fingers crossed). However at the start of the day I wasn't nearly as calm as I am now - or maybe I'm just sleepy, which may be because I didn't sleep much as I was really nervous about today. I arrived relatively on time to the bus stop, and luckily it had just stopped. So I jumped on and found a seat , and then suddenly I remembered that the bus had to take a big diversion because of annoyingly closed roads. Oops. I was going to be late. And I was, but I might have just made it in time, if it wasn't for the fact that I went in the complete opposite direction. There I was, frantically asking people at the interchange where Brown Street was, but no one seemed to know, only telling me how to get to the lIbrary, the train station and other places I knew the the whereabouts of. I was getting seriously stressed when luckily, I finally found it thanks to a student, but I was ruffly 25 minutes late. Outside the door I braced myself, took a deep breath and timidly pressed the buzzer, expecting a torrent of angry shouting and questions about what time it was. In my head I thought of a hundred excuses, (ranging from being mugged to having a family back home with smallpox - very believable I know) but when the door was opened, I was relieved to find that they were more worried about the fact that I might be lost somewhere in the city than the time it took for me to get there. 

Anyway, so the day wore on, and I realised that as well as having to catch an earlier bus the next day, that I didn't really need to panic as much as I did previously. We learnt a lot like; how to use macs (even if they seem to have some sort of grudge against you), interviewing and editing the recorded result, and Lesley Guy came in and told us more about what contemporary art really is. I think I will like it more here compared to how I would have at the infant school I might have gone to instead, especially as I have recently found out that my other friend who is at a primary school is spending her time in the company of a load of 7 year olds who scream, hug her violently and watch her every move. I felt very smug after she told me that and, as I said to her, I think all in all, I would have to say I enjoyed the day:)