Early morning skies
Land marks and light
First photoshoot - Using props
To edit the images I upped the brightness on all the images as they are pretty dark, and on the france flag I changed the contrast.
Robert Simpson
Robert Simpson influencred me because he uses mirrors to make a picture that is boring and dull quite fascinating and different.
he creates land marks by using mirrors in natural environments that reflect the sky or interesting shapes and patterns. the colours are natural and muted making the sparkly mirrors stand out and creating contrast with its surroundings. all of the photographs are set up with a particular viewpoint in mind. all the photos are set up so that the mirrors reflect something that attracts attention and the background does not draw it away. I will use these techniques to create my own land marks.
he creates land marks by using mirrors in natural environments that reflect the sky or interesting shapes and patterns. the colours are natural and muted making the sparkly mirrors stand out and creating contrast with its surroundings. all of the photographs are set up with a particular viewpoint in mind. all the photos are set up so that the mirrors reflect something that attracts attention and the background does not draw it away. I will use these techniques to create my own land marks.
Refining my response to Simpson
the colour of the bench made for a dull and boring background so I have changed the contrast in the hope that it will bring some liveliness and colour to the photo.
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I have not edited the mirrors as I liked the way they are the complete opposite to the bench and I did not want to ruin the distorted view of the trees branches.
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Landmarks within
To create these photos I took a polaroid photo of the landmarks and then re-photographed the view with the polaroid in the centre of the image
The best landmark within photos
Niki Gorrick
Niki Gorrick is a british female photographer who specialises in black and white photographs of famous London land marks. often in her photos a large part of the famous monument or item is obscured by an equally famous or obscure object. the angles that she photographs her pictures are often unusual to exaggerate her perspective. She sometime uses colour to break up the blacks.
My response to Niki Gorrick
All most instantly I saw that I liked Niki Gorricks work, I loved her style and saw the meaning behind it. Anyone can go to London and take a picture of big ben or the London eye… but it takes a real artist to be able to spot the little things that set her work apart from everyone else’s whether that’s a splash of colour in a black and white scene or something that change’s the perspective and meaning of the image, this is what I would take from Niki Gorrick and attempt to in still in my work.
Refining my response to Gorrick
London with the colour red.
Refining the photos of London with the colour red.
I choose this part of my landmarks because London is generally associated with the colour red. It was a choice inspired by the land mark photographer Niki Gorrick.
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to cover a wider field of land marks I choose to take into consideration lesser known points of interest and reference such as the cenotaph and the Canadian embassy.
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First I took a photograph with a large amount of red in it, the photo had to be recognisable or have something relevant to landmarks in it i.e. the London eye. if you have black in the picture like the lamppost in this one then it will become a silhouette another nice feature.
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Next I took to Photoshop, you quick select the colour in the image inverse the selection and change to black and white the colour area will remain however the surrounding image will be black and white.
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The image is now complete the focal point is on the distinct red phone box however the back ground is where the majority of the images items are, this adds depth to the photograph.
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the Canadian embassy is one of my favourite buildings in London, it is draped in flags which I used to my advantage, as well as repetition, there is a theme of contrast as the bare trees combine with the big distinct maple leaves on the flags.
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The row of flags made a brilliant way to break up the black and white, but my favourite thing about the image is the cold stone buildings that have a texture of concrete are the opposite of the warm silk of the flags.
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The oldest landmark in London, St Pauls cathedral is not the centre point of this image, like the style of Niki Gorrick I have taken the photograph at an unusual angle and obstructed part of the cathedral with a statue
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The statue however makes for a beautiful focal point and the way it is surrounded on all sides by a sea of red and green two primary colours and the fact that it is heavily focused makes it the attention catcher of the photo. then as the viewer looks at the background the real landmark is noticed, the cathedral.
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Again with an obscure angle and again with the cathedral, this time with the iconic red London bus, I am really happy that I managed to snap one at all let alone right in front of St Pauls.
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This required little editing skill as the select object, the bus, is so big and takes up the large majority of the picture the image also lacks the depth and contrast that the others do because it is not so close up and there is a lot of distraction. Nevertheless it is still one of my favourites.
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The Flag in this image would provide the colour and the shiny building would reflect the viewers’ attention from it, in theory, however I soon realised that the flag would need to be dead centre to have more effect so I cropped the image.
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The image is now a square and dead centre is the flag as well as the column to remember the great fire of London, another little land mark that not many people know about, something that makes this photo unique.
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Lastly I liked how there were the tops of famous buildings like the tower of London the gherkin and the cheese grater with the start of the London bridge, however it was a bit boring.
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so I made the image dark to add intensity keeping the starbucks logo green for effect. I also lowered the frame so that ,ore sky and less bridge were in the photo, allowing the building tops to be in the middle.
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Gerhard Ritcher
Gerhard Ritcher is an artist who uses unconventional methods to disguise and embellish his photographs of landmarks. I am inspired by this technique and want to explore how colour and textures can be added to my photos of London.
My response to Ritcher
I have identified many links in my work, for me the colours are what makes the photograph, and therefor the key link between these photos is there contrast and originality and the angle at which they are viewed. None of the photos are straight on; they are all at an angle to get the best possible view of the item that I photographed. I did this so that the viewer would be able to see more of the object in the picture, something that is crucial to landmarks as one side of the landmark may be different or boast different features, I thought long and hard about the best possible way to get more of the landmark in to the image when I took my photos in the hope that the viewer would get a better perspective and therefor get more from my work.