Idea: Digital Night Photography

I have been interested in trying night photography almost as long as I've been doing photography, but lately my interests have been piqued all over again. I know we will be doing night photography in class, but I also want to try it with a digital camera. Lately I have been seeing a lot of photos on Instagram of landscapes taken at night with a DSLR, and the way it captures the stars and the night sky is amazing. It also could be interesting to do a comparison - maybe a diptych of sorts - of a film photo and a digital photo both taken at night.

Inspiration: High Speed

Carli Davidson

I was inspired by Carli Davidson's high speed photography of dogs shaking themselves off. I like to take pictures of my cats, but it can be very difficult to get a picture that isn't blurry because they rarely sit still long enough for me to take a picture. Based on Davidson's technique, I think it would be interesting to try and capture moments of my cats and others animals in motion. I also like how she used a studio portrait set-up for these photos. It gives the pictures a more unique feel than if they were made to look more candid.

Idea: Tilt Shift

An idea that I would like to experiment with is using a tilt shift with the 4x5 cameras. It interested me when we were talking about it in class. When I searched for some examples of this, almost all of the photos I found were of landscapes, so I think it would be interesting to try and use it for a portrait instead. I want to use this technique to see how I can change the focal point of a photo. In a studio portrait, there is really nothing to look at in the photo except the subject (unless a prop is used). I want to see how I can use a tilt shift to focus the point of view in the photo even more.

Inspiration: Harsh Light

Alexander Harding

This photographer, Alexander Harding, has a series of photographs titled Visible Light in which he focuses mainly on light coming through windows. This has given me the idea to experiment with harsh lighting in my photography. Normally when taking pictures I try to capture soft light to illuminate the subjects of the photos, but with these pictures Harding makes the light itself the subject. I was already interested in playing with light in my photography. so these photographs have given me a specific technique to focus on. I think it would be interesting to play with bright light sources and try to use light as a tool to communicate something about a space.