Once more we bring out half sphere into this shoot but bring back more randomness using the additional marbles to be laid out and fill the surround space, building a background and foreground for the image which was missing in the rotating image.

Initial I want to start with still images but work towards switching out the stationary sphere to that of a rotating one to contrast against the stationary marbles surrounding it.

We will once again be lighting this with the torches we have to hand which will allow us the freedom to move and spread the light, varying the intensity where it is required throughout a long exposure.  If we were using fixed lighting or studio lighting we wouldn’t have the freedom to do this in the same way.

Adam Makarenko

https://mymodernmet.com/planet-diorama-photography-adam-makarenko/

It would be wrong of me not to look at the dioramas of Makarenko during my research.  He is after all, he is looking at similar aspects to were Joseph and I have been focusing our attention.  We would have given so much to have the space he has had to work on during this and has since inspired me to clear my garage out, invest in new equipment and pursue my diorama’s do a deeper level.

His spin system has inspired our work but the way he has used a central pivot point on a much faster rotation and centrifugal force to create a ring with a hollow centre, I would never have thought of trying this without seeing his work.  Our turn tables don’t give the rotation speed to achieve this but…

I will look to setting up a line of marbles to give a centre point creating the planetary sphere and then leave a gap with card matching the back drop to give a neutral gap before using some of our foils to give the haze of the rings like in older spin pictures.

 

Jojakim Cortis and Adrian Sonderegger

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/03/photographers-create-meticulously-faithful-dioramas-of-iconic-photos/

Context wise, what Cortis and Sonderegger are doing does not fit with my work, recreating others images from famous events but the materials and techniques they are using work so well. I wouldn’t have thought about cotton wool for stationary smoke for example and then the isolated lighting coming up through to give it the glow.

Interesting how they are working in a semi lit space rather than complete black out as we have been trying to use.  I have been cancelling out as much as I can so that I can be in control of what is happening and were this light falls exactly but their mini studio back drop isolates the image from the stray light well.

I am seeing a lot of the materials we have been using are consistent throughout their images but they are lacking any abstract nature and showing the viewer 100% of the context within the image, rather than making them think through the image.

I hate the term but in my opinion these are photographs for photographers, in the way that they are there to be appreciated for the construction rather than the content.

 

The Julia Set pattern has always appealed to me and the intensity of the spirals as they pull tight to the centre gives me a sense of movement and progression, even in a still image.  When I arrived and this had been set up on the table for me to photograph I was confused as to how I was going to achieve it and how I saw the final image appearing.  Therefore, I worked with the tools I had before me and started to construct images in my head.

Looking at these images, I once again feel I might not have gone close enough, and working on a APSC digital sensor here, I do not have the ability to crop as heavy as I would have on my previous medium format digital images before.  Maybe I am struggling because I know what the images have been constructed from and how they have been constructed so I will be bias to their ability to confuse the viewer and have them questioning themselves.

Returning to the previous sets from my last module, I do miss the bright blue intensity that existed from the marbles.  Looking at these as individual images, there are some strong ones their which could see life as art images, back drops for advertising and illustration pieces and the ability to be developed further with other mediums but to go into a set of images from what we have so far, I feel they would be loose.

I can not really say that I have planned this shoot, I have been kept in the dark and fed a lot of apple pies in the time leading to this shoot.  Joseph assured me that it will add to what we have been working on but bring curves to reflect that of the marble but many lines hidden to create.

Well, the cardboard backed images, really didn’t go to plan.  Unfortunately the gaps between the marbles left to much clear space as to what the background actually was.  I tried to edit them but that just effected the whole image and lost the details in the marbles themselves and also took the editing to a stage beyond that of the level we had originally intended.

The original set we restricted to just working on exposure, contrast, bodging, burning, cloning and the other traditional techniques one would have used in a darkroom.  To go beyond this would in my opinion be working into graphic design and illustration but working on a media background and working with a traditional 35mm photographer, from his art background, Joseph and I wanted to keep the traditions there.

It feels painful to dismiss an entire set of images, especially when so much and frustration time was spent aligning all of the marble and getting everything in place, and then not disturbing them. Maybe with more preparation next time we can work on enhancing the card before positioning the marbles to make it more, or less, susceptible to the touch light, neturalising itself… giving more of a minimalism feel to the images.

Fortunately, because so much of the prep work was already done during the week, the evening we got the cameras out (Allowing for a darker environment without black out blinds) we could focus on two of the ideas we had been working on.  The mushroom effect had taken some time to construct due to finding a glue that would hold everything in place without effecting the transparency of the marbles but still hold them in place.

The smaller turntable, has the benefit of a controlled continuous rotation speed.  The larger table we use it rotated by myself or Joseph so varies depending on the spin and the weight of the subjects on top.  With a continuous rotation we could look at each image due to the benefit of shooting digitally and review how the marbles and sphere looked in the rotation.  This allowed up to judge their length and shape which we hadn’t really been able to do in our images before.  This has allowed us to create the effect of sausage shaped light and bands of light from the same images in the contact sheet.

 

Much of the work with the marbles has been very random until this point.  Allowing them to drop and roll, cascade themselves, falling from stacks and finding their own position, somewhat.  Here we have been looking at two shapes, spheres and squares, building up the shape of a marble, using marbles to do so but in contrast, working on a straight edges shape using spheres.

One challenge of working on a  sphere, using spheres, do you start at the middle and wrap or start at the top and work your way down. With experiments we found that the wight of the marbles became and issue and wanting to balance and allow the rotation, we realised a half sphere worked better.  Here we would allow the rotation to bring the randomisation.

A rectangle made from spheres allowed for lines in many directions creating shapes of their own.  By isolating the angles to increase these, I intend to play with the lighting to bring devotions to this.  Joseph has suggested using card to create the template and hold the marbles in place but I am unsure of how that would work as a background… we shall see.

Matthew Albanese

https://fstoppers.com/news/bts-look-diorama-landscape-photography-5350

“My work involves the construction of small-scale meticulously detailed models using various materials and objects to create emotive landscapes. Every aspect from the construction to the lighting of the final model is painstakingly pre-planned using methods which force the viewers perspective when photographed from a specific angle. Using a mixture of photographic techniques such as scale, depth of field, white balance and lighting I am able to drastically alter the appearance of my materials.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract photography is difficult to define. It is taking a subject and forcing the viewer to look at it in a different way. This may cause the subject to lose its original meaning or purpose.  It may even render the subject unreal, abnormal and not of this world.The subject could lose all literal meaning and be reduced to only shape, light, texture or colour.  Photographed items could be objects we use in our daily life. They could also be created entirely for the purpose of art.

Both abstract and surreal photography are conceptual fields. But how do they set themselves apart? Abstract gives you a different view, where the entirety of the subject is obscured or unseen.  Here, shape, form and texture play a bigger part than idolising over the full, documented item.  Surreal photography looks at creating something new. This comes from heavy post-processing of images. Or using special effects to create special visuals.  Both could look at the same area of photography. Yet the concept and the final image would be different. Abstraction looks at the subject in an artistic way.  Surreal photography could also include social or political meanings.